This is the hardest part in the process for me. Making a strong, interesting and involving breakdown/build-up.

My gaps are mainly "structural". I simply don't know how to make a build-up, what source should I use, which effects should I apply, how to start off the breakdown, with what, which filters are commonly used?

I tried to make a build-up with some percussions and hats, but it sounded awful/delusional...
Tried to construct a breakdown, but I ended up with something scordino and not consequential.

Help me to start from somewhere please. Anything would be helpful: tuts, own productions, suggestions etc...

How do you deal with it? What is your way of doing it? Please share it here!

dont you get any ideas listening to music?

The purpose of a breakdown is to give the dancers a break, lower the energy of the track, and prepare the dancers for next section. As long as you do those three, there's really no particular rules...

Excess reverb and delay with a high feedback setting are common along with risers and long evolving sounds.

Generally the rhythm is "decelerated" so that there is little to no perceivable rhythm, so that when the track comes back in full there's a much bigger impact.*

If the sections before and after the breakdown are very similar, it might not be a good idea to actually put a breakdown in. General rule of thumb: the bigger the breakdown, the bigger the change.


*Sometimes true, depends on genre

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quote:

Originally posted by dj_alfi change your avatar for fucks sake.

Last edited by Beatflux on Oct-31-2011 at 16:45

quote:

Originally posted by MSZ dont you get any ideas listening to music?

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quote:

Originally posted by future_newbie This is the hardest part in the process for me. Making a strong, interesting and involving breakdown/build-up. My gaps are mainly "structural". I simply don't know how to make a build-up, what source should I use, which effects should I apply, how to start off the breakdown, with what, which filters are commonly used? I tried to make a build-up with some percussions and hats, but it sounded awful/delusional... Tried to construct a breakdown, but I ended up with something scordino and not consequential. Help me to start from somewhere please. Anything would be helpful: tuts, own productions, suggestions etc... How do you deal with it? What is your way of doing it? Please share it here!

the thing i hear day to day is basically import a track you like into your DAW and try and duplicate it, see where its hits are percs, drums and so on, add your own sound and go from there

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Don't put a breakdown in for the sake of it. If you can't think of a good reason or idea for one, don't have one. A lot of producers think breakdowns are mandatory, that all dance music should have the big dramatic moment when the drums stop and the big melody/riff/hook/vocal/thing comes in and everyone puts their hands in the air. It really isn't necessary at all, and many of the biggest club hits of all time have no breakdown. Don't get suckered into thinking it's part of "the process". Nothing is more fucking boring than an overlong and overly predictable breakdown - it pisses me off as a dancer that I have to go through this tired routine again.

Beatflux raises a good point, that clubbers do need breakdowns every so often to give us a break, otherwise we'd die on our feet. It's best to put these at moments of transition - a short break early in your track before it gets going, or near the end of the track when you'd start to wind things down. That way a DJ can mix the previous/next track in and there will be a little bit of a breather moment before the set moves forwards. Again, this is not necessary and many successful tracks don't do this, but it rarely hurts a track.

Oh, and please do bear in mind that if you are going to do a "big dramatic mid-track breakdown" thing, it does not have to be rhythmless, it does not have to introduce a big main melody and it does not have to use a fucking snare roll (or a filthy bass drop, if you're making dubstep/dnb/electro house). It will probably be better if it doesn't have any of those things.

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I really think creating a good track without a breakdown is becoming a lost artform. I love tonnes of tracks with breakdowns and I'm happy to hear them, but I also love when one doesn't have one and yet still works really well.

I've been listening to some of Liebs old LSG stuff, the unreleased album from 1999 and his tracks without breakdowns are absolutely top notch.

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the best breakdown I did was in the Sean Tyas remix competition of Lift:

SEAN TYAS - LIFT (DJRYAN REMIX) by DJRYAN™

Break-Downs / Build-ups have always been kinda hard for me. So this was a tremendous leap forward.

Some things to try, like what was done in this remix.

IF you know the chords of the song (which you should) then have the chord progression played out along however long your break is. Then, attach a arpeggiator. Within that arpeggiator drop the time down to a fraction of what the main part is being played in. So, if your playing 1/16th sequences throughout, drop it to 1/8ths. Then change the instrument from something like a saw wave, to something organic, like, a piano or violin (as played above).

Then, over the top of that basic arpeggiation, add some strings, maybe playing the same chord progression. However, since its not arpeggiated, it should sound pretty decent.

Don't forget to add sound fx.

^^^ that advice is a bit.. specific, isn't it? That's one way to write one breakdown but it's not going to help much when it comes to writing them in general. not that it's bad advice, though

I think the breakdown is the most important part of the track (personal opinion, let's not get into an argument here) so I don't start working on anything until I know what the breakdown will vaguely sound like. If you write your tracks as you produce them, try having a chord progression/main melody written before starting anything else. That way you're not scrambling for ideas when it's time to force a breakdown into a track that, up to that point, wasn't made with one in mind.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Oh, and please do bear in mind that if you are going to do a "big dramatic mid-track breakdown" thing, it does not have to be rhythmless, it does not have to introduce a big main melody and it does not have to use a fucking snare roll (or a filthy bass drop, if you're making dubstep/dnb/electro house). It will probably be better if it doesn't have any of those things.

There's no point in reinventing the wheel if you can't come up with something better.

Structure is more or less set in stone with slight variations, so its more about how you fill up the track than where things go...

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quote:

Originally posted by dj_alfi change your avatar for fucks sake.

I love how you've got a quote in your sig encouraging people to come up with great ideas and then you make a post like that.

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> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24

Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/