How to Build Tension Like a Pro: 3 Organic Riser Techniques

Photo by A J. on Unsplash

The most common way to do this is with whooshes, risers, snare rolls and other FX, for which many producers head straight to a familiar folder of tried-and-tested samples or filtered white noise from a synth. While these work, they often lead to predictable results, especially when you’ve heard those same whooshy noises in pretty much every club tune since 2009.

A better way to get those hands in the air as you motor towards the climactic break is to manipulate existing track elements for a more organic, coherent feeling of momentum and acceleration. Indeed, this is one of the key production concepts that many big-name artists call on as a matter of course, and here I’ll share three ideas for using it in your own music.

For the accompanying audio examples, each technique is showcased in 'Uncontained', a track written and produced by Cableguys founder Jakob Rang, then developed by my colleague Joe (aka Minosaur).

1. Create risers by automating a single synth oscillator

One go-to method for creating a riser is automating a synth’s pitch, filter cutoff, resonance and other controls. It’s a solid tension-building technique, for sure, but why not do it with one of the synth sounds already in the track, morphing that into a riser that really feels like part of the broader mix?

For example, try automating the tuning of just a single oscillator in a two-oscillator patch, so that it rises in pitch through the build. This keeps the existing synth part in place, but with a rising layer lifting off from it in satisfyingly organic style. In this example, you can hear exactly that being done to a Moog-style Diva patch, and the difference it makes to the feel of this build is profound.

2. Build tension with irregular sample looping

Our next technique is primarily operated in the time domain, where you’ll find plenty of potential for tension-building. Grab a short chunk of your lead part – be it the vocal (as in the example here), or a guitar, synth or piano line – and set it looping in a sampler. Rather than snapping the loop range to any sort of musical note value, though, set it to an irregular length. This causes the part to shift pseudo-polyrhythmically against the beat – a temporal oddity that will ratchet up the tension on its own.

At this point, we essentially have a rapidly repeating vocal snippet, but what we’re aiming for is a subliminal loop that serves as an underlying ‘wash’, rather than a point of focus. How you transform your raw loop into that sort of entity and bed it into the song will depend on its specific nature, tone and atmosphere, so experiment with effects.

In our example, we’ve used chorus and phaser effects, drawn in volume and EQ automation, and applied sidechain ducking to drop the loop in volume whenever the actual lead part is present.

All that remains is to create a slow pitch rise. The obvious way to do this might appear to be via the sampler’s pitch control, but that would also affect the timing and rhythm of the part – which, in this case, we want to preserve – so a dedicated pitchshifter is the better solution.

We're using PitchShaper, and while the Pitch parameter is not directly automatable in your DAW, there is an easy workaround. First, with no modulation drawn into the LFO Wave Editor, turn the Envelope On and set Amount to 0%. Now the Pitch parameter can be automated via the Envelope Shift control.

The end result is an intriguing off-grid riser that meshes beautifully with the rest of the mix – because that’s where it came from in the first place!

One note of caution, however: if your looping clip is strongly melodic, keep an ear out for clashes with other tonal parts. A bit of dissonance is fantastic for establishing tension, but too much can easily become unpleasant.

3. Add energy with automated delay feedback

For our concluding technique, we’re going to ramp up the intensity as the build pushes forward, using the propulsive power of feedback delay.

Start by sending the most prominent part within your build-up – in 'Uncontained', that’s the entire vocal group bus – to an auxiliary return with a 100% wet eighth-note delay inserted.

Now, usually you would automate the Send control, gradually feeding more of the vocal into the delay. The problem is that the delay only begins once the send level is raised, and when the send is pulled back down, it continues to fade out on its own. This makes the effect harder to control, and limits how precisely you can shape the sound – not what we want for bespoke build-ups.

Instead, we’ll turn the Send level all the way up and automate the volume of the return channel. This way, the vocal is always hitting the delay at full strength, and you can bring the processed signal in and out exactly when you want.

Lastly, draw in a slow automation curve for the delay feedback control, to bring further energy and edginess as the build-up… builds up.

As with the previous technique, sidechaining from the source track will tamp the echoes down whenever the two coincide. And the fact that they’re sourced from an existing component of the mix once again makes the whole thing feel completely natural, and contextually cohesive.

Possible points of adjustment here would include the delay time – try quarter-notes for a slower, perhaps more brooding feel – and the amount of feedback brought to bear at the top of the automation curve. In the example here, this has been kept relatively mild to prevent the mix getting overwhelmed. If you do want to pile it on thick, though, a compressor and a high-pass filter after the delay would help rein in any excessive accumulation.

The end result

Finally, here’s how the main build-up in 'Uncontained' sounded originally, with your standard white noise and reverse FX samples doing the heavy lifting:

And here it is with the last two of our three techniques in full effect – a total transformation!

To see these tension-building tricks in action, check out Joe’s How The Pros Build Tension (Without FX Samples) video; and discover how PitchShaper and the many other Shaper effects in ShaperBox can elevate your build-ups and risers by downloading the free trial version today.