> Technique

12. Crash course

Try a long, sustaining crash drenched in delay and reverb to make a cymbal reverberate across several bars – use sidechaining to make it pump to the beat for added groove. Or, shorten your crash to just a beat in length for a stark, jolting blast. Finally, try placing the crash on a beat other than the usual 1. Beat 2 works well for most dance styles – try stripping the mix down, then letting everything slam back in on beat 2.