Cinematic Sound Design

Let silver screen sonics inspire your production

When we talk about structure in music, we acknowledging that there are different sections in tracks and that they need different labels to be identifiable. Verse, Chorus, Pre-Chorus, Introduction, Coda, Drop… regardless of musical genres, there is a language of adjectives which sets one section aside from another. Whilst these sections might differ in musical key, instrumental arrangement, tempo, or any number of other ways, signposting the transitions between one section and another has become a compositional requirement in its own right. In fact, it’s an area which commands so much consideration that these days that there are even sample libraries dedicated to the whole practice: NI’s Rise & Hit library is perhaps the most immediate example. Clearly, the process of building drama and tension from one section of a track to the next is significant, which is why we’re going to devote the next few pages to analysing the process of building dramatic, cinematic textures and risers. We’ll be looking at these in their most ‘immediate’ framework, in the context of soundtrack and trailer music, but we’ll also spend time seeing how the approaches we’ll be looking at – to make risers of your own – can fit into electronic music contexts too.