Create risers with frequency shifters
A frequency shifter plugin is great for creating riser effects. Most DAWs offer a pitch- or frequency-shifting plugin that will do the job, or check out p18 for a roundup of third-party pitchshifters. Begin by taking a snippet of a musical element of your track, repeating it over eight bars and rendering the resulting eight-bar section as a new piece of audio. In Ableton Live, do this by right-clicking the track name and using the Freeze Track and Flatten commands; insert the Frequency Shifter on the track; then set its Mix control to 100% Wet and the Mode parameter to Ring. Click the Frequency control to reveal its automation lane in the Arrange area, and create two automation nodes – one at each end of the eight-bar audio region. Set the first node quite low down, and the second up towards the top of the lane to create the riser effect. Garnish with a sprinkling of creative effects!