Caution – reversing!
Reversed reverb is a tried-and-tested technique for enhancing transitions between song sections. Some reverb plugins – Rob Papen’s RP-Verb 2, for example – actually have a reverse mode built in, which makes dialling in this kind of effect a very quick and painless process. Don’t worry if you don’t have access to anything like that, though, as your DAW will be able to reverse any piece of audio with a mouse click or three, so it’s never been easier to create your own reverse reverb effects from scratch, using any reverb plugin.
Start by isolating the downbeat of the section you want to lead into – the first beat of the drop, say. Select just that snippet, then either bounce, consolidate or copy/paste it onto a new audio track as a new audio region. Next, apply a reverb plugin to the new track – any reverb will do for this, so a standard proprietary effect like Logic’s Chromaverb or Live’s Reverb should suffice. Dial the reverb’s decay time up to a healthy amount – this can be as much as ten seconds – and set the mix balance to 100% wet, so that you’re hearing no dry signal at all.
Next, render the effect to a new audio file. This is done in Logic by using the Bounce in Place command, or in Live by using the Freeze Track and Flatten features, for example. What you’re looking to end up with is a new audio file that contains the whole ten seconds’ worth of reverb tail. Once you have this, use your DAW’s reverse feature to reverse the region so that it starts off with no sound at all and slowly builds up to the initial hit.
Now you just need to position it correctly on the grid. Slide the region along so that it ends in the right place – usually right before the downbeat you selected for processing – and trim the region’s left boundary so that it begins at the correct point relative to the rest of the song.
Because this technique is so easy to pull off, you needn’t limit it merely to transition effects – it makes a great lead-in effect for lead vocals too, and you could, in theory, with a little imagination, use it on just about anything you like.