Some Nice Ideas For Transitions And Fills, And Why They’re Important

When you hear songs from new producers, one of the things that may strike you is that often the song has a hard time building anticipation and flow. It sounds more like a rough collection of loops, and not a polished piece you’ll want to listen to over and over again. Some of the key elements missing from the song are transitions and fills.

So what are transitions and fills?

• Small but critical parts of the song that help it build drama and release tension.
• Teasers that pull the listener along with the song, giving them a connection to it as an emotional piece of music that ebbs and flows as it plays.

These little nuances really showcase how well a musician understands the craft of building a song.

What is the purpose of a transition or fill?

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• To help introduce a major change in the song, to build anticipation in the listener.
• To introduce or prolong tension.
• To foretell and smooth out an abrupt change in the direction or feel of a song.
• To keep the crowd on their toes – little flourishes that happen so fast that the listener might have to listen multiple times to pick up on all the subtleties in the song.
• Breaking up an otherwise repetitive sounding section of the song.

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Difference between fills and transitions?

• Fills are shorter in nature, typically less than a bar (measure) long.
• Transitions are almost major sections of the song themselves. Longer and more dramatic, the long build ups in most club music for example.

Transitions don’t have to be at the forefront and obvious, they can just as easily be snuck under the rest of the parts in a song adding slightly to the feel and mood.

Where do I add transitions and fills?

In a song, are major transitional stages, where we introduce a new instrument that’s crucial to the song, or drastically build up and breakdown the energy of the song. So I’ll focus on those areas first, and really spend the time to make sure that moving from one section of the song to another is not only smooth and flowing, but exciting too.

I might try and make the introduction of the main drums less abrupt, by creating a small conga fill to lead into the kick and Snare coming in.

Just as important as introducing new parts in the song though, is releasing parts. Taking them away from the mix without it sounding like you just muted suddenly.

Focus on the important parts of the song first to add transitions and fills.

What are some bad ass techniques?

• Change the kick and snare patterns, chopping up and rearranging those loops to make a new drum fill leading to the change.

• Add a reverse kick, conga hit, open hi-hats, crash cymbals, before a new part is introduced for that last second “whoosh” or ‘sucking up’ sound leading to the new section.

• Pay attention to where the reversed section of audio meets the forward playing to avoid pops and clicks. Use crossfades between the two files to smooth this out.

• Try not just adding and moving sounds around, but removing them completely. You create a ‘pause’ in the music, so that when the main elements come in, they have that much more impact.

• Add volume and filter envelopes to make new sounds fade in. It hints to people what to expect next, adding excitement to what is coming.

• Try bouncing out a loop of your separate drum tracks into one audio track. For bass music with a lot of edits and fills, then chop it into 1/8^th or 1/16^th notes. This will greatly speed up the process of making fills.
• Transitions are not just about introducing new elements in a song, but also how you remove them too.
• An additional snare hit added in the last measure really highlights that moment before everything kicks off again.
• Use dissonance – distorted and freaky sounds, not in the same mood as the rest of the track. By using it during a quieter moment in the song, it adds a sense of unease to things. Then when the rest of the instruments kick back in and fit the groove we were expecting while that part fades away, everything resolves to its right place. Again, playing with the listeners expectations to either misdirect them, or create moments of relief.

There are endless ways to approach a concept like song transitions. Sometimes a few well-thought transitions can really give a song a lot more impact. Of course it’s also important to not get carried away as well.

Listen to the song front to back a few times, confirm that any fills you made flow well in the song, and work to give the song movement. Make sure that you’re not using the same fill too much. Experiment and have fun with it!