Hopefully by this point you will have learnt to create your own breakbeat sequences. This section will focus on what you can do with standard effects to creatively alter the sound of your breakbeats. This isn't necessarily about the mixdown, it's about achieving the 'sound' you want, rather than the placement of that sound in the mix.

Reverb

Evil. OK, I'm being a little harsh. Reverb in moderation is great for individual drum hits, but to apply it to an entire breakbeat is a different story. What's important here is the context of your breakbeat. I can't tell you whether should or shouldn't use reverb on your breakbeats, or by how much. You have to make that judgement yourself. There has to be a specific reason to use reverb, it doesn't just improve all sounds! I'm explaining this, because so many people starting out seem to ruin their breakbeats with too much reverb. If you want to use reverb to add a bit of depth, but retain the clarity and punch of your breakbeats then my advice is to try a gated reverb setting. That means there's a small pre-delay on the reverb that creates a gap between each hit and it's reverb tail. You might think of that that gap 'breathing space'.

Think creatively. You could use a subtle plate reverb on just the snares, by selecting them as individual hits and then applying a software reverb to make them hard and chunky. Maybe you want a small amount of reverb on your breakbeat before you compress it, just to beef it up a bit. Sometimes I'll use reverb to fill gaps in the breakbeat, to make it sound busier. All these things you can do before you even get to the cutting and splicing stage, or afterwards. You can get some weird and wonderful effects by applying reverb at different places in the signal chain to what's normally expected.

EQ

Magical. A breakbeat can stretch over a really broad frequency range, so it's important to get the right tone. Allow me to explain a little trick I often use on a Parametric EQ. I call it the 'nipple technique'. *ahem*

Here's the average EQ display. A graphical representation is not required to achieve this technique. However, it might help to bear that image in mind while I describe the process step by step.

1. Choose an element of the breakbeat you'd like to lessen or accentuate. For example, you might want to accentuate a ride cymbal, or the snare drum.
2. Create a small bump in the spectrum by boosting a few dB with a narrow Q width.
3. Slide the central frequency up and down. This technique is used to scan for the element you wish to alter. Stop when you've found it.
4. Treat the newfound frequency, as appropriate.

So when you find a frequency area you'd like to accentuate, boost it accordingly and remember to fine-tune the Q width. Alternatively, when you find troublesome elements, you can adjust the Q and Gain to lessen that element as required. You usually shouldn't alter more than 2 or 3 frequency bands. It's hard to generalize, though... Just do what works.

If you have specific ideas about how you'd like the breakbeat to sound, that's great. However, EQ is very powerful. It's very powerful for making your sounds shine, and it's even more powerful for accidentally ruining your sounds. So, like the reverb, use EQ in moderation! Be as gentle as you can, and think about how EQ will affect the overall dynamics of the sound. If you can find a way other than EQ to get the characteristics out of the breakbeat you want, it's usually wise to go with that. After EQ, I usually route the sound through compression... (BUT REMEMBER that compression before EQ will give different results - sometimes one way is appropriate, other times the other way is better!)

Compression

Essential. Well, nearly. Not enough people know how to use compression. Learn! If you're serious about your music, then in my opinion compression is an invaluable tool. If you do know how to use compression, then you'll understand that compression can give a breakbeat extra presence and tighten the hit attacks. Personally, I find a healthy amount of compression can prevent a breakbeat from sounding too weak or dated. You're generally going to need a ratio in excess of 2:1, but it depends on the source. With compression, 1 size never fits all. Hard limiting can be disastrous if you don't want a heavily distorted sound.

As with the reverb and EQ, you can be creative with compression. You can use it on individual hits before you split the sample into cuts. You could also try compressing the sound more than once - maybe before and after reverb. What about compressing multiple breakbeats on a buss channel to make them pump together? Well if you want to reinforce the breakbeat, why not just pick out individual percussion samples? Now there's an idea! Try using a hit point calculator to convert your breakbeat's groove to MIDI data so that you can layer it up with hits from a drum machine or drum sampler, and route everything through a compressor to make it strong. The potential here for giving breakbeats a fresh new body is shocking. Try it!

A Quick Example

In this example I've used some cheapy software reverb, a tape simulator instead of compression, and there's no EQ. Listen to how much the sound has changed with just those 2 minor adjustments!

Click here for an example of a flat Dreambreak in a trigger sequence.

Click here for the same Dreambreak sequence with basic processing for a new texture.

Mmmm! Some people wouldn't recognise it as the same breakbeat. What's that you say? Law enforcement? Come on now, I wasn't suggesting you mask your illegal breakbeat samples with processing and effects - that would be naughty... Anyway, congratulations if you've followed the guide seriously and made it this far!