A good documentary from Pioneers about the impact of social media on DJs and the industry. I liked the fact that the view is not one-sided, but both pros and cons are expressed.

I tend to lean more towards the “everything is good in moderation” approach: if a DJ spends every minute of his free time on social networks, something has gone wrong; if people on the dance floor don’t let their phones out of their hands, something is all the more wrong.

I’ll leave these quotes from the film here:

‘Being at the clubs for a moment itself is all about being amazed by the music, feeling the atmosphere, meeting other people who feel the same as you do about the tracks being played. As soon as you pull your phone out, you lose all of it, you lose the essence of the reason why you’re there.’

There’s definitely a danger that we’re losing human connectivity as a result of living through our screens. When you used to go to a club, it was about the music but it was also about meeting people. And now it’s about the music and taking photos of that music and posting it in real-time and not about people around you. And I think we’re all missing some of the magic of the moment because of it.’//

Highly recommend watching the whole thing.

Organising playlists by energy levels, vibe, and flow

Preparing for the performance includes a lot of things: negotiating with the promoter, visiting the venue (when possible), agreeing on a technical and domestic rider, researching the lineup and communicating with other artists, thinking through and launching an advertising campaign, recording a video invitation or a promo mix, working on social media and much more. Maybe someday I’ll tell you about it, but today is all about the “creative” part, the music.

I don’t think of DJ as a creative profession, hence this word is quoted. I’ll write my thoughts on this later

Vlad, to answer the question of how I decide which track will be mixed well with the previous one, I have to explain the structure of my DJ collection first. A similar question was sent by Dj Nerva, so I will combine them into one.

Rekordbox and playlists

DJs play on various media, apps, and gear: laptops, disks, flash drives, vinyl, smartphones; on Pioneers, in Ableton, Traktor, Serato, and many more options. Speaking of myself, I use three things: Recordbox, USB sticks, and Pioneer media players.

On audio formats support

Here is how it works. First, I add music to Rekordbox on my laptop. Then I carefully tag the tracks so that they are automatically distributed among the ‘intelligent’ playlists, and sync these playlists to the USB sticks. Then in the DJ booth, I connect my USB sticks to the Pioneer players, and inside I see all the playlists exactly as I structured them on my laptop back home. And this is the key moment because thanks to these playlists I can easily find that very track I want to play next within a few seconds.

Now I’ll tell you about the key playlists that make up the structure of my collection.

Energy levels

First of all, after adding tracks to Recordbox, I assign them the energy level. This is the main criterion. The most important thing here is that the level of energy is how I feel the tracks and not a formal thing like the tempo or anything like that.

So, now going back to the energy levels I use in my Rekordbox. In total, I make five levels:

Experienced guys might have noticed that these names resemble a type or time slot of a DJ set: opening, warming, “peak-time” and so on. Indeed, speaking of the energy level, I immediately think about the scenarios for using a particular track. In other words, I ask myself: “At what point of the event would it be appropriate to play that particular track?”.

For example, I can easily put a driving track in the middle of a warming-up set if I realise that I need to cheer up the dance floor a bit, or vice versa – put a warming-up track in the middle of the night, if I decide to give the crowd a little rest.

energy level is how I feel the track

Inside the energy level playlist, I make four more sub-playlists nested according to what I call vibe and the flow:

And here the most interesting part begins.

The vibe

“Dark” and “melodic” are more or less intuitive terms, although the names are very nominal. This is the emotional ‘colour’, the mood of the track.

First, a couple of obvious examples. Here is the “melodic” — think of rainbow, butterflies, flower meadow:

And here’s the “dark” — twilight, anxiety, hypnotism:

Please note that these tracks even have the same key, but how different their mood is.

But there is also a less perceptible difference. This is especially true for Techno, where a pronounced musical part is not always present.

Listen to this:

Is it “dark” or “melodic”? Someone can say, “what are you talking about, there are just a kick, bass, and hi-hats, how can you understand anything?”. For me, the answer is clear: if while listening to the track I’m smiling like an idiot, then this is “melodic”.

Now listen to this track. I specifically chose a similar style and even the same artist to shift the focus of attention only to the vibe:

To me, this track is colder and more aggressive, hence clearly “dark”. And if you think there’s not much of a difference when listening at home, there is a huge difference on the dancefloor.

The flow

“Hands-up” and “heads-down” are pretty unique entities, and I didn’t see anyone using these terms for their music libraries.

To me, this is all about the structure of the tracks: build-ups, breakdowns, pitch-rising effects, big drops, climax etc. In other words, how the tracks flow.

If the track goes smoothly, and you can just dance and keep dancing without being distracted by the breaks and big drops every minute or so, then this is the “heads-down”. In a sense, we can say that the heads-down tracks are more monotonous. This is not very accurate, but sufficient for a general understanding.

What is Progressive

If there are constantly some breaks, new leads, intense breakdowns and all those big things where people literally put their hands up, literally, then it’s “hands-up”.

Below are a few examples:

Pay attention to the breakdown in the middle and drop at 1:30. This is “hands-up”.

Another example:

You probably realised by now that this is “hands-up” too.

From the two examples above it may seem that the hands-up is always something melodic and cheesy. But for the vibe, we have another criterion, and here we are talking only about the structure. Just both of these tracks are “melodic hands-up.”

Here is another “hands-up”, but this time it’s “dark”:

And now let’s take a listen to “heads-down”, for contrast:

Can you feel how much smoother this track is?

If it seems to you that heads-down is necessarily something slow and deep, here’s a driving Psytrance example:

Note how this track just is going and going without interruption, you can close your eyes and just dance without the breakdowns.

Speaking of breakdowns, listen to this track:

Here the breakdown is stretched for a minute and a half, but notice how smooth and even monotonous it is, again, if we compare it to breakdowns in the hands-up tracks.

Therefore, knowing the energy level, the vibe, and the flow of the track, I can fully control the direction of the set. And thanks to the playlists, I know exactly where the next track is. This classification of all the tracks and new arrivals in my media library is the main work on the preparation of my DJ sets.

I have quite a large music library, and I care about keeping it nice and clean a lot. To do so, I use editorial standards — a set of few simple rules that help to make all titles accurate and informative.

Organizing music library

Today, I’d like to share some of these standards.

Words capitalising

I write all words with a capital letter. This way, all titles look cleaner, and it makes them easier to read on CDJ small screens:

Artists with a comma

When the track has several artists, I used to split them with an ampersand. Then I realised that if there are three artists (and sometimes even more), then things start to get messy. So now I simply use commas instead and put artists in alphabetical order regardless of how “big” their name is:

Look how the right column is easier to read. The bottom row on the right in an exception because Xerox & Illumination is a project name as a whole.

Version is mandatory

After the track title, I always add its version, whether it’s an original mix, remix, bootleg, mashup, radio edit, extended mix, dub, vocal, etc. When I see another DJ playing before or after me has some track with the title “Rmx”, I can’t stand it:

Note the last row: DL Edit is my edit. It means that I cut the breakdown off, adjusted the structure to make it more DJ-friendly, or somehow edited the track to make it better fit the mix.

Matthias Sperlich, also known as Dj Cubixx and the head of Iono Music, gave an interview to Mushroom Magazine talking about his love of the Psychedelic Trance and about the music industry.

I’d like to highlight one particular part:

“Reality is that people who work in the music industry need to be paid the work they do. Whether it’s as artists, promoters, label owners. Nobody can survive on fresh air. Marketing is a necessary tool to spread the word in this global scene – to keep people engaged and attract a new generation.

Of course, we do it for the love and the passion, and sacrifice a regular salary with the benefits of a holiday, sick pays and unions – we do it for the love and because we believe in the power of music so much. But if everyone rips our music for free, and people don’t pay for tickets to parties, then the reality is we can’t afford to eat and pay bills, let alone maintain our studios, so we’d eventually be forced to quit.”

Marketing is a necessary tool to spread the word in this global scene – to keep people engaged and attract a new generation.

This is essential to understand for all nowadays producers. I know many think that music speaks for itself and marketing is bullshit for commercial music only, but the reality is you as a producer have to do some efforts — quite a lot actually — if you want to be heard and pay bills for the work you do.

Livestream highlights

The live stream’s banner

Two of my favourite artists, John 00 Fleming and Tim Penner, hosted a fantastic Q&A live stream yesterday that was full of insightful information and motivational speeches that every producer (myself included) should know. Seriously, go watch that video if you missed it live. It’s 2-hours long, but it’s worth it.

For those who don’t have two spare hours, I’ve written a quick summary to highlight some of the most important quotes from these two masters. And in such way, it’s also easier to come and read this again at any time.

On social media

I feel sorry for the next generation. Running a specialist label you definitely get to work with super talented producers and DJs, but they can’t make a career because they don’t know how to handle social media or they not doing it whatsoever. And it pains me because that person should be on main stages on the festivals and have a fruitful career, but they haven’t because they don’t understand social media and not doing what they should be doing.

Ace Ventura on social media

Music is used to be first, and if you were a good DJ, you’re good to go. Now it’s the other way around. If you good at social media, your career will take off regardless of what you got behind you, the music comes afterwards. Nail the social media, and then worry about the music afterwards. It pains me to say, but that seems to be the way it is today.

Nail social media, and then worry about the music afterwards

On organising music

I can only answer from me personally. I organise playlists as the tools that I need in hand. I never pre-plans set at all, I woke up to every single gig whether I playing an hour set or a 10-hour set, I never know what I’m going to play until I step up to the stage. But the way I’ve got my playlists it’s the musical tools that I know, let’s say ‘Progressive’ which is deep and melodic, you got ‘Progressive’ which is dark and driving, you got ‘Trance’ which is driving, ‘Psychedelic’ which is deep.

Organising music library

I must have to have about thirty different playlists, but the key to me is learning the tracks. It’s identifying by looking at the track exactly what it’s gonna do as soon as you start playing it.

Sometimes I secretly spy on other DJ’s playlists, when they come along playing before or after me and they got the USB connected to the players. It just pains me that some DJs will have just twelve tracks and nothing else on the USB. I couldn’t play like that!

When you first get tracks you don’t really know how good is gonna be until you play it in a live situation. It might sound quite driving at home but when you play it a club it’s not driving, so when I get back from the gig the first thing I do is spend an hour just going through memorising what I played and adding the extra notes.

What makes a good warm-up set

John 00 Fleming: The short and sweet answer is basically what you [Tim Penner] do. You got a respect the person that you warming-up for, you got to do your homework. And this is a big moment. What a lot of newbies think is their head is “Wow, this is my gig, this is my moment to shine, this is the moment my career going to take off!”, and they just want to play a headline set in that warm-up set. But it does the opposite, you just really upset the DJ you suppose to be opening for.

The importance of proper opening DJs

The point is you’ve got to get people in the room, you got to keep your levels down. You don’t want to walk in a club when everything is just screaming at you and you can’t go to the bar, get a drink and hang out with your mates.

You want to warm-up slowly, but then when everybody standing around the dancefloor that’s the magic moment — it’s knowing exactly when to drop a track that has a bit more energy or familiar track, and that’s when your levels come into play.

You got a respect the person that you warming-up for, you got to do your homework

Tim Penner: It is a really important job to be the most humble artist in that room: you’re setting the mood and you’re setting the vibe for the night. And the thing is that people are too smart now. They may not know that you are the best DJ in the world but they know that fit that motive perfectly for the night, and you set what that whole night is supposed to be about, people know this.

On productions skills

When new artists come into it, there is something that cool and hot at the time and that’s what they wanna make. So it takes time to become a skilled producer, and they’ll start to make that genre. So what you see now is all those artists starting to get better, they started to sound like that generic sound from four years ago. And when I listen to such music, I’m like “it’s not current anymore, it would’ve been four years ago”.

So the best turning point that also was for me is the hardest, is staying true to yourself but also looking ahead of the curve and seeing where the trends are going.

Keeping close to what you wanna make and expressing yourself through music while becoming more skilled as a producer, but not going by trends and trying to cut them off. Those artists that are cutting edge and trying different things, they are the one that stands out now.

On balancing production and life

This balancing production is a battle that every artist faces whether you touring or not, balancing life, in general, can be really hard. That could be one of the biggest hurdles for an artist to get over. You know, you have a family, a spouse, you have emergencies, and other things you want to do to fill your time with.

And wheater it’s touring or Game Of Thrones, there’s a balance between life and work. And you need to find that balance. Everybody faces this battle, and I think it’s a number one reason why people give up.

You need to find a balance, it’s a number one reason why people give up

On the mixdown

There are certain misconceptions about what makes a good track in the end. Mixdown and mastering, I think there are misconceptions about what that is, you know, a lot of artists will put sounds together and try to make a track and be like “well, we’ll fix it in the end”. But mixdown and mastering start at the very first sound that you put down, it’s very important to understand the physics of the sound and what you are trying to accomplish.

What is sound

One of the tricks with figuring out how to make music is how to make sounds sound full. A lot of people will just load their Ableton with a lot of sounds to make it sound full, when in fact the whole goal of making good-flowing music is to give each sound it’s own space to move.

So that is actually a backward concept where you make a sound and you need to let that sound work its magic in its own space. It’s not fighting with other sounds, and that’s the key.

On sharing the knowledge

A lot of people keep things in secret, and if anybody knows me that followed me over the years, I’m an open book. And I think being an open book, sharing your knowledge and helping people is the best way to strengthen our industry, as opposed to keeping it sheltered behind your own wall.

Advice series

We want to be around for as long as possible, that genre and our feeling, and the way to that is to embrace young artists, help them to get over the hurdles so they gonna be there decades down the road.

sharing your knowledge is the best way to strengthen our industry

Read also: Futurephonic live with Chris Williams and Regan Tacon

Behind the scenes in facts and numbers

Last year I released my second studio album 2000 Years Ahead, my the most successful release to date.

Success shows in different ways: followers’ growth, bookings, smiles on the dancefloor. But today I’d like to share specific numbers, and that is how I earned on the album sales. Just in time as I recently got a financial report from the label.

How many copies sold

The album was released in two formats: digital and physical. Label — Digital Om Production. At that time Bonzai Music was taking care of the digital distribution, whilst Arabesque Distribution for the CDs.

940 tracks and 140 CD copies sold so far

For the first quarter, people downloaded 940 tracks and purchased 140 CD copies.

Is that good enough or not?

Let me answer with the fact: the album was #1 on Psyshop and #2 on Beatport top charts for the whole month:

“2000 Years Ahead” in the top sales charts. Source: bptoptracker.com.

Overall, the album spent 18 days in the top-10 and 69 days in the top-100 on Beatport. Sitting in the charts for more than two months considered as quite an achievement.

How much I’ve got

Now comes the more interesting part. To be clear, all numbers below are net, i.e. after the deduction of the stores and distributors commission, which is roughly 50% depending on the platform and region. For example, when you see $1,99 retail price per track on Beatport, the real income from it is about $0,9. That’s the numbers I’m operating below.

Stores take 20—50% cut from retail price

So, this is what’ve got from all sources — digital sales (including streaming), physical sales and sublicensing:

A thousand and a six hundred euros sound nice, right?

But revenue ≠ profit. The album also had some expenses on production and promotion that we have to take into account:

Now let’s calculate the profit: €1625 (revenue) – €925 (expenses) = €700. But we’re not done yet since all profit splits between the artist and the label — that’s a typical deal in the industry. So, then: €700 / 2 = €350. And that is how much I earned before taxes.

€350 is how much I’ve got a year later for the first quarter of sales

Now we can make a few conclusions:

1. Once again I’ve got a confirmation of my own words that a music producer cannot make a living on the music sales alone. I’ve written about it earlier and talked on my master class.
2. Music release is not only income but also expenses. And whilst you may not gain profit at all, it will cost you something for sure.
   It’s important to mention that in my case the label took all expenses since we already worked together and I got a trustworthy reputation. Keep in mind that not every label would want to invest a thousand dollars if you are a new producer with a debut release.
3. People still buy CDs!

Why I’m telling this

Perhaps, not everyone aware of that, but we actually have a problem in the music industry: many young producers expect to make a living on the debut release sales, then they see a financial report with a 2-digit number (or nothing, at all), start to accuse everyone around and eventually quit their career.

I’m sad to see these things happen all the time and hence why I share my experience on how things work behind the scenes.

I’d love to tell you that “I released my album and bought a house”, but the truth is after a year of hard work and a fantastic appearance in the charts, the album sales directly gave less than a monthly salary of a janitor. That’s the true story.

That’s why you need to remove the pink glasses and start working hard — a something that musicians do not really like to do. And threat your music releases simply as a portfolio.

Bonus: stats

A financial report is not only about the money, it’s also a lot of juicy data. I’ll put some metrics that I find interesting down below.

Digital sales, by store:

Digital sales, by country

Streaming, by service

Streaming, by country

CDJ-2000NXS2 plays everything on anything, but you probably won’t see this player on every venue

Sergey, let’s go through your questions and statements in order. At first, we go on the formats support, then what DJs play, and then about the bitrate.

Audio formats support

Let’s find out what DJ players support WAV. To do so, just go to the PioneerDJ official website and look at each model’s specs.

Pioneer.com

I’ll put it here at a glance and also add archived products as some of them still might be used at some venues:

We can make two conclusions by looking at that table.

First, you shouldn’t really worry about WAV support: even among the archive lineup, only three models playback MP3 by doesn’t support WAV: CDJ-1000MK3, CDJ-800MK2, and CDJ-400. All the rest are either newer hence and support several file formats, either older and hence playback audio CDs only.

Second, your audio source of choice is what you should be aware of the most. Let’s say all your music is on SD cards, but there are no CDJ-2000s at the venue, you screwed. Or if you have all your music on a flash drive, but there are CDJ-1000s in the club, you screwed too. Or if you have all your music on CDs, but at the venue you see any model of the XDJ range, you screwed again.

always have your music on several media sources

A simple rule that every professional DJ should know about: always have a backup. Even if you have CDJ-2000NSX2 in your tech rider and the promoter said it’s no problem, still bring some alternative media source which you could quickly plug and play in case some shit happens. And yeah, shit happens!

What format DJs play

I’d like to make a serious face and say, “all DJs play WAVs only for sure” or “the majority of DJs play MP3s”, but the truth is, I don’t know. Seriously, I don’t have such data, and pointing out a random fact is not what I consider right.

I can, however, speak for myself. Personally, I prefer AIF: it has the exact same sound quality as WAV but supports extra ID3 tags and a cover artwork — which is very handy when dealing with a large media library or browsing tracks on a DJ player’s display.

I do use MP3 too, but more like an exception for bootlegs, promos and all that kind of unofficial music.

Is it worth using WAV

In short, the answer is yes. Uncompressed audio obviously better than its compressed comrades, and if you want to go deeper in tech and nerdy stuff, read articles on one of trustworthy sources like Sound On Sound magazine.

What Data Compression Does To Your Music. Sound On Sound, 2012

But I’d like to talk about something different.

You see, the audible sound quality is a very tricky thing, especially in clubs and larger venues: the sound goes through a lot of processing before reaching our ears, and it’s very easy to mess it up on every stage it passes through.

For example, if a DJ plays 192 kbps MP3s, the sound will be shitty despite the top-class PA system. Or if a DJ screw the gain control on the mixer and plays in the red zone, the sound will be shitty again despite the audio engineer’s efforts.

And it works the other way around as well. For example, if a drunk sound guy messes up the PA equalization and calibration, the sound will be shitty even with a professional DJ playing lossless formats. Or if a greedy promoter saves some money on the gear rent and puts the “100s” CDJs in the DJ booth. Or if a venue has no proofing whatsoever. And so on.

good sound at a party is the result of teamwork

The point is, making a good sound at a party is teamwork that relies on many people and things involved. Now, answering your question on whether it’s worth using WAVs, I think it’s up to a DJ whether he wants to work as a team and ensure the best sound quality. To me, the answer is obvious.

Jiz Lee

I’m going to put here some quotes, and try to guess what I’m talking about:

“There are performers, there are lighting people, there’s a PA, there’s a manager, there are all of those people and that’s the production day. And then there’s post and editing. Even beyond just the set, the industry is so much more of a business than people realise. Like every company has a sales team and an accounting department. [...] There are so many people behind the scenes.

Just like any other job, there are some days that are like the most fantastic days ever and it’s ‘I like my job!’ and there are some days where it’s like you’re working. Not everyone in the industry makes a lot of money, but it costs a lot of money up front for sure. I put more hours into being a star then I think the average person puts into their nine-to-five job.

People might know me for being up from the camera but I do marketing and I set at a desk most of my day. If you do it as a career, you end up wearing so many hats: some performers learn how to do makeup, some learn how to edit [...] Creating your own content, creating your own mini-vids or clips for sale, learning how to edit and upload. All of these things are the learning curve that you have to have in order to be a... I don’t even say successful, that steady working performer.”

All of these things are learning curve that you have to have in order to be a... I don’t even say successful, that steady working performer.

That’s must’ve been about the music industry for sure, right? Well, you’re wrong: these are the quotes of the porn stars interview for Iris.

It’s amazing how similar the expectations of newcomers to the porn business and the music industry: both seem to think that being a performer is easy money and pure pleasure.

Many think that once you’ve learned how to mix two tracks, you’re a DJ. Or just make some music and the gigs will come along, automatically. Or act in porn and just get some free sex and fun (and even get paid for that). Sounds easy!

Well, in reality, there’s a ton of hard work behind the scenes and not every performance gives you satisfaction. I think everyone who wants to make a porn music career should know about it.

I spoke with Giulia from Shankra Festival organization about my first festival experience, latest works, features of my tracks, and some aspects of Trance music I dislike.

Give us an overview of your latest works (releases, EP, other projects): is there something you’re particularly excited about?
My release schedule was quite busy lately: I have released a new single on Digital Om Productions a few months back, followed by a very unusual release on Iono Music, and just in a few weeks from now my collaboration with Mechanimal will be out too which I’m really excited about. Also, my radio show hit the 7th year anniversary last month, quite a milestone!

Could you describe to us your first festival experience?
If we are talking about the festivals specifically and not indoor raves, I think my first experience was in 2005 at a festival in the Crimean Mountains. It was something totally different to me comparing to the club parties I used to attend to a lot these days, and I still love that almost a surreal feeling that you are in a parallel reality.

Which would be your advice for young people that would like to start your profession?
I would advise to lower down expectations and research the industry. I’ve seen a lot of young producers expecting to make a living on a debut album release, or start touring worldwide as soon as they get signed to a record label. Sorry, but this is not how things work, success won’t happen overnight. Also, it is your job, as an artist, to work with the audience and to grow your fan base, music alone is just not enough.

Lower down your expectations and research the industry

What are the most characteristic features of your tracks?
I’m a huge fan of cosmic exploration, science fiction, and technologies, and I’m trying to implement these features in my production. You won’t hear a yet another speech sample about LSD in my tracks, but rather a robotic vox, space-themed leads, and Trance atmosphere. I also like to build some storyline behind each track, some deeper meaning.

What aspects of the Trance scene you prefer/dislike?
To me, Psytrance is much more than just music. It’s a culture that unites people despite their age, occupation, skin colour, and faith. I love it.
However, with the growing popularity of the genre, we now hear a lot of ‘copy-paste’ producers who make nothing but cliches, like triplets pattern is being an example. It’s now much harder to filter out that ‘noise’, otherwise you just end up listening to 200 new arrivals on Beatport which sound all the same, sometimes even DJ sets sound the same.
Talking about the scene in general, I like how the production of the events keeps getting better each year, thanks to the festivals like Shankra.

You got a totally free afternoon. What would you do?
I would probably dig some new music or work with my media library to add tags, organise them into playlists etc. I’m kind of a freak when it comes to that!

Organising some music on my way to the airport

Do you have something that you always bring with you during your travels?
As a DJ and producer, I can’t go without the laptop. Whether I have a spare hour on the plane, in the airport, hotel, car, or even at the backstage, I’m always trying to use this opportunity to get some work done: organise music library, listen to demos, reply to emails, write a blog or edit a vlog.

You won’t hear a yet another speech sample about LSD in my tracks, but rather a robotic vox, space-themed leads, and Trance atmosphere

What did you enjoy the most during your time at Shankra Festival?
I have two points of view on that. From the artist’s perspective, I absolutely enjoyed the professionalism of the Shankra team: it was a top-notch organisation which I appreciate and respect a lot. And from the dancefloor perspective, music is certainly what I enjoyed the most because this is my biggest passion and this why I do what I do in the first place.

What do you think about the festival’s location?
Shankra location is breathtaking! I think it contributes to the overall perception of the festival a lot. The music, the deco, the people and nature come together in a mesmerising experience.

The Alps and the landscape are breathtaking

A special message to the Shankra Family!
Thanks for keeping the spirit alive, you’re awesome!

Link to the original post
Text — Giulia Buonarrivo

The transitions between “wet” and “dry” sound are a great way to keep the listener’s attention. Someday I’ll talk about it in more detail, but for now, listen to how Astrix does it:

At first, the sound drowns in reverb, disappearing into the background, and then the reverb is suddenly turned off and the sound comes to the foreground making the track seem dynamic. Pretty cool!