I will often use a sustain for an ending. Dust On The Floor from my website is one of the good examples. The final chord is held as it fades. It's pretty strange sounding to have a long hold inside of a song. Holding for more than part of a measure in a song's body, tends to lose the song's energy and many listeners will lose that magic attachment that keeps them listening and focused on the song. I recently heard a song in one of the forums I listen to that did that very thing. My immediate thought was "WTH was that?" Instantly, my focus and interest in the song was broken. The holds exceeded a full measure with nothing happening.

If you have a long fade...say a piano chord....and you plan to fade it over several measures, and the song isn't finished, you better have something else coming in on that next measure to hold the listener and keep their attention. A flute, a guitar, a singer...something needs to be happening to pick up where the piano left off.

The big issue on the held chords as they fade is the quality of the sound as it decays. This is especially true if the key has been changed (as BB will do to the original recording) because as the chord is fading, at times, artifacts of the key change will appear. The fade sounds unnatural. Super buzz kill.

You also have issues with things that don't fade on the hold. The B3 organ comes to mind. You need to automate the fade on those to match the natural decay of the rest of the tracks.

Normally, you don't want to use a long fade. You want a controlled fade where everything goes out at the same apparent fade speed and silence at the same point. The key is to have that fade sound natural. Most of my ending fades are around a measure and a half total. Listen to Footsteps in the Hall....also on my music page. It has a B3 in the ending held chord and fades with the song to silence. The fade takes around 7 to 8 beats past the hold on 1.

So the point is, try to keep holds in the song less than a measure, and control them at the end.

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 03/18/17 03:14 AM.
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