Most of the time we do an audio crossfade between two regions in our DAW's we are probably just crossing a tiny little segment between the same sounds, and usually trying to make it as unnoticeable as possible.
But.... have you ever done a one or two measure long crossfade between two DRAMATICALLY, COMPLETELY different sounds? It doesn't always give you magical result, but sometimes you can end up with some really fun, unexpected results to push your production to the next level. ....and the best part is you are going to separate yourself from everyone else that just uses off-the-shelf preset sounds.
Below I have a screenshot and an audio example where I used this concept in an electronic song several years ago. There are technically three big crossfades happening about the same time in this example: a lead line with a distorted verb, and then a choir sound fades in. My example is electronic, but you could really use this in any genre if you get creative.
One more note, if you use mostly software virtual instruments, bounce them out (render to audio) so that you get more interesting textures and sounds.
So go try something! Get creative! Get wacky! ....and, let me know if you come up with something cool. (Please feel free to keep it to yourself if it's not cool. :)
