Unfortunately, if your making drum n bass for the dancefloor (like myself and most drum n bass producers), then you need to watch a reasonably strict structure that drum n bass has followed for the good part of it's life. This structure has changed over the years so I will attempt to teach you the structure in force today (although some dancefloor tracks stray from this attempting to find a new structure, most of these are unsuccessfull).
1. The "Intro"
The intro in drum n bass is where your creativity should shine, this is the place to expermient (up until the time your beat kicks in). The length of time before your beat kicks in can be anywhere between nothing and 2 hrs if you want (although i dont think a 2hr 7min track will fit on a cd unfortunately). This is where the scene is set (a dark scene if I've taught you right) and where your main atmospheric melody is established.
Now you are probably wondering what the hell I meant by "atmospheric melody". Basically every drum n bass track made for the dancefloor has an underlying melody whcih revolves around the bass. This is usually constructed from pads and strings and can be dark or mellow (even if the rest of your track is dark, your melody can be mellow, it works surprisingly). But this melody MUST fit in with your bassline that comes in during first "break" explained below. Once this is set and a light beat is placed over it this can continue for a while. Usually as you build up to the next portion you continue to add things to your beat (ie. hihats, cymbals etc.) to raise the intensity of the track. Then when you fell it is right (usually about 1:30 to 2:00 in) you have your first break.
First Break:
A break in drum n bass is when there is no beats present (except maybe a hihat). The first break is usually only 4 or 8 bars long (1 bar=4 beats or one full breakbeat loop). These days the main bassline or a portion of it is used during the break and filtering is provided to build it up (ie. a lowpass filter from 0 to 100% or a highpass from 100% to 0%). In tech step (ie. "Dark") drum n bass, a Snare Buildup is NOT used, this technique is saved for the jump up side of the genre where it belongs, use snare rolls at your own discretion. After your break comes first drop.
First Drop
Once your break builds into a frenzy you drop the beat (the beat is usually more intense than what it was during your intro, but similar enough to know that it isnt a different beat) and your bassline at full power. Repeat this for a while and then do a short (1 bar) break and drop a more intense beat and slightly alter your bassline (only slightly). Then begin to re-introduce your atmospherics and melody and then move to your second break.
Second Break
Break again with atmospherics and no bassline (or include a bassline at half power if you wish) and build it up again, but quicker (second breaks should be same length or half length of first br
really dark and mysterious, sounds kinda like the child eater chase from Pan's Labrynth (just the dark atmosphere), liking those weird noises, but yea DJvex has got it, it's a little all over the place... nice bass lines as well, I'm actually thinking of putting more distorted baslines in my work, but i need to know how to make a heavy bass melody without it affecting the whole songs...
Samples? The drums you mean?? Yeah, on this track all the drums were from samples (the main one was off a beefy version of the origional amen, just before the symbol hit) but they've all been chopped up into the kick, snares and hats, rearranged and layered. Would love to be able to program such beats from scratch. I know alot of the sequences, it's more the EQing and compression that gets me. I hear your other comments- I need to discipline myself. Got 150 odd unfinished tracks and precisly zero finished ones. Need to concider my tracks more, both in the clarity of the different elements and that the sequence/journey actually makes sense from start to finish. Cheers again brv, Ps , just started listening to some of yours, Will comment for what mine's worth. Ez.
No need be sorry brv, I on a learning curve like everyone else. I know what I wanna hear, all the elements are there just need alot of re-arranging and EQing. I'll get back to the laboritory, post when made a decent bit of progress. Cheers for ya time djvex brv. Ez
the intro starts awesome.. love the set up and darkness. But once the song fully starts its hard to keep up with wtf is going on. The bass keep overtaking the drums. I can barley hear the vox sample sometimes. Sry for hardcore criticism..good trax though i love the concept
i like the dark atmosphere....but the drums are a little hard to hear sometimes...are those samples or did u program them yourself? I couldn't really figure the bassline in some parts. Overall melody of the song i couldn't really follow a little 2 weird even for me. heh.. but aside from that nice mix keep it up.
Commented on edge of the planet by narcotik
very nice! i like the use of alot of different drum seq..ez
Commented on can you guess what it is yet? by narcotik
Buzz Drum n Bass Tutorial : Part 4/4
Unfortunately, if your making drum n bass for the dancefloor (like myself and most drum n bass producers), then you need to watch a reasonably strict structure that drum n bass has followed for the good part of it's life. This structure has changed over the years so I will attempt to teach you the structure in force today (although some dancefloor tracks stray from this attempting to find a new structure, most of these are unsuccessfull).
1. The "Intro"
The intro in drum n bass is where your creativity should shine, this is the place to expermient (up until the time your beat kicks in). The length of time before your beat kicks in can be anywhere between nothing and 2 hrs if you want (although i dont think a 2hr 7min track will fit on a cd unfortunately). This is where the scene is set (a dark scene if I've taught you right) and where your main atmospheric melody is established.
Now you are probably wondering what the hell I meant by "atmospheric melody". Basically every drum n bass track made for the dancefloor has an underlying melody whcih revolves around the bass. This is usually constructed from pads and strings and can be dark or mellow (even if the rest of your track is dark, your melody can be mellow, it works surprisingly). But this melody MUST fit in with your bassline that comes in during first "break" explained below. Once this is set and a light beat is placed over it this can continue for a while. Usually as you build up to the next portion you continue to add things to your beat (ie. hihats, cymbals etc.) to raise the intensity of the track. Then when you fell it is right (usually about 1:30 to 2:00 in) you have your first break.
First Break:
A break in drum n bass is when there is no beats present (except maybe a hihat). The first break is usually only 4 or 8 bars long (1 bar=4 beats or one full breakbeat loop). These days the main bassline or a portion of it is used during the break and filtering is provided to build it up (ie. a lowpass filter from 0 to 100% or a highpass from 100% to 0%). In tech step (ie. "Dark") drum n bass, a Snare Buildup is NOT used, this technique is saved for the jump up side of the genre where it belongs, use snare rolls at your own discretion. After your break comes first drop.
First Drop
Once your break builds into a frenzy you drop the beat (the beat is usually more intense than what it was during your intro, but similar enough to know that it isnt a different beat) and your bassline at full power. Repeat this for a while and then do a short (1 bar) break and drop a more intense beat and slightly alter your bassline (only slightly). Then begin to re-introduce your atmospherics and melody and then move to your second break.
Second Break
Break again with atmospherics and no bassline (or include a bassline at half power if you wish) and build it up again, but quicker (second breaks should be same length or half length of first br
Commented on edge of the planet by narcotik
really dark and mysterious, sounds kinda like the child eater chase from Pan's Labrynth (just the dark atmosphere), liking those weird noises, but yea DJvex has got it, it's a little all over the place... nice bass lines as well, I'm actually thinking of putting more distorted baslines in my work, but i need to know how to make a heavy bass melody without it affecting the whole songs...
Commented on edge of the planet by narcotik
Samples? The drums you mean?? Yeah, on this track all the drums were from samples (the main one was off a beefy version of the origional amen, just before the symbol hit) but they've all been chopped up into the kick, snares and hats, rearranged and layered. Would love to be able to program such beats from scratch. I know alot of the sequences, it's more the EQing and compression that gets me. I hear your other comments- I need to discipline myself. Got 150 odd unfinished tracks and precisly zero finished ones. Need to concider my tracks more, both in the clarity of the different elements and that the sequence/journey actually makes sense from start to finish. Cheers again brv,
Ps , just started listening to some of yours, Will comment for what mine's worth. Ez.
Commented on can you guess what it is yet? by narcotik
No need be sorry brv, I on a learning curve like everyone else. I know what I wanna hear, all the elements are there just need alot of re-arranging and EQing. I'll get back to the laboritory, post when made a decent bit of progress. Cheers for ya time djvex brv. Ez
Commented on can you guess what it is yet? by narcotik
the intro starts awesome.. love the set up and darkness. But once the song fully starts its hard to keep up with wtf is going on. The bass keep overtaking the drums. I can barley hear the vox sample sometimes. Sry for hardcore criticism..good trax though i love the concept
Commented on edge of the planet by narcotik
i like the dark atmosphere....but the drums are a little hard to hear sometimes...are those samples or did u program them yourself? I couldn't really figure the bassline in some parts. Overall melody of the song i couldn't really follow a little 2 weird even for me. heh.. but aside from that nice mix keep it up.