drum and bass production tutorials, tips, samples, forum [dnb secrets] - Production questions

Bob Katz articles

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:31:21 -0400

just checking this mastermind:

"http://www.digido.com/articles/index.php"

--------www.digido.com/articles/index.php----------

www.digido.com/articles/index.php

TIME SIGNATURES AND TEMPOS

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:39:51 -0500

Whats up everyone, I just wanted to ask the more experienced drum and bass producers on this forum what tempo and time signatures they use in general. It would be helpful for specifically neurofunk and darkstep drum and bass styles. Thanks.

RASTABOX Free dub noisemaker VST KVR Developer Challenge entery!!!

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 16:19:21 -0400

I just wanted to tell everybody about my entery for the KVR Developer Challenge 2007. It's called Rastabox and I created it for making dubby, spacey, sci-fi noises. Rastabox can make anything from classic dub siren to all kinds of vintage video game sounds. Rastabox is intended for live on the fly recording and performance, so tweaking the speed and depth knobs as you play will produce nice results. I kept it simple but it can produce some really nice fat sounds. Applying tape delay, reverb, phaser, ect. will also enhance the sound. I also included 32 presets for tweaking.
This plug-in took me a long time to make Rastabox. So if you like it and find it useful, please vote for me...

Multiband compressed / multi layered drums in FL Studio

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 16:43:55 -0400

like you know dnb beats have made with extensive use of layering & compression.
easy to say then to manage.
after layering hits you can find your beat to harsh or muddy.
after compressing you can find frequency intermodulations so your kicks eat hats or something ugly ducking.

so the following setup could be tried to make the process more controllable.
1. group hits into fx/channel buses. on that stage u can control individual hits' volume. for example group kicks into 1st bus, snares into 2nd one, hats & ghosts into 3rd.

2. make 3 send fx/channel buses. they will represent different frequency bands - low, mid & high frequency ranges.

3. send hit group fx/channel buses into them adjusting send amount to taste.

4. compress every frequency band to taste to achieve individual character on lows, mids & highs.

in example fl studio project i used multiband compressor on send channels as a band filter & compressor. cross-fading frequencies are controllable through dashboard.

Compression 101 : Teh Basics

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:12:07 -0400

Compression 101 : Teh Basics

One of the most important things to learn while learning how to use a compressor is: learning when to use a compressor. If you're writing a song, every element in your song will not always need compression. You can use a compressor to make things "fat", you can use a compressor to make some things "thin", you can use a compressor for "color", you can use a compressor to just trim off some unwanted peaks, and some people use a compressor as an effect to make the music "pump". There are many uses for a compressor, I'm going to attempt to show you some basics here today, and I'll leave it up to you to find new ways of using a compressor. Lets begin with a question:

What does a Compressor do?

A Compressor can be used for a few different purposes, one of the most common is to turn loud sections in your audio lower without affecting the already quieter passages. For example, when your audio has very large volume peaks but the average volume of the sound, the RMS, is not very loud, you could then apply some compression to bring the peaks down and then boost the overall volume of it to increase the average volume.

Here is an image I made of some audio where the first half of the clip was so much louder than the second half, that I could not turn it any louder because the first half would then be way too loud and clip. After compressing the audio though, you'll see that only the audio that was above the Threshold was lowered in volume, and the whole thing is a bit more leveled out now. I can now boost the overall signal louder without worrying about the beginning going over 0dB and clipping so quickly. (dont worry ill explain the Threshold next)

Which program?

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:21:49 -0400

Which programme do you recommend that I use when i produce Drum and Bass?

-aw

Please Help (Drum Sequence/Instrument Production Help)

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 03:16:13 -0500

Hi I'm pretty much a newbie to creating Drum and Bass sounds and was wondering if anybody could help me out. You see i'm trying to create a drum pattern like those heard in all drum and bass songs, however when i listen to it back it does not sound like one.
I believe i am missing an instrument somewhere, or doing something wrong with the pattern structure.
Can you please help me identify this problem as i need an experienced opinion. Below is a sample of my drum pattern on solo, it would be greatful if you listened to it and helped identify where i am going wrong.
Here is the link to my drum sample (1MB)(On 2 servers incase one fails):
uploadingit.com/public/1964/JustDrums.mp3
www.megaupload.com/

Many thanks in advance to all help recieved it is greatly appreciated.

A bit about me, and the problem im facing now

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 05:37:48 -0500

Hi, i just signed up on this forum to get some help with a new challange i have been set.

I have been making music for the past few years and produce a variety of music ranging from
Trance, Techno, Hard House, Breackbeat and Drum&Bass. You can check out some of my choons at (www.myspace.com/kreedinc)
The main problem i have allways had with drum and bass is Beats, and recently i have been set the challange of making beets in the same style as Noisia. as u can guess this is very difficult, and i would like to know if u lot can help me. The main problem being Percussion (the rolls in the beat... sorry lol)

Any help is greatly apreciated.

Kreed.inc

fruity vs. reason

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 12:15:00 -0500

whats everyones feelings on this? i know you can make music well on both, but as far as how far you can go, limitations.

No monitors

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 10:37:57 -0500

i don`t have monitor speakers yet. i`m aware of how important to music production they are and i`ll be sure to buy a pair the first chance i get. but until then how to make the best of it ? i mean is there a way to improve the overall sound of my tracks at least a bit without the speakers ?

Compression Question....

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 18:43:03 -0500

....OK, so I'm using Logic on the PC quite happily for my D+B/Breakcore ventures as I'm more than used to the arrange page and have a shitload of weird and wonderful VSTs at my disposal. The main problem I'm having is that, once I've finished adding all the elements of my track and ready to bounce it etc. I'm finding that everything still sounds pretty damn "flat" on whatever speakers I end up previewing it on. Now, I know that my main problem here is that to get the sounds jumping out of the speakers I need to work out the mysteries of compression etc. so....here's my question: Should I be compressing the whole track (and if so, are their any particular settings I should be using for D+B specifically), using the multipressor that already comes with Logic....or should I just be compressing certain aspects of the track - like just the bass/kick and/or snare? Some help would be highly appreciated folks. Cheers - Jamez

beat making help!

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:24:52 -0500

i know it's really vague, but i want to get into making my own beats, and i have absolutely no idea where to even start. i've seen all the videos of people using mpc's and all that, but i don't have the money for an mpc.

so what products should i get so i can start making my own stuff? any help at all would be really appreciated

-brinx

FX Channels / Buses - What the hell ?!

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 15:52:32 -0500

Hey, hope everyone is cool

I've only been using buses for a while (used to just insert fx but that canes my cpu), and something funny happened the other day that I wonder could someone please explain?

I made some amens, and was just dabbling with the 16 bar audio file trying different fxs like flanger, and hp filtering. When i put the filter on an fx channel in cubase sl3, the way it responds is totally diiferent to how it is as an insert fx.
As an insert when the cutoff is allthe way set to low, u hear the beat normal until moving it up and then the high pass kicks in. But when the filter was on an fx channel i just can't get the beats to hp fading to nothing, its like nothing how it is as an insert.
I should mention that i tried different setting on the send control from nothing to fully on.

Does anyone have the same problem or know waht I mean?

Thanks

Mixdown question!

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 17:58:49 -0500

Hi, Please could someone help?
I'm using cubase, and just recently i've started bouncing everything down to reopen in another project to apply things like automation and further processing because my pc can't keep up. I'm still a noob, and I gather this is a good way of doing things, but I've just got a question:

before i bounce a track down should i take off any compression / limiting, and do it in the final stages?

I'm asking because on a tune im working at the moment, when i imported the bounced down sub bass (which had tube amp and compressor inserts on) it was playing back pretty distorted and not at all like it was before i bounced. sorry if i'm rambling here...

In the end i went back and took the inserts off turned it down a little and bounced it again, and then used the same inserts i did before bouncing, and it sounded perfect.

Have i kinda answered my own question - or am i not seening the light?

Phew i need a rest now!

So - Is Fruityloops good for D+B then???

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 09:24:30 -0500

Everyone here seems to be talking fruityloops.. I haven't used it since version 2 but found it rather tricky.. I use renoise and have been looking for some general production advice on getting that compressed overall sound that's unique to D+B... I'm working on a load of new tunes - all of which I'm happy with the chewns - but the overall production is lacking something and I'm keen to get it right.. does anybody treat the whole mix? what VST effects are peeps recommending? Anybody else using any hardware?

Biggest to d+b, globally.