[Squirsier]

I'm pretty much interested in all aspects and moods of Drum n Bass, Breakbeats, Jungle, etc... so this thread is another goldmine

Btw... On the latest Massive Attack album, there's a remix from Breakage which I really liked... And he just so happened to have released his new album titled "Foundation".. But on discogs.com, style listed are Drum n Bass, Dubstep and.... Grime?!

First I heard of that, what is it?

 

[Squirsier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm currently listening to the CD you mentioned, it's nice! but it sounds dated to me...like late 90's? it sounds like they bought a "dnb for newbies" sample cd and mixed it in Reason

Oh man, you mean, I should stop listening to Reprazent's "New Forms" and move on eh? heheh

Yeah, maybe old school, which is why I kinda dig it, but as I said in another reply, I'm interested in all sides of the genre, so hey, goldmine thread here

 

[leeperry]

oh yes, I remember some amazing SOUR tracks from "Dom & Roland"! I'm currently listening to "Evol Intent - Era Of Diversion", it's nice! but I miss the sick syncopated Virus Indigo bass lines...ah well, I can live being an E+O fanboy

that's exactly how I like my DNB, compressed harsh beats, hypnotic bass lines...instant head nodder(rlsed in 98!!): YouTube - Ed Rush, Optical & Fierce - Alien Girl

and this track is well...perfect? OMG, TEH bassline!! YouTube - Ed Rush & Optical - Temper

their production skills amaze me...everything's friggin'perfect from A to Z, they leave me speechless. It's like honey to my ears, very coarse honey though.

to me they're like autechre or BoC, plain trend makers...everyone's trying to follow, in vain IMHO.

C4C does the exact same music as E+O, hah(they're on E+O's record company, that could explain

):
YouTube - Cause 4 Concern - Dream Killer
YouTube - Cause 4 Concern - Epox

I'm just gonna spin "Travel the galaxy" for the 500th time

 

[cheemo]

Damn leeperry, 'Travel the Galaxy' is a banger, thanks for the name drop.

 

[schwallman]

Dom & Roland industry album is always a good choice. Did you check out that breakage album? Deep cuts on there. I don't know many like Ed rush and optical other than what you named already. Some of dillinja I like. Alot of his tunes sound the same though.

 

[MoodySteve]

leeperry, I have several of those tracks on vinyl...thanks for the trip down memory lane!

For more modern acts, I've already mentioned Noisia, but another guy definitely worth checking out is DJ Hidden - I think his tunes have the highly-compressed frenetic percussion and crazy, punishing envelopes that we seem to like.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squirsier /img/forum/go_quote.gif IGrime?! First I heard of that, what is it?

Heh, just yet another one of many terms that describe that genre of breakbeat-meets-jungle-meets-hip-hop (garage, eski-beat, bass music, uk bass and the latest and greatest, dubstep, are similar terms). Grime tends to feature vocalists and emcees. You may have heard of Dizzee Rascal - he's one of the better known grime artists.

 

[leeperry]

I've just listened to that old Dom+Roland album, and to "Breakage - Foundation"...I'm boooooored

I think it's easy to make one killer DNB track...you just need to be lucky w/ the drum samples/patterns, have a good sound engineer to give you a very nasty bassline sound and you're in business! one hit wonders are easy to achieve IMHO. What is very hard is to make a full album where all the tracks reach the same top quality, and do sound together like an album...not like a bunch of 12" ripped to CD

I'm currently listening to "Cause4Concern - Pandemic"(2008), yes yes yes! that's the nasty DNB I like....you can definitely hear their parenthood w/ Virus Records

the reason why they're called Virus is actually very simple, that's the synth from Access that gives those wikkkkid bass lines...that's the SP-1200 of DNB basically: Access VIRUS B Series | Vintage Synth Explorer

just like Oberheim/Waldorf and so on, you cannot beat the germans for phat analog synths!

 

[leeperry]

wow, the four C4C guys took 10 months to make this album: Cause4Concern "Pandemic LP" News

hehe, track 1 on CD1 sounds like you'd be running as fast as you can, w/ a very mean dog running after you and barking like mad...hehe, I really dig that funky technoid agressive sound

I could play Q3 online for hours w/ E+O playing in the background, pure adrenaline pumping....It gives the feeling to be like Jason Statham in those "Crank" movies, Crank II was so over the top that I loved it

 

[leeperry]

hehe, I found that old track of mine

it was done in the early 00's, and took AGES to polish...plus I'm not quite as talented as E+O...

these are some of the preliminary basslines tests: Mixdown.mp3

and that's more or less the final track: nu_champion.mp3

the bass goes NUTS in the middle of the track...it was all done in Cubase VST ^^

I did a few more tracks(mixing classical music w/ very harsh DNB beats), it's very funny to make...any other DNB composers out there? I really have to make new tunes, it's just too damn fun to try to copy the E+O sound

I hope it's OK to upload these here, as I own the full copyright to these tracks

 

[Squirsier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif these are some of the preliminary basslines tests: I did a few more tracks(mixing classical music w/ very harsh DNB beats), it's very funny to make...any other DNB composers out there? I really have to make new tunes, it's just too damn fun to try to copy the E+O sound

I did quite a few tracks of different genres in my days, using, among other things, a Nord Modular G2, G1, Yamaha CS6r, Some TB303 Clones, etc using Sonar as a sequencer. Some of them got aired on the radio here in Canada, my 15 mins of fame

I leeched your track, will give it a spin later tonight.

Btw, anyone knows Cybernetika? His latest (free!) album called Atropos is kind of a mix of Drum n Bass and Psytrance - quite something and rather dark too.

http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/cybernetika-atropos/

(Ektoplazm rules for free music!)

 

[leeperry]

very nice! any DNB tracks?

I've done quite a lot of dub reggae/deep funk mixes, it's a lot of fun! but also a lot of work, and real gear costs a hell lot of money...I got burned buying an AKAI S1000 and its grossly expensive RAM expansions+mixing boards/effect racks etc etc back in the days

and there's some amazing VSTi's these days, like Lizard Lounge? you get a true to life modelized Fender Rhodes right into Cubase, so awesome! and Battery 2.0 is a god bless for beats programming...plus it's all automated in Cubase, no need to set up a mixing board etc etc...2 clicks and you're in business!

I've decided to stop wasting my cash on real gear that ends up obsolete 1 year later...it's only good if you make tons of cash w/ your music IMO...you can even get an Access Virus in TDM plugin, now how cool is that

and there's so many amazing sounding plugins for cubase, like TC Electronic/Sonnox etc etc....but still, it takes a lot of time to make those tunes...and what is the point? to run a myspace page and have a bunch of ppl leeching your music for free?

I also did a few very cool tracks w/ dahjne, he's got skills! dajhne on MySpace

he's strongly influenced by BoC/Autechre and AFX, I also did a bunch of BoC'esque tracks myself...w/ very mellow slow melodies and dirty hip hop beatz

it's always fun to mix styles, like dub reggae w/ abstract hip hop...classical music w/ DNB, deep funk w/ ambient..etc etc, the only way to create something new is to mix stuff together IMO.

PS: and it's not the machines that make the music...I know some ppl who have several rooms full of high end gear, and they're unable to make a single tune.

 

[Squirsier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif and there's some amazing VSTi's these days, like Lizard Lounge? you get a true to life modelized Fender Rhodes right into Cubase, so awesome! and Battery 2.0 is a god bless for beats programming...plus it's all automated in Cubase, no need to set up a mixing board etc etc...2 clicks and you're in business!

Yeah, in the end I moved up to software only on a small 12.1 inch laptop ; perfect for writing music on the go!

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif PS: and it's not the machines that make the music...I know some ppl who have several rooms full of high end gear, and they're unable to make a single tune.

Very true. I have a friend whom I call "loop boy". Never finished a single tune in so many years, but has plenty of gear!

I liked your track btw, nice drums and the atmosphere and use of samples is great!

Here's one of mine (kinda drum n bass-ish but less "dark") that eventually aired on the radio, titled "Sounds like a Dream" (2002) :

http://www.jsdecarie.com/temp/slad.mp3

And the last song I ever wrote, back in 2007, all software, uses breaks, kinda cinematic :

http://www.jsdecarie.com/temp/chase.mp3

Aaah fun times

 

[leeperry]

"slad" is nice, but the drums are not compressed/harsh enough, and the bass should be SCREAMING, sounding like a devil stuck in a tiny box trying to escape...also the pad, don't be afraid to copy BoC, they have the perfect ethereal pads...no need to reinvent the wheel

the vocal samples are really cool, make them more spacey w/ a big dub echo.

"chase" is also nice, but it lacks a nasty hypnotic melody IMO...anyway, it's all positive criticizing! Fatboy Slim always reworks his tracks twice, to get that nasty agressive sound...that's where the money is, if your music doesn't sound harsh at all, it sounds like an amiga megademo tune IMHO...a friend of mine is unable to get off this music style, OTOH chiptunes are going big these days

anyway, when I hear E+O and BoC, I think I'd be better off wasting my time at better things than trying to match genuises I'll never be able to even touch

dajhne has far more talent than I ever will, and what does he do? he released two 12" on a hardcore techno label, and does shady lives for drug addicts in illegal parties...huh.

600 BPM or nuttin' : YouTube - Spring Strike Party Uniq - Helius Zhamiq

to these ppl DNB is like Britney Spears

 

[Squirsier]

Thanks a lot for listening and the comments btw

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif "slad" is nice, but the drums are not compressed/harsh enough, and the bass should be SCREAMING, sounding like a devil stuck in a tiny box trying to escape...also the pad, don't be afraid to copy BoC, they have the perfect ethereal pads...no need to reinvent the wheel

I loooved working with pads, not a single song I made that didn't used them I think

Never listened to BoC (odd, I know)... And yeah, I could have used more distortion (I actually did some distorted tests way back in the early 2000s but gave up).

And that bass, there's some of it I wanted to cut off but completely forgot due to bad headphones (couldn't hear it where I needed to). Only years later when I got a better pair of headphones that I heard it and was "Oh right, that's where it's too much"... or so I thought

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif "chase" is also nice, but it lacks a nasty hypnotic melody IMO...anyway, it's all positive criticizing! Fatboy Slim always reworks his tracks twice, to get that nasty agressive sound...that's where the money is, if your music doesn't sound harsh at all, it sounds like an amiga megademo tune IMHO...a friend of mine is unable to get off this music style, OTOH chiptunes are going big these days

Yeah, not much melody in this one, I agree!

Ah yes, chiptunes... Now where's my MOS6581 chip.... Could never really stand it tho

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif anyway, when I hear E+O and BoC, I think I'd be better off wasting my time at better things than trying to match genuises I'll never be able to even touch

No kidding, that's why I reverted back to listening to ton loads of music rather than bother making my own anymore

Cheers!

 

[leeperry]

it's not so much about distortion, it's about compression(possibly analog modeled, to sound like Portishead).

well, BoC is a de-facto to listen to...they just do it perfectly! SP-1200 harsh hip hop beatz, ethereal pads, obsessive loungy melodies...spot-on!

listen to "a beautiful place", "maxima", "music has the right to children"....and eventually you'll end up hoarding ALL their releases...like their AMAZING "Twoism" EP.

You can hear their influence in many many records these days, IMHO there's been a pre- and a post-BoC.