The importance of...

[legend4ry]

Today's thought is "The importance of Space and Pace".

Dubstep, as a sound has become what it is today due to a little motto I call "space, pace and bass". Every dubstep tune what has had an impact into the scene and has gone down as a classic sits within these 3 fundamental aspects! I will cover space and pace, bass isn't an issue here.


Space
(no, we're not talking about the milky way)

One of the biggest mistakes made by people who come from genres such as Drum And Bass, Metal and House is that they try and fill up the track with as much as possible to keep the track interesting while dubstep doesn't need twenty different bass sounds and 4 different melodies all playing at the same time.

What I mean by space is that there is room for the tune to breathe, room so you can hear the release of the pad and hear the delay trickle out of the track, this brings absolutely insane amounts of tension, atmosphere and most of all room for you to be creative! While you don't 100% need space, as a producer you should keep it in your mind when you're making a track.

Some "classic" dubstep tracks with space.

Skream - Midnight Request Line
Pinch - Qawwali
Loefah - Rufage

I invite you to analyse these tracks for not the sounds or for your opinion on them but how they make use of little > no sounds playing at times and still make the track feel exciting and how you can clearly hear every element in the track. The way this is done is by having great core sounds in the track, if you have great drum sounds, a great bassline and full atmosphere, throw in some one-off sounds in there or little percs and you've got yourself a great dubstep track..



Pace

What is pace? Its simple to explain, hard to actually accomplish.

Pace: A track that goes somewhere, doesn't ever fell like its in a "sore" spot, where every second of the tune makes sense it moves along without anything not feeling right.


I'm sure people will disagree but the relationship between percussion and bassline in dubstep drives the track! Percussion can be melodic itself there are plenty of great dubstep tracks what are heavily percussion orientated and everything else in the track is very repetitive and simple but because of the complexity of the percussion(and I don't really busy/acute programming, I just mean how it all fits together), it creates such amazing pace it doesn't need very deep progression or an odd structure.

The same goes for a great bass line, artists such as Cyrus, Loefah, Caspa(early stuff), J@akes and i'm sure there are LOADS of others make tunes where the bass line carries the tune, be it sub or midrange you can still have great pace if you build your bass-lines properly.


Things to take into consideration:

1) Sample choice is THE key element in any Dance music don't settle for less than perfect drum sounds

2) Its easier to find a better sample instead of fix a okay-ish one.

3) A drums groove can make or break a track. Kick on 1, hat on 2&4 and snare on 3 isn't the only thing you can do in dubstep experiment with percussion don't be afraid to add 8 different pieces of it!

4) Is your bassline making your head bop up and down? if so, good! If not, try again! This is supposed to be dance music to be in awe of sound design.... Having 8 different bass lines play for 1 second each isn't cool, whoever thinks it is, put your bpm up to 175 and make drum and bass.


5) Does the bass line , drums and percussion work together? Good!

//will add more when I can be arsed//



Tracks what have great pace.

Pangaea - Router
Benga - Flame
Kromestar - Take Time
Cyrus & Tunnidge - Ding Ding

[Phigure]

couldn't agree more with what you've said

excellent examples as well

[HAACK]

In addition to listening to and observing space listen to:

Breakage-Rain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei0twGJnl-s

Kryptic Minds-Stepping Stone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tojApZEFg7M

Sparce elements are present in all productions, there is alot of repitition in popular tracks and if you notice not many instruments.

Keep us updated legend4ry!

[JemGrover]

S P A C E I S G O O D

[Basic A]

Cant be repeated enough, and is so lost in alot of the dubstep coming around these days. Layering, ect, its where the cinematics are occuring in alot of whats around... take that vs. something like 'Mud' or 'I make hits'...

space makes things sound creepy. like the shit that goes bump in the night. but with more sub.

[JFK]

take that vs. something like 'Mud' or 'I make hits'...

That is such a great tune. Copped it on vinyl yesterday. Awesome stuff.

Cant agree with Basic enought on the space = creepiness thing. A lot of people thnk that true darkness in a track comes from filling the thing with samples of people screaming or babies crying or huge distorted midrange synths or other such associated nonsense. They couldnt be more wrong, I get sent tunes like this all the time and they just sound cheesy to me.....

Minimal beats with a fat sub sound edgey and sinister in such a way that will never be equalled by huge walls of sound and cheesy samples. The Ill Bill Bachelor track that Basic mentioned is a fantastic example. The beat is sparse and the vocal sample sounds dark as fuck even though the guy is only saying "I make hits, not the piblic, I tell the dj's what to play" it works. It wouldnt be the same atmosphere if the guy was saying "Fuck you Im gonna shoot you in the face" or something.

Subtlety is key.

Anyway its nice to see that this classic style is still relevant to a lot of people on here.

[amphibian]

take that vs. something like 'Mud' or 'I make hits'...

That is such a great tune. Copped it on vinyl yesterday. Awesome stuff.

Cant agree with Basic enought on the space = creepiness thing. A lot of people thnk that true darkness in a track comes from filling the thing with samples of people screaming or babies crying or huge distorted midrange synths or other such associated nonsense. They couldnt be more wrong, I get sent tunes like this all the time and they just sound cheesy to me.....

Minimal beats with a fat sub sound edgey and sinister in such a way that will never be equalled by huge walls of sound and cheesy samples. The Ill Bill Bachelor track that Basic mentioned is a fantastic example. The beat is sparse and the vocal sample sounds dark as fuck even though the guy is only saying "I make hits, not the piblic, I tell the dj's what to play" it works. It wouldnt be the same atmosphere if the guy was saying "Fuck you Im gonna shoot you in the face" or something.

Subtlety is key.

Anyway its nice to see that this classic style is still relevant to a lot of people on here.

subtle bass in minor key with lots of space = a very deep, dark track. It leaves more space for thought.

[WAR TORN]

Subtlety is key.

Anyway its nice to see that this classic style is still relevant to a lot of people on here.

I only discovered dubstep, 4 - 5 months ago and I just can't get enough of this style, The transformer Datsik sort of stuff just doesn't do it for me, I can see the appeal to some and I see the production value in it, but for me, I crave the vibe and tension a tune that is actually sinister as hell can create, massive sub + a healthy dose of reverb and/or delay on the percussion/snare and some moody as hell pads and you will catch me front row, head down, trigger fingers raised with my face on a full on tingle lol

[Basic A]

subtle bass

Epic fail.

Gotta have a rumble.

Once again.

See mud.

But, pace... Wondering how midnight oil by pinch hasnt been brought up in that respect, that tune has the most immense rhythms youll ever hear, such a driving groove... something bout them conga's... song never ceases to inspire.

[paravrais]

Just thought I'd add, don't confuse space with reverb. They compliment each other but they aren't the same thing, a lot of people seem to make that mistake starting out in Dubstep.

Nice thread.

[Basic A]

Just thought I'd add, don't confuse space with reverb. They compliment each other but they aren't the same thing, a lot of people seem to make that mistake starting out in Dubstep.

Nice thread.

THIS.

Its about attnetion to detail and creating tension and atmosphere through careful placement/interaction of the sounds. yeah the reverb on the snare yadada, it helps, but consider the details of the timing and sound selection.

6 drums say more then 30 sometimes.

[amphibian]

subtle bass

Epic fail.

Gotta have a rumble.

Once again.

See mud.

But, pace... Wondering how midnight oil by pinch hasnt been brought up in that respect, that tune has the most immense rhythms youll ever hear, such a driving groove... something bout them conga's... song never ceases to inspire.

Okay, what I meant is obviously not what was interpreted. Imo more subtle FX on the bass rather than in-your-face is far more effective.

[Basic A]

Meh Im saying in your face isnt a question of it its frequency range... midrange seems thicker because its ears vs. feel... acoustics... but sub is where the money is, qwalli vip for example. in your face as all hell, just low frequncy, darker, ect.

[phrex]

good thoughts and ideas legend4ry.

just as a side note: if you listen to joy orbison or other very housy dusbtep stuff - seems to be quite filled up - especially with the synths. what do you think about this?

[Y_H]

great post, big up!

[JFK]

if you listen to joy orbison or other very housy dusbtep stuff - seems to be quite filled up - especially with the synths. what do you think about this?

In what way mate?

[DZA]

Youre all so wrong, Dubstep is all about how many shit sounds you can cram into a one bar loop

[legend4ry]

good thoughts and ideas legend4ry.

just as a side note: if you listen to joy orbison or other very housy dusbtep stuff - seems to be quite filled up - especially with the synths. what do you think about this?

Joy Orbison's tracks are awfully simple, when broken down. They're just so wide and full in frequency it sounds like a lot of happening.

[gonzodj]

the same could be said for any kind of music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bm-kdLw ... re=related

burzum!

[honey-d]

I appreciate the thread and the help your offering new producers BUT


I'm getting sick of poorly titled threads in the production forum. I wouldn't have known this was about space and pace until I clicked the vague "The Importance of..."

It's like having threads called

"I really hate it when..."

"Have you heard...."

"I can't figure this out!"

..just sayin.