WORKS-IN-PROGRESS for February, 2011

[jakedubber]

@mattdesl - Yeah I use overdrive. Generally the default preset does the trick, but turn down the Dry/Wet fader to around 33%. Different perc sounds will need more or less distortion depending on the sound - so use Drum Rack for drums, not Impulse. Group your layered snare sounds into one and kicks into another so you can play them with one key, but things like hand perc sounds need to be separate. Just hold Cmd or Ctrl when dragging a sample into Drum Rack to layer it onto the sound already in the spot you dragged it to. Hope that makes sense. I can make a few screenshots if you need. Yeah, fast switches, but not all the time. It's good to stick with one synth for a little while sometimes. Like the track below - but better

Soundcloud

[TheHuman]

@DubMikey - cool sounds just needs some atmosphere give it some space and breathing roooooom but what do i know lol reguardless nice track and interesting sounds

@mattdesl - nice man pretty minimal but i like it lots of nice sounds and a pretty dec mix

@Jakedubber - cool track not too fond of the bass sound but melodically its got a cool pattern cool track i like when it breaks down sounds cooler with a simpler drumbeat

@kidstrange - nice tune i luke your wub wub pretty simplistic track and interesting samples! keep at it homieeee

@Kromly - lol rockin the scrap yard haha me too .. like the track alot man love hide and seek. the only thing i dont like about the track is how you make the vox duck out under the kick its more anoying then necssary in my opinion but what do i know,, illa track man

@tomi - your tripped out homie lol cool track, just makes me feel un easy haha

@mister jangles - interseting track man sounds like you had alot of fun with it nice i think it just lacks a little order but otherwise a nice head nodder!

take your pick to critisize first one more bangy.. second more chilly

Soundcloud
Soundcloud

[Kromly]

@TheHuman
Thanks! Yeah the sidechaining for the vocals was definitely the first thing i took off, ill probably bounce it all again and repost soon. Nice call on the scrapyard haha I love that sound. just bought massive recently too, ive been using logics es2 for ages. appreciate the feedback though will be fixed and posted up soon.

Your first song is sick i love the bass at the drop, possibly bring it out more? id really like to hear it pop out more, otherwise its sick. Your second track rocks too im really digging the melody and high pitched tracks, i really like the feel of those songs.

[travis_baker]

Jaked dubber i like it, kept interesting whith the drums.

Kidstrange: love it, iv been listning to ur tracks on soundcloud. love your style.

dubmikey: Its great, but i reckon make some subtle changes on the main bass sound throughout the track to keep it interesting or even add a few random softish kind of wobbles here and there.

my track. its rough tho i just want some feedback on song structure, it just dosnt flow well.
http://soundcloud.com/travisbaker/labido

[jakedubber]

@travis barker - Interesting track man, I like it. There are some really original ideas in there. I like the use of the stereo field with your wobbles, intentional or otherwise. Your drums can come up in the mix a bit more, they're kind of overpowered and that takes away from the drive of the track. To be honest I like the structure of your track. It's different to most dubstep, but I love that. The drops and breakdowns are so well blended, which isn't what one looks for in this kind of music but I think it really works. It's kind of like if Brian Eno made a track in Distance's style. Fucking awesome

@TheHuman - Under The Surface: I love the hand percussion. Really natural sounding beat. Your drop's quite unexpected, which takes away from its impact. A build-up would do it more justice. Are you using Massive? LFO on the WT Position? Great sounds anyway. Some of them are a little two high and piercing for my tastes. MOAR BASS! I love the main, chunky sound. Your drums could come way up in the mix. That snare would really pull the track along if you could hear it.

@Cyberex - Thanks for the feedback man. I've messed with the mix, hopefully it's a lot better. Huge track man. I love it. The intro is awesome and the build is nice and simple, just how it should be. I like the break-away pre-drop too. The fill could be a little simpler, maybe even just four snare hits. You could keep the current fill for the second drop and switch up the synths there too. That'd be cool. Can't wait for more.

Ok, final update. Hopefully this is the final version Haven't changed much, just messed with the mix and tidied up a few sloppy mistakes.

Soundcloud

[RightOnTime27]

The human- first track was nuts don't really have anything to say! On the second track the arpegiator felt pretty cheesy, took away from some of the other pretty sick aspects of the song also be more exciting with your note choices. kinda felt like you just stayed in the pentatonic scale, got boring pretty quickly

Jake dubber-that squeaky pitch-bent lead thing you had was kinda wack. i definitely felt the rest of the song
Soundcloud
tryna get this done by the end of february to sneak it into the panel

[Dreadfunk]

Looking for some feedback on this one. I haven't bothered to mix it properly yet. The levels need work.

I'm looking more for an artistic critique on the elements and how the track progresses overall.

Soundcloud

[fds-]

jakedubber - selfexamination - good start i like the glitched out bits you added to the bass and it has a nice solid groove. one thing i could think to make it extra good would be possibly at the end of 4 or 8 bars you add a seperate but similar bass to do a little riff and then go back to your main melody i dunno just an idea if you could get it right it could sound great. as for the drums maybe add more hihats? im not sure though, never really likes overloaded hats. kick drum could be stronger but everything sounds good so far man and then pad fits well.

thehuman - underthesurface - i like the drums on this song really junglelike and they sound almost handplayed . bass sounds well mixed too.overall sounds good only thing i can think of is making the drop more prominent with a better buildup although this could be what your going for. yoi sounds near the end are great

rightontime27 - losin-it - woah sounds nice man everything is really crisp and the drums sound great. i love the reverby feel to it and the sub is niice. its got an nice old school vibe but really clean. i got nothin bad to say keep doing what your doing

dreakfunk - infinitesimat - sounds good i enjoyed the intro melody and buildup. drop is awesome too dude good work i have nothing bad to say bass sounds are great and everything fits nicely. i would maybe take off the hat layered on the kick(?) on the buildup it sounded odd to me. but this is good shit, definately one of the best wips ive heard on here yet cant wait til its finished. 'exocite' is bomb too awesome stuff *edit* i just checked your soundcloud and it says your from kelowna! im also from kelowna , but am living in vancouver right now



i tried making a dnb track yesterday, its starting out alright but i want it to have a better bassline and more impact on the drop. also the into melody sounds corny as shit to me dunnowhy and im not sure if the levels are okay im producing with shit headphones and still learning. criticism is appreciated. if you want to listen to the one in my sig or comment on soundcloud that would be great too

Soundcloud

[Fbac]

safe all ^^ , percussion seems to be the main thing il be looking at during the structuring.

@kidstrange: liking your edits, and how the sound leading into the drop tails off into the drop. pretty good.
@tomi: liked your percussion and all natural sounds you got in there, wasnt a fan of the woblead , seemeed to be set to too fast a rate, but i could imagine enjoying it if i was off my nut n chillin by a speaker.
@Frausch: haha, no worries, always interesting how dead prez hiphop can always be applied.
@nibzdub:Tune! ive been coming bk to this since last night, goes well with painkillers lol, i really dig the vibe, not digging the fuzz at 1:40, was that SC or a buzz synth? but do like it on the second drop with that hi synth line. nice tune.
@bledbox: Sounding big, good production, tight snare! thick wobble nice work, not keen on the rate style of the track but your production is sick, really thick properly mixed elements. quality work.

[MexicanKangaroo]

@Dreadfunk: sounds proper mate, really top notch. Can't really point out any flaws, build up is perfect imo... maybe a switch up at 2:13? structure and flow is really happening, just could have a tad of variation (not that it's repititive or anything, just could do with a bit more)

@fds: The intro sounds fine to me, the pad you've got going sounds great, almost justice like.. The melody chucked in there also sounds fine... the pitch bends are godly. Maybe repeat the section where it starts to 0:56? In general - buildup is fine. Drop the db a bit before the drop, might add some dynamic impact. One thing that really bugged me though was the snare... it's nowhere near as poppy/compressed as it should be. DnB sounds good with short and crisp snares. Layer some high end snares to your existing snare, eq the 200hz for the pop and raise the slightly highends to give it a bit more slap. It's sounding a bit muddy at the moment. Not a fan of the bass I suppose... but that's when opinion separates from critique. I reckon a really warpy reece would fit the tune... the wobble sounds a bit weak atm.
Buuut..... big ups on the tune mate. This has got some serious potential.

@The Human: first track is proper mate, buildup is flawless, loving the percs. The bass you've got going sounds sick, there's so much movement! Maybe a few breaks inbetween the bass could give it some variation? The whole track's sounding quite wide atm which isn't a bad thing, but a few mono elements could make the bass stand out even more. Big ups.

Here's my track... still really rough. Trying to get that really Noisia, warpy kind of reece (sorry for labelling this sound to him but just want everyone to be able to get where I'm coming from) and I'm clearly failing. I've gone through layers after layers, buses after buses, but it feels like I'm missing a certain plugin for it to 'happen'. It's not grainy enough yet. Any suggestions/methods for achieving this? Resampling techniques?
Soundcloud

[JVMA]

4Cysdub

Very good! Takes me back to old style dubstep before borgore came in with his stupid pig noise. Very good to see someone take a step back and still come out with something creditable. I could imagine a label like H.E.N.C.H signing this. The only thing I would change is the snare… use a snare that is more piercing with a longer reverb and maybe vary the drum sequence a bit (e.g. kick --- snare --- kick – kick – snare etc.). Other than that, I’m liking the rest of it!

valaB

Loved the first drop! Lots of bass but not too harsh. It gives it a very atmospheric feeling. Love how you incorporate the drop with the nice synth in the background. The second drop was fucking insane! Absolutely loved it coz it took me by surprise in a good way, you mixed up the different sounds in that drop perfectly! I love how you finish off with the sub LFO and then cut it off just for the synth to carry me to the end of the track. I gotta say you varied the drums up very well and used them effectively for the build up to the drop. I try my best to look to constructively criticise but I honestly can’t think of anything lol. Great job!

Mawsta

Like the intro! Especially how you eased in the synth just before the drop. What I would recommend is to vary up the speeds of the LFO earlier on as I got bored of the same note sequence quite early on. I liked the drums at the drop however, I wasn’t digging how the hit hat was introduced late on into the track… it might be that the hi hat sample that doesn’t match the track.

Anyway... here's mine. It's more of an experimental drumstep track as opposed to a heavy one. I'm looking for honesty here guys lol. I'm currently mastering it at the moment so the mix may not sound too great!

Soundcloud

[Nacklewicket]

RightOnTime27: wooooow them flutes(??) and incidentals..! that sub is totally tickling me, intensive!!! loving it..kick tad bit weak but sweet tune,good work. love the offbeat feeling on times with the percussion. like the vocal samples but bit to much input volume on the delay on them making u not hear what hes saying,

jakedubber - not really into this 'style' but the rhytmical patterns of ur bassline & energy of it got me on this one. snare sounds panned a bit to the right.. maybe make it mono?

thehuman - ur bass is totally clipping/distorting,LOVING them bongos,keep it up

dreadfunk - the melody seems i dunno abit cliche somehow,good work on the variation tho,kept me interested. has a different kind of more uplifting vibe to it but i like it

MexicanKangaraoo - ur onto the edge of what u want to achieve!! keep working on it just keep at it and ull eventually get there.. theres no magical pluing or button that will just fix it exactly the way u want. i liked the fast notes like up down up down gives a very nice sound.

JVMA - that constatly hitting rim seriously needs to go.. bring that snare in abit more its quite nonexistant now. didnt really like it sound is too rinsed for me..

[JVMA]

cheers! much appreciated! gna take away the rims (lol) and put in some hi hats and distort the snare a bit more.

[Dreadfunk]

@Dreadfunk: sounds proper mate, really top notch. Can't really point out any flaws, build up is perfect imo... maybe a switch up at 2:13? structure and flow is really happening, just could have a tad of variation (not that it's repititive or anything, just could do with a bit more)

Thanks, that's the kind of info I was looking for. It sounded like it could use some more variation to me, but I didn't know if my ears were just bored of hearing the same thing over and over. I'll work on some variation.

the melody seems i dunno abit cliche somehow,good work on the variation tho,kept me interested. has a different kind of more uplifting vibe to it but i like it

Which melody? Or in general?

-

[Nacklewicket]

dreadfunk - the one before the drop and same that comes in later on in the track

[hudson]

Hey, I've been working on this for a couple days and I figured I'd post it here for some feedback before I call it done, so yeah, much appreciated. Btw, where it ends probably won't be the end when it's done, I want to add something after that.
Soundcloud

[fds-]

mexicankangaroo @fds: The intro sounds fine to me, the pad you've got going sounds great, almost justice like.. The melody chucked in there also sounds fine... the pitch bends are godly. Maybe repeat the section where it starts to 0:56? In general - buildup is fine. Drop the db a bit before the drop, might add some dynamic impact. One thing that really bugged me though was the snare... it's nowhere near as poppy/compressed as it should be. DnB sounds good with short and crisp snares. Layer some high end snares to your existing snare, eq the 200hz for the pop and raise the slightly highends to give it a bit more slap. It's sounding a bit muddy at the moment. Not a fan of the bass I suppose... but that's when opinion separates from critique. I reckon a really warpy reece would fit the tune... the wobble sounds a bit weak atm.
Buuut..... big ups on the tune mate. This has got some serious potential.

thanks man, Il try working on the snare and possibly extend the intro, drop the levels a bit for impact, and change the bass up (i just quickly made the bass as sort of a guideline for the song and never ended up changing it lol) thanks for the suggestions and im glad the wips not complete shit

@mexicankangaroo - as for your track, i like the buildup or what little u had for one i could see it dropping in quite nicely when intro is completed. bass is interesting i would maybe switch up the drum pattern later on to give it a jumpy feel i think that would be cool. i have no idea how you would make the bass stronger it sounds like your getting close though. i cant tell if you have a sub under it because of shit speakers but maybe boost the eq on some of the sweet spots to make bring it out more?

@jvma - i like the sounds used but the rimshot could maybe be taken out at 1:30 and not brought back in for the next drop. maybe try fucking with the drums to get a more hype feel, and the snare could be stronger. maybe bring the bassline that you used for the last drop in on maybe the second drop instead?

[NICORISONE]

@hudson: Lovin that mate, nice and chilled, almost vintagy sounding!
@fds-: Diggin the drum & bass, seems like everything is a bit too warm though (hope that even makes sense)

For some reason I was having an issue with my pad at a few parts and it cuts out (trying to fix it)
Soundcloud

Just got Distance's Drunk Kit pack which is what I am using for this

[filthy_]

@jakedubber - suspenseful intro and the drop makes me think like were going to war and the bridge is phenomenal!

@thehuman - very relaxing (i chose the chilly one, btw) and very enlightening. unfortunately, im listening on laptop speakers so i am not getting the privlidge of hearing all the low end but from what im hearing its a really beautiful piece of music

@rightontime27 - this definitely brings me back to the days before i knew what filthy dubstep was. very moving.


i just started this early this morning. its pretty dirty so let me know what you think of it so far
Soundcloud

[Nacklewicket]

NICORISONE - sounds sweet. for me the clavs (?) got a bit too much after awhile..cant really give u any other feedback since it was so short

heres a old tune of mine..recently wiped my computer so alot of projects got lost..this got saved somehow.
recently got new headphones and noticed the mix was real shit,im not really keen on trying to finish this tune properly but i cant let go of the mixdown it just bugs me. really liked this tune before but now i dunno.
if someone feel they want to make a remix/rework/collab or whatever, or just make a better/different bassline for it - hit me up!
id much appreciate some feedback on the MIX mainly, since ive went kinda tone deaf on this one by spending way too much time with it.
have had real trouble especially with the snare so tips and tricks on how i could improve it all are very welcome.

Soundcloud
mp3 format fl wouldnt let me save to wav by reasons unknown???