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Hi, this is my first post on this forum (all though I have been reading through topics for the past few months, I have only now just took it upon myself to register) and I am in need of some very basic and stupid noob advice (which I know some of you will probably flame at me for). All though I have been learning to produce music for the past year I have just recently come to the conclusion that I would like to produce a dubstep track (don't worry I'm not going to ask you how I can sound like skrillex). Now my issue... I just cannot not matter how hard I try seem to get a good dubstep styled drum layout (loop?). I have everything In the right place! BPM set at 140.00 kicks and snares all aligned and in time, the ride just on but I cannot seem to get it to sound good, not even juicy! Is there something I am doing wrong? Am I layering it wrong? Or am I even going the whole wrong way about this? Am I even using the wrong samples? An example of one of my tracks is here:

Soundcloud

I hope some of you more experienced producers could shed some light into this never ending mind f**ck for me. Thanks a bunch!

your drum loop is decent already, I suggest routing all your drum elements (or most) to an empty channel then parallel compress that channel to create a beefier foundation, also try highpassing your kick around 50hz - 70hz and your snares at around 180-200hz (all a generalization, use your ears on how they compare to your entire mix). you can also normalize your sampled kick before it all but it appears your kick is already normalized.
Also add variations to your drum sequences, try resampling your finalized kick and reverse it. place it a beat(140bpm) or halfabeat(70bpm) before your desired kick to create a whiplash feel to them (I usually place one before then next sequence or before the 2nd half of the sequence, but that's basic), you can also apply this trick to many other elements in your drum sequence to create some interesting rhythms, don't be afraid to experiment with fx plugins too on your hihats and rides

im guilty of a bit of poor mix practice for my drums, i eq, then compress and limit the fuck out of them to get them sounding punchy, not what the pros would tell you to do, but it works for me.

kristianbowler wrote: I have everything In the right place! BPM set at 140.00 kicks and snares all aligned and in time, the ride just on but I cannot seem to get it to sound good, not even juicy! Is there something I am doing wrong? Am I layering it wrong? Or am I even going the whole wrong way about this? Am I even using the wrong samples?

Sorry, can't hear on mobile but I just wanted to say:
Try putting stuff in the 'wrong' place!

Seriously. Take off that grid snap and start shifting stuff around. There's no right or wrong places.

Some light compression would help, as would some slight reverb on your snare (separate channel, aka a return).

On your kick, for example, throw a compressor on and make the attack like 8ms, release 20ms, ratio 2, slowly bring threshold down until you hear the first part of the kick sound sort of "pops" more and is louder.

+1 to parallel compression.

Also, try putting a touch of overdrive on your snares, it will give em a lot more punch.

Other than that, EQ EQ EQ and more EQ!

From one noob to another I've taken macc's advice on the gain structure thread to heart. Just started using it in a new track that I started and it makes a huge difference it really cleared a lot of things up for me and gave my drums a lot more punch and presence.

thats actually not bad, you got a good knowledge of arrangment, and the vocals were actually in time! Most new producers (including me when i was first starting) can never get accapellas in sync, i say read as much as you can in the mixing and mastering thread (worry abotu mixing first though) IMO the mix makes 50% of the song.

I'm not in a proper listening device so I may be wrong but:
- Your kick feels kinda strange but can't tell you exactly why with this speakers (bad sample? some effect you added?).
- Your snare and hats sound too dry. Reverb or short delay them (don't overdo it). If it makes the mix too muddy on the low end, do the reverb as a send effect (or paralel reverb or whatever you call it) and add an high pass to take out the mud.

your kick is fine but needs more careful boosting in the low end and a bit of cutting in the low mid (a certain part of your kick sounds like a beach ball being hit so cut somewhere in the mid zone). your snare definately needs a cut in the 500hz area and boosting in at 200hz for more of a harder hit. that and compression with transient shaping, or just use more of the ADSR to shape the volume of when the snare cuts out
also send your drums together at the end to a buss and compress/saturate further to add more impact and to gel the drums together more. light bits of distortion will help too.
its all good though & thats pretty good for someone who hasnt been producing long!

Your beat should sound interesting by itself, try setting a high swing on the quatization and play around with percussion triplets such as weaker hats / ride hits, shakers, anything actually. To add more groove, mess around with the velocities. A human playing with his right hand naturally tends to hit the drums or cymbals harder when he's playing them on top of a right feet hit, then the strength decreases in a sinewaveish pattern. The left hand will always hit lighter than the right one. That and follow the mix tips on this thread

Hircine wrote: The left hand will always hit lighter than the right one. That and follow the mix tips on this thread

Not if your left handed