Dubstepforum.com

Hey guys,

I'm currently designing a bass guitar that can be used for creating live dubstep on the fly with loads of features included within dubstep, along with being played like a normal bass guitar.

How many of you would be interested in this kind of product?

Cheers,
Harris

I'd run it in Maschine (or something similar) and send it out to a mixer with a couple reverbs and delays on sends.

Also, everyone knows the only way to preform dubstep live is with Ableton. Anything else takes away too much time from dancing/looking cool.

dubstep isn't made live
wanking on a tricked out bass guitar atop a generic halfstep drum loop at 140 doesn't make dubstep
if you're going to play music live, play music live.

i would not be interested in this stupid product.

Today wrote:dubstep isn't made live

Why not?

Today wrote: wanking on a tricked out bass guitar atop a generic halfstep drum loop at 140 doesn't make dubstep
if you're going to play music live, play music live.

i would not be interested in this stupid product.

Ditto.

Today wrote:dubstep isn't made live

Troof? http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gv3bW1XjMo

Not the best example, but he has been known to tour with a live band.

If I were going to perform dubstep live, I'd make the backbone of the track beforehand, then have a bunch of samplers on stage so I could trigger all kinds of effects and different sounds, maybe control some effects and sends as well. Then I would have a a few synthesizers for improvising over the background track, or an electric guitar. I actually think that live performance in electronic music will get bigger in the future since there seems to be a crowd of people who like the sound of EDM but are turned off by the fact that it often doesn't involve live performance other than DJing.

i just had a clouded moment of thinking it was important to preserve the meaning of the word d**step

It's not important. not that i think live/electronic hybridized music is inherently bad. It's just like... in the same way dub was about studio technicians creating dubplates to be played on a system... dubstep was about plates being played by DJ's in a set.
you don't often hear of anyone playing live house or garage... the idea just doesn't hold water on its own. It either sucks or it turns into something way different than just "house" beats


but it seriously drains from the ethos of the whole scene to expect an entire set of music to hold the interest of the audience when it's made from one person's live kit. We got into electronic music as sets of music drawing from the recorded work of various artists with different gear and different approaches.

What's the point of triggering SFX and wobz over a drum loop live to try and captivate an audience... it just ends up a thousand times more just noodling about rather tha creating a coherent musical passage. That's why people hone their skills in the studio, cut and master a tune and play it on the decks.

wanking off to drum loops will never hold a candle to a solid set with a bag full of tunes that actually been finished


imo if you're gonna play steppa music live, you need a drummer and a bass player who would not rely on any new instrument or gear whatsoever, because they just play dank riddims since they're good musicians. All this crossover shit is just gimmicky garbage imo

failing that, destroid-style filth-axes or gtfo

Add9 wrote:I actually think that live performance in electronic music will get bigger in the future since there seems to be a crowd of people who like the sound of EDM but are turned off by the fact that it often doesn't involve live performance other than DJing.

I think you're absolutely right. I've heard people say before that "electronic musicians have no talent". They think rapping or playing rock music is much more "legitimate". What they don't realize is that we're not doing this so that other people can look at us and be "impressed" by our "skills". We're doing this because we like dubstep music more than rock and rap. It's that simple.

@Today: Well it should be good, no doubt. But you assume it can't be as good as a DJ spinning pre-produced records. I think it's possible. I've seen many live PAs of different sorts that were just as captivating as someone playing records. The best live PA I've ever seen is easily the Crystal Method. It was absolutely insane actually. I was wary because, as you point out, there are plenty of shitty live PAs, but it was probably in the top 10 live acts I've seen of any kind.

The whole dub and dubstep plate culture (as you put it) is fascinating, immortally cool and worth preserving. I'm certainly can dig on it. But I don't see that as any reason not to encourage people to evolve those ideas.

seen.... i think i've been turned off to the idea from witnessing some really piss poor performances at some local bar.

Surely artists as professional as the Crystal Method are not going to even attempt it until they've perfected their entire production, though, even if there is improvisation. they really know what they're doing.

What puts me off is exactly what's been pointed out -- that people assume something's more worthy of their attention simply because someone's pushing the buttons live, rather than spinning their finished tracks. All I care about in the end is what it sounds like.

also being really enthusiastic about real drums and guitar music, I tend to just want to hear those sounds when it's being played live. I guess I'm a purist in some regards.

like anything else in music it comes down to taste and execution. bad taste and mediocre execution makes for a not-very-good live set.

dismissing the idea outright, though, is just as ill-informed.

Today wrote:seen.... i think i've been turned off to the idea from witnessing some really piss poor performances at some local bar.

Surely artists as professional as the Crystal Method are not going to even attempt it until they've perfected their entire production, though, even if there is improvisation. they really know what they're doing.

What puts me off is exactly what's been pointed out -- that people assume something's more worthy of their attention simply because someone's pushing the buttons live, rather than spinning their finished tracks. All I care about in the end is what it sounds like.

also being really enthusiastic about real drums and guitar music, I tend to just want to hear those sounds when it's being played live. I guess I'm a purist in some regards.

I see where you are coming from. The whole "controllerism" thing is a bit out of hand in it's mediocrity in my mind as well. I see a lot of guys using controllers, launching clips, etc etc and they aren't even pulling off what sounds like an effective mix down with two turn tables, a mixer and a crate of vinyls.

I once saw a live PA by some techno duo (I doubt anyone has heard of them, but I won't name them anyway). It was quite literally the same bare kick drum and hi hat patterns being muted and unmuted for 45 minutes with some guy playing a few notes of what must have been preset synth patches on some a couple keyboards.

dubunked wrote:

Add9 wrote:I actually think that live performance in electronic music will get bigger in the future since there seems to be a crowd of people who like the sound of EDM but are turned off by the fact that it often doesn't involve live performance other than DJing.

I think you're absolutely right. I've heard people say before that "electronic musicians have no talent". They think rapping or playing rock music is much more "legitimate". What they don't realize is that we're not doing this so that other people can look at us and be "impressed" by our "skills". We're doing this because we like dubstep music more than rock and rap. It's that simple.

I always find it funny when people say "making [insert genre of electronic music] is easy, anyone can just make a beat on their laptop." That's like saying playing guitar is easy cause anyone can pluck a string. The fact is that it's impossible to construct a logical argument claiming that electronic music isn't legitimate music. People love to make vague, sweeping, inaccurate generalizations about genres of music they've never bothered to listen to or understand, because it's much easier to cling to a long-held ideology and just dismiss something than it is to actually confront it and consider the possibility that it might be worthwhile.

what bothers me is that some people I've talked to think that the only reason you'd make electronic music is to impress people. like I don't make dubstep so that people will look at me and be like "oh wow he's so talented". No, I do it cause I love dubstep music, assholes.

Bunch oh ipads, midi keyboards, synths patched into abelton to sample/loop live and a ship ton of midi controllers just like EOTO does.

I think Engine Earz have done it best a few years back, I'd def pay to see that again. Liked the stuff they did with Foreign Beggars but not really into their 'harder' sound personally. Prefer the percussion driven tracks with sitars and singing.
Shame they aren't more well known

Today wrote:dubstep isn't made live
wanking on a tricked out bass guitar atop a generic halfstep drum loop at 140 doesn't make dubstep
if you're going to play music live, play music live.

i would not be interested in this stupid product.

Thanks for the feedback! Any reason why having a real drummer, bassist and other instrumentalists doesn't mean live music? As with some of the other posts said here, I agree that the general public would be more inclined to listening to dubstep if it had a live element to it!

Add9 wrote:If I were going to perform dubstep live, I'd make the backbone of the track beforehand, then have a bunch of samplers on stage so I could trigger all kinds of effects and different sounds, maybe control some effects and sends as well. Then I would have a a few synthesizers for improvising over the background track, or an electric guitar. I actually think that live performance in electronic music will get bigger in the future since there seems to be a crowd of people who like the sound of EDM but are turned off by the fact that it often doesn't involve live performance other than DJing.

I agree completely with this! I don't know if anyone here has heard of the band pinn panelle but they write their tracks by first pre-arranging them then trying them out live, they did a cover of a few popular tracks live and its surprisingly good!

Today wrote:failing that, destroid-style filth-axes or gtfo

Destroid are absolutely sick! I'd love to see them! Even with their mass amount of equipment, atleast seeing them play instruments on stage is really cool.

Sharmaji wrote:like anything else in music it comes down to taste and execution. bad taste and mediocre execution makes for a not-very-good live set.

dismissing the idea outright, though, is just as ill-informed.

I completely agree here, this does generally apply to any genre, any fool can throw a few pentatonic lines together and call it a track! What makes a good track though is experience, time and general creative thinking along with trying out new things etc.

blinx wrote:Bunch oh ipads, midi keyboards, synths patched into abelton to sample/loop live and a ship ton of midi controllers just like EOTO does.

That looks like it would be really cool to go and watch, i've found out about so many more live dubstep bands than I originally knew!

wormcode wrote:I think Engine Earz have done it best a few years back, I'd def pay to see that again. Liked the stuff they did with Foreign Beggars but not really into their 'harder' sound personally. Prefer the percussion driven tracks with sitars and singing.
Shame they aren't more well known

Engine Earz are proper sweet, they do a really good job on integrating trad sounds into electronic music, along with all looking the part too!

Cheers for all the feedback guys, its really useful