give advice to a breaks producer moving to dubstep

amitai · Post by **amitai** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:39 pm

My friend is a breaks producer and he is going to make a dubstep tune for me. I don't produce so I told him, "just put drums where you're put bass, and bass where you'd put drums" and I gave him a couple of records to listen to. I feel like that doesn't quite help him. Producers -- any other tips?

one question he had for me, that I didn't understand: he said something about how normally you would compress the drums against the bass, but because in dubstep the bass is what's important, you shouldn't compress anything against it. His question was what should he compress the drums against? I had no idea what the heck he was talking about so I told him I'd figure out.

Thanks in advance!

-Dan

mamosa · Post by **mamosa** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:44 pm

simple advice if he is a good breaks producer is to shift his break snares a little, so they land a beat after, get a nice uncompressed sub to complement his bass, and leave room for things..

amitai · Post by **amitai** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:52 pm

Cool, I'll assume if I forward this to him he'll understand the terminology. Thanks a lot! Keep them coming.

slothrop · Post by **slothrop** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:25 am

Sorry to go philosophical, but suggest concentrating on writing a good tune first and worrying about fitting in with dubstep second. Far too many new producers and producers coming from other genres seem to write really really predictable tunes because they're paranoid that if they do something remotely original it "won't be dubstep."

So yeah, 140bpm with a heavy sub.

_boring · Post by **_boring** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:47 am

yea man heres the forumla for dubstep lol

-138-144 area tempo, the main swing or accent should ESSENTIALLY be on 3 but this is way open really
-SUB BASS
-keep true to the word DUB (not just as in reggae-styled but DUB production --ethos etc.)
-(this one is debatable and obscure and hard to pinpoint with words but good dustep should have this)a powerful vibe that keeps humanities positive progression in mind, musical influences disregarded in this statement

ill add on more my friend just got here.

but does anyone disagree?

setspeed · Post by **setspeed** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 3:21 am

i would say:

compression-wise, he's probably on about sidechaining. tell him to sack that off completely and if he's worried just high-pass his kick at about 100Hz (or a even bit higher). but also that in dubstep you don't really need a lot of impact in the kick so don't stress.

tell him also to think about just having one snare per bar, and just play around with where it should go. it's a lot more fun that way.

..and to forget most of the builds, kick rolls and cheesy lead lines that come witih breaks.

also that tunes don't need to be 6 minutes in dubstep!

junglist · Post by **junglist** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 3:50 am

138 - 142 BPM

1/16

4 beats to a bar

Kick on the 1st

Snare on the 3rd

Double up kicks and toms to fill space up in drum patterns

Bassline and pads are main focus (normally) drums are just their to back up the bass with rhythm.

Bass:
Sub Bass (40-60Hz)
Low (80-300Hz)
Mid (300-800Hz)
High (800+)

Dub Delay is your friend, as are square wave LFO's at 1/16 for making henching wobbles with distorted high end.

just a few of my opinions.

_boring · Post by **_boring** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 4:33 am

drums are often what makes dubstep tracks original, i dont believe they take a back seat at all, and when they do, the tune is usually a little.....yea

Sharmaji · Post by **Sharmaji** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 4:46 am

dubstep: space and syncopation.

nu-skool breaks: density and quantization.

jaybird · Post by **jaybird** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 5:18 am

come correct with a original fresh sound.. dun be afraid to push the limits, and be innovative.. its all about evolution of sound.. as soon as everyone starts to write the same tune, we are all doomed..

and FFS just call it dubstep... we dun need no sub genres.. no divide and conquer here...

manray · Post by **manray** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:05 am

Hahaha this thread is pure jokes. Why not actually try listening to some dubstep and then going from there?

All these formulas are waste.

deadly_habit · Post by **deadly_habit** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:57 pm

manray wrote:Hahaha this thread is pure jokes. Why not actually try listening to some dubstep and then going from there?

All these formulas are waste.

i agree

amitai · Post by **amitai** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 2:02 pm

manray wrote:Hahaha this thread is pure jokes. Why not actually try listening to some dubstep and then going from there?

That's too time-consuming!

incnic · Post by **incnic** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 2:19 pm

copy reso imo

amitai · Post by **amitai** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 2:28 pm

I thinking of just buying a bunch of Hyperdub records, scratching the names off and putting my friend's name on instead. What do you think?

robert axios · Post by **robert axios** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 5:26 pm

amitai wrote:I thinking of just buying a bunch of Hyperdub records, scratching the names off and putting my friend's name on instead. What do you think?

tell him to just remix j.. wait

that's me

fuck

amitai · Post by **amitai** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 5:29 pm

Robert Axios wrote:
amitai wrote:I thinking of just buying a bunch of Hyperdub records, scratching the names off and putting my friend's name on instead. What do you think?
tell him to just remix j.. wait

that's me

fuck

hahaha what's up robert. fyi this original post was not about you but about my neighbor.

_boring · Post by **_boring** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:41 pm

i think people can have personal forumlas to dubstep, there just isnt much of an over-riding forumla for everyone besides the tempo and subbass

abZ · Post by **abZ** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:55 pm

You really just need to give the guy a couple really good mixes. He will get the idea. I hate the fact everyone is saying "put the snare on 3". It doesn't seem like that long ago I stumbled apon dubstep and at the time that was clearly the exception not the rule. Now it's apparently the rule

Most of my tunes are half step. I feel like I myself am trapped into it sometimes but don't start a new producer out like that please. If that is what they want to do then fine. I can think of a few dubstep tunes that don't have much sub in the b-line too so I wouldn't say that it is a requirement. Like I say just give em a little history lesson and they can take it from there.

whineo · Post by **whineo** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 8:37 pm

manray wrote:Hahaha this thread is pure jokes. Why not actually try listening to some dubstep and then going from there?

All these formulas are waste.

QFT

give advice to a breaks producer moving to dubstep

give advice to a breaks producer moving to dubstep

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