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It's true that there is A LOT of wobble-halfstep tuneage out there ! In mixes, radio sets, etc.

All these wobble-halfstep tunes, to me, are starting to sound the same because... the producers seem to be sharing the same production techniques

So I think that we, the producers of the dubstep forum as the Avant-garde of dubstep ( ^_^ ) need to innovate and go beyond the wobble, find other ways, more creative ways to make our basslines come alive !

What lies beyond the wobble ???

Let's share tips / techniques on how to make our basslines more interesting ( without making them wobbling )

Time Stretchhhhhhhhhhhhh ....... with delay

i'm gonna try timestretching tomorrow

I was trying using low pads over sub bass - if there's enough character in the original sample it does add a spacy atmospheric to the sound. Low pass sub, high pass pad above the kick and it gels quite well.

Another thing I tried years ago to limited success was to take a vocal sample and pitch it down and then distort and lowpass until you come up with a usable bassline - goes quite well if done right and does add that wierd time/pitch slip effect that'll fuck up the caners. Funnily enough I found the tune that I was trying that out on and it seemed to sound ok. Must try and get it finished (along with the others).

I don't think wobble bass in itself is a bad thing, I think it's just that it's now become a cliche the way that it's used - one/two note basslines with lfo oooh and maybe some controller to lfo speed - been done to death guys, get a new idea.

I think that riddims need a lot more work, the pedestrian nature of most halfstep rhythm work is getting fucking tedious. Not saying that we should start putting breaks into every tune, but there's more ways to carve up a bar. I'd like to see more dancehall styles coming through rather than this perpetual boom bap horseshit that passes for drum tracks these days.

microtonal tunings?

constant glissando a la florian hecker?

silent bass?

ring-modulated bass?

pre-cambrian temple bass?

scat bass?

atlantean plumbing bass?

deckchair bass?

y' know.

infra sound

a physical experience lol

Only a couple of dubstep tracks i like that pull it off well. Never really jumped on that style.

dunno if having a commitee meeting is the best way to decide on individual inovation.

experiment.

narcossist wrote:dunno if having a commitee meeting is the best way to decide on individual inovation.

experiment.

lol... totally... the first and last bits of the post seem to kinda contradict eachother...
but anyway, I've been mucking 'round with binaural beats and brainwave entrainment, as well as what I like to call "uberglitch dub" (*basically* running the same bassline "regularly" and using various glitchy/sound-chopping filters with the same bassline, on a different channel... it's important that the two don't harmonize too much, unlike most other dubstep/grime... hard to explain... maybe one day I'll actually master/release something!)

But look into binaural beats and entrainment if you really want your choonz to "get" people!

correct me if i'm wrong but isn't binaural recording all about finding the perfect acoustic position in a live room and recording the entire piece in one take via a microphonme or two? that recording is then finished, ie nothing is to be added later. If so how do you apply that to beats?

Not being sarcastic, genuinely inetersted.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats

Looks quite interesting, had a quick flick through. Wasn't there something clever with the reese bass that where you had two frequencies slightly apart it created a lower frequency due to beating. Not quite the same thing here, but worth a read I reckon.

By the way, I don't necessarily think that this is the best place to determine the "sounds of the future", but the more variety we get in our musical diet the better as far as I'm concerned - doesn't hurt to come up with some more suggestions to spice things up a bit.

Shonky wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats

Looks quite interesting, had a quick flick through. Wasn't there something clever with the reese bass that where you had two frequencies slightly apart it created a lower frequency due to beating. Not quite the same thing here, but worth a read I reckon.

so is this basically what your going when you set two waveforms an equal amount of cents apart (+ and -) from each other on a synth?

fubar wrote:

Shonky wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats

Looks quite interesting, had a quick flick through. Wasn't there something clever with the reese bass that where you had two frequencies slightly apart it created a lower frequency due to beating. Not quite the same thing here, but worth a read I reckon.

so is this basically what your going when you set two waveforms an equal amount of cents apart (+ and -) from each other on a synth?

Sounds like it - article looks a bit like reece/reese with chakra adjustment, so might work for trance basslines lol

are you talking about detuning reeces

its a cool trick but concord dawn has been doing it since their first release i reckon

The reece may have been done to death, I don't know I've heard rumours.

i understand its enjoying a healthy rebirth in eastern european polka circles

Sounds amazing on accordion too

more bass
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shonky wrote:I think that riddims need a lot more work, the pedestrian nature of most halfstep rhythm work is getting fucking tedious. Not saying that we should start putting breaks into every tune, but there's more ways to carve up a bar. I'd like to see more dancehall styles coming through rather than this perpetual boom bap horseshit that passes for drum tracks these days.

yeah bring on the dancehall/ragga influence !

^ Bloody oath!

Anyway, I guess the wiki article sums up binaural beats (not necessarily beats, I dunno how it got that name) pretty well, but I'll give you a brief rundown anyhoo...
basically you set your left and right freqs slightly apart, and your brain sets up the "balancing" frequency (difference of the L&R freqs) as a hum itself... hippies and scientists (or maybe scientific hippies ) reckon that the compensatory freq in your brain can actually lead you to particular mental states...
eg. L=58hz and R=50hz ~brain creates a 8hz (Alpha) freq

I'll give you a quick list of what the "entrainment" frequencies supposedly are...

Delta Waves ( below 3.5 hz )
This is the frequency range associated with deep sleep. People do not dream when they are in Delta sleep.

Theta Waves ( 3.5 hz to 7.0 hz )
This is the frequency range associated with a hypnotic, deeply relaxed states of consciousness. Lucid Dreams are more prone to occur in theta. The mind is in a twilight state and is prone to free association resulting in amazing mental images. Many PSI phenomenon are noted to occur in theta such as remote viewing, out of body experiences, and astral projection.

Alpha Waves ( 7.0 hz to 13.0 hz )
In Alpha, we are awake, but relaxed. Alpha is sometimes described as the 'daydream' state as most daydream activity occurs in persons while in alpha. There are many reports suggesting relationships between people with Fibromyalgia, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, ADD, AD/HD, and other maladies, that may suffer from excessive Alpha with little Beta activity during the normal waking day.

Beta Waves ( 13.0 hz to 40.0 hz )
Beta is associated with the fully awake, fully focused mind. High beta without alpha is associated with stress, anxiety, high blood pressure, and similar issues.

Typically, it's suggested that it will only work properly thru headphones or on a perfectly balanced stereo/quad system, with the listener perfectly in the middle, but I reckon with the size of some of the systems/speaker arrays I've stood/danced in front of, any other interference should be eliminated so that the binaural/entrainment frequency should come thru nice and strong, anyway...

There are also vsts (or you can make your own sounds/freqs) which allow you to set up an almost inaudible (or as loud as you want) buzz/hum which *theoretically* should cause the same mental states I listed before, just through prolonged exposure...

I don't claim to know everything about this by a long shot, but I've been fiddling, and have noticed a difference, and had others mention differences when I've mastered the same track with and without binaural beats or entrainment frequencies. I've also been told that it's extremely irresponsible etc etc etc to expose people to entrainment frequencies while they're on drugs/without their consent, but that's a whole 'nother story!


anyway, sorry to drag this offtopic so much... back to BUZZINESS!