Drum and Bass Sounds

Yibn · Post by **Yibn** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 7:33 am

I was wondering how to create those agressive drum and bass synths that are common, to well, drum and bass.

REwire · Post by **REwire** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 7:50 am

Yibn wrote:I was wondering how to create those agressive drum and bass synths that are common, to well, drum and bass.

When I picked up an Electribe EMX-1 I finally heard every sub pulsing bass, hard synth and lead I've been hearing the last couple years on DnB tunes the type that get streamed on Bassdrive.

For Loops, the EMX is just OK. Get a loop CD like "Total Drum n Bass", or "Koncept and Funktion" CD-ROM (which has synth samples too) or go on the net and download everything you can find. Also, I listen for isolated loops in DnB tunes on CD or I capture from steams and clip them for myself. I've got 100's so far. Most DnB tunes start with a plain beat.

Make sure you can break loops up and trigger each beat separately to make chaos and also need to sweep those filters (Highpass to Low) on the synths and create filter pulses for throbbing effects.

Now go get 'em.

Dan

XZit · Post by **XZit** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 8:41 am

Emx is excellent for dnb loops if you know how to use it/make (and take your time) good drum sounds.
Elthough I feel that you'd need an external synth for basslines and stuff...but dnb is so wide in terms of its sub generes--you need to figure out what type of dnb your making.

Light? Or hard? Thats essentially what it comes down to.
I mean in the light arena you have jazzstep, fusion dnb, atmospheric dnb, jazzy dnb, all sorts of stuff.
In the Dark arena you have dark step, hard step, hardcore, all sorts of stuff.

In general my advice is this:

Start with a 175-180 bpm tempo.

Use a drum kit that includes AT LEAST the following

- Two Kicks... One bassier and one lighter
- Three snares... whichever you choose
- One or two random percussive sounds... like rim shots or electro stabs
- Three hats
pz

Altitude · Post by **Altitude** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 12:47 pm

If your talking about those "reese" bass (the whaaa whaa) sounds, its usually not just a synth. Most of the time, its a synth driven through alot of effects and then resampled

XZit · Post by **XZit** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 8:25 pm

Altitude wrote:If your talking about those "reese" bass (the whaaa whaa) sounds, its usually not just a synth. Most of the time, its a synth driven through alot of effects and then resampled

Totally true.

Keep in mind that a lot of dnb producers aren't really "producers" of music, they are more of "samplers" a lot of them do simple things like cutting and pasting dnb samples ontop of eachother-in a sense its almost just like being a drum and bass dj, your just sampling sounds and cutting and pasting them in hardware.
Making dnb live/live pa style is quite diffucult--but once you get the standard known basslines down its no biggy at all.

pz

Bitexion · Post by **Bitexion** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 11:24 pm

The first Drum'n'bass producers were not drummers who recorded all that stuff into a rythm machine pattern. They took samples from sample CD's and cut and sliced them, just like they did with synths recorded to tape in the 70's. And actually what they are still doing when they edit together a movie.

Yibn · Post by **Yibn** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 6:01 pm

I'll get some examples of what sounds i am talking about

XZit · Post by **XZit** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 8:02 pm

Orginal Dnb typically came from old school hiphop beats/ragga (jamican style rap) beats all cut and spliced, and sped up togheter to get you the first jungle tracks.
Also don't forget the "amen" solo that was done--and this was utilized a grip load to produce new and orginal sounds.

ronmcdonald · Post by **ronmcdonald** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:17 am

Get an Access Virus. Those things sound like h**l. Horrendously fat. Most of the presets are Andy C all the way.

XZit · Post by **XZit** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:13 am

ya that new access virus ti is insane--get dat shiz if you have the $-I sure as h**l would. Phat sound most defintly--very dark sounding-good for darker dnb, light dnb-I guess it could do the same. :p

To bad its pricey as h**l

pz

Post by **Stab Frenzy** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:19 am

The Evolver is awesome for massive Dubstep style D&B basslines.

Drum and Bass Sounds

Re: Drum and Bass Sounds