Hi peeps, just a heads up on the whats going down over at kmag.co.uk. They got an awesome series started called the  “Science of Sampling”. They’re going to cover pretty much everything to do with sampling like “what is sampling?, analog samplers, digital samplers, the future of sampling etc”. If you know me at all you’ll know that I love my samplers! I have an E-mu 5000 ultra and an AKAI s3000XL (part of huge hardware library) that I absolutely will NOT part with!

To make the feature even more juicy there is going to be a massive competition to the tune of £500 worth of samples from soundstosample.com and a Brand spanking new Maschine from heavyweights Native Instruments! Gulp! I want one of these please!

It doesn’t end there peeps. Not in a long shot because there is also a Shogun music and Fenchurch Clothing Remix special competition here from the man of the moment Icicle. The tune is called “Time to Remember”.

Plus, tonnes of free samples to download from Mistabishi, Icicle, Stakka and David Carbone. We all love free samples! Bring it on I say!

I urge you to take a quick gander over there and check it out. To make things easier for you and me its written in plain easy to understand english and they’ve put in Youtube clips for examples. This article is a great introduction to sampling for beginners and there’s even something for more advanced headz. So get cracking with those Remixes! Enjoy

See you on the dancefloor

Dauntless

Well, I’m back but this isn’t gonna be that another latest drum n bass production wonder vst plugin article. That was last week! You can check it out here just in case you missed it. No, this one  is gonna be an article on the other programs I like to use to help me out in my daily drum n bass production superstar life! lol These are the little helpers (or not so big) that help you out in big ways. Lets get cracking then shall we?

CCleaner – This program is definitely a handy little ap available from here. I run this program every few days, maybe once a week then. Its great for making sure you’ve got maximum HHD space and keeping your registry bang up to scratch. Another really cool feature is the way it can uninstall difficult programs and yep, its free.

Winrar – This little program has been around for ages and definitely over took Winzip (in my opinion) for unzipping shit. When I learnt that you could right click and “extract here” my life was all good. Also the way you can extract different folders separately is awesome.

NFO Viewer – Awesome little app that comes in handy when you need to look at those .nfo that comes along with certain other files from the web. To be honest I don’t use it that much these days but I like the pretty pictures and effort that they put into the .nfo files. Oh by the way I use Notepad to open up the .nfo files.

Daemon Tools -  You need this app if you deal with ISO’s from the web because of its virtual drive feature. Just mount the .ISO in Daemon Tools and your computer will think the original is in the “drive”. Very handy indeed.

Microsoft Defrag – Yep, I said it, the big M word,  Microsoft. They actually did something right for once with this little app in XP. I run it every now and again and it just works. Defraging actually makes the computer run smoother and that’s a good thing cause music production takes it out of the old computer.

VLC player – Awesome program that nearly plays everything. There has been only one file that it couldn’t play, one. They’re always updating it too so that keeps on playing everything. This player is FREE!

Foobar2000 – One of the best audio players out there for the PC. Plays 24bit files or whatever you throw at it without skipping a beat. Real simple interface and dead small in size but best of all its totally free, love it!

Having a properly kitted out studio with all the latest vst plugins and hardware made for drum n bass production isn’t the entire picture. Making sure you have the right software to speed up the day to day chores is critical when it comes to improving your beats. Freeing up more time to get on with what’s important  “drum n bass production”.

See you on the dancefloor

Dauntless

P.S. When I was growing up I was a bit of a Hip Hop Electro funk rat. Running around the neighbourhood breakdancing with my fat laces in my Adidas shell toes listening to Run DMC and LL Cool J.  If you feel like reliving some of those memories check out my homies site coldcrush.com.au for some electrofunk madness.

Simon V Mastering Tutorial

Our favourite Santorin producer Simon V gives us some excellent drum n bass production tips on how he masters his tracks for commercial release. Simon kindly gives up audio snippets to download at various stages in the production so that we can hear hear the processes he applies and how they colour the sound. I love the before and after snippets of the tune, dramatic or what? Damn!

What I really love about the  tutorial is the way he breaks down all the different plugins he uses for drum n bass production and the audio snapshots are gold. Oh and like the way he includes a snapshot of the plugins at each stage is cool. The tutorial clearly shows that Simon loves his UAD plugins and I’d have to agree with him there, all the way to the bank on that one! Its also really clear that Simon knows his plugins in his Cubase folder really well. I mean the way he explains the Neve 88RS and what it can do is eye-opening. Even though I love the smell of new plugins I also encourage getting to know the plugins you already have first. The only problem with the tutorial is that some people wont have access to these plugins and he doesn’t offer up any alternatives! Doh! Oh well, I suppose we’re getting the skinny on how he works so if we keep that in mind we can forgive him for that oversight!

I think the tutorial is really clear and really well written for all levels of drum n bass production and so should appeal to all. I certainly got something out of it. (His use and explaination of certain UAD plugins was awesome!)

Well, enough of me gas bagging about it, go check it out here.

See you on the dancefloor.

P.S.  Catch DJ Chook from Luxembourg playing in Sydney on the 18th of December 2009 for the No Frills Xmas party!