Okay, over the last couple of months I’ve been formulating some cool new drum and bass production techniques and song writing techniques. Some haven’t worked as well as I wanted but some have proved to be “outstanding!” This one technique below is absolutely smashing my productivity meter through the roof!

SET A TIME LIMIT

Yep, I’ll say it again… “set a time limit”. This one killer technique has improved productivity a million% and I’ve written more stuff in the last month than I have all year!

Here’s the steps I go through:

1. 2 hour time limit. (yep, 2 hours is all you/I get! )

2. Find your samples, drums, bass, atmos, vocals, etc…

3. Fire up Ableton Live 8

4. Put down the atmos to get a vibe.

5. Work out the Bass line.

6. Drums go next.

7. Fx goes in about now.

8. Arrange the thing out to about 240 bars.

9. Freak out about the lack of time!

10. Allow 15 minutes for quick mixdown.

11. Done.

Now, before people freak out about the 2 hour time limit. DONT! Its only a time limit. I just made the damn thing up. It helps me work quickly. Which is the point. Also it ain’t going to be no Noisia, Current Value mega production standard tune. No, its just a technique to fire up the tune making juices and get some finished tracks under your belt!

Now, I don’t go back and do the tune when the 2 hours is up. I MOVE onto the next track. I’ll revisit the tune in a few days. This lets me be critical and judgmental later. Which is when you want to be, not when you’re trying to be creative!

So to sum every thing up.  SET A TIME LIMIT! I can’t say that enough. Oh and be really strict with it as well, no distractions, no emails, no Facebook etc. When 2 hours is up, your done! Put down the mouse. Take a break. Have a coffee. Go for a walk blah blah blah. You get the point.

Most importantly. Give it a whirl. See how you go. Even if you write a tune in 4 hours 19 minutes 34 secs you ain’t doing too badly are you?

Anyways, enough yacking from me.

If you have a bunch of questions about this technique or any others just write them below or shoot me an email.

Speak to you soon.

Dauntless

Yes, its true. I’ll admit it to you. When the Football World Cup is on I become a bit of sports nut but I think you relate to that. Problem is between work and football this means even less time for drum and bass production which is never a good thing. However, I have started a few things that are shaping up quite nicely indeed.

I’m in the process of selling my Mackie MCU Pro so I’ve had to set it up to show a few people that it works and so forth. Inadvertantly this means I’ve had to play around with it a bit and one thing let to another and so I got a bit inspired. Ableton Live 8 was more DAW of choice this time and once again it blew me away with how easy you can get things going quickly. Remember, I’m not using it in CLIP mode but ARRANGEMENT mode.

So what I learnt from listening back to some old projects in Ableton Live was:

1. I wasn’t focused on an idea. I had 2 or 3 or even 4 ideas in the tune.

2. I was running about 499 breaks on top with sound fx samples etc. Too much!

3. Some of the samples weren’t in the right pitch or key of the tune or

4. Some samples were just plain CRAP!

The good news was that with a few minutes of cleaning up, deleting and re-pitching I was all good. However, without a shadow of a doubt the most IMPORTANT thing when I was doing this was to find the ONE sample/riff that I was going to base my whole tune around. I can’t tell you how key this is to your song making. Find this one idea and everything falls into place. You know which break to choose, what effects to choose, what vocals will fit etc. So, if you find yourself doing that thing we all love which is drum & bass production over the next month think to yourself, “what’s the main idea?” and then go from there.

See you on the dancefloor.

Dauntless

P.S I really dig this post I made earlier on keeping your focus. Check it out here.

Howdy, well I know Its been a while since I’ve last spoke to you but I assure you that a lot has gone on! In and out of the studio! I suppose the most important bit of news to report to you is the addition of a new member to my studio family in the shape of a TC Powercore X8! This powered plugin dream box has been on the top of my “want” list for so long now that I almost can’t believe my eyes its in the studio! As you can see from the photos its a sexy all black beast which emits a techy blue light when its on. Very Cool INDEED!

What’s even sexier is the included plugins what come bundled with the Powercore (PoCo or short). 14 of them! YES, you heard that right, 14! I was in plugin heaven and the best news was that I had a further $500 squid to spend on plugins as well! Absolutely brilliant I say! Believe me when I say I felt like a kid in a candy store! However I won’t be going into full detail about the TC Powercore here. I’ll give you the full review in a few weeks. That way I can try some of the plugins out and give you an honest and informative review. So stay tuned!

Moving on then…

Well, it seems that everywhere I turn there is a drum n bass remix competition going on. First up you have the Sabre & Critical – One Hundred Teeth Remix Comp over at our good friends Kmag.com. Then you have the Panic Girl – Midnight Remix Comp over at ShadyBrain.net and then two competitions at Back 2 you . 1.  Breeze – We Can Rise Remix & 2. EZ Rollers – Crowd Rocker Remix. To round things up you have the Bachelors of Science – Lost inside Remix competition as well presented by IDJ and Horizons Music.

I love getting involved in Remix competitions because you get to see the individual audio samples of a certain tune and you can learn a lot from these bits. Its like peering into their minds a little and experiencing producing from their artistic point of view. I’ll be honest with you though. Even though I’ve downloaded quite a few Remix sample packs I’ve had ZERO success in finishing them. Yes, that’s right ZERO. I will now hang my head in shame for 5 minutes…

Okay, I had full intentions of finishing everyone of the remix tunes I started but somewhere along the way I lost focus. This happens quite frequently I have noticed but this time I’ll be prepared. I’ve discovered that If one doesn’t have a goal or a plan of attack you’re going to end up starting and never finishing anything. When attempting to finish a remix competition you need to set yourself some very specific goals, for instance:

1. What tempo?
2. What style? Jump up? Neuro? Liquid?
3. Another Genre perhaps? Dubstep? Trance?
4. How much of the original do you want to get in there?
5. Is there a certain sound you want to try? An Artist you want to emulate?
6. What bits of kit do you want to use?
7. … and so on and so…..

Questions like these will help you focus your goals and ideas together and hopefully assist you in finishing remixes and tunes in general. Fingers crossed!

Another big change to the studio or should I say Production flow is the use of Ableton Live. I’ve dabbled in Live for many years now but only ever so briefly and each time I walked away shaking my head in confusion! I’ve never quite “figured” Live out and how to “work” it into my Production method but thanks to Nymfo I have now. Thank you good Sir!

Live’s main strengths are obviously the way it handles loops on the fly and this is primarily how I use it. I use Live 8 to quickly audition all the loops I want to use in my tunes super quick so right now I mainly use it for layering breaks up fast. I use it in Sequencer View and lay out the tune as I go along applying EQ and Limiting as well but only moderately.

The whole Idea behind using Ableton Live 8 is to get the main ideas and loops of the song together and then export the tracks into Cubase 5 where I can go in really deep with EQ and Compression and Limiting etc. I’m still not 100% sure about Ableton Live’s summing engine but hey that’s just me. I know a tonne of producers out there getting great results JUST using Ableton Live but me, I know Cubase extremely well so I’m sticking with it for mixdowns, plus it still handles VST Plugins one million times better than Ableton Live does and this is hell important!

Another big change in the studio has been the plugin folder clean out! I’ve decided to clean out or should I say “limit” myself to only a handful of plugins again. I know I know this sound weird after just getting the PoCo but I’m going to treat those plugins like rewards.

So its probably going to be the Virus TI Snow (pictured at top of page), Spectrasonics Omnisphere, UAD Plugins and Sonnox plugins for now. Stay tuned for a VIRUS SAMPLEPACK coming soon! Also, I’ll be making a drum sample pack available to download for FREE soon as well. It won’t be massive or anything like that but I promise you it’ll be full of 100% brilliant drum hits and loops for you to use in your tunes. Perfect for adding weight and groove to your breaks.

Phew, thats a fair bit of writing then? I better get back in the studio I got a tonne of work to do!

See you on the dancefloor.

Dauntless

GRAB DRUM & BASS CONNECTIONS VOL.3 HERE

The kind people over at Loopmasters have released Vol.3 of the BHK Drum & Bass Connections series. This time Drum & Bass Connections Vol.3 – Essentials concentrates itself entirely on the ever so difficult Drum & Bass “drums” side of things.

So if you’ve ever suffered from some of these problems:

1. Weak or Thin drum breaks.
2. Drums that have no energy.
3. Crappy Drum hits.
4. Boring drum Breaks.
5. Spent hours looking for some usable breaks but been disappointed.
6. Spent hours looking for that something “extra” to toughen up your breaks and hits but with no luck.

Then look no more. Drum & Bass Connections Vol.3 is full of tough, punchy, ballsy breaks with a superb collection of drum hits to back up any of your own Drum Breaks that you might have lying around. Just this weekend alone Sci Phi and myself managed to get some of the drum breaks and hits into a tune we’re working on  and I also managed to use some of the breaks to help me get some new ideas rolling in Ableton. Yep that’s right, I’ve been getting into Ableton a lot more lately because I managed to find a suitable way to integrate Ableton into my workflow.

What Do You Get?

• 148 x Kicks
• 142 x Snares
• 105 x Hihats
• 25 x cymbals
• 40 x Percussions
• 31 x Ghost Snares
• 13 x Shakers
• 27 x Shuffles

Plus:

• 16 x Reason Redrum Kits
• 4 x Battery 3 Kits Each with 4 Combo drum Kits
• 14 x D’n'B Drumloops ( ACID WAV & Appleloops)
• 14 x Rex.2

Who Should You Use it?

Anybody who wants to produce tough gritty Drum & Bass with punchy weighty drum breaks that will destroy the dancefloor and work the crowd up into a frenzy! Drum & Bass Producers who make Neuro-funk, Techy rollers or Tech Step should NOT hesitate to get the pack but let’s not forget the Dubstep massive. This is perfect for the Dubstep lovers out there and the drum breaks/hits should find there way into some heavy tunes.

What I’m NOT So Crash Hot ABout?

Well, don’t get me wrong, I think Vol.3 is a really great pack but there are a few things I would like to have improved for Vol.4.

1. I think there should be more breaks. 14 Breaks is just not enough.
2. There is a lot of high content in the breaks around the 20hkz range and higher, which is too much.
3. A lot of the drum hits sound a bit “samey”.

Loopmasters Official Blurb:

BHK  provides a new exciting set of drum sounds and loops to add to your ever growing sample collection.

Essentials Volume 3 contains new loops layered drum hits all re-worked from Special Edition Volume 3 Dub Step , Rough Connection  Volume 3 and Special Edition Volume 2 DnB.

A cool collection of new 24 Bit  drum loops were also created specially for this pack.  The BHK loops are in Acid wav, Rex.2  and Apple Loops for drop and rock performance in any Daw. The drum hits are in both 16 Bit Wav & Aiff.  formats.

The pack contains a staggering 531 drum hits great for Drum and Bass, Dub Step  Break Beat, Hip Hop, and pretty much any electronic music style you which to create.

Native Instruments users will be pleased to know we have included 4 Battery 3 kits from Rough Connections Volume 3. Each Battery 3 Drum Kit has 4 usable Combo kits so your ready to start programing patterns directly after loading it  into your DAW. 16 ReDrum Kits are also included for Reason users.

BHK provides some really raw and layered drum hits so you can create your own new snares layers with ease. Each hit is pumped just enough so you can effect each sample without running into head room issues.

This flexible Industrial Strength drum pack has more then enough license free content to make Essentials Volume 3 your go to source for modern synthetic drums.

BHK Essentials Volume 3 has everything you need to create authentic sounding drum tracks and loops all in one pack.

Do yourself a favour and grab Loopmasters BHK Drum & Bass Rough Connections Vol. 3 and put an end to your weak thin breaks for good. You deserve phat driving punchy breaks and so do your fans on the dancefloor.

GRAB DRUM & BASS CONNECTIONS VOL.3 HERE

Dauntless

Loopmasters just keep on giving the good stuff when it comes to Drum n Bass Production with the latest addition to their Artist Series “Ray Keith Original Drum & Bass vol 1″. Original Drum & Bass Vol 1 was created by Drum n Bass Legend Ray Keith so you know the quality is going to be awesome. Check out some of the  FREE SAMPLES HERE.

From the Loopmasters website:

Ray Keith – DJ, Producer, Remixer, Record Label Head Honcho, Radio & TV Presenter and one of the orginal Drum & Bass pioneers, has been on the circuit for at over 15 years.  When he teamed up with Loopmasters for his first ever sample pack he was always going to produce some of the darkest samples and breaks on the planet – and this pack won’t disappoint!

After finding his niche within the Drum and Bass scene in the early 90s he managed to notch up two of the scenes most memorable releases of all time with ‘The Renegade Terrorist’ and ‘The Chopper’.  Ray is one versatile individual and certainly one of the ‘Godfathers of DnB’ and continues to push the boundaries of his productions and DJ sets to an ever increasing audience of appreciative fans!

Original Drum & Bass vol 1 features a huge collection of original inspiration from the Dread Recordings studio, featuring Tearing Breaks, Deep and Menacing subs, Rave Style FX and Haunting pads and melodies to inspire the darkest of breakbeats production elite. Whether you are making Tech Step, Liquid, Hardcore, Breakbeat or Dubstep – this collection reflects the history and roots of the scene which Ray helped create and shape, and brings it full tilt into the future with some fantastic inspirational beats and bass lines destined for future dance floor killers.

Within this awesome drum and bass sample collection you can expect to find over 375Mb of royalty free drum and bass samples including 150 Loops and 160+ single hit samples. The pack consists of 37 Future Funk Breaks, 45 Heavy Rotation Basslines, 46 Inspirational Music Loops, 39 Single Bass Drones, 41 Single Hit Vox and Hits, 60 Single Drum samples, and 20+ Musical Hits. The pack is also available in Apple Loop, Ableton Live and Reason Refill formats.

If you are a producer looking to explore the darker edge of the sonic realm, and want a collection of sounds that will inspire you from one of the worlds most prolific Djs and Producers, sample Original Drum & Bass vol 1 from Ray Keith and Dread Recordings.

For more information or royalty free samples check out the Loopmasters website here.

See you on the dancefloor.

Dauntless