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, by now you should know  I’m really into “BACKING UP” my shit… er I meant tunes. Nothing is worse then a HDD crash and losing all your new/old tunes you’ve been working on for months or if you’re like me YEARS!

Well, to add to all this there’s nothing worse then losing all your memories like say your WEDDING PHOTOS and honeymoon etc. This was the current situation I was in and I was not loving it one single minute!

Anyway, I know your busy so I’ll slim this down somewhat. I did manage to get the external to work again and I did manage to get all the photos and videos to a safe place.

Phew. My life SAVED!

Well my bollocks anyways….

Time To Get A New External Hard Drive

First off, I wasn’t going to get another Seagate 1TB external again. The one I just lost was only 6 months old. I also did some snooping about on the web and found out their logic processors are pretty crap and are well known for dying after a few months!

The next EXT HDD I wanted to try was the WD 1TB Elements. I normally stay away from WD drives but the price was too tempting. Just $95 bucks from Officeworks Superstores Sydney and a short walk from the house!

First impressions of the drive was pretty bad. I had trouble transferring big files and multiple files onto the WD but to be fair there was a lot! Time after time the transfer would fail and the data would become lost!
I couldn’t live with this drive so it was off to PLAN B!

Okay, next purchase was the LACIE EXT HDD by Neil Poulton 1TB. I had never owned a Lacie drive before and like most other drives around I’ve heard good and bad things about them. Oh well, that was before and this is now and today, I was willing to give the Lacie ago.

The thing I that Immediately liked about the Lacie was it had a power switch on the back.
Wicked!

I don’t need my EXT HDD on all the time and this small switch was something I’d been missing for years.

As you can see the unit is all black and looks like a Lego brick. Enuff said.

*** BTW sorry about the crap photos. I took them with my Iphone at night! My Mrs had the good camera. I know you understand***
How does it perform?
Incredibly well. So far. I’ve been hammering it over the last few weeks and haven’t had a problem with the unit at all. I’m still loving the power switch and the Lacie looks great sitting on the desktop next to the speakers!

Now, there is a 2TB version of this model but I chose not to give that a go. However, it just might be a total win. Let us know if you have one.
Anyways, if you’re keen to check the Lacie out click Here.

See you on the dancefloor.

Peace out

Dauntless

The Loopmasters Ray Keith Sample CD Challenge

Here’s the story: I’ve had a couple of weeks to test out the Loopmasters Ray Keith Drum & Bass Vol.1 Sample Pack and you know what? It’s KILLER!

This time around I didn’t just want to add the samples to my existing tunes to check them out, I wanted a new challenge.

If I could get a track or two up and running using JUST the samples from the Ray Keith Sample Pack I could work out the depth of the pack and its ability to smash up the DANCE FLOOR!

==>>GRAB RAY KEITH ORIGINAL DRUM & BASS  VOL.1 HERE<<==

The Evil Plan Is Hatched!

The quickest,easiest and nastiest way to check out how phat Loopmasters Ray Keith was, is to use Ableton Live 8. As you may be aware I’ve been using Live 8 more and more and more for this type of thing because its a perfect fit. I fired up Ableton Live,  set the BPM to 172 and BOOM away I went.

The Bass

First stop was the BASS. I normally start with drums but I’ve found that if I start with a  music element first I don’t get bogged down so much with the technical mumbo jumbo of building beats.

Well, how was the Bass then? All 100% quality. There is quite a wide selection of Bass Loops so if you’re after something gritty or smooth or dark or jungle sounding or what ever Ray got you fully covered. There is also a nice selection of Bass one shots for all you peeps out there that want to get down and write your own b-line, in the future I’ll be using one of those sounds but for now I just wanted to get up and running. I quickly selected a bass loop that had a nice steppy riff to it and moved on the beats.

The Beats

I won’t lie to you. The beats in Loopmasters Ray Keith are awesome! Once again you get wide selection of loops to choose from and every one of them has a vibe and sonic flavour. The only downside here was not enough Percussion loops to my liking but hey nothings perfect right?  Whilst i had the Bassline rolling I was able to audition a few drum loops. It was a hard choice but I managed to pick a drum loop that had a nice shuffle rhythm to it that worked with the bass line.

The single  drum shots are all gold. You get solid Kicks, Snares and Hats to play with. Whilst the numbers may be small the quality more then makes up for it.

What does this mean for you?  Your beats should never sound weak on the dance floor again!

The Rest…

Continuing on I moved onto the more musical side of things, like Pads, Atmos, Blips and then FX sounds. Here, the same thing again. A fine selection of loops to choose from in a variety of styles but I really could have  done with more FX sounds like swooshes and risers etc I know from experience people on the dance love these sounds. The FX sounds that are there, are 100% Classic Ray Keith sounds so if your after instant Jungle badness (who doesn’t?) you’re sorted.

And Finally…

Listen, I think  the Loopmasters Ray Keith Original Drum & Bass Vol.1 Sample Pack is a definite must have in your studio. You can use the loops to phatten up your own breaks, bass, fx or whatever or you can use the loops to help kick start your creative juices. Once you got a tune up and running you can pull the loop out and go from there. Click the link below to grab your copy of Loopmasters Ray Keith today.

==>>GRAB LOOPMASTERS RAY KEITH ORIGINAL DRUM & BASS  VOL.1 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