Well, its been a while since the last drum and bass production tip. What’s been happening? Well, a colab with Fuj which is turning out pretty nice is nearly complete and some of my own stuff is starting to get there as well. 🙂
The biggest difference to my production has been the purchase of my Sennheiser HD650 headphones. As you know, I ain’t in no flashy studio so I’m a victim of room acoustics like most bedroom producers out there.(the Ultracurve can only do so much)
Working on headphones is a good way of dealing with a bad room. Sure its harder to gauge reverb and pan positions on headphones but I can live with that because of the level of detail you get whilst working on your cans. So I spend maybe 50-60% on the cans these days.
The headphones feel and look professional and the detail and clarity is pretty damn good as well. Mixes (besides pan and reverb etc) translate really well.
Anyways… Sennheiser HD650 Headphones=WIN!
What else have I been up to? Well, (besides boring work) I’ve just been busy building up my drum hits like snares and kicks and shaker loops etc. I just create a Cubase project and load up a snare/kick/hi hat and phatten it up using layers, compression, EQ etc. Then I bounce out a few variations and move on.
*** I don’t save the project. I don’t want a whole load of Snare Projects in my Cubase Folder. If I don’t save it kind of finalizes my work. ***
So yeah. These self created drum hits/breaks/bass stabs/bass etc have been a big help in getting tunes finished quickly and has improved the quality of my work.
So if you don’t feel like writing a tune. Take some time out and create some new snare/kick samples for your personal library.
You’ll be glad you did when you feel like writing a tune.
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A word of advice is to mix the compressors without headphones as you for some reason can’t hear them the same way on headphones as you do with regular monitors. Got something to do with the distance of the sound and all that, which you lose when you put it right next to the ears.
wow, nice tip. Never really heard that one. Thanks. Mixing on headphones like most things has its ups and downs. For now, I’m enjoying using them as things are starting to translate well when I listen to things on different stereos/hifi’s/car system etc.
I’m actually keen to check out a few different sets of headphones now… guess I got the Current Value Bug!!!
Do the HD650’s able to reproduce deep bass well? I’m very interested in buying a set of these for DnB production as ive read they can be fairly reliably be used for monitoring/mixing unlike 99% of headphones out there.
When i auditioned a pair they seemed quite light on the Bass (compared to the DT150’s & DT990 pros im used to) which is making me think twice about their suitability for DnB. They were not well setup though so perhaps that was more the reason.
Be good to hear your thoughts on this.
Cheers
Howdy, the HD650s have plenty of Bass there. I auditioned using Deception by Noisia and Simplicity by Phace and some others thrown in and they have plenty of Bass.
Also, they have to be run in. Senn recommend 100+hours or listening before they ease in. 🙂 and they have to have enough power from a headphone amp etc to work properly as well.
I must admit that I haven’t tried the DT990 pro but I’ve heard great things about them. They’ll have to wait though as money is pretty tight right now at the moment.
Test out the HD650s again i’m sure you’ll find them to be a well balanced and very comfortable set of headphones to work with. Several people I know now have a pair and they all love them.
Hope that helps.
dauntless