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.
Howdy, just a quick post about what’s been going on around the studio. Well, er… not that much. I’ve unfortunately been sucked into that thing called life/JOB and so I’ve had very little time in the studio. This doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking and dreaming about it. Oh no… I’m always doing that, much to the dislike of my wife! lol
You know how I normally go on and on about reducing the amount of Plugins, Soft Synths, DAWs etc that you might be using in the studio? Well, this applies to your actuall studio to, so in the next few weeks/months I’m going to slim down the studio gear into a few choice components.
What the hell does all this mean? Access Virus TI Polar.
Access Virus Ti Polar
I’ve got the Ti Snow and I love it but I definitely am missing the extras knobs available on the Ti Desktop and Polar. Having that extra tweakability in a synth is crucial and I’m missing it dearly. Also, getting rid of the Mackie MCU PRO and the Novation SL Remote because the Polar has a keyboard and the Mackie doesn’t get used that much anyway. So, if you’re planning on buying some gear have a good think about what or how its going to fit in the studio and what role the unit is going to play. You might just find that you DONT need it.
For the peeps that managed to read down this far I have a treat/tip. Voxengo Gliss EQ2.0. If you don’t have this badbwoy yet then get it into your VST Plugins Folder pronto! That means find it and install NOW! My homeboys Phace and Mayhem have given me the big green light that this EQ is serious bizness! So super hot tip for you there! The Voxengo Gliss EQ2 is great for adding character. So it’s not really supposed to be for surgical EQ strikes okay? Leave that job for the Sonnex or UAD Cambridge.
Voxengo Gliss EQ 2 VST Plugin
Another wicked VST Plugin that Is now an essential must is the BX Control. This plugin helps with the stereo image of your tracks giving you the option to go really wide in the mix with out effecting the low end. Nice.
Brainworx BX Control 2
Also Drumnbass Videos don’t come around every day so check this one out by Blame – On My Own Feat Ruff Squad.
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:
Weak or Thin drum breaks.
Drums that have no energy.
Crappy Drum hits.
Boring drum Breaks.
Spent hours looking for some usable breaks but been disappointed.
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.
I think there should be more breaks. 14 Breaks is just not enough.
There is a lot of high content in the breaks around the 20hkz range and higher, which is too much.
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.
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!
Howdy, well its a few months on from my last post about drum & bass plugins, so for all of you that missed the 4 part series you can check them out here but click here for all other drum & bass production goodies. A lot has happened in the last few months plugin wise, so that means a lot of sonic goodies for us to play with. Oh yeah baby! As the title of this post suggests I’m not going to work my way through the 9,000,000 new plugins that have hit the market, just the few that have grabbed my attention and the ones I thought would improve your drum n bass production. I’ll break shit up into sections for your reading pleasure.
Compressors
Well, when it comes to compressors I’ve been trying out a few new ones. The PSP Oldtimer is a nice quality comp that sits well over a drum bus or individual channels. I’ve only really tried it out over a whole mix a few times but its sounds pretty good on the Glue Preset. The Valve and Clean switch is cool for dirtying up the sound a little or adding that little bit of grit. Everyone probably knows by now that I love the Sonnox Dynamics on the Drum Bus. Very transparent and so easy to use its not funny. Also love that Warmth control and the way that Ian Carey uses it as a send effect is brilliant. Check out the videos here. The Waves SSL G-Buss is still an awesome plug that deserves a mention as well. The way it glues stuff together is legendary. Another plugin I use sometimes is the UAD Neve 33609. It could quite well be my new favourite.
Equalizers
When it comes to equalizers in the last few months I haven’t really been blown away by anything new I can think of. I’m still using my faithful UAD-1 Cambridge EQ for most of my EQ work. I’ll switch that up with the Cubase EQ’s every now and then just for convenience sake. The UAD Pultec Pro pops its head out every now and again on the drum buss for a little magic on any kicks and hats. The cut and boost feature on the plugin is amazing.
Reverbs
Wow, is the only damn thing I can say right now. Wow! Now years ago people were all up in the house saying that there was no place for reverbs in Drum & Bass Production but how wrong they are! With the move towards everything in-the-box a good quality reverb is becoming even more important. I always wondered why samples that I was making didn’t have that special vibe about them. Now I know why…. its all in the verbage! The amount of quality reverbs to grace our presence is simply amazing. My favourite would have to be the 2caudio Aether plugin. This plugin at first looks a little crazy but believe me it is the goods. Once you work out out where the mix level is and how to call up the excellent presets its “all good baby”. The plugin adds that little bit of space/vibe/atmos/magic to what ever you put it on. It even can get totally whacky if you want it to. Check it out here. Now the Space Designer in Logic 9 is always always always worth a proper mention. The new Logic 9 has added some more features to it with the warp impulses. Did I hear the word tasty being thrown around? Because trust me… Space Designer is tasty indeed!
Synths
There are some new synths around like the Native Instruments Komplete 6 pack with Absynth 5 and Kontakt4 etc but I haven’t had time to play with them yet. When I do I fill you in with the details or better yet, if you want to write a review please be my guest! Just drop me an email at info@dnbbeats.com. There is a few more synths worth mentioning like FXPansion’s DCam Squad synth, Camel Audio Alchemy and Sylenth2.2 but I’ll let you check them out. I think all of them are brilliant.
All in all a crazy few months of plugin madness to really help you produce them quality beats you’ve always wanted. I highly recommend the plugins above if you want to glue your mixes together, bring out/balance certain elements or add that bit of magic space to your tunes. Definitely try out the reverb it will improve your tunes instantly taking them up towards professional level for sure.
See you on the dancefloor.
Dauntless
P.S. If you’ve wondered why the amount of stuff I’ve written lately has been a bit on the slow side I’ve been working my ass off since I’ve gotten back from Europe. I’m going to take some time of this week to get back on the beats and get on with my drum & bass production.
