So I’ve been scewing around with programming drum and bass (mostly techstep). But every time I start a track I just get stuck- I’ll sit there for hours listen to my shit looping and then go “Now what?”. I’ve never had this problem before… I mean I’ve had a few blocks but this shit is absurd to me…
Anyhow, here are two clips of some mutilated breaks that I’ve been fooling around with- I should probably take a break- I’m just trying to avoid starting something new and procastinating on finishing these…
Maybe I should take trepains advice and just leave them alone for a minute, listen to some different music and come back to it with frsh ears… but I don’t wannaaaa
Anybody have any advice on this or maybe just some critisism on what i have here (mix and such)- I would really appreciate it!
i would have but another bassnote on. one halftone up and lfo filter variation on it… really whacked out cool stuff man.
do some vocal tricks. timestreetch, volume gating. crunch, whatever…
They are indispensable- there is just too many ways to exploit them. Thanks guys- I plan on taking my time.
As far as bass and synth go- I’m planning on more- i just need to figure out few things with reeces and making some other stuff in my head to lay on top of these when i get a better backbone built for these tracks. I’m super anal about getting ideas out of my head the way I want them to- I just have a problem settling for alternatives unless it sounds better.
The regular eq’ing and compression on the whole break, some times I’ll take the kick and snare and resample it, over compress and filter again, maybe touch it up a little waveshaping and layer it with the origional break and resample that. Chop it up and and put some volume envolopes or gate it and give everything nice hard attacks… that cymbol splash at the end of the break gets like four different versions, usualy at different frequencies, and all eq’d different, but I always try to keep that as crisp and flat as possible so it can cut through everything else… I don’t know- it kinda changes everytime depending on what else is in the mix I guess. I rarely use use a straight up amen though, I like to use some clean kits and mix a few pieces of kits in with it. i guess the trick is to make everything sound like it belongs to together.
only read your post half. but when i can’t think of anything new even if my shit’s been playing (loop) for the last few hours, I just start a new session. In that new session i create a new map and make all sorts of new soundeffects, maybe sample a dvd action movie or two and fill that map with effects new sounds. Then go back to the song and see wich sound fits with the song and build a melody around it that fits with the song. Even if the new part with the effects sounds totally different from the song, you can consider it as a bridge or a filler, just fo back to the main theme after the bridge and you have an extra 2 minutes in your song. not that it works in all cases.
They are indispensable- there is just too many ways to exploit them. Thanks guys- I plan on taking my time.