Phat Sam's "How to get started in Music Production" Thread

[nukleamojo]

yea I gotta agree some samples 'turdy-ness' has actually been a plus for using when layering etc

I'd say that rule only applies to the main kick n snare, strive to get them sounding crisp and your away!

Also just to add to the this, I would have to urge any beginners who think they have made a 'banger' to just compare that track in the mix with something of a similar style. If you find its missing something or doesn't sound quite right then go back to the drawing board. Its a bad idea sending out stuff that isn't up to par, there's plenty of competition out there so at least get it sounding as close as you can. Remember your name is technically a brand and you will have to work double hard to try impress people if you send stuff out too early!

This bit of advice should be the first thing that new producers are taugh in any genre. Make sure you compare your tune with another tune as you're making it. Benchmark. That doesn't mean rip it off, it just means to listen to its sonic make up and style. Of course innovate, but think of how everything fits together and whether your song works as a piece of music.

If you do that properly, you will release fairly polished music.

[andrewt7941]

Hey there, this was quite helpful but I struggle with putting everything together and creating my own loops etc. Could anyone spare a little bit of time to help me or even show me some tutorials on how to put together a drum and bass track?
Thanks!

[RBP]

Hey there, this was quite helpful but I struggle with putting everything together and creating my own loops etc. Could anyone spare a little bit of time to help me or even show me some tutorials on how to put together a drum and bass track?
Thanks!

I don't really do DnB, but experimentation is the name of the game. Go through the loops that you have and pick out some break beats. Then cut them up and pick out a few different sounds from each. Either load them into a sampler or arrange them on the audio track (by copying and pasting) until you've got a decent background beat that you like. The best way to go about that is to start with a kick and snare from a library (not cut from a breakbeat, yet), and get your basic kick and snare pattern, with the snare either on 2 and 4 or at half speed on 3. Copy and paste it from bar 1 to bar 2, and then from bars 1-2 to bars 3-4, giving you a 4 measure kick/snare beat. Then loop the first measure and add in parts of your breakbeats until you've got something that works for you. Then copy it to measure 2, and make some adjustments. Then do the same thing you did with the kick/snare to 3-4 until you've got a 4 measure platform to work from. The key is to make sure that no 2 measures are the exact same. Then solo your break beat tracks (or just mute the kick and snare) and add some effects. Then bounce that down to an audio file. Now you've got another break beat to work with. Cut snippets of it out and replace part of your original break beat for measures 5-8 to give it some added variation. Don't forget that you can move things around too. One of the best things you can ever do is keep it simple. Meaning don't over-crowd your mix, and don't over-think a part. Also, don't be afraid to randomly hit the mute button on a track while it's playing, it can lead to a sense of anticipation, especially on a part that has been looping. Once you've got a decent 8 or 16 bar groove going, then it's time to add in that all important bass. Start with presets, and just mess around until you've got something you like. Then modify the preset. Eventually, as you learn how to program your synths, you will be able to just imagine a sound and program it without using a preset. It'll take some time, but that's the only way to truly make it. Otherwise, you'll always be one step behind everyone else in a genre where being cutting edge is absolutely key. Once you've got that all figured out, then it's just a matter of repeating the process to extend the main body of your track: Going from 16 to 32 bars. Copy, paste, variation. Then drop the drums out, or super simplify the pattern, and use a different synth for this part. Then go back into the main body of your track. The key is getting the transitions sounding like they go together, rather than Part A and Part B. Then do the same thing you did with the transitions to create an intro and an ending.

That's it, but obviously very simplified. Throughout the way, you want to experiment. Bounce things down to audio, timestretch them, pitch shift them, add effects, layer them together, create stutters by chopping out equal parts of a sound (every other 32nd note, for instance). It all comes down to personal taste, but experimentation is the name of the game in DnB. Take a sound intended for one thing and use it for another. Timestretch a snare drum or a clap, and add a bunch of delay to it, comb filters, bounce it, then pitch shift it and stretch it some more with more delays and some reverb and a big swooshing phaser and bounce it and reverse it and stretch it yet again, and figure out a way to turn your snare into a pad. Use snippets of a trance synth pitch shifted with the same exhaustive usage of FX and use the result as part of your break beat. Take a bunch of sounds and create a bar from them, and then create variations. That's all you've got to do to create your own loops.

[Phat_Sam]

First time I've checked this in a long old while!

Hopefully people are gaining things from it?

I think I might do some tutorials for this thread. Maybe make a track from start to finish with some basic shit and moving on to some slightly more productive, advanced stuff?

If people are up for it then I'll do it. Can't be arsed if it's gonna flop and people aren't bothered...

Or maybe do a most requested tutorial? If there's something people really want a tutorial about then I could do something about that? I dunno, just ideas.

[DJrsa]

cheers sam and the rest, very helpful guide.

[tylerdidit]

First time I've checked this in a long old while!

Hopefully people are gaining things from it?

I think I might do some tutorials for this thread. Maybe make a track from start to finish with some basic shit and moving on to some slightly more productive, advanced stuff?

If people are up for it then I'll do it. Can't be arsed if it's gonna flop and people aren't bothered...

Or maybe do a most requested tutorial? If there's something people really want a tutorial about then I could do something about that? I dunno, just ideas.

More tutorials would be brilliant, if you have the time. (Obviously I'm reading through as much stuff as possible, but having things in one place like this would make it so much easier to find useful info quickly, even if people just link tutorials they particularly liked?)

[Dugg Funnie]

DO a tutorial on how to steal artists sounds/production/mastering/arrangement skills without anybody noticing!

[BassGorilla.com]

Some of the best advice I can offer to people looking to improve their skills is this:

1.) make lots of loops and mini songs. Don't spend more than a day or two on each one. This will allow you to discover lots of new techniques and experiment more.

2.) After you have tons of loops, choose some of the best ones that go well together and build them into one bigger song.

3.) Focus more on actually writing an original song instead of getting bogged down in the engineering side of it. Of course sound design is important, as is the mixdown, but a greatly produced song with no excitement is boring to listen to.

[Dugg Funnie]

Some of the best advice I can offer to people looking to improve their skills is this:

1.) make lots of loops and mini songs. Don't spend more than a day or two on each one. This will allow you to discover lots of new techniques and experiment more.

2.) After you have tons of loops, choose some of the best ones that go well together and build them into one bigger song.

3.) Focus more on actually writing an original song instead of getting bogged down in the engineering side of it. Of course sound design is important, as is the mixdown, but a greatly produced song with no excitement is boring to listen to.

This is the sort of stuff I've been getting into lately; I set aside about an hour a day to just designing any sort of sound, an hour of literally 1-8 bar melody loop writing, then try to log 2 hours of putting combo's together to make tunes, sometimes stuff happens, sometimes it doesn't.

Sound design and other audio knowledge aspects ARE important, but let's get real, odds are you're trying to recreate a sound (you're just trying to re-invent the wheel, so to speak) that is easily available somewhere else so just find the damn sound in a sample pack and then try and learn to arrange; because that's where 90% of the power of a tune comes from. And if you can't arrange, why even bother trying to recreate the sound in the first place?

[Exert]

The samples one is a big one definitely!

I started off making Trance with acoustic kicks and Drum & Bass with Hardstyle claps and shit haha..

But seriously, I still don't know what a 'good' sample is, I just try to make it fit and see what happens

[sam the dnb man]

But seriously, I still don't know what a 'good' sample is, I just try to make it fit and see what happens

I tend to bass how good a sample is on the actual sound quality. I think the majority of drum samples have the potential to work at some point. It just depends on your mood and the track you're working on.

A sample with lots of headroom, no unwanted peaks and in 24bit IMO is a good sample.
A kick sample that is layered with a hi hat and has reverb on it is a bad sample.

[Exert]

Yeah I get you, I understand the basics with regards to unwanted 'pre-layered cool fx' and shit, just not the processing part after it I guess haha..