DnB Found a use for some Ragga Twins acapellas that have been sitting in my hard drive for ages...

[symbiosis]

Looking for feedback on Vocal levels and processing as well as balance of the whole mix but will appreciate any feedback good or bad.

https://soundcloud.com/unkemptharold%2Fhands-in-the-air-feat-the-ragga-twins

 

[logikz]

i think you should decide on a direction, you either do the twostep programmed kick (i dont like your main kick at all, it sounds like a trance kick from 96) and snare, or you go jungle with the breaks.

thats the first thing you should do, decide what style you want to do.

the ragga twins acapellas work either way. did you do the reggae stuff? thats pretty cool

 

[symbiosis]

Hey man! Thanks for listening and giving feedback. Didn't think I'd get any feedback so didn't check in here for awhile.

Yep all the reggae stuff I did myself. Everything in the tune apart from the accapella and the Amens were made from scratch. Used NI Session Horns for the brass and Massive was used for all the other synth parts. The dub percs were processed through ableton's stock ping pong delay fx.

Initially the tune was just a two step beat in it's original incarnation as a remix of some hip/hoppy future track. The reggae feel I created didn't really go with the American accent and I'd pretty much forgot about the tune. Then one day while I was going through my sample collection and trying to clear some space I came across the Ragga Twins accapellas that I hadn't ever used. Went through some old projects to see if I had any in the right key that I could start the track with and came across that old remix and it was in the same exact key. Got so excited I started playing around with some Amen breaks and whacked them in.

LOL @ the 96 trance kick. I'll experiment with some other kicks to see if they work. I think I may have had another kick originally but it wasn't cutting through the mix so I changed it to the Trance kick .

Cheers again for listening bro.

 

[logikz]

youre welcome! when an artist is as open to critique as you are, its a pleasure to listen in and help

my recommendation is you get a clear idea of what style it is you want to do, and dont worry about this tune, move on, its done.

on to bigger and better things. its important to get tunes done, the more you have under your belt, the quicker youll evolve as an artist.

what kind of artists is it you try to sound like?

 

[symbiosis]

Thanks for the advice man.

Not really trying to sound like anybody at this point. I'd love to sound like Noisia but that's probably not within my capabilities yet lol

I love music production it's the one thing that keeps me same. It just so happens that DnB is the genre I like best so I try to make as much of that as I can but I dabble in other styles too when the mood hits me.

 

[logikz]

Thanks for the advice man.

Not really trying to sound like anybody at this point. I'd love to sound like Noisia but that's probably not within my capabilities yet lol

I love music production it's the one thing that keeps me same. It just so happens that DnB is the genre I like best so I try to make as much of that as I can but I dabble in other styles too when the mood hits me.

so noisia is what you want to do, techstep, later neurofunk. what do you think goes into a techstep tune?
take a moderately advanced techstep tune, not necessarily one you like, but one you can understand has everything you want in a techstep tune

you could maybe take something older by jubei? or some classical tech like usual suspects or a tune offa torque

or alien girl, or something by c4c haha but by the devils eyes, that is not an easy place to start.
never start by trying to be noisia, dom&roland or c4c. or kemal & rob data, stakka & skynet or anything too ultra good.

take alien girl or a simpler tune by c4c.

analyze it. understand the rhythms, the phrasings, the strategies, the groupings, the arrangements, the structure.
here, ill try and explain it for you so it doesnt seem so impenetrable and cryptic

rhythm: whats the kick and the snare doing? the hihats? the cymbals? is there a break?
what about percussion, whats the congas doing?

phrasings: what does a techstep synth riff sound like? whats a reece riff like? whats a sub riff like?
whats a stab do, and where? whens the beat filtered in/out? whats an arp?

strategies: a common strategy in drum and bass, for example, is call and response, thats a good place to start
there are more, youll come to notice them if you just look

groupings: which things go together and when, because its not all the things all the time, is it? why not?
drums and basses go together, but you often remove the mid range reece when you drop the pad section, why is that?

arrangement: intro,build,drop1,variation on drop1, variation2, bridge, breakdown, build, drop2, blah blah blah
but what is an intro? what is a build? what is a drop? what is a variation? what is a bridge? what is a breakdown? blah blah blah
structure:

structure: feels like structure and arrangement would be the same thing, not sure what i meant by that

but try and make your own mock up programming of a techstep tune you think isnt too hard, and there are many many
suuuuuuuper simplistic techstep tunes, so find one and try to recreate it.

when you can program the tune correctly, so big old twostep beat, deep sub riff under a growly reece riff, running hihats and a layered break, then pad/string arrangement on top and some atmosphere and fx, maybe a vocal hit, if you can program that, youre on your way.

if youre just doing whatever, you can write tunes until the end of time and it wont sound like anything at all,

study long, study long, then make konflict. i think youll find the saying is. star trails, but i think "cyanide" is easier to understand,
although even that is impossibly good.

i made tunes for maybe three years before i showed anyone anything online, for example. and im very glad i didnt put anything earlier than that up, because then they would have first hand proof of how much i sucked. its about making drum and bass, not "showing people youre making drum and bass but youre no good at it"

the funny thing about trying to recreate someones tune or copy someones drums or bass, is that it always takes on a form of its own,
after just a little tinkering. thats why its such a good technique.

if it doesnt, and you out right copy someones tune, thats ok, its just an exercise, its not meant to be released or even heard by anyone other than yourself and your mum, back when i was a noob i wouldnt upload my bullshit tunes, but i would terrorize friends and family ceaselessly

 

[Derelicts Of Tomorrow]

The tune is a pretty cool Vibe but it needs a lot of sound design work

 

[symbiosis]

Hey Logikz,

Thanks for putting this together. Really good advice man! I've always got several tunes being "produced" at any given time. I'll try some of these suggestions amongst some of the heavier tunes.

Cheers!