Generic Dubstep Song made by a Noob

Mongoose135

New Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2011
Hey I'm new to the forum and I know you're thinking thinking "who does this n00b with no posts think he is using this forum for his own benefit!". Fair enough :D


I know the song is mediocre in terms of production so am open to people saying what's bad about it etc. Anyway nice to meet you all.
Btw I used Cubase.
 
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Welcome to the forums mate, hope you enjoy your time with us.

As far as the track goes I'm gonna be completely honest......You got a long way to go, but it will be an enjoyable journey if you stick with it. You got some basics down already, like understanding how to switch things up to keep people interested, but IMO that bass sound is an octave too high for a start, try just notching it down one octave and I bet it will make the track heavier straight away.
 
Welcome to the forums mate, hope you enjoy your time with us.

As far as the track goes I'm gonna be completely honest......You got a long way to go, but it will be an enjoyable journey if you stick with it. You got some basics down already, like understanding how to switch things up to keep people interested, but IMO that bass sound is an octave too high for a start, try just notching it down one octave and I bet it will make the track heavier straight away.

Cheers mate.
As for the bassline, there is one synth for the sub bass and second one at a higher octave (which I assume you're refering to?) to add some mids to the bassline, perhaps the higher octave synth being too loud is the problem?
I actually ended up turning down the sub bass, because I thought it was taking too much out of the mix. I'm not sure whether it's the general mixing of tracks (i.e. EQing and volume) or the actual synth sounds themselves that makes it sound bad, so if you had an opinion on that that would be great.
Appreciate your feedback :)
 
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No mate, the loudness isnt the problem, it's simply an octave too high!

Also, instead of having two different synth's, try creating one bass with the raspy sound, then split it into three seperate mixer channels, using one for the low, one for mid and one for high end, this way, you can play around with the EQ for each bit, and also automate each individual element of the bass, making for some nice random movement
 
No mate, the loudness isnt the problem, it's simply an octave too high!

Also, instead of having two different synth's, try creating one bass with the raspy sound, then split it into three seperate mixer channels, using one for the low, one for mid and one for high end, this way, you can play around with the EQ for each bit, and also automate each individual element of the bass, making for some nice random movement

although, this might be advanced for you...

i would suggest looking into beefing up them drums... since dubstep is so sparse, you can cram more henchity in there... learn compression and eq to get that kick thumping and the snare punching (y)

i agree with fletch on taking down in notes the main riff... could have the second phase octave up though still, as it kinda reminded me of hammertime by rusko
 
Maybe take the mid layer, duplicate it and then make it one octave lower, layer that with the higher octave synth, maybe turn the highest one down in volume a bit.
This way you can keep the high pitch bass, but still with a lot of body.

Just an idea.. ^^
 
No mate, the loudness isnt the problem, it's simply an octave too high!

Also, instead of having two different synth's, try creating one bass with the raspy sound, then split it into three seperate mixer channels, using one for the low, one for mid and one for high end, this way, you can play around with the EQ for each bit, and also automate each individual element of the bass, making for some nice random movement
This is something I recently have been thinking about and did play around with for a little bit, and is something I would most probably do more in the future.

although, this might be advanced for you...

i would suggest looking into beefing up them drums... since dubstep is so sparse, you can cram more henchity in there... learn compression and eq to get that kick thumping and the snare punching (y)

i agree with fletch on taking down in notes the main riff... could have the second phase octave up though still, as it kinda reminded me of hammertime by rusko
As for the drums, I agree, the bass and snare could definitely be thumpier, the problem is I have been obsessed with trying to increase the loudness of the whole mix to make it not sound quiet when played next to professional tunes, leading to me perhaps adding too much compression which has probably resulted in the drums not punching through enough - I found that after I was tweaking with the effects and trying to mix the whole song, the drums sounded significantly less punchier compared to an earlier version which was much simpler and had less processing on it. On the other hand, simple logic could say that the drums aren't loud enough, so turn down the synths a bit!

I understand the theory of how compression works but often find it difficult to hear the effect it is having in practice (like hearing the difference between a 5ms attack or 20ms attack), which means I end up tweaking around with it a lot.

Maybe take the mid layer, duplicate it and then make it one octave lower, layer that with the higher octave synth, maybe turn the highest one down in volume a bit.
This way you can keep the high pitch bass, but still with a lot of body.

Just an idea.. ^^
I have to admit this confuses me; not the processes you described of duplicating and changing the octave (which is obvious) but rather how you describe the sounds in terms of layers.
To me what you said means: duplicate the higher octave bass (i.e. octave above sub bass) and making it an octave lower (therefore making another sub bass? which obviously you don't mean) which is what confuses me.
Or are you referring to the main synth line (i.e. the fast wobbling lead)?
Btw - sick tune in your sig :D


Thanks again for the suggestions all.
 
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Well what I'm trying to tell, the main synth and sub bass are two octaves apart, at least it sounds like that, so you need to fill the space in between.
So if you duplicate the high pitched bass and make it an octave lower it should not be subbass yet, judging on how high pitched it sounds right now.
If you layer that on top of the already high pitched synth I think you can get some nasty results, work with filter automations on the low and high pitched bass to make it even more intense!

Oohw and thanks for the compliment!
 
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