I'm having some trouble producing Drum and Bass

Jakers

New Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2010
Every time I attempt to make a drum and bass song, they turn out really weak and my friend says that they sound like more of a build up than an actual song, but the problem is I don't know how to get that 'bigger sound' for a drop, any advice?

Here are a few quick attempts I made- I'm open to all criticism and advice -

Attempt 1

Attempt 2
 
both pretty good ideas there. not that bad just work on the mixdowns and arrangements to give the drop the impact you want. Gaps of silence etc I usually find the hardest tracks to drop are the ones that start with drums. You need to have a break if you start with drums where you can build the track up for the impact of the drop.
Also solo each noise and get them all sounding great on their own, then when you put them together cut and eq the frequencies you want in and the ones that are clashing etc will clean up the track and give room to the sounds that make the impact.
 
Ok, as some people said, you don't NEED a huge impact at the drop, but if you WANT a kinda 'holyshitwtf' moment, there are some things you can do. Here are the really obvious ones, which are a bit cliched, but still good.

The most important is to have a really big sound to come in. Look up making dirty basses and stuff. Most of the tutorials are on massive, annoyingly but you can get pretty similar results if you know the theory.
As well as this:
1. Withhold bass for as long as possible. Don't put in any bass, then put all the bass and sub-bass in at once.
2. Just before everything kicks off, strap a high pass filter (maybe with resonance) over everything and sweep it up
3. Put a loop of some description in (could be drums, vocals, lead,) then retrigger it faster and faster as you lead towards the drop.
4. Use an extended perfect cadence (V-I). Hang on to the V for ages and ages, and maybe make it a V7, then resolve to I. If you know anything about chords, look it up. If you don't know anything about chords, don't worry.
5. Put in some kicks on every quarter note, then every eighth note, then every sixteenth note... it's the world's biggest cliche, but loads of people do it.
6. A few bars of silence have already been mentioned.

If you don't know what any of these terms mean, ask, or look them up.
 
There isn't enough quiet room to let some of the parts resonate with the listener the way they should, especially if you want a drop in there like the others said.

Personally the 1st tune is so-so from a composition POV (it's not that interesting to me), but I like where the 2nd one's at and where it can go. Reminds me of a certain Street Fighter EX song in the leads, which is good ;)
 
Get some reece bass in there (loads of tutorials on Youtube). Look up sidechaining to make your drums stand out. Also pull the ceiling down using a limiter to enable more of the sustain to come out on the drums rather than just showing the peak limit, do that on the kick and snare mixer channel.

more importantly, just keep at it, it takes a while to get close and everyone is always learning.

I don't know what synths you have in your armoury but i'd say a must have is Massive, albino and Sylenth. I couldn't work without any of these, all make really good reece bass.

Try and get some drum samples from Vengeance or Goldbaby, they rarely need eq'ing or compression/limiting etc.
 
^^^ echo that
But grab that Villem sample pack (spotted it on Blu Mar Ten's facebook the other day)

http://www.samplecloud.net/trap-dubstep-drum-and-bass-hip-hop-downtempo-samples-presets/

Absolutely smashes it. Vengeance and Samplecloud are what everyone in dubstep and house uses these days, samples are way higher quality (more like what you get in studios) so you can focus more on ideas and arranging, which is what labels and DJs are looking for more than just a new gen of sound engineers
 
I see where your friend is coming from and I also see how this is a good track without it being all BOOOOM on the drop as someone mentioned earlier... Great job bro! Keep it up! Good stuff!
 
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