restarted DNB completely... first track after a year

S

SuBKA

Member
Joined
May 20, 2013
Location
Germany
So I've been doing lo-fi hip-hop mostly for the last 10 months and got into producing some DNB again, yet I decided to abandon my project "SUBKA" and start a fresh one named "class zero", refering to my hip hop ID "upper class". Back then I did a lot of Jump Up DNB and what came out this time sounds a bit different, yet I'm very happy with it and i can feel it's a bit influenced by my hip hop beats which are full of oldschool vibes. feedback is appreciated, enjoy! :)
url]
https://soundcloud.com/classzero%2Fepidemic
 
The production isn't too bad- the snare sticks out quite a bit in the mix and the different layers of percussion/breaks are pretty similar but otherwise ok.

IMO I think what's holding this track back most is the rhythms of the different loops. The rhythm of the chords 'follows' the bassline which is not good for the groove, and the second lot of cymbals that come in at 0.58 have a very similar pattern to the first lot of hi-hats.

There's also not a huge number of different elements in here, needs more separate elements or longer loops so you can have more contrast between the different sections and stop it getting repetitive too soon
 
Thanks for the feedback! Any advise on production? It sounds okay and it's actually the cleanest and best production i got yet, so further advice would be great.
the "chords" are actually a resonating sine on top of the sub bass, packed into the same synth. I already considered isolating both from each other, but i'm not sure if and how I should chance the groove of the chords, they're sidechained to kick and snare anyways.
thanks! :)
 
You should try adding either some more musical elements (chords, melody, arp etc) or another bass (or more even) to do call and answer with.

The other thing you can do to make more variation is make each loop longer (longer loops =fewer repeats)
 
let's see about that, i actually want to keep the track kind of this minimal way, but as you said, without it becoming boring quickly. I'll probably add some variations to the bass or another bass layer.
I took Heist - "Ambush" as a reference btw.
 
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