The BCee production method...

smoothassilk

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Just watched the CM magazine's BCee tutorial.

His method is pretty much the opposite of everything that comes up on this forum all the time: no sound design, next to no processing, no mastering or mixing at all- just carefully choosing the right samples and bunging them together in a track.

The only thing he did that was technically difficult was layer a load of (10?) breaks together, but he'd just used most of them raw because they were ready processed and only EQ'd a couple.

He only did the most simple variations as well: bringing stuff in and out, no music theory at all...

I think we should all pay attention to this method a bit more.
Having mad compressing skills, millions of VSTs and being able to make super processed basses will not make you a producer, it will make you a sample pack designer.
 
Eeeeh, doesn't a really well known producer help him with the mixdowns?
Atleast I believe he said that, so that video is a bit useless seeing it get's polished by someone else.
 
Eeeeh, doesn't a really well known producer help him with the mixdowns?
Atleast I believe he said that, so that video is a bit useless seeing it get's polished by someone else.

Yeah it was Lomax, I think.
I guess if your tunes do need polishing for clarity you can just send them off to audio animals.

I'm not saying you shouldn't learn all the technical stuff if you want to, I'm saying it's not essential.
 
Yeah it works, but personally being mainly a neurofunk and downtempo guy: I vastly love that super technical approach where you get sucked into the technical side of music : ).
 
It depends on what sub-genre you make. MisterApe has got a point, but BCee doesn't make Neuro. He makes simple rollers that follow the concept of how tracks used to be made. And regarding music theory - that is bullshit for D&B (IMO). You need to know the basics like keys and notes but no need to go anal on them like which notes are dissonant or not. Guys, producing music is theoretically simple, especially D&B similar to BCee's stuff.
 
Just watched the CM magazine's BCee tutorial.

His method is pretty much the opposite of everything that comes up on this forum all the time: no sound design, next to no processing, no mastering or mixing at all- just carefully choosing the right samples and bunging them together in a track.

The only thing he did that was technically difficult was layer a load of (10?) breaks together, but he'd just used most of them raw because they were ready processed and only EQ'd a couple.

He only did the most simple variations as well: bringing stuff in and out, no music theory at all...

I think we should all pay attention to this method a bit more.
Having mad compressing skills, millions of VSTs and being able to make super processed basses will not make you a producer, it will make you a sample pack designer.

It is a good point. Sometimes less is more. I have the problem that I want to put as much shit into something as possible. I think you should decide for yourself what makes a good track and go with it. It is all about opinions and expressing your own creativity. For example, sometimes I listen to producer and think, I should give up, my music will never be that good, and sometimes I listen to professional music and think, how in the fuck is this considered good? I was listening to this one dude, kind of famous, and his tracks where basically a sine wave underneath some interesting drums with a couple of blips and beeps. I can't for the life of me figure out why people like his music but they do, and I am sure he likes it too.

I getting off track here but sometimes I feel like sound design is useless. I watched this Emperor tut and the guy takes a good sample and just slaps a little camel phat, and a vocoder on the bass sample and bam, presto, the bass is awesome.
 
I dont process my basses apart from a little overdrive, the sound should sound good before you do anything to it.
 
id rather now pay $90 for something i can do myself for free

well, you obviously cant. otherwise youd be releasing on big labels by now.

i dont think its such a bad idea from the get go. not for every track, but maybe send a track there and see what they done to your original material to make it sound better. im SURE you could learn TONS of stuff - and if you pay someone like resound im sure hell even give you a rundown and tips for future productions. not a too shabby investment imo.

I watched this Emperor tut and the guy takes a good sample and just slaps a little camel phat, and a vocoder on the bass sample and bam, presto, the bass is awesome.

happy accidents mate. sure he knows what hes doing - but in those runthroughs it always looks like people are geniuses, when all they did was having a happy accident, im pretty sure he didnt expect THAT outcome. (youre talking monolith, arent you?)

I dont process my basses a part from a little overdrive, the sound should sound good before you do anything to it.

not really. you can only change the timbre so much in the beginning. and dont even get layers into the mix - i mean, without layers almost nothing sounds good. so i dont even know what youre getting at, esp for basses. with vocals, youre right. with everything else, not so much. i mean, what are we processing for if sounds directly from the synth would sound any good?

you didnt really think that one through tbh.


edit: @thread havent seen the videos, but if you got lomax to do your mixing/mastering you would not need ANY skills at all imo. download nexus, fm8 and massive, buy LOADS of sample/patch- packs and youre sorted. i mean, if lomax is looking over your tracks you wouldnt even need arrangement skills..

what was that facebook poster that was going round in the last months "you're writing drum and bass - and someone else is producing/mixing it - what is it exactly that youre doing again??" spot on imo. dnb is 95% technicality and 5% songwriting/arrangement.

didnt know that tbh, always though bcee would do his own mixdowns. anyone got a source on that?
 
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well, you obviously cant. otherwise youd be releasing on big labels by now.

i dont think its such a bad idea from the get go. not for every track, but maybe send a track there and see what they done to your original material to make it sound better. im SURE you could learn TONS of stuff - and if you pay someone like resound im sure hell even give you a rundown and tips for future productions. not a too shabby investment imo.
Well first off, thats a bit silly. I'd say the main reason im not being released on the big labels right now is because ive never finished a track, not because of my mixing skills lol. Id love to try out AA or resound, thatd be sick. But on a functional level, knowing how to mix well is imo a lot better that spending $90 every time you need a track to sound good. Even if you plan to send stems every time a track is in the works, knowing how to EQ and compress is still pretty damn important.
 
Well first off, thats a bit silly. I'd say the main reason im not being released on the big labels right now is because ive never finished a track, not because of my mixing skills lol. Id love to try out AA or resound, thatd be sick. But on a functional level, knowing how to mix well is imo a lot better that spending $90 every time you need a track to sound good. Even if you plan to send stems every time a track is in the works, knowing how to EQ and compress is still pretty damn important.

yeh the premise was that if you could mix like a pro, youd have tunes finished ;)

and im with you but i dont think you understood me. im talking about a one off thing - when trying to improve, not necessarily for EVERY tune you ever wanted to do.
i thought of it more like a learning tool than a continuous crutch.
 
yeh the premise was that if you could mix like a pro, youd have tunes finished ;)

and im with you but i dont think you understood me. im talking about a one off thing - when trying to improve, not necessarily for EVERY tune you ever wanted to do.
i thought of it more like a learning tool than a continuous crutch.
Yeah man i agree, just hope you realise my original reply was towards the premise of sending your tracks off all the time to sound decent. That being said, the reasons i havent finished any tracks has nothing to do with my mixing, which i consider to be pretty on point ;)
 
Groelle you are going IN on this thread haha!

Here's the thing with this: I meet more n more people in this scene who are successful and hardly get that technical when it comes to production.... Most use samples flat out, presets that have been mildly tweaked etc. Along side decent vst's which do a lot of pushing and character enhancing for them. Most don't even know music theory... It's only in the last 2-3years I, myself have actually started to learn more about it but I was making DnB for years!! Just guessing my way into a tune. You don't need it at all in DnB!! If you have a good ear then a finished track is easily achievable!

Producers come n go. Some are 'one hit wonders' and its for precisely this reason! They got lucky with their arrangement etc (usually what i like to call a 'one note bandit')
You can tell the ones who know what they're doing, as they are consistent and change it up with every other tune they make etc where-as most, pretty much just reopen the last project they made and re arrange it?

I've been really shocked by some people and it's opened my eyes to not care so much as the end product is what matters and as long as its not terribly out of key, or un noticeable (samples/presets) then who honestly gives a shit!? 90% of listeners don't download and listen to sample packs or even know about theory. It's only producers who give a shit!

All you can do is learn for your own benefit. If you don't want to and would rather fluke your way to success? Then that road will come to an abrupt end, rapidly! Either you will die out, or eventually have to start learning what it is you're playing with!
 
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Groelle you are going IN on this thread haha!

Here's the thing with this: I meet more n more people in this scene who are successful and hardly get that technical when it comes to production.... Most use samples flat out, presets that have been mildly tweaked etc. Along side decent vst's which do a lot of pushing and character enhancing for them. Most don't even know music theory... It's only in the last 2-3years I, myself have actually started to learn more about it but I was making DnB for years!! Just guessing my way into a tune. You don't need it at all in DnB!! If you have a good ear then a finished track is easily achievable!

Producers come n go. Some are 'one hit wonders' and its for precisely this reason! They got lucky with their arrangement etc (usually what i like to call a 'one note bandit')
You can tell the ones who know what they're doing, as they are consistent and change it up with every other tune they make etc where-as most, pretty much just reopen the last project they made and re arrange it?

I've been really shocked by some people and it's opened my eyes to not care so much as the end product is what matters and as long as its not terribly out of key, or un noticeable (samples/presets) then who honestly gives a shit!? 90% of listeners don't download and listen to sample packs or even know about theory. It's only producers who give a shit!

All you can do is learn for your own benefit. If you don't want to and would rather fluke your way to success? Then that road will come to an abrupt end, rapidly! Either you will die out, or eventually have to start learning what it is you're playing with!

I give a shit, and I have since before I started to produce. That is why so much of drum and bass is shit. As a hobbits, I am always trying something new, I make it a requirement for every song. Also, what fun would it be if all your tracks where pre-maid. If I wanted to be a painter I would not buy a fucking paint by numbers kit. I would paint.

With all of that being said, I think drum and bass was originally made by people who did not understand music. It is part of its charm.
 
Producers come n go. Some are 'one hit wonders' and its for precisely this reason! They got lucky with their arrangement etc (usually what i like to call a 'one note bandit')
You can tell the ones who know what they're doing, as they are consistent and change it up with every other tune they make etc where-as most, pretty much just reopen the last project they made and re arrange it?
I think you ought to be able to be creative without being technical.
Most creative producers are technical, because they're the one's who are smart and dedicated (you'd have to be to spend hours and hours listening to the same bass over and over again just to make it 10% better), but you should be able to be creative without being really technical: it's just a question of finding new samples or mixing up your old ones.
Example: Burial. He's completely got his own style, but I don't think that he does anything crazily technical. I could be wrong though...
 
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spot on imo. dnb is 95% technicality and 5% songwriting/arrangement.

Exactly the opposite of what it set out to be, which is why 95% of dnb is stagnent and boring at the moment. Clones of clones of clones of clones, produced to a very high standard with no emotion or feeling put into it.
I think people see it as a means to an end now, it's just fodder for a weekend then it gets brushed aside. Partly because there's no struggle anymore Download a cracked version of whatever you want on your laptop and away you go. There's no investment in your future, so you've got nothing to loose.
Maybe gone off on a bit of a tangent there, but no music should be about 95% technicality and 5% EMOTION.
 
Exactly the opposite of what it set out to be, which is why 95% of dnb is stagnent and boring at the moment. Clones of clones of clones of clones, produced to a very high standard with no emotion or feeling put into it.

QFT
 
The great thing about DnB is that it has flavours for all audiences. tunes that go hard when your frisky, tunes that make you feel, tunes that are production masterpieces; aural sensations. It was started as dance music remember.
Imo this technicality bullshit isnt true at all. Its just people listening to the wrong part of the spectrum.
 
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