|
|
|||||||||
|
Tips
& Tricks
|
Furthering
the Drum'n'Bass Race: April
19, 2003 ~ ASR-XChange, previously hosted by Scott
Hansen, shutdown for good in late 2002. In addition
to RealAudio demo's from ASR-X users, there was a
selection of 'How To' articles contributed by the
ASR-X list. I've reproduced those articles here at
ASRXCITE. Thanks to Scott for his past
efforts.
Version
1.02 April 1999 All
statements are IMHO. Forward:
So,
you wanna make some beats? Want them to sound like
'real' beats, not the lame beats you've been
making? Maybe you've read some useless tips in
'Keyboard' or 'Future Music' and are wondering why
you ever bought them. Well, we've all been there.
But now, I'm going to tell you how beats are really
made. This is the stuff those posers at the
magazines don't even know, and the pros don't want
you to. But I say forget secrets: let the music
stand on its own merit, not on some simple
trick! In
this article I will cover two ways of making drum
loops, with extra information for jungle
programming. But that is information all
programmers need as well, as it is vital to how
your new beats will sound and feel. Before
You Begin: If
you are no good at music-making at all, or are
completely new to this, this article won't make you
the Chemical Brothers (well, a Chemical Brother...
er, whatever). But if you're OK at making beats,
here are some basic and not-so-basic tips you try,
or at least be familiar with: A
Word About Vinyl: Not
sure where to find some good beats to sample? Well,
there's always 'Vinylistics', or maybe 'Jungle
Warfare', but don't limit yourself to sample CDs.
They're really not as good as you think they're
going to be when you see them advertised. They
always fall short of your hopes, and even
reasonable expectations of quality. So
where to look? Get some old records. Just cheap
ones. Even 'Thriller' has a beat you can lift (the
intro to 'Billie Jean'). I know you've got a copy
of that somewhere. Also, don't overlook drum fills.
You can snip out the drum hits and make a kit out
of that. I got a good one off of PFM's 'Photos Of
Ghosts', if you want to try and find it. Most
people just look for loopable bits, but all you
really need is a few good hits. Long drum fills are
perfect for that, because you get more variety than
you would from just a loop; it's nice to be able to
pick and choose. I have found old progressive rock
records a good source for such fills. Not 'Yes',
though. Dig deeper. Remember, it's the character of
the sound that matters most, and you can only get
that from records that are at least 20 years
old. Another
thing about records is that they have far more
highs than any sample CD. 'Vinylistics', for
example, seems to have processed everything through
a lowpass to get rid of noise. Probably 8-bit
grunge as opposed to real vinyl surface noise, or
anti-alising from many generations of samplers,
whatever. At any rate, when you sample off a
record, you have the choice as to whether or not
you want to retain that character. Finally,
you can sample in stereo. I can't stress enough how
important this is for drums. If you don't believe
me, test it for yourself: sample a loop off of a
record, and compare mono and stereo versions of it.
The stereo one sounds so much better... don't waste
you time trying to tell yourself that it sounds
'good enough' in mono. Drum sounds are so short
they take hardly any RAM at all; if drums are
important to you (and if they aren't then why on
earth are you reading this?!!) then please do
yourself a favour and sample in stereo.
'Vinylistics' and the others of its ilk, on the
other hand, are almost always in mono. What a
waste! Drum'n'Bass
Programming: The
key (besides the crazy kick/snare rthythms) is the
'ghost' notes. These are quieter notes that fall on
the second half of the 8th-note 'loop bits'
discussed earlier. If you want to hear them, try
slowing down any decent breakbeat. It's not
obvious, in fact sometimes it's impossible to
figure out exactly what drum instrument it is! It's
a quiet snare, often preceeded by a louder, harsher
hi-hat, and sometimes a kick. Anyway, the best way
to see this for yourself is to first do the
're-programming 8th-notes' loop trick, and then try
it with a kit you've made yourself. To
make a ghost note, you can use a snare sample from
your loop. Make it quiet, and make a few changes to
it, such as a small pitch difference (only a few
cents) and maybe turn the lowpass filter on it down
a bit (not much, though). How good this will sound
depends on a lot of things. If you have 'made' a
snare by combining two or more different snares,
use the original snare, the one that came with the
loop. It will be less distinctive, and blend in
better. It will also help you show off your new
snare by making it stand out a bit more. Also,
making two or more different ghost notes for your
kit is really a good idea. You may not use them
both, but usually you end up using the one you
thought you wouldn't! And, of course, vary the
volume/velocity appropriately when
sequencing. The
'ghost' snare should be tighter than the regular
snare. Tighten up the amplitude envelope so that it
has less decay. Sometimes cutting off part of the
attack works. Use zero-crossings for that, though.
If there isn't a good enough zero then just do a
really quick fade-out in SF to make one. Finally,
if you have several snares from the same loop, one
is bound to sound tighter than the others. Use
it. Once
you've gotten the hang of ghost notes, you will
probably put too many in just because you can. And
they will probably be louder than they need to be,
too. Go back and fix this while you're still
programming the loop. Sometimes they will need to
be louder, other times setting the velocity to '1'
in your sequencer will not be quiet enough, and
you'll need to turn them down even more at your
sampler. Experiment to get what you
need. You
should also make some variance in your snare sound.
The best way to do this is to really sample some
drums that are played live; they will inherently
have just-slightly-different sounds. If not,
fine-tune pitch changes are OK. But remember
they're never as good as actually having a few
different snares. If you think your snares sound
too different, layering the same snare 'tail' onto
both the different attacks should do the
trick. Don't
forget about the hi-hat on the beat before the
'ghost', either. Work with it to make it louder but
not obvious. This can be tricky. Remember also that
it isn't always needed. But if it is, keep playing
with it until it sounds good. You really won't know
until you've added all your other drum
andpercussion parts, so be patient. Using a
different (but similar) hi hat helps. You
should also have a few different kick drums. They
are important, because you can use ghost kicks as
well! The trick is to make them sound similar
enough so that they don't stand out too much.
Filter and EQ settings are crucial. But don't
over-EQ your beats, and especially not your kicks,
as this can cause all kinds of the headaches later
on. Ghost kicks can be moved a bit before the beat
to add some feel. Don't be afraid to do this; just
don't overdo it. Method
1: This
one isn't that secret but no one seems to do it, so
here goes. Take an existing beat and match your new
drums to it. It sounds simple, but to do it right
you have to be very patient. Often, you will hear
how bad your individual drum sounds are when you
try and do this. But if you have good sounds and
good programming skills, you should be able to turn
off the loop and have only your drums playing and
have it sound better than the loop. This won't
happen most of the time, but with experience it
will happen more often, and you will be able to
recognize what's missing right away (as opposed to
taking four hours to realize your snare is no
good). Of
course, you can always leave that sampled loop in
with your own. That's OK, too. But I prefer to make
lots of changes to the original beat's feel. Of
course, with Wavesurgeon at the ready, that's
always a possibility... One
last thing: if you're having trouble matching hits
up, it could be because the quantization is all
wrong for the 'human'-ness of the loop you sampled.
This is true also for loops that have been cut up
into 8ths because they still have rhythmic content.
Sometimes, it is necessary to quantize a ghost note
to a 32nd-note-triplet instead of just a 32nd or
16th note. This can also be done to the loops
you've made yourself; at 170 bpm it's not exactly
obvious, but it can really improve the feel,
sometimes better than anything other
technique! Method
2: This
one should be obvious by now, but I'll write it out
anyway. Take a kit that you made from a breakbeat,
and have layered all your drum sounds in it and
just generally sounds great. Now that you
understand ghost notes and such, program in a
one-bar beat. If it's good, keep it, and program
the whole tune. If you can't get a decent beat
going, just program in a lame jungle beat with
ghosts and everything and then cut up your whole
loop with WaveSurgeon. Reprogramming your loop that
way (with the eight sections) should do the trick.
Be adventurous. Then,
you can always sample another kit, layer, take
away, change. If you take the time and do some good
programming, you can do wicked things that no one
else does. Most people don't have the patience or
the skill to make a good loop. It's up to you to
develop both. Conclusion: Well,
that's about it. I hope you can use these to make
good beats, because it's important for the music to
progress. If everyone just samples the same beat
all the time, I mean, what's the point? I hate
'jungle night' at clubs because I have to listen to
the same loop I have at home (on about three
different sample CDs). So take these tricks and
then add a few of your own. And become a wicked
drum programmer. This article is meant to help you
learn to learn, and hopefully it will lead you to
brand new ways of beat-making. If all you do is
follow this 'recipe', then your beats will sound
just like mine. Don't do that. Make them
better. Good
Luck! Copyright
1999 SOMNIOSUS. Distribute freely. Not to be
reprinted for commercial or non-commercial use,
edited or otherwise altered, or sold without the
express (ie non-emailed) permission of the author.
Use these ideas, but do not reproduce them in any
other format. If you want to help a friend, give
him or her this whole article. Thank
you. Hey,
how about "what's a 'customer'?". I hope Claude
does sue you. Jerks. |
||||||||
 |