Snoman R. Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys, and Techniques

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much better idea of which wave to use and how much it should modulate the

parameters. If the timbre appears too ‘statically modulated ’ in that it still seems

uninteresting, use a different rate and waveform for the oscillator and ﬁ lter so

that the two beat against each other. Alternatively, if the timbre still appears

too thin even after applying effects, add a second pulse detuned from the ﬁ rst

by 3 cents with the same amp envelope, but use a different LFO waveform to

modulate the pulse width.

If the track has a ‘hole’ in the mix, then you’ll need to construct a wider, thicker pad

to ﬁ ll this out. As a starting point for these types of pads, square waves mixed with

triangles or saws often produce the best results. Detune the saw (or triangle) from

the square wave by 5 or 7 cents depending on how thick you need to the pad to be

and set the amp attack to a medium sustain and release, but no attack, and a short

decay. Using a low-pass ﬁ lter, set the cut-off to medium with a high resonance and

set the ﬁ lters EG to a short decay and a medium attack, sustain and release. This

should modulate the ﬁ lters positively so that the ﬁ lters sweep through the attack

and decay of the amp but meet at the sustain portion, although it is worth experi-

menting with negative modulation to see if this produces better results for the

music. This will produce a basic pad timbre, but if it seems a little too static for

the music, use an LFO set to a sine or triangle wave using a slow rate and medium

depth to positively modulate the pitch of the second oscillator. For even more

interest, you could also use an LFO to modulate the ﬁ lter’s cut-off.

Effects can also play an important role in creating interesting and evolv-

ing pads. Wide chorus effects, rotary speaker simulations, ﬂ angers, phasers

and reverb can all add a sense of movement to help ﬁ ll out any holes in the

mix. Again, as with most instruments in this genre, compression is generally

not required on pads since they’ll already be compressed at the source, but a

noise gate can be used creatively to model the sound. For instance, set a low

threshold and use an immediate attack and release; the pad will start and stop

abruptly, producing a ‘sampled’ effect that cannot be replicated through syn-

thesis parameters. What’s more, if you set the hold time to zero and adjust the

threshold so that it lies just above the volume of the timbre, the gate will ‘chat-

ter’, which can be used to interesting effect.

ARRANGEMENT

As touched upon in the musical analysis, chill out is incredibly diverse, and

pretty much anything with a slow tempo and a laid-back feel could be classi-

ﬁ ed as part of the genre. Consequently, the arrangement of the music can fol-

low any structure you feel suits. In fact, as this genre is so varied, it’s difﬁ cult to

point out globally accepted arrangements, and the best way to obtain a good

representation of how to arrange the track is to listen to what are considered

the classics and then copy them. This isn’t stealing, it’s research and nearly

every musician on the planet follows this same route. As a helping hand, how-

ever, we’ll look at one of the popular structures used by this genre, based on

the same principle as most popular music.

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Most popular music is constructed of around ﬁ ve parts, consisting of the verse,

chorus, bridge, middle eight and occasionally a key change near the end. The verse

is the part of the song where the story is told and a good song will feature around

three or four verses. The chorus is the more exciting part of the music which fol-

lows the verse and is where all the instruments move up a key and give the lis-

tener something to sing along with. The bridge is the break between the verse and

chorus and usually consists of a drum ﬁ ll which leads onto the middle eight of

the track. This, as its name would suggest, is usually eight bars long and is the

break of the track that is often the most exposed segment to the dance musician’s

sampler. Finally, there’s the key change and although not all records will use this,

it consists of shifting the entire song up a key to give the impression that it has

reached its apex. If we break this down in a number of bars, we’re left with:

■ Verse 1 – Commonly 16 bars

■ Chorus – Commonly 8 bars

■ Verse 2 – Commonly 16 bars

■ Chorus – Commonly 8 bars

■ Verse 3 – Commonly 16 bars

■ Chorus – Commonly 8 bars

■ Bridge – Commonly 1 bar

■ Middle eight – Commonly 8 bars

■ Double chorus – Commonly 16 bars

This is, of course, open to artistic license and some artists will play the ﬁ rst two

verses before hitting the chorus. This approach can often help to add excitement

to a track as the listener is expecting to hear the chorus after the ﬁ rst verse. If this

route is taken, even though there may be different vocals employed in the verses,

if they are played one after the other it can become tiresome; so a popular trick is

to add a motif into the second verse to differentiate it from the ﬁ rst.

The data CD contains a full mix of a typical Chill Out track with narration on how it was

constructed. Vocals by Tahlia Lewington.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING

Ultimately, the purpose of this chapter is to give some insight into the produc-

tion of chill out; there is no one deﬁ nitive way to produce the genre. Indeed,

the best way to learn new techniques and production ethics is to actively listen

to the current market leaders and be creative with processing, effects and syn-

thesis. Chorus, delay, reverb, distortion, compression and noise gates are the

most common processors and effects used within chill out, so experiment by

placing these in different orders to create the ‘sound’ you want.

While the arrangement and general premise of each track is generally similar,

it’s this production that differentiates one from the other. With this in mind,

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what follows is a short list of some of the artists that, at the time of writing, are

considered the most inﬂ uential in this area:

■ Aphex Twin (Selected Ambient Works)

■ William Orbit (Excursions in Ambience)

■ Future Sound of London

■ Ministry of Sound ( Chillout Sessions )

■ Groove Armada

Drum ‘n’ Bass

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Pinpointing the foundations of where drum ‘n’ bass originated is difﬁ cult. In a

simple overview, it could be traced back to as simply being a natural development

of jungle; however, jungle was a complex infusion of breakbeat, reggae, dub, hard-

core and artcore. Alternatively, we could look further back to 1969 and suggest that

the very beginnings lay with a little known record by the Winston’s. The B side of

a record entitled Colour Him Father which featured a 6 s drum break – the Amen

Break, taken from the title of the record, Amen Brother – that became the staple basis

for jungle and drum ‘n’ bass for many years. Or it could be traced back to the evolu-

tion of the sampler, offering the capability to cut and chop rhythmic material to cre-

ate the resulting jungle and more reﬁ ned drum ‘n’ bass.

Note: For those who are reading this book cover to cover, we have already dis-

cussed the history of jungle in Chapter 13 (UK Garage), so feel free to skip the

history and move onto the analysis.

We can roughly trace the complex rhythms developed in jungle back to break-

beat, whose foundations can be traced back to the 1970s. Kool Herc, a hip-hop

DJ began experimenting on turntables by playing only the exposed drum loops

(breaks) and continually alternating between two records, spinning back one

while the other played and vice versa. This created a continual loop of purely

drum rhythms allowing the breakdancers to show off their skills. DJs such as

Grand Wizard Theodore and Afrika Bambaataa began to copy this style, add-

ing their own twists by playing two copies of the same record but delaying one

against the other, resulting in more complex asynchronous rhythms.

It was early 1988 and the combined evolution of the sampler and the rave

scene that really sparked the breakbeat revolution. Acid house artists began

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’ It became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle

music

– a six-second clip that spawned several entire

subcultures … ’

Nate Harrison

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to sample the breaks in records, cutting and chopping the beats together to

produce more complex breaks that were impossible for any real drummer to

play naturally. As these breaks became more and more complex, a new genre

evolved known as hardcore. Shifting away from the standard 4/4 loops of typi-

cal acid house, it featured lengthy complex breaks and harsh energetic sounds

that were just too ‘hardcore’ for the other ravers.

Although initially scorned by the media and record companies as drug-induced

rubbish that wouldn’t last more than a few months, by 1992 the entire rave

scene was being absorbed in the commercial media machines. Riding on this

‘ new wave for the kids ’, record companies no longer viewed it as rubbish but

a cash cow and proceeded to dilute the market with a continuous ﬂ ow of

watered down rave music. Rave became commercialized and this was taking its

toll on the nightclubs.

In response to the commercialization, in 1992 two resident DJ’s – Fabio and

Grooverider – pushed the hardcore sound to a new level by increasing the

speed of the records from the usual 120 –145 BPM. The inﬂ uences of house and

techno were dropped and quickly replaced with ragga and dancehall, result-

ing in mixes with fast complex beats and a deep bass. Although jungle didn’t

exist as a genre just yet, these faster rhythms mixed with deep basses inspired

artists to push the boundaries further and up the tempo to a more staggering

160–180 BPM.

To some, the term jungle was attributed to racism but the name was derived

from the 1920s. It was used on ﬂ yers to describe music produced by Duke

Ellington. This featured exotic fast drum rhythms and when Rebel MC sampled

an old dancehall track with the lyrics ‘Alla the Junglists ’, jungle became synony-

mous with music that had a fast beat and a deep throbbing bass. This was fur-

ther augmented with pioneers of the genre such as Moose and Danny Jungle.

Jungle enjoyed a good 3 –4 years of popularity before it began to show

a decline. In 1996 the genre diversiﬁ ed into drum ‘n’ bass as artists such as

Goldie, Reprazent, Ed Rush and LTJ Bukem began to incorporate new sounds

and cleaner production ethics into the music. Goldie and Rob Playford are

often credited with initiating the move from the jungle sound to drum ‘n’ bass

with the release of the album Timeless .

Of course, jungle still exists today and by some jungle and drum ‘n’ bass are

viewed as one and the same but to most, jungle has been vastly overshadowed

by the more controlled production and deep basses of ‘pure’ drum ‘n’ bass.

MUSICAL ANALYSIS

Examining drum ‘n’ bass in a musical style is more difﬁ cult than examining its

roots since it has become a hugely diversiﬁ ed genre. On one end of the scale it

can be heavily inﬂ uenced with acoustic instruments while on the other it will

only feature industrial or synthetic sounds. Nevertheless, there are some general-

izations that all drum ‘n’ bass records share that can be examined in more detail.

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Typically a drum ‘n’ bass tempo will remain between 165 and 185 BPM,

although in more recent instances the tempo has sat around 175 –180 BPM.

Generally speaking, a snare will remain on beats 2 and 4 of the bar to help

keep the listener or dancer in time, while the kick drum will dance around

this snare. The bass often plays at one-quarter or half time of the drum tempo,

again to keep the dancer ‘in time ’. It should be noted, however, that the more

complex the drum rhythm is, the faster the music will appear to be. Therefore,

it’s prudent to keep the loop relatively simple if the tempo is higher or rela-

tively complex if the tempo is lower.

Much of the progression of this genre comes from careful development of the

drum rhythms, not necessarily a change in the rhythm itself but from applying

pitch effects, ﬂ angers, phasers and ﬁ lters as the mix progresses. Much in the

way that techno uses the mixing desk as a creative tool so does drum ‘n’ bass

with the EQ employed to enhance the rhythmic variations and harmonic con-

tent between them.

To the uninitiated, drum ‘n’ bass may be seen to only include drum rhythms

and a bass, but very few tracks are constructed from just these elements. Indeed,

although these play a signiﬁ cant role in the genre, it also features other instru-

mentation such as guitars or synthesis chords, sound effects and vocals.

PROGRAMMING

The obvious place to start is to begin by shaping the drum rhythm, and the

timbres are more often than not sourced from sample CDs or other records.

Single hits from sample CDs can be imported directly into the sequencer and

arranged, while drum loops are often imported and cut into individual hits.

It is important to note that not all the individual hits from a drum loop must be

used, and even if it only results in a single snare hit, it has served its purpose.

For this genre it is preferable to make your own kick and snare, since these can

be pitched up and down to help achieve the sound typical of the genre. Being

able to pitch these instruments up and down when the rest of the instrumenta-

tion is in place will also help to clear the mix. Nevertheless, you will need to

sample from a record (legally) or from a sample CD to later complete the loop

and give it the requisite feel.

Snares are possibly best laid down ﬁ rst, and these can be created in most syn-

thesizers provided they feature white noise. Using a triangle wave in the ﬁ rst

oscillator, select white noise for the second and set the amp EG to a zero attack,

sustain and release and then use the decay parameter to set the length of the

snare. Generally, in drum ‘n’ bass, the snare is particularly ‘snappy ’ and often

pitched up the keyboard to give the impression of a sampled sound having its

frequency increased within the sampler.

If possible, employ a different amp EG for both the noise and the triangle

wave. By doing so, the triangle wave can be kept quite short and swift with a

fast decay, while the noise can be made to ring a little further by increasing

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its decay parameter. This, however, should never be made too long since the

snares should remain snappy. If the snare has too much bottom end, employ

a high- pass, band-pass or notch ﬁ lter depending on the type of sound you

require. Notching out the middle frequencies will create a clean snare sound

that’s commonly used in this genre. Further modiﬁ cation is possible using a

pitch envelope to positively modulate both oscillators. This will result in the

sound pitching upwards towards the end, giving a brighter snappier feel to the

timbre.

The kick can again be sampled or created in any competent synthesizer. Kicks

are initially made from a sine wave, but the frequency will determine the

kick’s body. Since the bass timbre is generally quite heavy in drum ‘n’ bass, the

kick is best programmed around 100 –150 Hz. Using an attack/decay EG, mod-

ulate the pitch of sine wave with a maximum positive depth setting and an

immediate attack and short release. The timbre can be further modiﬁ ed by

adding a square wave pitched down with a very fast ampliﬁ er attack and decay

setting to produce a short sharp click. The amount that this wave is pitched

down will depend entirely on the sound you want to produce, so it’s sensible

to layer it over the top of the sine wave and then pitch it up or down until the

transient of the kick sounds right for the genre. The timbre will also probably

beneﬁ t from some compression; experiment by setting the compressor so that

the attack misses the transient but grips the decay stage. Increasing the gain of

the compressor can make the timbre more powerful.

Whether sampled or synthesized, the snare is generally placed on bars 2 and 4

of the loop, and the kick can then be programmed to play around these snares.

A good starting point is to place a kick on the ﬁ rst beat of the bar, followed

by a beat just before the snare and two beats directly after. Adding two kicks

on the next bar, followed by another kick before the snare and one after can

produce a good place to start. It is a case of experimenting with placing kicks

around the snares. But bear in mind that the more kicks that play around the

snare positions the faster the rhythm will appear, so it is a case of experimenta-

tion until you produce an initial loop that capture the essence you’re looking

for ( Figure 18.1 ).

Although this generally provides a good starting pattern, any further loops

should generally be sampled for either a sample CD or another record (legally,

of course). It is unusual to sample a loop from another drum ‘n’ bass record

but rather from a record of a different genre such as rock music. The amen loop

sampled by so many artists in this genre was never a drum and bass rhythm; it

was simply employed and mixed with a pre-programmed loop to produce the

feel of the music. If you do use a sample, you will not require the kick in from

the sample. Contrary to popular belief, drum ‘n’ bass does not use multiple

layered kicks but instead relies on just one kick and derives much of its com-

plexity from differing hi-hat/percussion rhythms. Generally speaking, it is not

unusual to layer 5 –6 differing percussive elements under the kick and snare to

produce the feel.

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The kicks in any sampled loops can be removed via wave editing/sequencing

software; however, a better approach is to employ an EQ unit to roll off the

bottom end of the loop. This removes the body of kick and much of the body

of the snare just leaving the higher percussive elements to the mix and allow-

ing the originally programmed kick and snare to take prominence in the loop.

A typical example of a drum loop is shown in Figure 18.2 .

FIGURE 18.1

The beginnings of a

loop

FIGURE 18.2

A drum ‘ n ’ bass loop

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Note that in the above example, many of the sampled loops actually land on

the beat, rather they are all offset slightly. This helps them to combine more

freely with the initially created loop, creating thicker textures as the sounds

play slightly earlier or later than the ﬁ rst loop, thus preventing the loops from

becoming too metronomic and adding a more breakbeat feel to the rhythm.

The principle is to create a series of loops, each of which focuses on a different

timbre to carry the loop forwards. It is also worthwhile experimenting by mix-

ing loops with different time signatures together. For instance, two 4/4 loops

mixed with two 3/4 loops can produce results that cannot be easily acquired

any other way.

Although for this example we’ve only discussed a limited number of loops, you

should feel free to programme and layer as many loops together as you feel are

necessary to accomplish the overall sound. This can range from using just three

to layering over eight together and then progressively reducing the content of

each until you are left with harmonically rich and interesting rhythm. The lay-

ering of these should also not just be restricted to dropping them dead atop

one another, and in many cases moving one of two of the loops forward or

back in time from the rest can be used to good effect.

While some producers frown on using compression on a drum ‘n’ bass rhythm,

there is certainly no harm in applying it, either creatively or naturally. Applying

compression how it is ‘supposed’ to be used can often aid in controlling the

rhythms and result in a more well-produced loop, aiding the various elements

to sit together as a whole. Generally compression of this nature should be

applied lightly, with a threshold that just captures the transients, a low ratio

and a quick attack and release. If applied in a more creative way, it can often

breathe new life into the rhythm. A trick sometimes employed is to access the

compressor as a send effect.

With a medium threshold setting and a high ratio, the returned signal can be

added to the uncompressed signal. You can then experiment with the attack

and release parameters to produce rhythm that gels with the rest of the instru-

ments. If you do not have access to a valve compressor, then sending the signal

to the PSP Vintage Warmer or Sonalksis TBK3 Uber Compressor can often add

more harmonics to the signal.

THE BASS

The second, vital element of drum ‘n’ bass is the bass. Generally speaking,

the bass consists of notes that play at either one quarter or half the tempo

of the drum rhythm. This is accomplished through using length bass notes,

set at one quarter, half or full notes and sometimes straddling over the bars

of the drum loop. The notes of the bass usually remain with an octave and

rarely move further than this to prevent the music from becoming too

active and deterring the listener from the rhythmic interaction of the drums

(Figure 18.3 ).

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In the above example, the bass remains within an octave, exhibiting a slow

movement to counteract the speed set by the drum rhythm. Note also in the

above example a secondary note overlaps the ﬁ rst. Using pitch bend, this cre-

ates a timbre that rises into the next note, and it’s this type of movement that

creates some interest in the bass.

Indeed, since the bass notes are kept quite lengthy, it is not uncommon to

employ some movement in the bass to maintain interest. This is often accom-

plished through ﬁ lters or pitch modulation. Since the bass in this genre is sup-

posed to remain deep and earth shaking, a sine wave makes the perfect starting

point for this timbre.

If you programmed your own kick drum, as described earlier, try copying the

preset over to another bank and lengthen the decay and release parameter of

the amp envelope. If you sampled the drum kick instead, use a single oscillator

set to a sine wave and positively modulate its pitch with an attack/decay enve-

lope. Then experiment with the synthesizer’s amplitude envelopes. This should

only be viewed as a starting point and, as always, you should experiment with

the various modulation options on the synthesizer to create some movement

in the sound.

As an example of a typical drum ‘n’ bass timbre, using a sine wave, set the

ampliﬁ ers attack to zero and increase the decay setting while listening back to

the programmed motif until it produces an interesting rhythm. Next, modu-

late the pitch by a couple of cents using an envelope set to a slow attack and

medium decay. This will create a bass timbre where the note bends slightly as

FIGURE 18.3

A typical bass line