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

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PART 2

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it’s played. Alternatively, you can use an LFO set to a sine wave with a slow rate

and set it to start at the beginning of every note.

Experimentation is the key, changing the attack, decay and release of the amp

or/and ﬁ lter EG from linear to convex or concave will also create new varia-

tions. For example, the decay to a convex slope setting will produce a more

rounded bass timbre. Similarly, small amounts of controlled distortion or very

light ﬂ anging can also add movement.

Alongside the synthetic basses, many drum ‘n’ bass tracks will employ a real

bass. More often than not these are sampled from other records – commonly

dancehall or raga, but they are also occasionally taken from sample CDs rather

than programmed in MIDI. Provided that you have (a) plenty of patience, (b)

a willingness to learn MIDI programming and (c) a good tone or bass module

(such as Spectrasonics Trilogy, EW QL Collosus or any professional MIDI tone

module), it is possible to programme a realistic bass that could fool most lis-

teners. This not only prevents any problems with clearing copyright but it also

allows you to model the bass to your needs.

Programming a realistic bass has already been covered in detail within the

chapter on house, but if you’ve jumped directly to this chapter what follows is

a rundown on how to programme a realistic sounding bass instrument.

The key to programming any real instrument is to take note of how they’re

played and then emulate this action with MIDI and a series of CC com-

mands. In this case, most bass guitars use the ﬁ rst four strings of a normal

guitar E –A–D–G, which are tuned an octave lower, resulting in the E being

close to three octaves below middle C. Also they are monophonic, not poly-

phonic, so the only time notes will actually overlap is when the resonance of

the previous string is still dying away as the next note is plucked. This effect

can be emulated by leaving the preceding note playing for a few ticks while

the next note in the sequence has started. The strings can either be plucked

or struck and the two techniques produce different results. If the string is

plucked, the sound is much brighter and has a longer resonance than if it

were simply struck. To copy this, the velocity will need to be mapped to the

ﬁ lter cut-off of the bass module so that higher values open the ﬁ lter more.

Not all notes will be struck at the same velocity, though. If the bassist is play-

ing a fast rhythm the consecutive notes will commonly have less velocity

since he has to move his hand and pluck the next string quickly. Naturally,

this is only a guideline and you should edit each velocity value until it pro-

duces a realistic feel.

Depending on the ‘bassist’, they may also use a technique known as ‘hammer

on’ whereby they play a string and then hit a different pitch on the fret. This

results in the pitch changing without actually being accompanied with another

pluck of the string. To emulate this, you’ll need to make use of pitch bend.

First set the pitch bend to a maximum limit of 2 semitones, since guitars don’t

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‘bend’ any further than this. Begin by programming 2 notes, for instance an

E0 followed by an A0 and leave the E0 playing underneath the successive A0

for around a hundred ticks. At the very beginning of the bass track, drop in

a pitch bend message to ensure that it’s set midway (i.e. no pitch bend) and

just before where the second note occurs, drop in another pitch bend mes-

sage to bend the tone up to A0. If this is programmed correctly, on play back

you’ll notice that as the E0 ends the pitch will bend upwards to A0 simulat-

ing the effect. Although this could be left as is, it’s sensible to drop in a CC11

message (expression) directly after the pitch bend as this will reduce the

overall volume of the second note so that it doesn’t sound like it has been

plucked. In addition to this, it’s also worthwhile employing some fret noise

and ﬁ nger slides. Most good tone modules will include fret noise that can be

dropped in between the notes to emulate the bassist’s ﬁ ngers sliding along the

fret board.

As the rhythmic movement and interaction with the bass and rhythms provide

the basis for this genre, it’s recommended that you also experiment by apply-

ing effects to the bass timbre. While most effects should be avoided since they

tend to spread the sound across the image, in this genre the bass is one of the

most important parts of the music. Small amounts of delay can create interest-

ing ﬂ uctuations, as can ﬂ angers, phasers and distortion.

As with the drum rhythms, creative compression can also help in attaining an

interesting bass timbre. As before, try accessing 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 an interesting bass tone. Alternatively, try

pumping the bass with one of the rhythms. Set the compressor to capture the

transients of a percussive loop and use it pump the bass by experimenting with

the attack, ratio and release parameters.

CHORDS

Many aﬁ cionados of the genre recommend only using minor chords to act as a

harmony, although more recently major chords have been making an appear-

ance. This, as always, depends upon your artistic interpretation, but it is gener-

ally accepted that minor chords produce better results than major which can

tend to lift the music too much.

Generally speaking, chords in A minor can produce good results. The move-

ment of the chords can often work well when contrasted with the bass line.

This can be accomplished by copying the bass line down to another sequencer

track and converting this new track into a chord. Once created, when the

bass moves up in pitch, move the chords down in pitch and vice versa

(Figure 18.4 ).

If you’re struggling understanding how to build a minor chord, what follows

are some typical minor chords to get you started:

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G –Bb–D

A –C–E

B –D–F#

C# –E–G#

Eb –Gb–Bb

Gb –A–Db

Ab –B–Eb

Bb –Db–F

With a general idea of the chord structure down, you can programme (or

sample) a string to ﬁ t. A good starting point for programming a drum ‘n’ bass

string can be created by mixing a triangle and square wave together and detun-

ing one of the oscillators from the other by 3 –5 cents. Set the amps attack to

zero with a medium sustain and release. Set the ﬁ lter envelope to a long attack,

sustain with a medium release and short decay. Set the ﬁ lter cut-off quite low

and the resonance about midway, then modulate the pitch of either the trian-

gle or, square wave with a sine wave set to a slow rate with a medium depth. If

the string is going to continue for a length of time it’s worthwhile employing

a sine, pulse or triangle wave LFO to modulate the ﬁ lters cut-off to help main-

tain interest. As always, this should only be considered as a starting point, and

experimentation is the key to gaining good results.

Effects can also play an important role in creating interesting strings for the

genre, although these should be used conservatively so as not to detract from

the bass rhythm. Often, wide chorus effects, rotary speaker simulations, ﬂ ang-

ers, phasers and reverb can all help to add a sense of interest. A compressor can

also be used creatively to model the sound. For instance, if you put a threshold

to capture the kick drums transient and use an immediate attack and release,

FIGURE 18.4

A minor chord

progression

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the pad will pump in volume on every kick, producing an interesting ‘sampled’

effect that cannot be replicated through synthesis parameters.

VOCALS AND SOUND FX

One ﬁ nal aspect yet to cover is the addition of sound effects and vocals. The

vocals within drum ‘n’ bass more often than not consist of little more than a

short vocal snippets; however, there have been some more commercial drum

‘n’ bass mixes that have featured a verse/chorus progression. It seems to be a

point of contention among many drum ‘n’ bass producers as to whether a verse/

chorus is actually part of the genre or is in fact diversifying again to produce a

new genre of music. Others, however, believe that it’s simply a watered down,

commercialized version of the music made solely for the purpose of proﬁ t mar-

gins. Nevertheless, whether you choose to use a few snippets of vocals, some

ragga or MC’ing, or a more commercialized vocal performance is entirely up to

you. It’s musicians pushing boundaries that reaps the greatest rewards.

The sound effects can obviously be generated by whatever means necessary, from

sampling and contorting sounds or samples with effects and EQ. For contorting

audio, the Mutronics Mutator, Sherman Filterbank 2, the Camelspace range of plug-

ins and Steinbergs GRM Tools are almost a requisite for creating strange evolv-

ing timbres. The effects and processing applied are, of course, entirely open to

artistic license as the end result is to create anything that sounds good and ﬁ ts

within the mix. Transient designers can be especially useful in this genre as they

permit you to remove the transients of the percussive rhythms which can evolve

throughout the track with some thoughtful automation. Similarly, heavy com-

pression can be used to squash the transient of the sounds, and with the aid of

a spectral analyser you can identify the frequencies that contribute to the sound

while removing those surrounding it. Alternatively, pitch-shift individual notes

up and by extreme amounts, or apply heavy chorus or ﬂ angers/phasers to singu-

lar hi-hats or snares, or try time stretching followed by time compression to add

some digital clutter and then mix this with the other loops.

ARRANGEMENT

Drum ‘n’ bass arrangement can follow a number of diverse paths, from the

typical verse/chorus structure of the more commercialized music to the adap-

tation and interrelationship between all of the elements together to create the

arrangement. The latter approach consists of dropping different rhythms in and

out of the mix, along with the bass, vocals and sound effects. The ideals are not

so much to create a track that builds to a crescendo or climax but rather stays

on one constant rhythmical level that warps from one rhythmically interesting

collective to another. This is accomplished through ﬁ lters and effects and not

by introducing new melodic elements.

The more commercialized approach is to use ﬁ ve-part arrangement typical of

most popular music tracks: verse, chorus, bridge, middle eight and occasion-

ally a key change near the end. The verse is the part of the song where the story

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is told, and a good song will feature around three or four verses. The chorus is

the more exciting part of the music which follows the verse and is where all the

instruments move up a key and give the listener 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 8 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.

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

verses before hitting the chorus. However, with so much diversity in the genre

and arrangements, the best solution is to listen to what are considered the clas-

sics and then copy them. This isn’t stealing, its research and nearly every musi-

cian on the planet follows this same route.

The data CD contains a full mix of a typical Drum ‘n’ Bass track with narration on how it

was constructed.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING

Ultimately, as with all the chapters in this section, its purpose is not to tell you

how to write or produce a speciﬁ c genre. Rather it should be seen as offering

a few basic starting ideas that you can evolve from. There is no one deﬁ nitive

way to produce any genre, and the best way to learn new techniques and pro-

duction ethics is to actively listen to the current market leaders and experiment.

With this in mind, what follows is a short list (and by no means exhaustive) of

artists that are considered inﬂ uential in this area:

■ Goldie

■ 2 Bad Mice

■ 4 Hero

■ Adam F

■ Alex Reece

■ Aphex twin

■ Aphrodite

■ Aquasky

■ Benga

■ Crystal Clear

■ Cyantiﬁ c

■ Crossﬁ re

■ Current Value

■ Danny Breaks

■ Danny Byrd

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■ Dara

■ Donny

■ Doubleclick

■ Fabio

■ Goldie

■ Gridlok

■ Grooverider

■ Hyper on Experience

■ Hype

■ Lamb

■ LTJ Bukem

■ Phase2

■ Photek

■ Reprazent

■ Resonance

■ Dope Dragon Labels

■ Roni Size

■ Jumping Jack Frost

■ DJ Hype

■ Andy C

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PART

Mixing & Promotion

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Mixing

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Mixing is viewed by many as the most complex procedure involved in produc-

ing a dance record, but the truth of the matter is 99.9% of the time a poor mix

isn’t a result of the mixing process but a culmination of factors before anything

even reaches the mixing desk.

If you’ve taken care in producing the track throughout, then when it eventually

comes to mixing you’ll ﬁ nd that the music has more or less mixed itself and all

that is required is gentle use of EQ, volume and effects to polish the results.

It is incredibly important to bear in mind that the mixing desk is simply a tool

used to position instruments in the mix and allow you to add a very small ﬁ nal

sparkle. So, before you even touch the desk the only problem should be that

you can’t hear some of the instruments too clearly. Apart from that, the mix

should otherwise sound just as you imagined it would. Thus, before we even

touch upon the use of faders, EQ and effects in mixing, you need to go back and

examining what you have so far.

Generally, a poor ‘pre-mix’ is created by one or all of the following:

■ Poor recording, programming or choice of timbre/sample.

■ Poor-quality effects, or use of effects when programming.

■ Poor arrangement or MIDI programming.

We’ve touched upon the importance of all of these in earlier chapters; at this

stage you should go back and check everything one ﬁ nal time to ensure that

everything sounds the best it possibly can. If you’re unhappy with any of the

timbres, re-program or replace them. It is vital at this stage that you not settle

Mixing

CHAPTER 19

’ The ideas for “ A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain

That Rules From the Centre of the Ultra World

” were

there weeks before, but the mix itself took twenty

minutes … ’

Alex Patterson