Playlist is up! A tribute to the depth & breadth of the masters of the KPM Music Library, as mediated through the manic minds of the 'lectronauts massive:
And extra special thanks to @alexleigh83 for taking the time to give these a little mixing and mastering love to bring a bit more flow to the playlist.
Players, please have your votes in by the end of day on November 14th! Judging rules will be posted right below this one!
ALL VOTES MUST BE IN BY END OF DAY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14th!
• You can only vote if you contributed a track to the battle.
• Constructive feedback is strongly encouraged even if you didn’t submit a track! but it won’t count toward the results unless you played!
• As usual, please vote for your top three
(not including your own beat of course):
1st Place =3 pts | 2nd Place =2 pts | 3rd Place =1 pt
• NOTE: YOU MUST VOTE to qualify for the CD,
or it goes to the next-highest vote-getter.
Enjoyed that listen—well done all submitters! I’m a non-voter so I’ll keep my thoughts to myself for now.
What I’d love, after this vote or maybe before the next challenge, is for people to share something like 1 to 3 tracks that epitomises the d’n’b they know and want to make.
Tough to pick, but I’ve managed to narrow down my top three.
1st: Track 7. Such a crisp banger. Couldn’t keep my head still even if I wanted to.
2nd: Track 1. Fun & grooving. A real spongebop.
3rd: Track 4. I enjoyed the upbeat energy & vocal sample.
I really enjoyed listening to the playlist and the different interpretations of the brief / sample material.
Vote wise, it’s a real challenge. I’ve given points based on a combination of the production, how much they felt like drum and bass (to me) and how much I enjoy listening the tracks. With different parameters I could vote completely differently and choose a whole different top 3.
3 points - track 1. Well mixed, great low end, would stand up to commercial tunes in a mix
2 points - track 2. Great sample work and keeps the interest up through the track.
1 point - track 3. I really like the vibe and minimal energy of this one, particularly the throbbing bassline
I’ve got loads of comments on all the tracks that I’ll put up after scores are in.
1st: 7 : this track slaps. The wubly bass, the hard hitting perc, the arrangement, everything here is great.
2nd: 4: I quite enjoy the dreamy tone here.
3rd 1 : I really like the brass hits on this one.
Congrats to everyone, mentioned here or not, banging playlist.
So I gave all the tracks more than one spin, to be fair. A more detailed feedback will come after the voting.
My votes:
1st: Track 1 - I like the modern sounds, production is top and the tracks bangs.
2nd: Track 7 - It’s tough call - I see track 1 and track 7 quite close. Track 7 has a “London Electricity” - vibe.
3rd: Track 2 - Closer to the challenge with more and longer samples than the other tracks. A lot of variety.
HM: Tack 8 - Very experimental - I like the vibe and the sample work.
I’ve been enjoying listening to this as I bike around town on errands this week. It’s all really good music to coast down a palisade or climb up a big hill.
Hard to put these in an order, but here goes:
1st: Track 4. I loved the Reading Rainbow vocal and overall feel. Lots of fun glitching. Overall good vibes.
2nd: Track 1. Strong use of that “Planet Earth” sample, which I also tried to use. Also some really cool sound design—those industrial grinding/wooshing noises are great.
3rd: Track 2. I loved the quality of the electric piano sound here. Drums, too. I would’ve waited a little further into the intro before bringing the drums in, though. I think you could’ve let that tension build more at the start.
HM: Track 5. This almost made it to #3 for me, but I wish the different sections meshed together a little more smoothly.
#1 Track 1 - I just liked the energy this track has. nice blend of modern sound design and traditional sample chopping.
#2 Track 2 - Great job chopping and using the samples. Kept me interested the whole track
#3 Track 7 - Well done. besides the intro, i didn’t really hear any samples(?) If there was more of the KLM stuff in here this would be #1 for me. Great job with the synths though!
Alright, the votes are all in and tallied, so let’s get right to it!
CHAMPION TITLE
belongs to @Symian
for track 1, “Eternity Later”
with 16 points!
2nd Place
goes to @alexleigh83
for track 7, “Wizards”
with 12 points!
3rd place
goes to @maxwellthen
for track 2, “Librarian’s Lament”
with 11 points!
Thanks so much to everyone for participating and listening!
And once again big ups to alex for helping with mastering the playlist.
Stay tuned for the next Drum & Bass/Jungle Battle Mission Brief,
arriving THIS WEEKEND!
In the meantime, feel free to keep this thread going with your (constructive!) feedback, track breakdowns, struggles, goals, alternate takes, abandoned sketches, and whatnot. -KD
Wow thanks so much again for the generous hosting @KingDuppy and thanks everyone for the votes and feedback, it’s my birthday tomorrow so this is a great early present, again great job everyone repping dnb on the board…
Congrats everyone! Honored to score the 3rd place!
1st and 2nd were very well deserved, glad to see my favorite tracks made it.
Thanks again to @KingDuppy for keeping these going and @alexleigh83 for the mastering!
My track was made entirely on the M8 (a bit hastily I might add). Just used a few break & drum samples, and then about 8 random snippets from a variety of the tracks posted in the thread. Looking back, I would have liked to give it a bit more time, maybe add proper bass, and adjust the structure a bit. Overall, though, I feel like the minimal production kinda worked in my favor. If anyone’s interested, I’m leaving the project file here to check out: DNBKPM.zip (8.4 MB)
Congrats guys! Well deserved (somehow my votes are identical with the final result, at least I got this right ).
My track was no. 5. My challenge was getting some samples. Not that your choices were bad, but I wanted to sample my selection… I ended up with a few bongos, a brass part and some kind of ambient swell. (I have to look them up later, not sitting in front of my computer).
This time I tried to use the beat repeat effect in Ableton to create more movement with the drums.
I was also happy with me trying not to rely too much on melodic elements. Instead I wanted to rely more on sound design and drum variation. @KingDuppy your comment is completely right: my transitions should have been done smoother with more impact.
Another challenge of mine was the following : I changed my pads last minute (which I overused in hindsight nevertheless ). Not only the chord progression but also the instrument/patch itself.l, because I didn’t like it.
Technically everything was done with Ableton, Wavetable for pads, bass and arp sound. Stock effects like Glue Compressor, Eq8, and Drum Bus.
CHAMPION TITLE 
2nd Place 
3rd place 
).