How to create Drum & Bass tips / advice

zonta · 2014-09-03T21:37:56.000Z

Please give me tips or advice on how to create drum and bass beats on the RYTM. I know that the standard drum and bass tempo is 166bpm and I should record at half of that (83bpm)?. You can post links or any knowledge is appreciated. Thanks.

jamrod · 2014-09-03T22:52:02.000Z

I don’t know much about D&B, but I think most likely you’re going to want to record at 166 rather than half time. You’re going to need that greater resolution.

I’ve been working on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPjpeei-TH0 at 158bpm, but a lot of the time the feel is in halftime. Nice to have 32nd notes readily available.

This article explores half time in D&B

dimi3 · 2014-09-03T23:19:10.000Z

the speed up is based on where the break was taken from. there are a bunch of places to start. getting ideas… one is:

http://www.simonv.com/tutorials/drum_patterns.php

and

http://hattrixx.co.uk/breakbeat/showpage.asp?name=Introduction

J_C_Selector · 2014-09-05T00:35:43.000Z

Re-create the Amen Break .
Bom bom chuck tik a tik a bom chuck tik a

Biome_Digital · 2014-09-05T22:44:46.000Z

Funny actually, I just started a dnb track today. My tempo is 172 bpm though.

So, I will give you a tip. Get all your old funk breaks in your DAW and time stretch them to 172 (or your own tempo 166?) and then batch process them as mono ready for the rytm. Import them and play the loops cutting them up, just taking a kick or snare for example. I done this today and these sounds on the rytm is instant OLDSKOOL!

Loving it!

FreeFall · 2014-09-06T00:53:47.000Z

These are some of my personal tips, but I am far from being a professional.

You have to have the BPM set up somewhere around 155-175 for fills, rolls, and ghost hits. But adding a drum break sample that was recorded at half the BPM to your mix, then pitching it up to double, will give your beat that nice truncated sample feel. Plus, you can “chop” it by adjusting START and END points to create variations. But that’s not totally necessary. I personally like D&B that has more air to it. More space.

Layer kicks to get a unique and powerful sound. Do the same with snares. Your kick and snare are key to the mix. Crank them way up so they have that “punch you in the face” impact. EQ out the lowest frequencies from your kicks so the bass will have room in the mix. Also try keeping the drum sounds really short so they don’t bleed over each other. That will help you get a nice crisp syncopated feel.

Bass is probably the most important thing to focus on. It really is the entire tune in my opinion. You can make a relatively simple drum loop that will work fine throughout an entire track, but the bass has to be super interesting and have lots of character to hold your interest. When you get your bass line swinging in a nice groove with the beat, everything else will fall in around it.

Bass sounds are often comprised of several layers of bass tones: a high bass, a mid bass, and a sub bass. Sandwich them together with EQ and compression, and you’ll be blown away with how exciting it sounds. Try to have each layer working in its own frequency band. Too many low end frequencies competing for space will make things muddy. Make your sub bass the anchor which everything else works around. Lots of track use only a sub bass.

Add little melodies and atmospherics that constantly change. This helps things stay interesting. Unique percussion hits throughout the track also help. D&B is often all about high-drama, so lots of changes in sound and mood can add a lot of impact. For example, an airy pad section followed by a dense tearing bass line section. Go from hot to cold, and back again, in dramatic fashion. Call and response.

I’ve been trying to make decent D&B with my hardware for a little more than a year now. It is much more tricky than using a DAW, but a hell of a lot more fun too. D&B can be extremely dense sonically, so getting things right in the mix is crucial. You just have to be more careful with sound design and how you EQ the sounds within your gear, and don’t rely on the computer to make a shit mix sound better.

Lots to learn!

dimi3 · 2014-09-06T02:46:10.000Z

to follow what @freefall is saying, moving same sound to slightly different sides of balanced can help a lot.

zonta · 2014-09-06T04:45:51.000Z

Thanks for all the info and advice.