whoa there kids didn't know there was a "speak english or die" trend going on here. i'll know better than to talk in my jibber tongue next time, don't wanna come off as un-american, ya know?
ANYWAY.
For all of you that wanna make beats like squarepusher or matmos or whoever, i'll break it down for for ya.
Matmos:
This is pretty simple, most of their beats (i'm talking pre-civil war, ie chance to cut... and quasi-objects) are just basic 4/4 funky beats. they're not that different from hip hop beats, really, maybe in the 100-110 bpm, but their whole technique is using found samples and shit like that. sample a cat meowing or your girlfriend screaming "hey cut that out!" when you anally penetrate her, and chop it up. Layer it behind a kick or something a bit bassier and use that. Throw a brick at a cop and sample that, pitch it up +120 and use that as a hi hat. just sample random shit and mould it into drum sounds. work from there.
A thing I've noticed about a lot of these idm folks is they use a lot of accentuation and punctuation in their music, like, the beats will change a lot, but they'll always have a moment where everything breaks down and gets a bit more logical, only to get jumbled and messy again. You'll probably wanna use reaktor or some soft synth, generate some ambiences or timestretched breaks and throw those in at some point. Listen to a guy named otto von schirach, he does all his tracks with a mpc and it's complicated as ****, he layers a lot of sounds and also uses some background distraction noises. I know this is kinda thrown together quickly but a) i'm in a hurry, b) the best way to do this is just try it out.
Squarepusher, venetian snares and all those other breakbeat guys:
If you want to get that old school squarepusher sound, sample the amen break, clean it up with a shitload of eq, pitch it up and chop that. Then start making patterns in the step edit. It's real easy to get into a jumbled mess where nothing makes sense, so listen to the way he does it. Sample some squarepusher, pitch it down and listen to the way he works it. You'll want to keep something somewhat constant, say if you're going for a funk vibe, always keep the snare on 2 and 4, and go crazy with change ups in the hi hats during the middle parts. Remove the snare once in a while though, or it will get too repetitive. Also, have differently pitched versions of the same drum sound. This is cool to do in step edit, you can pitch each step differently. For example, have like a hi hat 32nd note ride going, except it gets pitched up +12 ever step. That sounds pretty cool, and you can also work in some quasi-melodies by pitching your drum sounds (there's some good psychological papers written about fooling the brain into thinking a pattern is a melody, but I'll save those for later).
The main secret to a good drill n bass pattern is to chop your break so there's a bit of a tail at the end. Like, you chop the amen with the kick and hat in one hit, and when it's pitched up, hitting the pad triggers both...that way, you'll get a lot of layering and a lot of "organized chaos" if you know what I mean. Playing with velocity helps, but if you're sampling a drum break, it's already pretty natural with the velocity so you shouldn't worry too much about that. Another cool thing to do is have a main pattern break down into a similar pattern, but played in triplets. It throws the listener off with a kinda stutter, and then immediately go back into your original jam. But yeah, change up the pattern a bit, use different versions of the amen break (like use one that is clean, one that is distorted, one that is flanged, one pitched down like whoa and chop them all up into a single program and do your breaks like that.) Practice it, listen to what other artists do and mimick that (listening to their records at half speed is a great way to learn).
There ya go. You don't need any special gear to do this, i do it all on my mpc2kxl, squarepusher did it all on his mpc2000 and a s1000 i think. Look into reaktor, but that's not really necessary. just listen and mimick.
bustin' makes me feel good.
Last edited by sodajerk on Sat May 08, 2004 6:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Can we get a translater plz?!?! This could be some goldmine info
