How is dubstep performed live

Your choice of lead sound can play a vital role in your music. If you apply a similar rhythm to the MIDI sequence of your lead, it will work well with the overall swing of the track. Alternatively, adding a contrasting rhythm to your lead will help provide the feeling of a shuffle. Playing one sound off another will also help the narrative element of your track. As with Massive, most synths will have a wealth of presets to gain ideas from.

Choosing complementary sounds when balancing your leads and bass lines is important. You can apply the same techniques for leads as for bass lines, such as detuning, glides and automating filter cutoffs.

Pads should have plenty of stereo width and movement, so layering extra sounds and adding reverb and delay prior to bouncing the audio will help. As well as layered audio, you can use a sampler for manipulating vocal cuts or your own recordings in a similar fashion. You can also experiment with reverb and delay as auxiliary send effects. As the name suggests, dubstep takes influences from dub reggae, notably the heavy use of delay and reverb.

Here's a typical dub delay effects chain in Live. Ultimately, there is no set method for making dubstep, because dubstep is a freeform artistic style, and this encourages a lot of people to try their hand at making it.

The techniques I've explained in this article should open up some of the most commonly used effects, and hopefully offer some help to people interested in producing this kind of music. The thriving dubstep community tends to welcome innovation and fresh ideas, and it's this openness that continues to propel the music forward. Emalkay: "If I've already got a good idea in mind like a bass line or catchy riff, I'll lay that down first.

Otherwise I tend to start with the beats. Ikonika: "I usually start with the melodies, record and write them all out. The chords are usually next, then everything else after. LV: "Things tend to come together in clumps. Say, a bass lick and a drum idea that go well together, or a couple of chords and some notes. Emalkay: "I've been into swing and syncopation big time lately.

The way I go about it is to make it sound as natural as possible if I'm using sampled instruments, so I'll throw a bit of randomisation in there, and make sure I nudge the notes between the eights manually so it doesn't sound wooden.

Ikonika: "I try not to clutter my beats with too many sounds and hits. To get the right groove I just play them out on my keyboard and quantise when I need to. Emalkay: "I love tube distortion and clipping on any sort of bass line, even the sub if I have to.

Ikonika: "Add some modulation — maybe a little flanger — that just gives your bass lines a silky movement. Keep it simple. Emalkay: "A good amount of space between the frequencies works well ie. Cooly G: "When I mix it's all by ear and has got to sound right, which then has that space and depth naturally. When you start making a track, are there any elements you naturally work on first? Buy PDF version. Previous article Next article. The event's success spawned more festivals in other American cities, like Smog in Los Angeles, as well as events in Miami, San Francisco and elsewhere.

With the low cost and easy accessbility of recording software available to aspiring dubstep producers, the genre spread to places like Japan, Australia and Brazil. Mainstream record producers latched onto the sound, as well. Even pop star Britney Spears incorporated the genre's tropes into two of her singles. Big-name music festivals like Bonnaroo, Coachella and Burning Man host dubstep performances.

In , two gatherings devoted to electronic dance music -- Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas and Ultra Music Festival in Miami -- drew more than , attendees combined [source: Mason ]. And since the tempos sync up nicely with hip-hop tracks, it is not uncommon to see dubstep remixes of rap songs. The entry of dubstep into the American mainstream spawned a sub-genre called "brostep. Perhaps in response, a separate wing of avant garde artists has tailored moodier, more rhythmic types of dubstep less concerned with danceability.

Another permutation sometimes called "lovestep" incorporates female vocals and tempos reminiscent of s love ballads [source: Ricciardi]. Some musicians borrow elements from other niches of the electronic music world, while others borrow from wholly different genres, from classical to heavy metal to hip-hop.

So, while dubstep has its own aural conventions, like any other genre of music, it isn't bound by them. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. How Dubstep Works. See more pictures of music festivals. The Breakdown: The Basics of Dubstep " ". Bass line.

A heavy, persistent low end or low-pitched bass is a staple of the genre, and dubstep is perhaps best identified by its ''wobble. Traditional dubstep also incorporates sub-bass -- tones at the lowest audible frequencies. Depending on this you will find yourself looking into different types of equipment. If this is about adding flavours to your own productions, get a mixer and route your channels from a DAW through the mixer so you can use it with the effects. Get to know what each device is fully capable of before buying more equipment.

Always learn and experiment. A true love for reggae and sound system music was developed at an early age, culminating in the inception of Mexican Stepper in to fulfil the desire of contributing to the music in his own way. After a year of intense learning, Mexican Stepper published his first EP whilst continuing his output both in terms of releasing regular new music and performing around the world. I use Reason Studios 10 from Propellerheads to manipulate my sounds live and create beats on the fly.

All DAW's are good; all of them have advantages and their limitations. It depends more about what kind of workflow is more comfortable for you. What I do is I make several repetitions of the tune, with the goal to study different perspectives and possibilities of how the tune can be mixed, then in a live setting you already have an idea of where to go, where to improvise and then can go back easily to the base pattern. His bass driven music has been gaining support from the likes of Mala and N-Type , and recently he has been stepping into the realm of live performance to add to his growing repertoire.

So far I have found the mixing console to be the most integral part of the set up as it provides the most amount of versatility in terms of what synths, drum machines or outboard FX you want to use at any one time. With all of that said, you still have unmatched versatility with what you can do within a given piece of music when you have all the elements to play with. A passionate writer with diverse interests, an eclectic range of styles and over 5 years of experience writing for the likes of global music festivals, market leading technology companies and national arts and lifestyle outlets.

Aron is also a professional music producer and runs his own record label Bare Bones. Over the past 7 years he has had multiple releases that have been supported both in the UK and Internationally e. In this section of the blog you will find recording advice, tips and tricks from fellow artists and music producers. Interested in writing a story for this section as a guest or joining the Musicngear team as a Contributing Author?

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