Anyone who likes drum & bass music

[chris128]

I started attempting to make my own drum n bass tracks about 3 or 4 weeks ago and I just wondered if anyone who is also into this type of music fancied listening to the 3 tracks I've made so far and giving me some feedback Having never tried to make any kind of music before I'm quite happy with how I'm doing so far, but obviously my stuff is no where near professional quality...

You can listen to (and download if you want) all 3 of them here: http://soundcloud.com/cjwdnb/tracks
Signals is the newest one, and the one I spent the most time on the mixing / EQ but there are still a few bits I'm not really happy with in it in general.
Drift is probably my favourite that I have made so far but its very chilled out and slow for a drum n bass track so might not be to everyone's liking.

Let me know what you think

Cheers
Chris

[si_the_geek]

Drum+bass isn't really my thing, but I like Kosheen (their early work at least), and your style is reasonably close to theirs.

Drift is good, and so is Project 3 (I liked the sound at the end, I think it would be better to have that sound earlier too).

Signals isn't quite right... the mellow section at about 2 mins is too long, and the break just before 4 minutes sounds "wrong" - I think a longer time with just beats would be better.


Overall tho, for early attempts you've done very well.

[TheBigB]

the break just before 4 minutes sounds "wrong" - I think a longer time with just beats would be better.

I think it actually gives it an edge, though I do think Signals should be sped up a little and the baseline just before the break sounds a little weird.

On the whole, awesome tracks

[chris128]

lol yeah the bassline just before the break in Signals annoys me every time I hear it now... I should have just started the bass after the break.

Drift is good, and so is Project 3 (I liked the sound at the end, I think it would be better to have that sound earlier too)

Yeah I find in a lot of my tracks its only the parts near the end I really like but then if I did that all the way through it would be boring - I guess I just need to learn to make all of it better so I'm not just saving the only decent bits until the end.

Thanks for the feedback anyway guys - I'll probably try making another one this weekend or next weekend so I might stick a link to it here to see what you think

[mendhak]

I think it's pretty good, you sound pretty talented! Since I'm someone who has no idea about what riffs and baselines and all those other words are, all I can comment on is whether I liked listening to it or not. I liked the first two, third was alright, though it grows on you a bit.

Why have you uploaded wav files instead of MP3s? Now I'll have to find something to convert to MP3...

And if you do work on something *I* will be waiting for the link

Thanks for that, Chris from Grimsby.

[chris128]

haha no problem mendhak from Ulaan Baator.

As for uploading WAVs instead of MP3s - its because the software I use to make the tracks (Reason 4) only exports to WAV. I was surprised there was no MP3 option as well but I just found that some video editing software I've got can save files as MP3 so any tracks I make in the future will be put into there first and converted to MP3, then uploaded in that format.

Anyway, I'm glad you liked them

[NeedSomeAnswers]

Hi Chris,

a good effort for someone just starting out, all the tracks remind me a bit of early logical progression stuff.

Drift is the best track for me, although Project 3 has got some really nice bits in it, i particularly like the piano is it a sample or did you do it yourself ?.

Have you done much experimentation with different drum sounds ? a constructive criticism is that your basic drum sounds, sound a bit similar in every track, but i am sure they more you experiment and learn the program you will be able to add more variety.

Anyway good stuff, keep going at it.

[chris128]

Thanks for the feedback Yeah I played all of the piano parts myself, I was quite impressed with how they turned out considering I've never played the piano before lol of course there was plenty of editing and stuff done to the piano, I didnt just play it like that straight off.

As for the drums - I have tons of drum/snare/hat samples and have spent hours and hours playing around with them but hardly ever get any that sound good together... so I tend to end up sticking to one set that sounds OK once I have put them together, just changing one part for a new track (like the snare pitch for example). I'll try and mix it up a bit in the next track though

[dbasnett]

I am too old My idea of drums is found on

Going Mobile by The Who
Badge by Cream
Don't Look Around by Mountain
Hypnotized by Fleetwood Mac
Screaming Night Hog by Steppenwolf
Jessica by The Allman Brothers (gotta love dueling drum kits)
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly

I applaud your efforts, you certainly have talent.

[chris128]

Well I've not made another drum n bass track yet but I just started working on a dubstep track if anyone is interested... its still very much a work in progress but here's where its at currently: http://soundcloud.com/cjwdnb/dubstep-work-in-progressv2

Probably not to most people's taste but let me know what you think

[DeanMc]

I'm not a fan of drum n base myself (Elevator music if you ask me). But I appreciate the work you put into the tracks. Reason is great software to play with, I have spend months of my life working on synthy trance sounds for no other reason that the software was a treat to work with. Good job!

[wossname]

Dean, you must have some pretty cool elevators where you are.

[DeanMc]

Some of the best

[chris128]

I'm not a fan of drum n base myself (Elevator music if you ask me). But I appreciate the work you put into the tracks. Reason is great software to play with, I have spend months of my life working on synthy trance sounds for no other reason that the software was a treat to work with. Good job!

lol yeah it certainly eats up a hell of a lot of time trying to make even a simple track

[chris128]

OK well I finally got round to starting another track Its not finished yet but let me know what you think of it in its current state: http://soundcloud.com/cjwdnb/cjw-source-wip

[techgnome]

Source felt like it was missing something... I don't know what, or where... just felt incomplete. Maybe it's because it's a WIP....

The dubstep was pretty good. Signals was good as well, I liked the pacing through the middle. The sequence starting at 3:55 got to be a little long since there wasn't any variation until 5:00. I really like the mellowness of drift... even found myself "Drifting" with it. You could have probably faded out at 3:56 and it would have been fine - if you want a shorter version. The remainder could even potentially stand on its own as well. Project3 was ok... it was the fast pace drums... it's never been something that appealed to me a lot. But other than that it was good. I like the change up at 4:23. That pace right in there was good for me. I'd have to say Drift has been my favorite.

What do you use to put the tracks together?
Also you may be interested in http://entranced.fm/ a music streaming site that caters to this style of music. It's what I'd listen to at work if I could.


-tg

[kregg]

I have to say when the 2nd beat kicked into Source, I immediately thought "Keyboard cat!". The 3rd beat made the connection even stronger. And for that, I have to say I do like it.

[chris128]

Source felt like it was missing something... I don't know what, or where... just felt incomplete. Maybe it's because it's a WIP....

The dubstep was pretty good. Signals was good as well, I liked the pacing through the middle. The sequence starting at 3:55 got to be a little long since there wasn't any variation until 5:00. I really like the mellowness of drift... even found myself "Drifting" with it. You could have probably faded out at 3:56 and it would have been fine - if you want a shorter version. The remainder could even potentially stand on its own as well. Project3 was ok... it was the fast pace drums... it's never been something that appealed to me a lot. But other than that it was good. I like the change up at 4:23. That pace right in there was good for me. I'd have to say Drift has been my favorite.

What do you use to put the tracks together?
Also you may be interested in http://entranced.fm/ a music streaming site that caters to this style of music. It's what I'd listen to at work if I could.


-tg

Thanks for taking the time to listen to them all and thanks for the comments Drift certainly seems to be the one that most people prefer... which is unfortunate as I prefer making faster paced tracks lol
I think the thing that is missing from Source is bass - its pretty much all high frequency sounds apart from the pad in the background (that noise that you hear at the very beginning) but that's not very audible once the rest of it gets going and its not that low anyway. So I'm trying to get some bass in there, but its so hard to get a decent bass sound without it overpowering everything else I've added some hi hats to it now to give the drums a little more life, and made it a little bit longer. I'll post a link to the completed version when its done (which will probably be tonight or tomorrow)

Oh and I use a program called Reason 4 to make the tracks. You can download a free trial from http://www.propellerheads.se - its a little daunting at first (see screenshot below) but you soon get the hang of it (though its hard in the trial as you are limited to 20 minute sessions and cant save your projects)

[techgnome]

Cool... I used a program called ACID from Sony that was pretty good. It's a different style... using multiple tracks along a timeline. Made a few tracks with it before the trial expired (the full version is $300... a luxury I can't afford at the moment). At the time I thought they were pretty good... now that I listen to them again... eeeeh... they're probably OK. If I had more space, (and the $300) I'd probably do more and refine them better.

-tg

[chris128]

If anyone is interested I've made another couple of tracks:

This one is my first attempt at a trance track: http://soundcloud.com/cjwdnb/cjw-tranceish
and this one is another chilled out drum n bass track: http://soundcloud.com/cjwdnb/cjw-air

[DeanMc]

Like!

Are you using a midi keyboard are are you just using the software to build the tracks?

[si_the_geek]

Tranceish is cool, but the main beat sounds a bit odd... tinny perhaps?

Air is OK, but the start and end both seem a bit sudden to me - that could just be personal taste tho!

[techgnome]

I liked Tranceish .... Air, not so much... can't really say why though...

-tg

[chris128]

Like!

Are you using a midi keyboard are are you just using the software to build the tracks?

Its a MIDI keyboard - this one to be precise (though it seems to have gone up in price a lot since I bought it 6 months ago) : http://www.amazon.co.uk/AVID-9900522...9702203&sr=8-1


So the general feeling is that Air is not that great then? To be honest I did kind of just get bored of making that one and didn't add anywhere near as much as I was originally intending to it... so fair enough

I'm working on another one at the moment though that I have spent quite a lot of time on, so I'll post a link to that when its done

Oh and I've made my first remix haha it was for a remix competition. It went quite well apart from the vocals being slightly out of tune
This is the original track that we had to remix: http://soundcloud.com/velcrocityreco...t-just-believe
and this is my remix of it: http://soundcloud.com/velcrocityreco...emix-cjw-remix

[chris128]

OK here's my latest http://soundcloud.com/cjwdnb/cjw-whatever-i-want

Let me know what you think

[TheBigB]

Maybe a tad too long, but this might just be your best track yet!

[Milk]

I can't do what you are doing.

I like Project3 the best.

My and Your idea of drum and bass are different, this is me (forgive the snowman adverts)

[chris128]

Maybe a tad too long, but this might just be your best track yet!

Thanks most drum n bass tracks are about 5 or 6 minutes long though

My and Your idea of drum and bass are different, this is me (forgive the snowman adverts)

Yeah there are quite a few different types of drum n bass - I guess mine is closest to what's known as liquid drum n bass rather than jungle or hard/heavy drum n bass. Oh and do you mean you made that track or you just mean that's your idea of drum n bass?

[si_the_geek]

As I mentioned earlier, drum & bass isn't my thing. I'm also very picky about what makes it into my music collection - but "Whatever I Want" is good enough that after listening about 5 times in a row, I realised that I would be foolish to not download it.

(my only minor complaint is that the download is a .wav, but I can easily convert it )

[EntityX]

I clicked on that link in the first post and saw 9 tracks so you've probably added tracks since you started this thread. I didn't listen to everything but I listened to a few and I think they sound very professional. Of the ones I did listen to I perhaps liked Drift the best. I think it is quite good. I didn't like Project 3 but most of the other tracks I listened to I did like.

I had a synthesizer studio of my own years back and released what I called a New Age CD back in 2004 independently. If you release something independently it can of course be trash because there isn't anyone else that says we think this is good enough to be commercially successful. I never made much money with my music though I never advertised it much other than putting it on cdbaby.com and spending a little more with another company. Here's the page on my website that pertains to my music. http://www.taylorentertainment.biz/WinthropPage.aspx

There are free samples that are half the length of the track for most of the tracks. Since I'm actually trying to make a little money with my music I don't give the tracks in their entire length except for my free album Contrasts Are For Fun. That's all free stuff.

On my album Differences In Space there are 3 drum kit pieces. Controlled Chaos, Sensible Nonsense and Craziness to the Second Power. If you listen to just one of these I recommend Craziness and then Sensible Nonsense with Controlled Chaos being the weakest in my opinion. There are 20 tracks on Differences In Space. I rank them on my webpage from what I like the most to what I like the least. For me High Resolution is the best and I'm proud of it. Even if no one else likes it it gives me pleasure to listen to it. Instrumental Conversation and Goo Which Is Light Blue are also favorites for me. My arrangements are pretty basic but I wouldn't touch any of it.

[chris128]

Cool I'll check out your stuff when I get home

(my only minor complaint is that the download is a .wav, but I can easily convert it )

Well WAV is the raw format that the software I'm using exports to as that is higher quality than an MP3, but I probably should convert them to MP3 before uploading them to Soundcloud just because the WAV files are so much bigger... anyway I'm glad you liked it

[chris128]

I recently went back to a track I made just a few weeks after I first got Reason, and pretty much completely changed it... the intro is still the same though lol anyway here's the new version, see what you think: http://soundcloud.com/cjwdnb/cjw-take-two-final-version

[venerable bede]

Sounds more trance to me.
Pretty good for someone who is pretty new to it. What host do you use? oops. Scratch that , I see you use reason4

2 questions about music on this forum. You are all turning into a bunch of hippies.
More please. I need to get my mind off of coding. It's doing my head in at the moment.

[chris128]

Yeah its kind of a mixture of trance and drum n bass really