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Hi peeps.

I am experimenting around with dubstep atm and I want to know how to make a dubstep drop..........preferably in Ableton Live. Basically, not the actually drop itself but the build up.......the kick drums that precede a "drop"....how do I make the drop build momentum, as it were, and the beats get shorter?

For example the drop in Caspa's My Pet Monsta.

Thanks in advance.

Listen to drops you like, imitate.

jaydot wrote:Hi peeps.

I am experimenting around with dubstep atm and I want to know how to make a dubstep drop..........preferably in Ableton Live. Basically, not the actually drop itself but the build up.......the kick drums that precede a "drop"....how do I make the drop build momentum, as it were, and the beats get shorter?

For example the drop in Caspa's My Pet Monsta.

Thanks in advance.

I haven't heard that but, come on, drums are the easiest thing to imitate cos you can distinctly tell what it is... it just doubles in speed untill a bar/2bars (whatever!) before the drop....

Any drop can be done with the same techniques in any daw pretty much... Pitch shifting synths up (sliding up), low pass filter slowly letting through more frequencys, anything that just gets more intense as it gets closer to the drop. Someone screaming louder and louder.... get imaginative!

Get the kick and go 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. EVERY time. It's good stuff.

the drop is the realisation of the unheard wobble-bass acompanied by the rhythm section.

This idea would work pettey sweet if your making the more deeper stuff. What you could do is sidechain going into the drop, so like 16 or even 8 bars before the drop edit auto things i.e comp threshold and bring this into the drop, it will normally build some nice tension. I use this idea now and again, but most of the times i just use my pre-made raising synthesizer, which has edit auto in there bringing in the attack then sustain, decay ect ect.

I screwed up completely here attempting a drop:

http://soundcloud.com/jaydot/afraid-of-bees

Or am I getting there?

My favourite way to make drops is take everything out at 28bars (if making a 32 bar drop) and let the pads release go, then BOOM - drop on the 32nd.

to me, the drop is one of the most important aspects of much electronic music, and dubstep especially


but it's not something that can be fully explained with words, you kind of just have to listen and find out how other people are doing what you want to do

jaydot wrote:I screwed up completely here attempting a drop:

http://soundcloud.com/jaydot/afraid-of-bees

Or am I getting there?

Lol I couldn't find the drop bro. You definitely screwed up. Do you know what a drop is? Sorry if i'm coming off as a dick i'm just trying to help.

therapist wrote:Get the kick and go 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. EVERY time. It's good stuff.

Can you expand on this? I don't get the numbers ..

just listen to some DnB like pendulum ir sinetgubg and you will get the idea

before you have a bassline drop you have to have some sort of build up. comon sense really.

hans blix wrote:

therapist wrote:Get the kick and go 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. EVERY time. It's good stuff.

Can you expand on this? I don't get the numbers ..

Dunno if you were serious or not (I wasn't but) I just meant a bass drum beat doubling up as you get to the drop.

Like hitting on the bold 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.

But this is so rinsed now it's ridiculous. Hearing that build up following some sparse halftime beat generally makes me turn a track off.

upstateface wrote:

jaydot wrote:I screwed up completely here attempting a drop:

http://soundcloud.com/jaydot/afraid-of-bees

Or am I getting there?

Lol I couldn't find the drop bro. You definitely screwed up. Do you know what a drop is? Sorry if i'm coming off as a dick i'm just trying to help.

You need to make your track very sparse just before the drop so that people have some an anticipation...

If you're gonna work that drum pattern you need to get a really strong kick, like something out of a house song so that people can really feel the beat. Then you've gotta decide whether you wanna wait for 4 beats of quiteness before coming in heavy or go for it straight away...

I would say your main problem was that you are rinsing bass of similar volumes both before and after the drop so that it doesnt have a huuuge impact, try only playing mids and highs before hand (maybe automate a high pass filter), that way people really notice the difference in bass