The Importance of Drums

[Sharmaji]

it would also be sad to loose dubstep's rhythmic possibilities. 2step, swing, the soca beat, 12/8 time, halfstep, kick kick kick snare, wonky off-4x4, break loops (if not a cliche), 3+3+2 ... theres' loads of rhythmic ideas out there: i think it'd be worth developing them more, now dubstep's got big and has an audience.

don't worry bro-- it's happenin. the night 12" has some great, groovy drum programming. and punch drunk... oh my god....

(cough cough cough and subswara.... but that'd be greedy)...

[feasible_weasel]

what i find hilarious is when u have a tune, and they move to the heaviest part of the tune, and the drums are so slow, just sounds so bad.

[spooKs]

can you clarify at all weasel?

[ufo over easy]

wasn't "importance of drums" a d'cruze track?

edit - lol, just seen someone else mention it. big up shiva

[feasible_weasel]

can you clarify at all weasel?

it goes onto the heavy (fast part of the track) hype part, and it kicks in and u have a really slow ass beat. its like u wanna spin the cd/record a bit faster.

[thomas]

^ So tracks should speed up when the track gets to the fast part of the track?

Makes sence....

[breaksbaron]

I'm glad this subjest came up, because I wanted to touch on it my self, but feared getting slated for, asking for change, within the 'Dubstep' scene.

When I first got into 'Dubstep', it was around 2004-2005, it had alot of elements, which are now lost. Fwd to me seemed to be a mixture of Dubstep, Breakbeat, and some other elements. It seems now to be very slow and stagnated.

In short I wanna hear bit more breakier tracks, entering the scene, more 'Oris jay' led style tracks. When 'Plasticman' and 'Mark-one' entered the scene, they came with tracks that were rolling, and not total 'Dubstep'. They made tunes that I loved to mix, but now tunes out there, are quality productions, but lacking that oomph, of a riding mix. Go Dj!..........................

[digistepz]

big tings will come in 2008...reso, martyn et al to the fore......SHACKLETON dread will hit big style...and new producers will keep popping up with bangers...Benga, Skream, Mystikz, Loefah and the rest of the old guard will continue to pump out the quality.

Have faith

[crazydave]

Broken Beat peaked around 2001 and died around 2003. The concensus was it basically ran out of ideas.

Still love it though... bits coming out from Domu, Lanu, Jazztronik, Zed Bias and the like. True wonkiness!!

The 'Nu Jazz' going around now has hints of it but is getting less percussive and more organic - see Dimlite, Cinematics, etc.

[martyn]

hmm i really don't get this discussion at all! you can't just start making different beat patterns cos the scene is in a need for it ??? the beat fits the total idea of the tune, just like all other elements in there. bass beats sounds noises chords whatever all need to blend into one signal. If you have the vibe of the tune down the beat pattern will present itself to you.. so yeah coki's spongebob needs a slow beat cos if it were fast, with a bassline like that it just wouldnt be right. and kode's badawi remix needs to have a pumping uptempo beat to support the theme. so it all needs to fit the music, not just programming the beat for the beat's sake

[baz]

no way, you're meant to respond to the forum's demands and tailor your beats to whatever journalists reckon is missing from 'the scene'

[baz]

[spek23]

I love the drums.

Check 'The Recovering' on www.myspace.com/spek23music

the bassline is fucked as i posted up an EARLY version by mistake... but the drums are my favourite.

`its 7 minutes 30 long aswell, so stick with it, has a couple good switch ups throughout it...

[tacospheros]

Toasty Boy - "Like Sun "

^^^this tunes got some really nice drums, layered, tasteful, not overbearing, even tho hes switching between like 3 different breaks


also a ton of mala tunes have really good drum/rhythm work. antiwar dub, left leg out, changes, forgive, all get the thumbs up from me and im an official drum snob


alot of kode9 too , jazzsteppa , DLX , lot of good stuff out there, just gotta look

[gravious]

hmm i really don't get this discussion at all! you can't just start making different beat patterns cos the scene is in a need for it ??? the beat fits the total idea of the tune, just like all other elements in there. bass beats sounds noises chords whatever all need to blend into one signal. If you have the vibe of the tune down the beat pattern will present itself to you.. so yeah coki's spongebob needs a slow beat cos if it were fast, with a bassline like that it just wouldnt be right. and kode's badawi remix needs to have a pumping uptempo beat to support the theme. so it all needs to fit the music, not just programming the beat for the beat's sake

I hear you on this one. I never start making a tune with the drums, always with the bassline, melody or both, and then fit the drums around it. Sometimes this comes out as a fairly ploddy kick on 1, snare on 9 kind of thing, sometimes not, depends what fits really!

On the other hand, I get what you are on about shonks, and I feel that there are a lot of tunes where the drum work could be more interesting, and add more to the tune. But its all about personal taste I suppose.

We need some more Search and Destroy stuff. And Oris. And bits like Mammoth remix by plastic, that tune is sick, the ultimate roller for me. Unfortunately I only ever heard JoeNice playing it. Big up Joe!

I digress...

[shonky]

Yeah, for the observant it was a D'Cruze ref - original don.

Not baiting or anything, and not a journalist so not trying to cause controversy for a hit, just my opinion'n'all (and Martyn, you're blatantly someone with the good beatage, keepin my faith with this scene)

Thanks for the comments so far

[nubian minds]

no way, you're meant to respond to the forum's demands and tailor your beats to whatever journalists reckon is missing from 'the scene'

[dirtycash]

Benga!...killer drums always!

[brklss]

I don't know if that really fits in this context, but I remember when I started to DJ, produce and listen to dubstep a couple of years ago, everything sounded new and the half-step just got kind of established as the early dubstep standard (which I think is not the case anymore). Anti War Dub, Goat Stare, i... fucking amazing tracks and no need for all that crazy stuff which is going on now with Skream and Coki (for a nice and easy example). I really like the sound of Benga at the moment though. He still got this headbanger style with fresh basslines and sounds which makes me enjoy dubstep again. Also Pinch's and Burial's album makes me happy again and listening to anything Kode9 is heaven. I suppose everything is changing (I mean look at this forum...) and it's good that there's a change, but I really think things are getting worse now with recent releases regarding quality. It's shifting to quantity rather than quality. When I first started to get into dubstep, it was all about the drums and the bass. For example, I absolutely love Scuba's snare on "Thank You", the warm sub-bass on Anti War Dub or the shuffles of any Quiet Storm or Roguestar. It ain't the same anymore these days, but it's different. I just hope people do realize that there is no need for shitloads of tunes like Spongebob or stuff like that. They work at a rave, but not really as music as it. I totally write this from a musical and artistic point of view, trying to describe the loving feeling of a good dubstep track which is of course, totally personal.