DSF Q&A Sessions : The Widdler : Closed For Questions

[green plan]

Have read this through and it's a really good read. Thanks heaps. One thing I struggle with is progression, and I know it's been talked about heaps on this forum. How do you walk that line between progressing but keeping the song rolling? Do you just makes what 'naturally' comes next or do you think alright I need to do this now. Any tricks for making small adjustments to keep the track flowing but not being too samey/repetitive.

[Wikum]

not really a production question here. but i'm gonna ask anyways.

as weird as this is going to sound, although it's the type of music that i produce, i don't really listen to dubstep whatsoever. sure i'll skip through the odd tech itch/kryptic minds beat on soundcloud, and don't get me wrong, i do really like the genre (i find it far more open than most dance genres).

the reason i do this is because i was immersed in the drum and bass scene. i'd be going raving one/twice a week, making dnb tunes non stop. i'd think i'd made my best tune in ages...finally the one to send out to the labels ect. then i'd hear the new noisia/phace record and just be totally disheartened by how their mixdown pisses on my own.so i make dubstep because i don't feel that same burden if you get what i mean. i can't really explain it any other way.

so onto my questions lol.

firstly, how did you get yourself signed and how much of a long winded process was it?

secondly, in YOUR opinion, of all the people within the scene that you know, who would you advise to send beats to?(i.e who has a good track record of bringing new producers into the scene? who's the most likely to give real feedback and actually listen to what they are sent? ect)

thanks for your time.

[Mysius]

Good stuff so far and cheers for the Dr Rex tips.

Similar question to green plan.. One thing I always struggle with is building on a tune when i have the beats and bass down. I can do this all day long then find myself stuck in a rut as to what to do next.

What do you find is the best way to keep the ideas flowing? Do you high pass the bass and try and make a melody, find more samples to take the tune elsewhere etc? Your tunes always have a great sense of direction that mine often lack.

Also any tips on using the Regroove mixer and the RV7000 Reverb programmer in Reason that you would like to share?

Thanks

[yamaz]

My questions on page 7 got skipped :-/

[xthewiddler]

Ah sorry Yamaz!! Didn't see it amongst the jungle of quotes, but I will get to it

I am actually heading out for a few days, but I will be back monday or tues to continue answering questions.

thanks for making this great fun so far everyone

be back soon (plz dont lock this mods)

[step correct]

Since Im the one who bugged you into doing this...

Whats your kit consist of hardware wise?


Any tips on making that signature froggy style bass sound?

The froggy bass hehe. Super easy. I'm doing this from memory since I don't have the file with me now, but it is the basic idea of the sound. Load up a Maelstrom, bring up the "Elektronic" waveform, set motion to all the way down, scroll with the index until you reach the "k" sound in "elektronic" (the wavetable is a robot saying "elektronic") once you found the "k", scroll the index to just a hair before it. Put the maelstrom into a combinator, route LFO2 to the back of the combinator rotary 1, then open up the combinators prgrammer and set rotary one(lfo2) to affect the index (make the index wobble) you will need to fine adjust the parameters of how much it will "wobble" in the programmers right menu. This gives the back and forth "Crunching" effect, which is i=the index rapidly moving back and forth. To make the from go up and down I simply affected the "shift knob"

This is the basic idea of it from what I remember

For fun I gave this a shot last night and it wasn't really happening.. I must have missed something.

[yamaz]

The froggy bass hehe. Super easy. I'm doing this from memory since I don't have the file with me now, but it is the basic idea of the sound. Load up a Maelstrom, bring up the "Elektronic" waveform, set motion to all the way down, scroll with the index until you reach the "k" sound in "elektronic" (the wavetable is a robot saying "elektronic") once you found the "k", scroll the index to just a hair before it. Put the maelstrom into a combinator, route LFO2 to the back of the combinator rotary 1, then open up the combinators prgrammer and set rotary one(lfo2) to affect the index (make the index wobble) you will need to fine adjust the parameters of how much it will "wobble" in the programmers right menu. This gives the back and forth "Crunching" effect, which is i=the index rapidly moving back and forth. To make the from go up and down I simply affected the "shift knob"

This is the basic idea of it from what I remember

For fun I gave this a shot last night and it wasn't really happening.. I must have missed something.

Ya I tried this out and I couldnt get it to wobble really, just made a sorta gargly grainy sound, not a lot of bass with it either. Wondering what were missing. Tried using pitch and mod wheel movement in unison with shift knob set to mod wheel and index range was like 47-60?

Also wondering why you bother to route lfo2 to combi back into index knob when theew is an input cv on back for indx already?

[xthewiddler]

Just finished packing up, but I had time to upload this for ya

http://www.sendspace.com/file/v2do85 It is a quick mock up of the bass that I did. The final patch had more layers of various sounds to add warmth and such, but the main idea is there.

I may have either poorly worded how to make it or got confused.

Anyways, I'm off for now, catch everyone monday or tuesday with some more answers!

[yamaz]

Sweet thx for the patch! I learned a bit more about maelstrom in the process too! Just curious, but any reason you go through the combi routing when you can just route the lfo2 cv into index cv on the back of maelstrom?

[Basic A]

What tips can you offer on making tunes sound so cohesive/ 'gelled' together?

In the past Ive had troubles with tunes sounding too much like isolated instrument tracks vs. a cohesive whole, and I notice when I listen to your tunes, especially this new stuff legend's dropping, your mixes sound so tight and well glued if that makes sense... Is it just good gain structure and mastering or do you have some kinda secret busing strategies or fancy coloring plugs or whatever we should know about?

[yamaz]

What tips can you offer on making tunes sound so cohesive/ 'gelled' together?

In the past Ive had troubles with tunes sounding too much like isolated instrument tracks vs. a cohesive whole, and I notice when I listen to your tunes, especially this new stuff legend's dropping, your mixes sound so tight and well glued if that makes sense... Is it just good gain structure and mastering or do you have some kinda secret busing strategies or fancy coloring plugs or whatever we should know about?

My guess is reverb

[Basic A]

What tips can you offer on making tunes sound so cohesive/ 'gelled' together?

In the past Ive had troubles with tunes sounding too much like isolated instrument tracks vs. a cohesive whole, and I notice when I listen to your tunes, especially this new stuff legend's dropping, your mixes sound so tight and well glued if that makes sense... Is it just good gain structure and mastering or do you have some kinda secret busing strategies or fancy coloring plugs or whatever we should know about?

My guess is reverb

...

No but seriously... is it just great sample selection and send verbs n ect, or do you use bus compression n the like to glue everything up?

[Grime Syndicate]

Yes man, I was SO happy to see you as the producer in the Q&A sesh... SO sick. Sensi Samurai is easily in the top three dubstep tracks. Of all time. Oh, no one's mentioned it, but Walking my dog is soooooo nice as well. Anyways, enough with the nut riding. How about this. I'd like to hear what you would like to tell us. Regarding Production. Regarding Life. Regarding Shows. Regarding Attitudes and Opinions. Regarding the Current State of Dubstep Affairs. Regarding whatever it is you'd like to tell us.

Thanks in advance.
Much Love.

- Syndicate

[-dubson-]

Big thread, props.

[xthewiddler]

What kind of stuff do you find yourself typically automating throughout the track, reverb, filter frequency, etc?

As far as your incidentals, blips and extra sounds, how do you go about adding them and previewing them in context of your song and speeding up the workflow of finding which ones you like and decide to use?

How do you go about getting those nice sounding offbeat dubby chord stabs?

I noticed in your screenshots that you use reverb on all your aux send/returns of your mixer? Is there a reason you prefer to do that over using a mix of effects like delay/chorus/flanger/scream? Do you find you like using these other effects as inserts instead?

When you say, "I usually have 4-5 tracks for drums (kick, snare, hats/rides, percussion, percussive fx)" - do you mean you use separate instances of redrum for kick and snare, etc? Or that you use one instance of redrum and just separate the channels out in sequencer?

Do you sidechain?

----Big upz for doing this man, you're definitely one of my favorite artists and I love to play your tunez at shows, especially for that dubby raggae kinda feel

-yamaz

I like to automate lots of things. It is different everytime but for the most part the main components that usually get automated are what you mentioned. Automating filters is a good way to have something creep in or out, automating reverb is a good way to add progress in a tune rather than having the same "space" the whole time (which i am working on improving still)

Incidentals can come in many types. In Acheri (in my myspace player) the only real incidental is the little heartrate monitor beep sound. In other tunes incidentals can come in the form on a tabla hit such as in Final Stage. So it again depends. Rusko likes to fill the map with crazy incidentals of "hey" sounds and hits which if you are looking for a busy party track is great. Typically though I will add them after the bass or main melody is settled in and fill in the blanks.

A lot of my dubby chord stabs are either samples of dubby chord stabs taken from old reggae tracks, or a mix of guitar synths layered with some low filtered square waves and some delay. If you want to be tune specific I can narrow down the answer.

The screenshots posted here are mostly older tunes and older ways of working for me. I would just fill up the aux with reverbs because they work better as sends than inserts if that makes sense. I would be adding the chorus/flanger/phaser right onto the synth or sampler. Nowadays in record each channel can have more sends and inserts so i focus on keeping most of the fx tied with the specific channel it corresponds too.

Back in the day it used to be, open a redrum load it with kicks and snares and work from there. Which is faster but better. Nowadays I like to have a seperate redrum for kicks, snares, hats, cymbals. This way I can have more control over the overall output sound of each. Where as before almost all the main drum parts were sitting in one redrum.

I don't sidechain. As of now. It isn't needed if you have a good mix and unless you want to use it as an effect it will only take away impact if done without care.

[xthewiddler]

Have read this through and it's a really good read. Thanks heaps. One thing I struggle with is progression, and I know it's been talked about heaps on this forum. How do you walk that line between progressing but keeping the song rolling? Do you just makes what 'naturally' comes next or do you think alright I need to do this now. Any tricks for making small adjustments to keep the track flowing but not being too samey/repetitive.

A big step in any tune is going from that 8 bar loop to something with more substance. What I like to do after I have that 8 bar loop is copy paste it a ton of times. From there I will start to imagine what I think will come next. Don't look at the sequencer or your computer, just listen and imagine it is someone elses tune. What do you think it needs? Where would you like it to go? Those are some of the things I think about when I do this technique. Sometimes the idea is clear to me . "Ok after 16 bars of this I will drop out track 15 by automating the tail of the sound with reverb whilst a new track comes in" Other times I like to experiment with samples and anything that can get my mind moving forward.

[xthewiddler]

not really a production question here. but i'm gonna ask anyways.

as weird as this is going to sound, although it's the type of music that i produce, i don't really listen to dubstep whatsoever. sure i'll skip through the odd tech itch/kryptic minds beat on soundcloud, and don't get me wrong, i do really like the genre (i find it far more open than most dance genres).

the reason i do this is because i was immersed in the drum and bass scene. i'd be going raving one/twice a week, making dnb tunes non stop. i'd think i'd made my best tune in ages...finally the one to send out to the labels ect. then i'd hear the new noisia/phace record and just be totally disheartened by how their mixdown pisses on my own.so i make dubstep because i don't feel that same burden if you get what i mean. i can't really explain it any other way.

so onto my questions lol.

firstly, how did you get yourself signed and how much of a long winded process was it?

secondly, in YOUR opinion, of all the people within the scene that you know, who would you advise to send beats to?(i.e who has a good track record of bringing new producers into the scene? who's the most likely to give real feedback and actually listen to what they are sent? ect)

thanks for your time.

Don't compare a home studio mix to a professional job. I too can listen to a pro mix and feel like I know nothing of sound and such, but it is all about perspective. The artists you mentioned are on major labels and most likely use professional stem mixers to blow your face off (unless someone knows for sure spor mixes his own tracks?).

Getting signed was never a goal I had, it was just about getting my tunes noticed. After giving out tons of tunes and getting my name out I was approached by various labels for releases. I think it is better to work on your technique and then have labels come to you than to try and impress a label.

I would advise sending beats to anyone and everyone at first. The more people know the name and the tunes the better. That being said, many of the dj's on dubstep fm that I know would gladly listen and use your track if they liked it so try there. Also this forum has a fairly active dubs section so drop some freebies there (if you want) to help get the name out. Trust me, people like freebies and it also helps you get the name out.

[xthewiddler]

Good stuff so far and cheers for the Dr Rex tips.

Similar question to green plan.. One thing I always struggle with is building on a tune when i have the beats and bass down. I can do this all day long then find myself stuck in a rut as to what to do next.

What do you find is the best way to keep the ideas flowing? Do you high pass the bass and try and make a melody, find more samples to take the tune elsewhere etc? Your tunes always have a great sense of direction that mine often lack.

Also any tips on using the Regroove mixer and the RV7000 Reverb programmer in Reason that you would like to share?

Thanks

I mentioned a few tips above on how to continue a beat that is just a loop, but what I can add to that is: Sometimes it is hard to continue layering onto a tune that you are building because as you put in a new track you solidify even more the direction th track is going. If you find yourself stuck then yes, like you said, high pass or remove the bass altogether and try and build a new track of melody or anything else. You may find later on that you can rework the bassline around the new idea and have even more potential to move it forward.

One great thing about the regroove mixer that I almost always take advantage of is the fact you can grab groove from any sequenced track by right clicking it and scrolling to get groove from clip. I will usually browse through some mpc break loops or hip hop loops to find one with a nice groove. Then I will take the groove from it and have it affect my percussion/hats to give it a laid back shuffle. I like to keep the kick / snare right on beat (maybe lay back the snare a few ticks for a more laidback groove)

The rv7000 is great but a lot of people miss out on opening its programmer. In there I usually like to kill any low frequency as they take up a lot of mix room as reverb. In the title track to Origin I used an RV7000 on the bells and automated the delay time which gives it that stuttering change effect. The gate function in a verb is one that is overlooked I think in any DAW. Sometimes it is good for the mid bass or snare to have a bit of a gated verb. This puts the sound in a room without it getting too messy by cutting off the trailing reverb.

[xthewiddler]

Sweet thx for the patch! I learned a bit more about maelstrom in the process too! Just curious, but any reason you go through the combi routing when you can just route the lfo2 cv into index cv on the back of maelstrom?

Going through the combi just gives me more options if later I want to affect anything else with that CV output. It doesn't always mean I will, I just like having the option. Also it allows me to send it to more than one thing without having to put in a CV splitter.

[xthewiddler]

What tips can you offer on making tunes sound so cohesive/ 'gelled' together?

In the past Ive had troubles with tunes sounding too much like isolated instrument tracks vs. a cohesive whole, and I notice when I listen to your tunes, especially this new stuff legend's dropping, your mixes sound so tight and well glued if that makes sense... Is it just good gain structure and mastering or do you have some kinda secret busing strategies or fancy coloring plugs or whatever we should know about?

I spend a good amount of time finding sounds that both fit together and are nice to listen to. Music is in the end, just that, sound you like to listen to. So firstly take the time to create a pallet of sounds that will compliment each other. Think of it as a painting. If you have a nice scene of a Waterfall in the woods you wouldnt really be using bright red or neon purple, things need to have context for where they belong.

Assuming you have a nice pallete of sounds the next step to having it meld is the mix itself. Prioritizing which sound is most important and which is least can help you put it within the mix. Reverb is a good tool for this in a sense that you can place objects further away. I like to put pads into a reverb unit with almost a 50/50 wet dry ratio. It really helps push back the pad into another dimension. On the opposite end of the spectrum a lead melody or bassline will be right upfront and loud with little to no reverb at all on it.

Basically build your mix as you would a movie scene, having the most important things upfront with a lot of work put into them to make them sound good and then layering the rest of the elements behind it. Not every instrument track deserves 100 percent attention to be heard.