The Drop Thread // How To Make Drops

[Altron]

The reason everything is hard to catch when you hear such a crazy drop is because its literally a ton of little bass sounds all sequenced together. Then they take and compress them on a single buss to make all the sounds "gel" together. On top of that, there are also tons of incidental sfx and synth parts that may be mixed in to keep things from being too repetitive. Also don't forget that when you hear tracks like that, there is loads of automation on each and every bass sound for the most part. It just really stems down to taking a bunch of bass sounds that you have made, resampling them, and then making a melody out of the different bass sounds. I've definitely had the same feeling of so much going on that its hard to catch what is being done in big productions. In helicopter showdowns tracks especially, its a bunch of different crazy bass sounds that are sequenced in over their drums to make a catchy drop. Another thing from a couple of the helicopter showdowns songs I listened to, I can tell they take there drums and add variation alongside the bassline to make parts fit together. Example: If they put 2 kicks down in triplets, they will sequence the bassline to follow their kicks.

I dunno if you have watched this vid before, but Reso did an excellent producer masterclass and he describes how he makes his insane drops and shows how all his sounds are layered together to make 1 giant bassline. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyPR2Nn7v50 <<<<That video helped me out a lot and I still go back to it sometimes just to get a better idea of things.

[acrap]

The reason everything is hard to catch when you hear such a crazy drop is because its literally a ton of little bass sounds all sequenced together. Then they take and compress them on a single buss to make all the sounds "gel" together. On top of that, there are also tons of incidental sfx and synth parts that may be mixed in to keep things from being too repetitive. Also don't forget that when you hear tracks like that, there is loads of automation on each and every bass sound for the most part. It just really stems down to taking a bunch of bass sounds that you have made, resampling them, and then making a melody out of the different bass sounds. I've definitely had the same feeling of so much going on that its hard to catch what is being done in big productions. In helicopter showdowns tracks especially, its a bunch of different crazy bass sounds that are sequenced in over their drums to make a catchy drop. Another thing from a couple of the helicopter showdowns songs I listened to, I can tell they take there drums and add variation alongside the bassline to make parts fit together. Example: If they put 2 kicks down in triplets, they will sequence the bassline to follow their kicks.

I dunno if you have watched this vid before, but Reso did an excellent producer masterclass and he describes how he makes his insane drops and shows how all his sounds are layered together to make 1 giant bassline. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyPR2Nn7v50 <<<<That video helped me out a lot and I still go back to it sometimes just to get a better idea of things.

thanks a ton man definitely going to watch this now, you definitely seem to have the right idea going on in your tunes as well so hopefully this helps. cheers

[e-motion]

Do it random and correct it to make sense. Sounds like shit? Erase, try again.

That's how I do it.

I actually replied to your question but got no replies... this is REALLY how I do it and I do produce "brostep". I can't show you anything I did because I'm keeping it secret for now.

There really is no formula in how to make a drop, you can see that each drop is completly different. It's all random. And you'll see you will get better with time.

[mitchAUS]

Lots of workflow ideas in here. Study the tracks you listen to. Identify how they are arranged and try ti recreate that

[4rantare]

Make a bunch of synths and bounce each one down then Load tem into a sequencer them make you bassline

How'd u put them into a sequencer in Cubase? It seems so easy in FL.. and in Cubase u have what, Groove Agent?

[4rantare]

For your filthy drop you will need:
kick x 1
snare x 1
wergh x 3
yoi x 2
distorted screaming sound x 4
cheesy movie sample x 1
wub x 4

Begin by placing your cheesy movie sample on top of your kick which repeats like so : bam bam-bam bam-bam-bam-bam bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-bbbbbbbbbbb

Next, mix together one wergh and both your yois, stirring gently on a low heat

At the same time whisk your wubs and cream together with all four distorted creaming sounds.

Finally layer the parts together and begin compressing the mixture heavily (preferably with a brick though a rolling pin will do)

Cook in the oven at Gas Mark 4

Hahahahah that is so awesome and so true.

[shroomhead1]

Well for brostep i tend to make a chord progression first and if that progression allows for a memorable melody then i often cut my wobbles out and stategically place chops of the melody in the wobble tracks for example. another way is making one synth patch imitate the other, bounce to .wav and chop it up, screw around with a little silence or maybe some risers and builds here and there for dramatic effect. I'm sure that if you find YOUR personal workflow, it'll get easier and easier to achieve the sound you want.

[forsak3n]

I dunno if you have watched this vid before, but Reso did an excellent producer masterclass and he describes how he makes his insane drops and shows how all his sounds are layered together to make 1 giant bassline. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyPR2Nn7v50 <<<<That video helped me out a lot and I still go back to it sometimes just to get a better idea of things.

This tute is fucking great! Big ups for the linkage

[chaotix]

I barely ever make songs because once i get to the drop, i can either
A never get the transition into the drop to sound right
or
B the drop never sounds big enough..

Here is the song I'm working on

Soundcloud


I think it's a little of A and B any pointers?

[ehbes]

without even listen:

is the drop in key with the intro

try high passing everything before the drop so when it hits it has a prominent low end

[shroomhead1]

1. More synth patches. You can't get a big sounding drop with just one synth patch and an imo overused one at that (I'm also talking to you flux pavilion i hope you read this)2. Drop is more important than the intro. The transition is fine but the sub in your intro is larger than the sub in the breakdown so you might want to fix that. 3. Variation, Originality. If it HAS to be a YAY sound, don't leave it at that, everyones done that, spice it up with some more effects please to keep it interesting.

[chaotix]

^ it's just early man, I haven't really thrown any variation in at all really. Thanks for the input though, the intro sub does seem to be bigger, which i never noticed due to sitting hear for hours playing around with stuff. Maybe my ears are fatigued haha.

[chaotix]

without even listen:

is the drop in key with the intro

try high passing everything before the drop so when it hits it has a prominent low end

I would, but the sub drop...is supposed to be all lows, if i high passed that I think it would lose the whole "Sub drop" haha, I have heard of that technique before though.

[syrup]

Put a donk on it.

[Lectric]

1. increase the volume 2db when the drop hits.

2. Make a super large kickdrum that fills a lot of the freq spectrum. play this as the first kick in the drop to make it punch

3. put dub on the track.

[audiowaves]

does anyone of you ever tried making his drop like that? seems interesting...
if anyone was sucksessfull with this method, feel free to let me hear that track

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0FZOhhh ... re=related

[e-motion]

I would prefer this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnMJNnk_ ... r_embedded

[GogOfMagog]

specifically during the drop or "breakdown". When listening to big names like Skrillex, Flux, Doctor P, Nero, etc. I hear very few instruments being used (bass, snare, kick and sometimes rides and another synth) but the effect they get rivals that of 100 man orchestras. Whats the secret? Is it some omnipresent bass that spans across 20,000 hertz? Are they using pads that I just can't detect over the other instrumentation? Anyway, share your tips and tricks for getting fuller sounds.

This is a remake I (very hastily) threw together to help you see where I stand and what I need to work on. I've only been producing for 6 months or so, so spare me.
http://soundcloud.com/hobbes234/breakn-a-sweat-drop

[jbcrazy]

Whenever you want to be loud... you have to fill out the entire spectrum of sound, from the sub all the way to the highs. There's a couple of tricks. Compression and layering just to name a few.

In that song, the drop introduces the sub bass, and the main synth which seems like a Massive patch, with at least two OSC going, either two massives or he did it as one patch. (Making this patch... I needed two.) The monster basses sound like one patch ,but he either layered it or did some parallel processing to get it to sound huge. Alot of the times, those guys you listed would use a 'white noise' type of sound during drops. I know in Skrillex's Equinox, he uses a sample from what sounds like a big crowd... ambient noise.

Mix well, fill out the spectrum... layer... compress. That's how you get loud.

[mikeyp]

leaving the middle of the spectrum pretty bare and boosting the sub & the high end formants like they use will close the gap in your head where they have close to nothing in the low mids and high basses. there are just certain power frequencies to hit depending on the sound you're going for, basically. i can't really tell you what they are, i'm just speaking from experience from dabbling with these types of sounds myself. also, kind of like you guessed at, there are other sounds in those places but they're just not dominant. you can only hear them if you're really listening for them.

as far as what you have there, where's the sub man!? & that high pitched patch sounds a little bare.