Blawan

[Metropolis]

sounds like logic drum kits to me

[zerbaman]

darqwan

I'm not sure you know who darqwan is.

[Sarah808]

Time to bump the topic I think.
It's good to share tips on this side of production, not enough good discussion threads like this going on anymore.

Especially with his new stuff his percussion is still next level, so anyone run into anymore similar sounding techniques?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MLTEnOzDX8#t=4m15s

My contribution: Transient shapers on the mids of percussion can work wonders to thicken things up

[Sarah808]

bump for this

[skimpi]

The percussion at that point, and in this track really, sound pretty standard compared to some of his other tracks, I dont really know what to say about getting these sounds, but they just sound like pitched hits of wooden things

[Perej]

sounds like logic drum kits to me

no

[Ldizzy]

he uses ableton. warps most of his drum hits imo

[skimpi]

he uses ableton. warps most of his drum hits imo

What drum hits is he warpign thought

[Sarah808]

What time setting do you reckon he warps with then? because warping with repitch is the same as pitching up or down notes.
Warping with beat transients setting adds a lot of artifacts

[Perej]

What time setting do you reckon he warps with then? because warping with repitch is the same as pitching up or down notes.
Warping with beat transients setting adds a lot of artifacts

No idea but I dont see how you could possibly have such clean sounding drums with warping anyway cos in my experience they start to loose all punch if you aren't very careful. He is obviously starting with excellent samples from the get go, then presumably layering them multiple times. Anyone got any tips on layering? I try to layer kicks but always forget the best way, your supposed to find one with a smack and one with more of a thump then eq out the high end of the thump and eq the low end out of the smack?

[Genevieve]

I think he does very little to his drums. Just mild distortion/saturation and tasteful EQ'ing/filtering (including additive EQ'ing). It's all rimshots, snares, woodblocks or anything else he can get his hands on.

He's good at what he's doing. And it's also the way the basslines/synths are interacting with the percussion. All style, little technique. And some groove templates probably don't hurt either.

I think that's what a lot of people here overlook like mad. Not tryna be a dick. But some people are just good at something because they've been doing it for a long time so they carve out their little stylistic niche. Blawan sounds like Blawan cuz he's Blawan. You can have all the techniques down that Noisia use for their bass sounds and still not nail it.

[Ldizzy]

Depends on the tracks we're talkin

my answer refered to the older blawan tracks, the iddy, lavender, type stuff...

ever since shader came out, and the newer stuff, he simply seems to use incredible kits...

6 to 6 licks is a proof that the man is a genius...

some of his drums sound pretty dirty imo.. not always clean, what u do wit what u have is nowhere near clean...

hes got a signature musicality too.. like the character to his melodies and stuff... thats what makes a lot of what he does...

i think blawan is a lot of things.. and shouldnt be emulated...

i like his work with acid basselines.. and how he incorporates them

and the randomness of his patches too..

the man is dope

[zerbaman]

I agree with genevieve. Think of EQing less as shaping/building a sound but more as bringing a balance to a range of sounds.

I'm no expert, but I think I got pretty darn close
Soundcloud

[msteel]

couldn't it be possible, that blawan just uses a good analog drum machine? (NO - it doesn't have to be an 808 and NO, the 808 isn't necessary the best drum machine, every drum machine has it's own 'sound)

from my experience, this can make a shiiiitload of a difference!

Think the he has one of these - Dave Smith Tempest Analog Drum Machine


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRD8f5BJSsw

[skimpi]

I agree with genevieve. Think of EQing less as shaping/building a sound but more as bringing a balance to a range of sounds.

I'm no expert, but I think I got pretty darn close
Soundcloud

Theres no percs in there tho lol

[zerbaman]

I'm dropping in the Hard Techno drums.

[skwiggo]

randomer seems to do quite a good job of doing a 'blawan' imo - real talk etc.

some of his more recent techno stuff the kicks seem to be filtered right down just to get that hollow thump. Otherwise I had some luck with using real kick samples saturated loads. I don't think he's using an analog drum machine on most of his earlier stuff at least.

the half life sample pack floating around here has lots of interesting wooden/door lock sounds that could be used to make blawan esque sort of stuff - not exact same mind but what would be the fun in that? need to find the thread with it in. if not i'll try to upload it again but it mite take a while on my shitty net connection (the joys of living in a small town with shit broadband lol).

[skwiggo]

and i'm still sure he's using crazy pitch envelopes on conga/tom sounds on fram/iddy/bohla etc.

[skimpi]

randomer seems to do quite a good job of doing a 'blawan' imo - real talk etc.

some of his more recent techno stuff the kicks seem to be filtered right down just to get that hollow thump. Otherwise I had some luck with using real kick samples saturated loads. I don't think he's using an analog drum machine on most of his earlier stuff at least.

the half life sample pack floating around here has lots of interesting wooden/door lock sounds that could be used to make blawan esque sort of stuff - not exact same mind but what would be the fun in that? need to find the thread with it in. if not i'll try to upload it again but it mite take a while on my shitty net connection (the joys of living in a small town with shit broadband lol).

I would like wood sounds pls, on randomer doing a good blawan tho, I dunno, I think they are definitely different, yeah randomer uses like wooden percussive sounds etc, but i think he keeps them more standard, Blawan has more out there percussion id say, out there as in it doesnt sound like anything natural lol. Randomer also has that fun, jokey vibe with some of the samples he uses lol.

[skwiggo]

yeah true that probably came over a bit harsh as i'm a big randomer fan. imo newer randomer isn't a carbon copy of blawan but at the same time theres similarities - brunk on the 116 comp sounds really like old blawan too imo.

there was a link to the halflife pack on here but its dead now. my mediafire account is too small as well to upload the whole thing (the pack is 605 mb!) so i have just uploaded the relevent stuff here - http://www.mediafire.com/?r3x7igeqcylqls0