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Please elaborate in detail on this "double step" you speak of.

Please.

S1lent wrote:Double-step is apparently a new drum beat, for dubstep. That is usually compared to Mode step drums and the new stlye of drums. That's what i've heard. And can explain briefly what a tetra chord is? Thanks mate.

Without having to type this 'modestep' into google - why do I have a funny feeling your talking about electro?

Like, on-time drums?

doublestep as in

kick on 1 snare on 2 kick on 3 snare on 4??


revolutionary can't believe noone thought of that

Teknicyde wrote:

hutyluty wrote:doublestep as in

kick on 1 snare on 2 kick on 3 snare on 4??

electro.

facepalm

Hate to be a stickler (actually fuck it, I don't)... but there have been 3 separate topics brought up.... theory, harmony, and rhythm. To learn these properly, they have to be distinguished from each other. Music theory, in my opinion, being the primer for harmony really, gets you started with chords, key signatures, and intervals. The circle of fifths is a great thing to learn, but it's better to have a full keyboard to be able to practice it.

Re Theory: I would recommend the OP work on his EAR to be able to discern basic intervals without a keyboard... major and minor thirds, perfect fifths, etc. Then learn what kind of simple 2, 3 or 4 note bassline progressions he / she likes. Simple minor 3rd basslines can be very powerful.

Re Harmony.... coming up with dazzling 5, 6, 7+ note chords (let alone chord progressions!) across the keyboard, now this is a rich world, illumined often by the breakthroughs of jazz. Even lifelong professional musicians are still adding to their harmony knowledge.

Then on to RHYTHM which I think is the most central skill for dance music production. Even some crappy one note hits can sound good with proper arrangement, and I think that all of the stuff I've mentioned above would sort itself out if one just takes the plunge into understanding groove structure, swing, syncopation, polyrhythms, etc. This is the meat IMO. We're not writing fucking symphonies here, it's dubstep. And even most dubstep barely even uses the half-time beat to its full potential.

As a suggestion for the OP:
Take a handful of tunes that you consider to be definitive dubstep to you and listen to the kick / snare / hi-hat patterns. Often times these 3 elements are LOCKED to 16ths (like in a 16 step sequencer, it was obvious that the producer didn't even get off the grid) ........ in 16 steps, the kick is on the 1, snare on the 9, and fluctuating velocity high-hats on every step, or another way of saying it, 4 hats / beat. This is the typical lazy Bar9 beat I've come to hate, but you have to learn the basics... Myself, I'm much more into the triplet groove, which is 3 even hits occuring every beat for a total of 12 hats per bar. Then I like to swing my kicks too...