DSF Q&A Sessions 2: Ramadanman

kingcannibal · Post by **kingcannibal** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 7:08 pm

When it comes to BASS how much do you push your bass sound in the studio ? Do you try and get it as close to how you'd want it to sound once mastered or do you leave it fairly light let the mastering technician push it for you?

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 7:16 pm

karig13 wrote:Only one question here mate:

Where do you get your quality sounding drums?

I know this is a bit of a stupid question..

i only really use 1 hit samples, i have quite a lot, and try to use decent quality. then i eq them to how i would like them to sound. as i said earlier, often problems can be solved by just replacing the drum sound so i try to do that too.

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 7:19 pm

KingCannibal wrote:When it comes to BASS how much do you push your bass sound in the studio ? Do you try and get it as close to how you'd want it to sound once mastered or do you leave it fairly light let the mastering technician push it for you?

i do move "studio" location every few months so i have to always readjust really. bass level is always a tricky one to get right. i generally try to get it at the right level - ie by comparing to other tunes, playing on lots of different systems etc. if i am preparing something for mastering, i will also try to get it right, but then i try to remember that it is a problem easily solved by the mastering engineer. if anything i would rather put too much bass in a tune, as i think it is probably easier for him to remove what is already there, rather than boosting what maybe isn't. i could be wrong though!

mumble · Post by **mumble** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 7:51 pm

How did Hessle come about ?

What is running a label like ?

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 10:18 pm

Mumble wrote:How did Hessle come about ?

What is running a label like ?

here's some of the story on hessle http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature- ... px?id=1006

running a label (co-running) is fun! it's a great feeling to see your label's records on the shelf, and it's great to spread music to people. downsides would perhaps be long financial stuff, but hey

thetaco · Post by **thetaco** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:35 am

Could you post a picture of one of your completed arrangements? Just for kicks.

string · Post by **string** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 2:03 pm

ramadanman wrote:
String wrote:I'd like to know your process of making a bassline in fruityloops? What tools do you use, how do you use them etc?
i think making a bassline in fruity is the same as making a bassline in any other program. personally i like the 3xosc for a simple sub bass, but i do use other synths occasionally for sub bass, as well as 808 hits. i did go through a phase of using just 808 hits in a variety of different ways for a bassline (offal , kablammo eleven , drowning etc) . the 3xosc is a bit underated i think, it's a realy good tool. as i said earlier i think that the frequency that the bassline hits at is very important so i will try to vary the ntoes / make sure it's going low enough etc. but yeh it does depend on the tune a bit

do you know any tutorials to explain how to get nice sub bass or could you go through it using the 3xosc?

i've heard a few people say its very powerful, but the problem is i have no real knowledge of how to create a bass sound out of choosing this wave, and twiddling this CRS knob, etc etc.. there are manuals but they dont really go into the effect on the sound of using different aspects of 3xosc, rather a load of sound jargon that goes over my head

compound one · Post by **compound one** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:13 pm

For ages i thought your name must be Dan. It isnt. So explain the name! Also, sorry for how drunk i was at fwd recently. I'm sure i harassed you.

boyd · Post by **boyd** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 4:55 pm

Do you have a standard structure in mind when you build tunes?

Where do you generally get your drum hits/samples from?

Cheers for this, v useful stuff so far! The RA mix is sick btw i've been caining it, just bought 4 tunes off it

.

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:13 pm

String wrote:
do you know any tutorials to explain how to get nice sub bass or could you go through it using the 3xosc?

i've heard a few people say its very powerful, but the problem is i have no real knowledge of how to create a bass sound out of choosing this wave, and twiddling this CRS knob, etc etc.. there are manuals but they dont really go into the effect on the sound of using different aspects of 3xosc, rather a load of sound jargon that goes over my head

basically the 3xosc is three different oscillators - you can use the volume knob etc to change the mix of all 3. what i normally do is use the bottom one on its own. set the CRS to the lowest, and volume to highest. then play notes around the f3 region, and you should have a heavy sub! use the volume envelopes to adjust attack and release to suit your tune, then EQ to get your sub fitting where you want it

crs knob changes the octave of the wave, volume changes the level of the osc, fine tune is useful for creating phase effects.

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:15 pm

Compound One wrote:For ages i thought your name must be Dan. It isnt. So explain the name! Also, sorry for how drunk i was at fwd recently. I'm sure i harassed you.

lol that happens a fair a bit. i was making music under other names, but then i decided to change to ramadanman a few years ago. ramadanman was a name i made up for my first email account when i was 12 or something. it has no meaning or significance, it's not meant to be a joke and its not trying to make a statement or anything. it's just a name i made up when i was young cos it rhymes

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:19 pm

boyd wrote:Do you have a standard structure in mind when you build tunes?

Where do you generally get your drum hits/samples from?

Cheers for this, v useful stuff so far! The RA mix is sick btw i've been caining it, just bought 4 tunes off it .

in terms of structure not really. i did go through a period of slightly weirdly structuring tunes. i think it can be interesting when a tune doesn't really comply with the formulas of song structure, keeps you guessing a bit and can be effective to make a song interesting. then again, it can make tunes really hard to mix if you go too over the top, so it's important to find a balance between the two i think

i get samples from a lot of places. friends, internet, cds, records, make them myself even. i think the more the better!

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:32 pm

thetaco wrote:Could you post a picture of one of your completed arrangements? Just for kicks.

Missing some stuff at the bottom cos its too big for the screen. The tune is 'Offal', out now on Soul Jazz

Disco Nutter · Post by **Disco Nutter** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:36 pm

You've definitely named them so that you can easily see what is what

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:47 pm

Depone wrote:when was your first 'big break' and how did it come about? Did a label contact you? or did you spread demos around like an std? (sorry about the pun)

i didn't really think i had a big break as such. i did a lot of self financed digital releases back in 2006, selling direct to people which seemed to go down well. i guess people were interested in 'good feeling' too as Skream supported it a lot. then when for example villalobos was playing blimey that got my name into slightly different circles.

i did promote my stuff a lot back in the day, always bringing CDs to nights, selling records outside DMZ etc. got to know a lot of people in the scene because it was still quite early days at that stage. so i guess it came through that. now it is harder to get your music heard perhaps but then again most of the big names are strongly supporting new talent still so if it is good enough they will play it

thetaco · Post by **thetaco** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 6:41 am

Just one more.

The resonant sound that comes in at around 0:56 of Every Next Day, how did you make that?

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:59 pm

thetaco wrote:Just one more.

The resonant sound that comes in at around 0:56 of Every Next Day, how did you make that?

if you mean the main riff, i made that in albino. arpegiated, filtered then generally messed around with

djdowee · Post by **djdowee** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:31 pm

Are there any release plans for your remix of Jungle Republic?

What releases do you have instore for Hessle 2009?

Big thread btw

DSF Q&A Sessions 2: Ramadanman

Who is online