2 step/future garage drums help

[willm]

Hi,

I've been producing Jungle and Dnb for quite a few years and I've set myself the challenge of making a slower tune. I'm looking to get a drum sound similar to:
Faulty DL - Anxiety
Pangea - Router
and the recent Mount Kimbie stuff

I've tried making this in the same sort of way I make jungle beats by starting with an old break beat and slicing it up and re-aranging it, but nothing ever sounds right. Do you guys start with a break or is it just drum machines (it sounds to me like it's a break)? If so, can you recommend me some breaks to use?
If anyone could enlighten me on some techniques I'd be grateful.

Cheers

PS. To hear my current tunes: http://www.soundcloud.com/willmunn

[hurlingdervish]

process your breaks so they don't sound so raw or sloppy

take care of volume envelopes on each sound so they aren' harsh on the cutoff...eq each sample if they dont sound right.

for garage-y sounds you want really short snares and rimshots
emphasize the offbeat, maybe not even a kick on the downbeat at all
try an early placement of the snare
this is a pretty standard pattern for garage:
1 2 3 4
---- s--- ---s ----

[drokkr]

Have a search for the sample pack from the 9th edition of the DSF sample contest you will find a nice pack of hits in there

[willm]

Thanks for your help so far, how about some commonly used breaks like the Amen, Apache, Funky Drummer for Dnb?

[drokkr]

You asking for them or offering them to me?

[Genevieve]

Nah, they're not breaks. Don't even sound like breaks, either. It's about using claves, sidestick and woodblocks, slightly offsetting the hits to make the drums sound more 'loose', messing with volume envelopes, syncopation (very important), etc. The only thing they have in common with breaks is that the rhythms (with the syncopation and whatnot) are based on funk rhythms. It's all programmed.

Thanks for your help so far, how about some commonly used breaks like the Amen, Apache, Funky Drummer for Dnb?

What about them?

[corpu5]

i've searched for the dsf sample contest 9 and found the thread but there's no link to the pack? anyone who's got it want to upload it?

[legend4ry]

http://www.divshare.com/download/6295931-2de

I practically ran the contest and set up the pack since my mate won #8 and dun have internet, so still had the link on my divshare

[corpu5]

http://www.divshare.com/download/6295931-2de

I practically ran the contest and set up the pack since my mate won #8 and dun have internet, so still had the link on my divshare

ahhh awesome mate cheers!

[legend4ry]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/b8ep8f
http://www.sendspace.com/file/3tknmo
http://www.sendspace.com/file/15qxw6

Heres some more 2step packs ive compiled/found.

[bandshell]

it's all in the hats as Blackdown once told me, shuffle and pitch those hats.

[corpu5]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/b8ep8f
http://www.sendspace.com/file/3tknmo
http://www.sendspace.com/file/15qxw6

Heres some more 2step packs ive compiled/found.

oh no, he's done it again, thanks again

[willm]

Cheers for all the sample pack links guys, really helpful. I think A section about this type of drums should be added to the production bible sticky. by the way, when you say pitching hats, do you mean having the hits within a pattern at different pitches? If so, is there any type of order you do this in (as in higher at on the strong beats or something)?

[bandshell]

yeah, hats at different pitches and no order really, just play about and see what works tbh.

[cloak and dagger]

yeah, hats at different pitches and no order really, just play about and see what works tbh.

Yeah, unfortunately I think this is the case. It drove me crazy for a while that all these kids who knew nothing about production could make awesome sounding garage beats on their Playstation Music Maker, but I couldn't. I realized after a while that it's not about breaks vs. hits (I've done good garage beats with both), it's not even about shuffle (a lot of garage actually doesn't even use shuffle quantization- it's ALL about the hits you choose for that specific beat and pattern. I've made a great garage pattern, switched the hits, and all of a sudden it sounds terrible and lost all of its swing. I feel like making these beats require a lot more experimentation than a dnb beat, which at least for me was always much easier. To be fair though, when you listen to a lot of the swingless "kick-snare" dubstep, you realize a lot of other people don't get it, either.

[willm]

Well it's now 3 in the morning and I think I've got Something done! http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5MBADNZN I used some hits from the sample packs suggested with a bit of shuffle and a pretty simple break (sliced up and high passed and relatively low in the mix). Thanks for all your advice. Let me know what you reckon!

[bandshell]

it's not bad, change the snare though, you want a snappy light snare in a garage beat.

[nowaysj]

Don't get those garagy beats man, trick shits. Ur getting there. Just wash the stain of those breaks off. Tighten it up, loosen it up.

[_boring]

in reason i have found using the reverb programmer adds some cool effects to hats for garage beats

[Littlefoot]

Hi, what me and Dawntreader do is..

usually..

get a nice hard kick, clap/snare/rim, and open hat (usually a chopped down 909 for that real garage flava)

and then sample a break from an old garage record, usually something like El-B's El-Breaks stuff, which has very snappy krazy hi hats

then rex it up, load it into a Dr.Rex and usually do some filtering/adjustment of the amp envelope.

drum pattern wise, 2-step is very very free, which is why it's great.

it's basically a 4x4 broken up as far as you can go at between 130-140 bpm.

it's all about adding that MPC shuffle if your using reason too!