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2010 hasn't exactly been a banner year for dubstep. Wobble-craving bros are threatening to take over the scene, each month an obscure new musical strain further splinters the genre, and the music is taking more and more whippings from critics and tastemakers alike. Nevertheless, even with all the mud thrown in dubstep's direction, a few of its originators remain pretty much untouchable, both in terms of respect and their continued dedication to moving the music into the future. Mala (the south London producer known to his mum as Mark Lawrence) is one such producer. Not only has he been instrumental in keeping the extremely bass-heavy style evolving, but he and his Digital Mystikz partners-in-crime Coki, Loefah, and Sgt. Pokes are also responsible for continually bringing dubstep to the masses via their genre-defining DMZ night in Brixton. We tapped Mala for a few tips on how he crafts his crazy, unrelenting low-end sound, both from the practical and philosophical standpoints.

1 - Adopt the Right Approach
I'm not sure how my sound was created exactly, but for me, music is about uncompromised expression. I feel music is a chance to be honest about what I feel and want to say. I think words are too often abused, misunderstood, and sometimes overrated, so for me, instrumental music speaks directly and personally. Frequencies shape the world we live in.

2 - Be Consistent
I don't really have a preferred synth, as I always enjoy working with new sounds, either from hardware or software. I consistently use a soft synth made by Spectrasonics called Trilogy. I'd say I create 99% of my subs and basslines from it. They released a new-and-improved version last year called Trillian, which, for me, works even better than Trilogy. So I'm happy! It's seriously solid software for when you need that weight in your sound.

3 - Find What Works Well...
I use Battery by Native Instruments for programming my drums. I find Native Instruments plug-ins to be really user-friendly. Manipulating and controlling sounds is really simple but deep. Its drum-kit library is solid, too. I love this plug-in because you can import your own sounds, which is more important than the presets. Simple and easy to use, but when you explore, you see its deep capabilities.

4- ...And Stick With It
It's fair to say Propellerhead Reason was like school for me. Back in 2000, it was what I started making music with. Redrum was perfect for drum programming. It had some heavy presets and the choice to bring in your own samples. I used the Subtractor virtual synth layered with Malström graintable synthesizer for sub and bass, and the NN-XT sampler did everything else. Importing my own sounds and being able to mash them up was all I wanted to do. It's a real friendly program to use, which allows me to get ideas down quickly. I think it's one of the most important factors to consider when new to making music. Ken Taylor

5- Then Arrange Your Sounds Accordingly
I tend to start with more natural-sounding synths than the mental ones. So for pads and melodies, orchestral sounds layered with alien sounds usually work best for me... get some movement between the layers. Gforce's M-Tron is a great-sounding synth… off harmonics with a unique texture. I have some hardware synths, too. They help me understand more about sound every time I create.

[ http://www.xlr8r.com/features/2010/11/b ... sound-mala ]

Nice read

Nice post mate.

Good to see you are doing something productive whilst you are "working from home"

JFK wrote:Nice post mate.

Good to see you are doing something productive whilst you are "working from home"

Hey, I've had two conference calls since 8am. Just because I did them wearing a dressing gown as opposed to smart business is neither here nor there

I predict a sudden sale increase for Trillian, Battery & M-Tron

good read but that intro was cringe worthy

daft tnuc wrote:I predict a sudden sale increase for Trillian, Battery & M-Tron

tbh anyone who hasn't been using spectrasonics products to this point need a kick in the ass

daft tnuc wrote:I predict a sudden sale increase for Trillian, Battery & M-Tron

Just like when the price of Logic 5 on eBay doubled virtually overnight following that Benga video.

You need a $500 dollar synth to make a simple sine wav? Oh I forgot, it sounds so much better when it has $500 synth cranking it out. lol

Seriously though both are very nice bass synths. Lots of nice presets and the tweaking & effects are a nice touch. It's pretty straight forward to use too. I believe trillian comes with a 40gb sound library that samples a lot of popular synths.

good read !

now, this is a short interview...i'm aware of this.

but still.

some people on this forum must be smoking sherm.

the amount of anti-brostep comments that float around this site is incredible (and in many cases, rightfully so i guess). but then at the same time whenever anyone posts a borgore, mt eden, or skrillex or deadmau5 thread it's like the batman signal goes off and there's some sort of anti-brostep response team (a.b.t.r if you will) tripping over their pubic hairs to make the first comments - complaing, whining, moaning, yapping, etc. the responses exceed 5 pages. funtcase master class gets posted and it's a gang of statlers and waldorfs in the spot.

now...

here we got mala talking a little bit about whats gwanin as far as his set up. a couple hundred views but few responses?

fuckin lol!

adjust your g-strings.

prolly cause like most lil magazine features it's nothing special

therook wrote:You need a $500 dollar synth to make a simple sine wav? Oh I forgot, it sounds so much better when it has $500 synth cranking it out. lol

Seriously though both are very nice bass synths. Lots of nice presets and the tweaking & effects are a nice touch. It's pretty straight forward to use too. I believe trillian comes with a 40gb sound library that samples a lot of popular synths.

Good low bass isn't a sine wave, because sine waves have no harmonics. So, beyond a sine wave - it comes down to just how much warmth you can get out of a synth.

amphibian wrote:

therook wrote:You need a $500 dollar synth to make a simple sine wav? Oh I forgot, it sounds so much better when it has $500 synth cranking it out. lol

Seriously though both are very nice bass synths. Lots of nice presets and the tweaking & effects are a nice touch. It's pretty straight forward to use too. I believe trillian comes with a 40gb sound library that samples a lot of popular synths.

Good low bass isn't a sine wave, because sine waves have no harmonics. So, beyond a sine wave - it comes down to just how much warmth you can get out of a synth.

You mean like the synths that emulate moog hardware and such? So that it gives more harmonics to the bass?

therook wrote:

amphibian wrote:

therook wrote:You need a $500 dollar synth to make a simple sine wav? Oh I forgot, it sounds so much better when it has $500 synth cranking it out. lol

Seriously though both are very nice bass synths. Lots of nice presets and the tweaking & effects are a nice touch. It's pretty straight forward to use too. I believe trillian comes with a 40gb sound library that samples a lot of popular synths.

Good low bass isn't a sine wave, because sine waves have no harmonics. So, beyond a sine wave - it comes down to just how much warmth you can get out of a synth.

You mean like the synths that emulate moog hardware and such? So that it gives more harmonics to the bass?

Not just emulators but alot of big name manufacturers use unstandard waveforms to give thier softsynths character.

And dude. Mala is rarely gonna use pure sine subs, I mean, yeah, in sooome tunes, but, have you not listened to DMZ?

therook wrote:

amphibian wrote:

therook wrote:You need a $500 dollar synth to make a simple sine wav? Oh I forgot, it sounds so much better when it has $500 synth cranking it out. lol

Seriously though both are very nice bass synths. Lots of nice presets and the tweaking & effects are a nice touch. It's pretty straight forward to use too. I believe trillian comes with a 40gb sound library that samples a lot of popular synths.

Good low bass isn't a sine wave, because sine waves have no harmonics. So, beyond a sine wave - it comes down to just how much warmth you can get out of a synth.

You mean like the synths that emulate moog hardware and such? So that it gives more harmonics to the bass?

No - what I mean is - a low-passed square/saw/pulse wave - adds a lot of character to a sound rather than a sine wave. Sine waves a really only good (imho) for a really low (<30hz ) sub, just to add room-shaking quality, layered under a heavy mid-range. Even then I've probably got a saw or square wave sitting on top for harmonics. This is just my approach though - I just prefer some harmonics in my deep basses

Good synths imo (especially ones for basses) - make really simple waveforms (square/saw) really nice and warm at very low frequencies. This is the main reason I use Sylenth1 heavily, because I find it to be one of the warmest soft synths available. In fact, I've even heard from some well-known producers that it's comparable to a virus in terms of sound quality.

amphibian wrote:

therook wrote:

amphibian wrote:

therook wrote:You need a $500 dollar synth to make a simple sine wav? Oh I forgot, it sounds so much better when it has $500 synth cranking it out. lol

Seriously though both are very nice bass synths. Lots of nice presets and the tweaking & effects are a nice touch. It's pretty straight forward to use too. I believe trillian comes with a 40gb sound library that samples a lot of popular synths.

Good low bass isn't a sine wave, because sine waves have no harmonics. So, beyond a sine wave - it comes down to just how much warmth you can get out of a synth.

You mean like the synths that emulate moog hardware and such? So that it gives more harmonics to the bass?

No - what I mean is - a low-passed square/saw/pulse wave - adds a lot of character to a sound rather than a sine wave. Sine waves a really only good (imho) for a really low (<30hz ) sub, just to add room-shaking quality, layered under a heavy mid-range. Even then I've probably got a saw or square wave sitting on top for harmonics. This is just my approach though - I just prefer some harmonics in my deep basses

Good synths imo (especially ones for basses) - make really simple waveforms (square/saw) really nice and warm at very low frequencies. This is the main reason I use Sylenth1 heavily, because I find it to be one of the warmest soft synths available. In fact, I've even heard from some well-known producers that it's comparable to a virus in terms of sound quality.

^ sylenth is tits. very good for buzzy harmonic sounds. huge reeses

amphibian wrote:

therook wrote:

amphibian wrote:

therook wrote:You need a $500 dollar synth to make a simple sine wav? Oh I forgot, it sounds so much better when it has $500 synth cranking it out. lol

Seriously though both are very nice bass synths. Lots of nice presets and the tweaking & effects are a nice touch. It's pretty straight forward to use too. I believe trillian comes with a 40gb sound library that samples a lot of popular synths.

Good low bass isn't a sine wave, because sine waves have no harmonics. So, beyond a sine wave - it comes down to just how much warmth you can get out of a synth.

You mean like the synths that emulate moog hardware and such? So that it gives more harmonics to the bass?

No - what I mean is - a low-passed square/saw/pulse wave - adds a lot of character to a sound rather than a sine wave. Sine waves a really only good (imho) for a really low (<30hz ) sub, just to add room-shaking quality, layered under a heavy mid-range. Even then I've probably got a saw or square wave sitting on top for harmonics. This is just my approach though - I just prefer some harmonics in my deep basses

Good synths imo (especially ones for basses) - make really simple waveforms (square/saw) really nice and warm at very low frequencies. This is the main reason I use Sylenth1 heavily, because I find it to be one of the warmest soft synths available. In fact, I've even heard from some well-known producers that it's comparable to a virus in terms of sound quality.

better than a virus isn't saying much. the Virus is more about the user interface than anything else, look at all those knobs.
it's a digital synth just like your plugins.

AJGR wrote:

amphibian wrote:

therook wrote:

amphibian wrote:

therook wrote:You need a $500 dollar synth to make a simple sine wav? Oh I forgot, it sounds so much better when it has $500 synth cranking it out. lol

Seriously though both are very nice bass synths. Lots of nice presets and the tweaking & effects are a nice touch. It's pretty straight forward to use too. I believe trillian comes with a 40gb sound library that samples a lot of popular synths.

Good low bass isn't a sine wave, because sine waves have no harmonics. So, beyond a sine wave - it comes down to just how much warmth you can get out of a synth.

You mean like the synths that emulate moog hardware and such? So that it gives more harmonics to the bass?

No - what I mean is - a low-passed square/saw/pulse wave - adds a lot of character to a sound rather than a sine wave. Sine waves a really only good (imho) for a really low (<30hz ) sub, just to add room-shaking quality, layered under a heavy mid-range. Even then I've probably got a saw or square wave sitting on top for harmonics. This is just my approach though - I just prefer some harmonics in my deep basses

Good synths imo (especially ones for basses) - make really simple waveforms (square/saw) really nice and warm at very low frequencies. This is the main reason I use Sylenth1 heavily, because I find it to be one of the warmest soft synths available. In fact, I've even heard from some well-known producers that it's comparable to a virus in terms of sound quality.

better than a virus isn't saying much. the Virus is more about the user interface than anything else, look at all those knobs.
it's a digital synth just like your plugins.

Right, I am not impressed by a Virus. It's funny that Ed Rush and Optical name their studio and label after that synth which sent every bearded dnb kid after them. To this day even... when they themselves where touting VST just a few years later. Sylenth is nice. ACE blows the doors off of Sylenth for me. Any of these synths designed in the last few years are light years ahead of a Virus. You want a performance synth? Then yeah, Virus.

talking about great sounds from a plugin... up to this day, ive never seen anything sound as in ur face as sylenth/some reaktor synths... seriously, those things are heavy to the point they need to be quieten down straight from the start... ive done techy tune skeletons with only one sylenth patch...

Just shelled out for sylenth.... omg sex. It's like massive but for normal sounds