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Basic tunes. What we talking here, 8 elements at most?

- Opening pad/string w/ slight modulation
- American Psycho sample w/ heavy reverb/delay
- Wheep wheep synth stabs
- Simple kick/snare pattern
- Few incidental sounds (scream/reversed voices/noise sweeps)
- Sub bass

A masterclass is efficiency and effectiveness with a minimal amount of elements.

Collected musings on the subject;

recon through a sampler, hp around 40 and lowpassed quite high, like 80/90? some reverb

reverb on sub is how they get the erm.. dubby sound to the sub, reverb before eq would guess

I managed to get an overdriven sound out of a soft tube fet compressor once that reminded me of loefah

It was a low passed blend between a sine and square wave with a slightly 808-ish style amp and pitch envelope

it was from a synth, but I think an 808 sample would work well through the same processing I did

I think it's just a slightly distorted sinewave sidechained with the BD.

Yeah I'd say it's probably sidechained or the kick and bass are fairly heavily compressed together...not sure if its side chained or manually just cut out for the kick. sounds like each note is on the start of the kick as it doesnt quite have the sidechain sound. could just be sidechained with the attack like that i suppose

if you listen carefully there is no kick sound when the note of the bassline goes up...no sidechain effect there...if that makes sense

It just sounds like a sine with a lowpassed square or something over it that's very lightly sidechained. Prolly really short release so you don't get the stereotypical sucking and pulling

Think a more appropriate title would be 'The simplest tunes are often the best, in some people's opinion' as music is subjective.

True, but that disclaimer could be added to a lot of the thread titles and discussions on here. I think it's widely accepted that taste (especially in music) is subjective.

yeah i often get lost in those super filled tunes i cant grap to anything anymore

The ethos and style of production ties in nicely with the minimal setup idea that fragments floated the other week;

Rules will be:

8 Mono mixer channels/tracks (so if one were using FL Studio, only eight tracks on the playlist and only eight mono mixer channels)
If you want a stereo channel you have to use 2 of your 8 mono channels
2 stereo send/returns (you can can whatever you want on them as long as it abides the other rules)
One each of any given kind of FX; and only one "live" instance at a time
resampling/recording things to audio is OK as long as it abides all other rules
2 synths and only one "live" instance of each at time (I'd be OK with taking it down to one synth, one live instance)

wub wrote:The ethos and style of production ties in nicely with the minimal setup idea that fragments floated the other week;

Rules will be:

8 Mono mixer channels/tracks (so if one were using FL Studio, only eight tracks on the playlist and only eight mono mixer channels)
If you want a stereo channel you have to use 2 of your 8 mono channels
2 stereo send/returns (you can can whatever you want on them as long as it abides the other rules)
One each of any given kind of FX; and only one "live" instance at a time
resampling/recording things to audio is OK as long as it abides all other rules
2 synths and only one "live" instance of each at time (I'd be OK with taking it down to one synth, one live instance)

Live instance meaning if I want different reverb settings on 2 channels I have to bounce one down?

Open to interpretation, not sure rules is the right word, guidelines seems more appropriate.

But along those lines, yes. Going to trial the above notes (with Horror Show as a working example/inspiration) this w/e for the sample pack contest and see what comes of it.

Surely this track is a better dubstep track than horror show;


Lots going on there.

And what about non-dubstep like Amon Tobin's ISAM album, and Aphex Twin's Drukqs album (minus the gay piano tracks), they have loads going on, and they are in my top 5 albums ever.

3za wrote:Surely this track is a better dubstep track than horror show;

How many layers/elements you reckon in that?

40ish

Less is more or more is less...Coppola used 100+ for Apocalypse now.

Should really sample Eliot more, keep a theme going. Not necessarily a theme but some consistency. But is that cliched?

Respectfully disagree. Sometimes otherworldy euphoria can only be conveyed through complexity, imo

Rustie


Lunice, hudmo, flylo, clams casino, madeon- these artists can use a lot more emotive techniques than the typical top producer. But you are right there is something to be said about simplicity in certain situations

mtl6 wrote:simplicity in certain situations

I admire your wording

Let's put it this way, minimal done well and complex (or maybe full or busy is a better word) done well are two different, but equally important skill sets in music making.

Personally, I'm usually on the more minimal side of things.

To answer the question about my suggestion for minimal setup guidelines. Having two instances of a reverb running at the same time (let's say a long and short on two sends) would be contrary to what the guidelines suggest.

The minimal setup guidelines are trying to mimic what it might be like to work with a small hardware setup in a project studio.

It was terribly long ago engineers only had to eventually process everything down to four tracks. I believe I was reading the reaction of one of The Doors when they finally got to work with an 8 track recording system for LA Woman (?) and they were blown away by that.

fragments wrote:To answer the question about my suggestion for minimal setup guidelines. Having two instances of a reverb running at the same time (let's say a long and short on two sends) would be contrary to what the guidelines suggest.

So to use both a long and short verb, you'd need to bounce and reimport, then adjust the settings on the verb to taste? (assuming we're talking about using the same instance of the verb plug and just adjusting)

wub wrote:

fragments wrote:To answer the question about my suggestion for minimal setup guidelines. Having two instances of a reverb running at the same time (let's say a long and short on two sends) would be contrary to what the guidelines suggest.

So to use both a long and short verb, you'd need to bounce and reimport, then adjust the settings on the verb to taste? (assuming we're talking about using the same instance of the verb plug and just adjusting)

Yes. You'd have to bounce one reverb track to audio and it have to be one of your eight total tracks. If people really wanted two reverbs, that seems reasonable.

Also, I think an EQ on each channel is OK>

fragments wrote:

wub wrote:

fragments wrote:To answer the question about my suggestion for minimal setup guidelines. Having two instances of a reverb running at the same time (let's say a long and short on two sends) would be contrary to what the guidelines suggest.

So to use both a long and short verb, you'd need to bounce and reimport, then adjust the settings on the verb to taste? (assuming we're talking about using the same instance of the verb plug and just adjusting)

Yes. You'd have to bounce one reverb track to audio and it have to be one of your eight total tracks. If people really wanted two reverbs, that seems reasonable.

Also, I think an EQ on each channel is OK>

I'm not at all experienced with hardware but in FL you could limit it just to the EQ build into the mixer

^That's true. That's probably what I'd do then if I were working in FL, because I like using limitations a lot. But if you think about a mixer, each channel usually as a three band EQ so if people want to sort that using the EQ on the channel strip in FL studio or by adding an EQ on each of their channels that seems to fit the guidelines.

fragments wrote:^That's true. That's probably what I'd do then if I were working in FL, because I like using limitations a lot. But if you think about a mixer, each channel usually as a three band EQ so if people want to sort that using the EQ on the channel strip in FL studio or by adding an EQ on each of their channels that seems to fit the guidelines.

FL has a 3 band parametric EQ built into the mixer so that would probably be perfect for this, going to have a go at this next time I have no ideas

Come on guys, brothulu and spactrafunk have waaay better tracks than this.

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