Dubstep Music? Dubstep is quickly becoming its own genre with sounds unique to dubstep
like bass wobbles, a heavy beat, and remixed dubs / samples (sound clips
from other material). Now make a track of your own.
Choose and install a program to create the music. Open your music production software and prepare individual tracks to load samples into, or open a sample player such as Cakewalk's Cyclone (to program and play back up to 14 samples) or Cakewalk's DropZone (to play back one sample at a time). Both programs come with any current version of Cakewalk's Sonar.
2
Create a beat. Many Dubstep pioneers start by making the beat. Listen to a dubstep track and tap out an original beat at dubstep tempo (around 140 bpm). Take note of the percussion sounds, as you will most likely be searching out samples of the kicks, snares, cymbals, etc. to make your beat with. Dubstep beats carry only 1 snare per measure.
3
Look for samples. Choose
a kick sample and boost the bass and punch. Layer 3 different kick
samples together to get that full Dubstep kick sound. Samples can be
found with a quick Internet search, but for the best quality samples,
invest in a few sample libraries.
4
Load the samples. Choose
a snare sample and / or layer 3 together to get a big and deep sound.
Also search out any other percussion sounds you'd like in the beat. The
typical bass, snare, cymbals, toms, and cowbell will suffice, or you can
create a completely unique beat by choosing less obvious samples; a gun
shot, a stadium foot stomp, a clap, etc. Dubstep percussion has a lot
of presence to it so feel free to mess with reverb and effects on the
samples. Now program that beat!
5
Make the bass lines.
Great bass lines and "wobbles" can be created using synths such as
Native Instrument's Massive or Rob Papen's Albino 3. These are my
favorites and are worth the dough but many free synths can be found
online. There are some great tutorials on YouTube about how to create a
wobble or bass line for both Massive and Albino 3, along with many other
synths. Wobbles usually take a little tweaking and synth understanding
to get right but most synths come with pre-made "patches" which you can
browse though and choose from. You may be able to find a fantastic bass
sound in a matter of minutes by going this route. Doing something
completely unique will be a little more demanding.
- If you want the track to sound decent in the end, you're going to have to make 2 copies of each wobble. The first, the top end, and the second being the clean subs at the bottom. The reason for this is when you start distorting and running the top end through a whole bunch of effects to dirty it up, it muds up the bottom end if it's not separated. The easiest way to do this is to take your bass patch, copy the entire track with the synth on it, and then on the copy, use only one oscillator and change it to a sine wave. Then high pass the top end using an equalizer (at around 70 Hz) and low pass the sub (at around 78 Hz). Without doing this, even a professional won't be able to get a quality mix finished. Another good idea to get some variations in your bass sounds is to bounce it to audio, then tweak the synth a little bit, and bounce that one. Do it a few times, and you've got a library of bass wobbles that all follow the same bassline. You can further expand on this idea by running them all through different effects chains.
6
Create the melody. You
can most likely use the same synth to create your melody sound/track.
Either browse the pre-made patches or start tweaking to get the sound
your thinking of. Hum it out. Figure out the notes using your piano,
keyboard, guitar etc. and record the idea. Be creative. Recreate what
you hear in your head. (sometimes what you stumble upon while trying to
recreate what you hear in your head can actually be better, so feel free
to run with it if it sounds good, even if it wasn't your original idea;
if the idea was that great, it'll come back to you).
7
Arrange and structure the track.
Use your dubstep knowledge to decide where to bring the bass line and
melody in. Many dubstep tracks start with a very subtle beat and build
until the beat drops. Pause. Then the main melody, bass line, and beat
come in.
8
Experiment. Listen to
some unique and rare records and use a sound slip from those (just make
sure you pay royalties if you make money off it). Think of a mysterious
melody from your childhood and search out that track. Sample it in a
dubstep track.
9
Break it down. A must-do
in any attempt at a classic dubstep track. At the climax, break the
song down to just the beat, some tweaked-out wobbles, and effects. Go
wild. This is basically a digital, machine-like guitar solo.
10
Maximize it. Have a
professional mix the track (it's well worth the dough) or go the quick
and easy route - add a maximizer to compress and boost all the levels.
You'll achieve a more radio-friendly volume.
11
Compare your work with other tracks.
Play back your track after listening to a dubstep track and compare the
structure (order), mix, volume, and most importantly, the mood. We want
hipsters to gather in tight crowds and sweat in syncopation to the
sound of digitized machinery and sonic booms. Set THAT mood.Tips
- Whatever part gets created next will differ from track to track depending on your inspiration, but it's always safe to hum out either a bass line or melody line to start with.
- Show it to a friend and be open to trying ideas they suggest, especially minor ones.
- Learn how to mix. A professional mixing engineer is basically going to use hardware versions of all the tools you have at your own disposal. The knowledge is on the internet, you've just got to look for it and practice it. Most dubstep artists mix as they go, at least some of it. For instance, most EQ the drums and bass so that they both fit together. There's nothing worse than spending a week on a song, waiting til the end to mix it, and finding out that all your wobbles are in the same frequency range as your kick drum... And if you learn to mix yourself, you'll open up a lot more options when it comes to creating unique sounds. Plus you won't have to pay someone else to do it, which means you can invest that money back into the studio.
- Put it on YouTube. There are many people out there just looking for the next big dubstep track. Tag it with "dubstep" and whatever artist it is alike to. You'll get hits and more feedback.
- A fun thing to do is to look for a movie quote to insert before the bass drop.
- Don't be afraid to fail. Dubstep is still somewhat undefined and uncharted. Many dubstep tracks experiment on the outskirts of the electronic realm. Many dubstep fans just want to dance, hear a memorable tune, and get a good fix of something new. A brand new digital sound.
Warnings
- Research royalties and copyrights when sampling other music and before making money off it.
- Be modest with the bass levels. Deep bass lines can drown out the melody and muddy the track if you're not careful. Simplify it if can be. If you're not playing this in clubs you'll be giving it to your friends to listen to on their iPods through ear phones with little bass frequency response. (If you mix it correctly, you can use plugins that maximize the bass' harmonics so that it appears loud and deep on systems that cannot produce those notes. Google "Waves MaxxBass")
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