subject: How To Make Drum And Bass – Learn To Create Quality Beats [print this page] So many DJs and producers alike are looking for fast and cost effective ways of how to make drum and bass. Although some may disagree, drum and bass is not a complicated genre to produce and all you need to make beats like your favourite DJs is the correct software.
Artists like Hive, DJ Marky, Roni Size, B-Complex and Noisia all produce their tracks on simple sequencing software, not in super expensive studios, and they make a huge living off it now. A fellow DJ friend of mine runs a studio where he makes most of his money recording rock bands, although he performs as a drum and bass and dubstep DJ, which is his primary love.
With all the tens of thousands of dollars he spent setting up his recording studio with Protools HD, preamps and rack mounted hardware, he still reverts to this basic sequencing software to make drum and bass tracks.
A few months ago, I knew nothing about how to make drum and bass or sequencing beats of any nature and now I'm making fat beats with this program, which are bounced out as high quality masters. These high quality bounces are now available for download and I'm actually making some money. It's seriously easy, and I've started mixing them into my DJ sets and no one even knows that they are mine, they sound that good.
Some basic Techniques to employ with you software for drum and bass:
The drums:
Obviously you need to set your tempo to around 170bpm as per most DnB, ensuring that your session is set at 4/4 time.
Place a kick on the first and eleventh beat inside the bar.
Drop a snare type sound on the fifth and thirteenth beat of the bar, depending on how "jungle" you want it to sound, add more until it sounds right.
Throw in the high hat on every second beat.
If this gets boring quickly, then switch it up a bit - you will get the hang of it.
The bass:
Remember to work in your bass in line with the kick drum.
Write in suitable bass and have it repeat every 13th to 16th bar.
Make varied versions of the bass and the loop it.
If this sounds confusing, just give it a go yourself, it really is that easy.
Check out the software that I am using to make drum and bass here:
