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Bass Music Mix 31 - Jumping Back Slash
Bass Music Mix 30 - The Kelly Twins
Bass Music Mix 29 - Chrissy Murderbot
Bass Music Mix 28 - Actraiser
Bass Music Mix 27 - Dub Boy
Bass Music Mix 26 - Cymatic
Bass Music Mix 25 - Eomac
Bass Music Mix 24 - Spatial
Bass Music Mix 23 - Marcus Visionary
Bass Music Mix 22 - Monky
Bass Music Mix 21 - Phaeleh
Bass Music Mix 20 - DJ Madd
Bass Music Mix 19 - Cardopusher
Bass Music Mix 18 - Orphan101
Bass Music Mix 17 - Photomachine
Bass Music Mix 16 - Caper
Bass Music Mix 15 - Skyence
Bass Music Mix 14 - Altered Natives
Bass Music Mix 13 - Kalbata
Bass Music Mix 12 - Bombaman
Bass Music Mix 11 - Edu K
Bass Music Mix 10 - Tomb Crew
Bass Music Mix 9 - noyeahno
Bass Music Mix 8 - Von D
Bass Music Mix 7 - J:Kenzo
Bass Music Mix 6 - Anton Maiovvi
Bass Music Mix 5 - DJ Absurd
Bass Music Mix 4 - Akkachar
Bass Music Mix 3 - Julio Bashmore
Bass Music Mix 2 - Martsman
Bass Music Mix 1 - Subeena

Mike Monday: The Production Process

June 13

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Thought this might be of interest to some of our up coming producing blog readers. Check out some of Mike's other blogs too, he's got some interesting stuff to say and is most certainly an industry/house music veteran worth paying attention to!

http://www.mikemonday.com/music-production-process-sources-of-inspiration.html

Mike HF

Filed under  //   Mike Monday   Production  
Posted by bassmusic 

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Eskmo & Amon Tobin - Single Release & WAV pack

April 8

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Eskmo and Amon Tobin are probably two of the finest manglers of audio in the game at the moment, so it was with some excitement that I saw they'd collaborated for a single release.  It's out this week, and features a bunch of found sounds that the pair recorded, chopped, spliced, and squashed into a musical framework.  It sounds great, really interesting stuff, and on top of that they're giving away a pack of WAVs used in making the tune so you can have a go yourself.  There's also an Ableton Live pack of the samples, don't know exactly what's in that but it's been put together by Ill Gates and there's a video where he tells you all about it.  Visit the new website set up just for this project and you can get all that stuff, and also, of course, buy the track.

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Filed under  //   Amon Tobin   Eskamon   Eskmo   Free Samples   Production  
Posted by bassmusic 

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Si Begg EP, Scuba Mix, and Remix Parts

April 5

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I mentioned it on here a while back, but you should go and check Si Begg's project '24 Bit Error Correction'.  You can either download the music for free, or get the whole physical product, box set and so on, for a contribution of your hard-earned.   So, go and check that.  You might also be interested to note that he's just put up for download the remix parts to one of the tracks ('I Do Not Dream') along with a Scuba SCB.  All for the low, low price of £free.

I'm embedding the Scuba mix below; so have a listen to it but also check out Si's soundcloud page where you can get yourself all the remix parts too.

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Filed under  //   Free Samples   Production   Si Begg   free tunes  
Posted by bassmusic 

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KMag, Sabre & Addict remix competition

April 1

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Knowledge mag this week have launch a new competition in which you can get the parts to remix Sabre's track One Hundred Teeth.  This looks to be a straightforward remix competition in the main, only - there's no mention in the blurb about the winner getting their track released.  Which is quite often the normal prize.  What you do get, though, is a thousand quid's worth of clothes from Addict, and a free Soundcloud Pro account.  Which is a prize worth a lot more than getting a tune out on vinyl!  You can also grab the original tune, and even use the samples in your own productions, providing you credit the source.  Check here for full details:

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Filed under  //   Production  
Posted by bassmusic 

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2 Bit Thugs - Free Track & Remix Parts

March 15

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More interesting industry efforts here, which you want to be checking out.  It looks like this year is going to be really interesting - not just for the music (which is amazing already) but also for the amount of people trying to find their own way in the world, now there are so many possibilities open.

Here's another duo at it - Brighton's 2-Bit Thugs.  They specialise in crunked up 2-step sounds - more on the bumping side than your Martyns and SBTRKTs, but still with a certain melodic sensibility - and they're launching their new site on April 1st.  To drum up some interest, they're giving away not only a free track, but also the constituent parts thereof, as a special extra.  So, while you wait for that new site to get up and running, help yourself to this here track:

....and then grab the remix parts from here:

and don't forget to check www.2bitthugs.com in a fortnight or so.

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Filed under  //   2 Bit Thugs   Free Samples   Production   free tunes  
Posted by bassmusic 

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Prime Loops Sample Giveaway

March 1

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Those fine fellows at Prime Loops have decided to give away a whole load of samples from their various products, for you to try out and hopefully like and then buy their stuff.  A healthy 500MB of audio goodness from orchestral strings to dubstep filth to house grooves - go and get your fill here!  

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Filed under  //   Free Samples   Production  
Posted by bassmusic 

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Sample bonanza: Reviews & special offers

December 9

Kaboom.  Two sample CD's to review today, and I bring news of some kool stuff too.  Prime Loops have just announced a big winter sale, where everything is 25% off until the end of the month.  Check out their website for more info.  Loopmasters, on the other hand, have just announced that for December, you get double 'virtual cash' (a bit like Tesco clubcard points) on anything you buy over the next two weekends - which you can then redeem for discounts or even free sample packs.  Check them out here.
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On to the reviews, and the first one is Prime Loops 'Temple Of Breaks' pack.  It's a straight up drums pack, full of loops from 170 - 182 BPM, and aimed away from the standard DnB template, looking more towards the drumfunk and techstep crews; there is also a good selection of sparse, halfstep beats in there, acknowledging the current dubstep-inspired trends from the likes of D:Bridge.  Everything sounds tight and well produced, and there is a good variety of sounds; beats based around rimshots and bongos as well as the usual chopped kick and snare malarkey.  Speaking as a minor drumfunk nerd, if I had a complaint it would be that there aren't an awful lot of crisp, acoustic sounding drums; there's more of a tougher, distorted emphasis here. If you're looking to rival the next DJ Hazard wobbler, you won't find too much of interest, but anyone looking a bit beyond that should find more than enough styles to get some inspiration.  The sale I mentioned above also brings the price of the pack down to less than a tenner, which makes it definitely well worth a look.

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The second pack for review is Loopmasters 'Push Button Bang: Rise' pack.  This is quite an interesting one, as instead of focusing on a particular style of music, it focuses on a particular element comment to most styles - the 'woosh' noise.  Don't laugh, I mean it - FX noises that people use in build-ups, breakdowns, sparser parts of tunes, or just to add some atmosphere here and there.  This pack has 540 such noises, and they basically cover the whole angle - FX noises that go from low to high, high to low, left to right and vice versa, noises that fade in, noises that fade out and ones that do neither so that you can just loop them seamlessly.  It even includes white noise and pink noise, just for completion's sake.  I've got to say, I'm rather impressed; instead of trying to offer a bit of everything, it just keeps to one element and does it very, very, well.  If you're looking for transitional type effects noises; look no further.

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Filed under  //   Production   Reviews   Sample Pack  
Posted by bassmusic 

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Producer Q&A: Subeena

November 3

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This week our Producer Q&A comes courtesy of Subeena.  You might remember she did the first Bass Music Mix a couple of months back - well, since then she's been busy with a new release just out on Planet Mu - 'Solidify' feat Jamie Woon & Om Mas Keith, gigs all over the place, and more.  Read her thoughts here:

How do you approach a tune?  Drums first?  Melody?

Depends, mostly with drums though.


What time of day do you work best?

In the morning or early afternoon. I'd love to work at night but just can't help getting sleepy unless I have to mixdown or do something that doesn't require too much creativity.

Where do you get your inspiration / motivation from?

Not too sure myself to be honest. Sometimes I might just hear something I like that inspires me - most of the times I end up doing the total opposite though. Other times it might be something really random, just a situation or something that puts me in a certain mood and makes me want to sit down and write a track.

What do you do when you're not feeling inspired?

Sometimes I try harder and I manage to get motivated again. I am very easily distractable so I know it's ok for me to try a couple of times, but if I realise I'm just pushing it too much I just leave it and try again a few days later, otherwise I'd just end up just not enjoying it at all and probably making a track I'd totally hate.

Do you start a tune from scratch, or do you usually have a drumset/template/etc to work from?

I always start them from scratch... I made a few drum kits in the past after being advised to eventually get a bit more organised, which totally makes sense but I forgot about them anyway and probably used them not more than two or three times. 

Lately I've been doing a sort of mix of both though: I would start a tune - and take a lot of time to get the kits, sounds ready etc but then the actual tune would end up being something I generally don't really like at all. So I would start a new one with the same sounds and drums a day or two later and manage to make something out of it.

If you got a chance would you write pop stuff for a major label (if the money was good?)

Three years ago I would have probably said no, now I think I would, yep. I think trying to do something so different than what I'm used to - with a specific purpose, might actually end up being quite inspiring / enjoyable.

What's the boring, workhorse plugin/piece of kit that you use all the time?

Pretty much all the plug ins I use. The hopeless one though is definitely battery.

What's the coolest bit of kit you've got and do you actually use it much?

I've got a couple, but there's one I recently found out, a synth called Circle which is quite cool.

Do you mixdown your own stuff?  Reckon there's a stigma around this?

Yea I mix down my own stuff. I try and make the best I can even though it doesn't always quite sound the way I'd want it to, heh.

I really appreciate good mixdowns and I'm always happy to learn more and improve them but on the other hand I think sometimes some people get too stuck on getting loud and crispy mixdowns than focusing on the actual tracks... 

It's obviously a shame when a good track sounds bad mixdown-wise but then again, you can fix that; while tracks which are not special or which are slightly boring but sound good can't go much further in my opinion.

What production technique do you think is really overused / annoying?

It really varies quickly. I think every genre when it hits the peak moment brings one or two elements that get overdone. Like that midrange wobbly bass some time ago, or that kind of extreme sidechaining that was very obvious after a few producers used it a lot.

It's a shame when it happens too often because there's so much room still to try and experiment rather than just repeating formulas.


What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?

Hmm.. Production-wise probably just the basics of mixing down or small structural things. As for the rest somehow related to music such as label running, publishing, promoting etc - too long - I'd end up writing a poem. Not to sound pretentious, because I don't think I know much nowadays anyway and there's plenty of things to learn and find out about, but now it's definitely better than earlier.

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i.d.

Filed under  //   Producer Q&A   Production   Subeena  
Posted by bassmusic 

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Review: P5Audio Construction Loops & SSL Kits

October 27

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Two sets of two packs to review here, from US Sample crew P5 Audio.   They've got a range of products to appeal to different types of producers, leaning in general towards Hip Hop, and these showcase the different ends of the spectrum - from full on construction kits to packs of just drum hits and FX.

I'll start with the Construction kits.  I have here the Dirty South Block Party kit, and the Dr Rehab Hip Hop kit.  These packs both feature a number of full loops, with bass, drums, synths, guitars and FX, usually over an 8 bar section, and each loop is broken down into its constituent parts (up to about 10), to edit, meddle, mixdown and arrange as you see fit.  Clearly, then, this is not aimed at the professional producer.  I'd guess it's more for the MC's who want a beat to rap over for their demo, the DJ who wants tracks to mix with on their laptop or when putting together a mixtape for an MC, or for someone who needs to write library music, and so on.  On that level, I think they succeed quite well.  Stylistically, they're pretty much on point - the Dirty South pack is full of hype, ravey lead lines, euphoric strings, 808 kicks and running hi-hats, and some of the loops could be straight off a Jeezy track, with tempos going up to a heady 128BPM.  I was almost throwing my set in the air.  Well, I would have been, if I was in a gang in the US, and er, generally thug.  

The Dr Rehab pack is focused more on East Coast sounds, and again pulls it off quite well.  Lots of moody cinematic strings, gritty guitar sounds and the rest, with a darker emphasis, and the occasional rougher stepper.  I found myself less excited about this one; although it captures a scene quite well I thought the styles didn't really vary too much; they started to feel a bit samey after a while.  The same could be said of the Dirty South pack - certainly some of the string sounds crop up in several of the loops, but with the variety of tempos it wasn't such an issue.  The other thing that is an issue, however, is that I thought some of the loops were a touch 'soft-synth' - they didn't really sound up to the standard of production that you'd get on a hiphop album.  However, it's clear that these aren't really aimed at people who're going to be producing a big-budget album, so maybe that's not such an issue.  And lets face it, some hip hop tracks that see a release (and sell loads) sound horribly cheap so maybe I'm not the best one to judge.

The other packs are two sets of sounds focusing mainly on single hits.  These are Lil J's Dirty South Crunked Up Kit and the TimboNeptunez Heat Makerz Kit SSL - both cunning named to evoke the names of certain famous producers, although not actually bearing any official endorsement.  With names like that I was rather suspicious, but they're actually not bad - the TimboNeptunez one in particular has the selling point that all the samples have been ragged through an SSL desk to warm them up and is quite nicely done - there are loads of interesting samples, various keyboard and bass guitar licks that have clearly been lifted straight off a vinyl, and loads of decent drum hits.  My main complaint would be that the likes of Timbaland and the Neptunes use loads of cool odd claps, bongos, and other loose percussive things in their beats, and I'd have liked to have seen more of that in here - there are a fair few, but I would still enjoy a few more.  Still though, this is one of the more interesting drum packs I've seen in a while.  The Lil J one is suitable crunk - loads of drum machine and 808 stuff, but plenty of deep basses, heavy kicks and a decent FX section - one thing this pack can't be accused of is skimping, as there are about 70 of each type of sample.  And - I know this might sound odd - but some of the hi-hats are really good; there are plenty of non drum-machine ones which are really quite useable, and I normally have a complete mare looking for interesting hihats that aren't the standard load you normally see in sample packs.

Overall, these packs are pretty good as long as you know what to expect, but I think the TimboNeptunez one is my tip here.  Oh, and as ever, don't forget to check their blog for random music industry and production tips.  And (to continue the theme today) that brilliant Jeezy interview.  The man is a legend.

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i.d.

Filed under  //   Production   Reviews  
Posted by bassmusic 

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Producer Q&A - I.D.

October 21

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So, yeah, I'm basically interviewing myself here, and now have to write an intro to the said interview without straying too much into the third person.  It's a lot for a rainy Wednesday morning, let me tell you.  Anyway, my name's I.D., my latest release 'Leaves' is out now on Mata-Syn, and don't forget to check my latest DJ mix if you haven't already.  

1. How do you approach a tune?  Drums first?  Melody?

Generally the drums.  Pretty much always, in fact.  Probably should try a different approach I suppose, see if it brings me round to a different and interesting way of working, but I'm such a drum nerd it's pretty tricky!  After that, the bass, then everything else.

2. What time of day do you work best?

Depends what for.  I work better for 'specific things' in the morning - mixdowns, if there's a change I want to make on a track, invoicing people, stuff like that.  I feel like I can get moving on something quite quickly.  Otherwise, I don't know - probably after midnight, when everything's quiet.  Apart from man's speakers.

3. Where do you get your inspiration / motivation from?

90's Drum & Bass is a big one, for the rolling drums and subby basslines.  90's dance music in general, in fact - detroit techno, early Plastikman, Ben Sims, DJ Sneak, Orbital... anything that vibes.  Also some guitarry stuff - stoner rock especially.  

4. What do you do when you're not feeling inspired?

Not write music!  A week or two's break gives you a good chance to let a few ideas germinate.  Or try and get some collaborations going.  You can come up with what you think is a fairly standard beat, but it will inspire the other person, and the stuff they add to it might give you more ideas.  It works sometimes...

5. Do you start a tune from scratch, or do you usually have a drumset/template/etc to work from?

Everything from scratch.  Occasionally I'll pull in a sample or a patch that I've used before, but that's about it.  Probably should do that more, I suppose, people seem to latch on to producers who have a consistent kind of sound, but it always feels a bit lazy in a way.  That said, there are certain techniques I always use - my drum buss arrangement is usually one of 2 or 3 combinations.

6. If you got a chance would you write pop stuff for a major label (if the money was good?)

Absolutely, I'd love to.  I don't know if I'm good enough though - decent pop music is really impressively produced and surprisingly creative once you get past the frequently crappy lyrics.

7. What's the boring, workhorse plugin/piece of kit that you use all the time?

Well, most of Logic's free plugins get rinsed pretty comprehensively - the compressor, the EQ's, the bitcrusher and the space designer are all solid and very useable.  

8. What's the coolest bit of kit you've got and do you actually use it much?

I've got a Roland MC202 which is pretty tidy and was responsible for the bassline on Leaves.  I've also got a Yamaha CS5 which is great but a bit noisy so I don't use it much, and a Yamaha AN1x which isn't all that cool but the rate this decade has just zoomed past it's probably gonna be considered vintage quite soon.

9. Do you mixdown your own stuff?  Reckon there's a stigma around this?

Yes I do mixdown my own stuff, and I do think there's a stigma about it.  Which is a bit of a shame in some ways, as I'd rather hear well-produced stuff that has been mixed down properly than some of the stuff I get.  I had help mixing down a couple of my tracks in the beginning, and it improved them no end, and also helped me hone my own mixdowns on my later stuff.  

10. What production technique do you think is really overused / annoying?

One thing that is going to drive me mad the next time I hear it (this will be tomorrow) is when tracks (or sometimes accapellas) have not been warped properly in Ableton and you get this strange grittiness in the sound.  Makes my teeth curl, but the amount you hear it, I guess a lot of people don't notice it.  Also, uber-bright mixdowns are starting to annoy me these days.  You don't need all that treble in a club situation.

11. What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?

Loads!  I wish I had known that finishing a track is as much a skill as any other part of writing, and if you don't practise it you'll never finish anything.  I could have done with acknowledging that having good contacts is often as useful as having good tunes, and acting accordingly, too.

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i.d.

Filed under  //   I.D.   Producer Q&A   Production  
Posted by bassmusic 

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