4 Tips For Creating the Greatest Dubstep Songs - Creating Dynamic Dubstep Bassilines
Bass driven music such as drumstep, drum and bass, types of electro and complextro and glitch hiphop require a good bass line. This is one of the key elements of a dubstep and plays a huge role in making exciting music that keeps listeners engaged. Understanding the basic concepts of creating basslines is an important skill that producers can embrace so as to create top level productions.
1. Create simple melodies. Producing this kind of music requires some adjustments especially when playing in many bands such as in funk music. This is easily notable from a keyboard player perspective. Though I was familiar with creating some good bass melodies, translating them to this dance genre didn't work as expected. Modulations are the key into making a good production considering that most dubstep basslines stay on single notes which are sustained with modulations. To make the production easier, holding a modulated bass note for 4 bars is the key. Even if it sounds simple, modulations will make it better.
2. Let the modulations be complex. In most bass driven music, it is the modulations that give the oomph and ear candy this genre delivers. A basic wobble is controlled by your LFO which can modulate many different parameters depending on what synthesizer you're using. You can modulate pitch, cutoff, resonance, frequency, volume etc. to create dynamic rhythms. Think of these rhythmic modulations like you would drums. Sometimes I'll tap out rhythms with my hands, rapping on a desk or something and come up with some great sounding modulated rhythms. Remember, since your melodies are simple, the modulations can make or break the song. You can use your midi controller knobs to manually record these parameters and then edit them in your DAW.
3. Use different synthesizer patches to create dynamic sounds. An easy way to create dynamic sounds is to use several different bass synths so each part of your bass line will be in a different voice. This can sometimes save time on modulation by hand and will bring a complex sound to the listener's ears. I'll use up to 6 different synth basses and maybe a couple mid-frequency and high frequency synths to accomplish this.
4. Call and response technique is another crucial concept. Though this technique is extensively used in the production of many types of music, I generally feel that bass driven music uses call and response more than other music genres. You can easily hear the difference by listening to any bass song. Most often, you will hear 4 or 8 counts of a bassline played in a certain voice and then another 4 or 8 counts of a synth played again followed by another. This technique is often broken up by the use of fast arpeggiated synth patterns. The technique is very simple to listen to and follow. Even the best dubstep songs demonstrate this easy format.
The secret behind meeting your expectations is to listen to your favorite songs and artistes and continue working on your skills to improve your music.
1. Create simple melodies. Producing this kind of music requires some adjustments especially when playing in many bands such as in funk music. This is easily notable from a keyboard player perspective. Though I was familiar with creating some good bass melodies, translating them to this dance genre didn't work as expected. Modulations are the key into making a good production considering that most dubstep basslines stay on single notes which are sustained with modulations. To make the production easier, holding a modulated bass note for 4 bars is the key. Even if it sounds simple, modulations will make it better.
2. Let the modulations be complex. In most bass driven music, it is the modulations that give the oomph and ear candy this genre delivers. A basic wobble is controlled by your LFO which can modulate many different parameters depending on what synthesizer you're using. You can modulate pitch, cutoff, resonance, frequency, volume etc. to create dynamic rhythms. Think of these rhythmic modulations like you would drums. Sometimes I'll tap out rhythms with my hands, rapping on a desk or something and come up with some great sounding modulated rhythms. Remember, since your melodies are simple, the modulations can make or break the song. You can use your midi controller knobs to manually record these parameters and then edit them in your DAW.
3. Use different synthesizer patches to create dynamic sounds. An easy way to create dynamic sounds is to use several different bass synths so each part of your bass line will be in a different voice. This can sometimes save time on modulation by hand and will bring a complex sound to the listener's ears. I'll use up to 6 different synth basses and maybe a couple mid-frequency and high frequency synths to accomplish this.
4. Call and response technique is another crucial concept. Though this technique is extensively used in the production of many types of music, I generally feel that bass driven music uses call and response more than other music genres. You can easily hear the difference by listening to any bass song. Most often, you will hear 4 or 8 counts of a bassline played in a certain voice and then another 4 or 8 counts of a synth played again followed by another. This technique is often broken up by the use of fast arpeggiated synth patterns. The technique is very simple to listen to and follow. Even the best dubstep songs demonstrate this easy format.
The secret behind meeting your expectations is to listen to your favorite songs and artistes and continue working on your skills to improve your music.
About the Author:
The author is an emerging electronic musician from Los Angeles. He is releasing his first EP on Beatport September 2012 under the name Good Lyfe Addikts. He's uploaded many of his own free dubstep music which is downloadable from his Soundcloud channel.