One Synth Challenge #92: Digits 2 by Extent of the Jam (z.prime wins!)

[liqih]

Taron there are various tutorial on the web
that introduce you to various shuffle and swing grooves that are typical of Dubstep, if one cares. I always fall back on reggae and samba grooves because are those that I like the most.

[Taron]

Huh...didn't even think of that, yet. Hmmm...yah, I might just have a look then!
Thanks!
Maybe I should start by properly listen to some dubstep, haha. I always just hear pieces in shows or the one Skrillex song 7 years ago, besides all the OSC stuff, of course. Again, thanks for the reminder!

[z.prime]

Maybe I should start by properly listen to some dubstep

Yes. Know thine enemy!

Also, FYI I found a non wubby thing this time, so we can be cordial this month. Tee hee hee.

[z.prime]

I'm honestly not the dubstep expert (my tracks are not really dubstep most of the time, despite what you may think... but certainly some influences and other types of modern music... and 80s music). But there are a few tracks I think most dubstep fans would tell you are good with dubstep elements. Mostly, you just want to mind the sound design on the basses and the rhythm of the drums. There actually is a lot of sound design on the bass elements, but it's all about automating the sounds to be have a lot of movement. Adding a lot of elements isn't really the genre, but rather a lot of movement across a few sounds, like 3-5 "basses" would be a pretty typical dubstep track. Of course there are exceptions and maybe *I* am the one that doesn't get it. The drums are 1/2 time, so... Kick on the 1, Snare on the 3. This is important because it helps to get the drums out of the way of the basses (especially the kick drum)... the "basses" being the sub bass, often. Anyway, here are the few tracks I think capture the basswork portion of the genre (though some may not actually be dubstep, but rather complextro):
https://soundcloud.com/virtual-riot/teq ... ng-mistake
And a totally different style of dubstep, without the basswork, really:
https://soundcloud.com/illeniumofficial ... nium-remix
Then, there's this sound-design-to-satan-bass style dubstep:
https://soundcloud.com/koan-sound/two-f ... ythm-remix
And a middle ground:
https://soundcloud.com/dubstep/8bit-dre ... vertron-ft
And the best Skrillex track, one of the only 3 good ones:
https://soundcloud.com/skrillex/skrille ... feat-sirah
On a side note, I agree Skrillex has some good skills at vocal chops and music in general, though I don't think he's great, he has had a few very good tracks. The fact someone actually likes Skrillex to me means they are a mainstream music fan. Which is no problem, just an observation, most of his music is awful to me.
But, almost finally... this is probably, hands down, the best dubstep track ever produced and will never be beaten for the genre. It is amazing.
https://soundcloud.com/knifepartyinc/un ... arty-remix
And finally, a duo I am extremely envious of (I know who the group is, do you? it took way too many hours of my life to find this out): Grey, making a new-ish style like this, these guys are supported by huge names now: https://soundcloud.com/grey/disarm-you-grey-remix

Enjoy listening! Now, off to figure out how to become rich and famous, myself! If not with music, then with being a bastard!

[Dragonsongz]

Quick question: Exciters allowed or no?

[z.prime]

Quick question: Exciters allowed or no?

Probably fine... EQ-based FX are generally ok.

[Dragonsongz]

Quick question: Exciters allowed or no?

Probably fine... EQ-based FX are generally ok.

Alright, thanks!

[jasinski]

cool drumming Taron!

Thanks, Luigi!

Yay! Taron goes Wubby! Some nice percs there to use whatever genre you go for!
dB

Thanks, bob!

But I still think I'm too rigid for dubstep, like I'm missing the bounciness of it or at the very least getting off the bars to throw the rhythm on occasion. Something like that. Jasinski and Zprime are doing these bizarre deconstructions that are quite stunning, though, I can't remember hearing the kind of bounciness I find most fascinating in stuff like from Skrillex, for example. ...loads to figure out and I just can't fully feel it, yet. I wouldn't mind expanding my senses and developing a new tool for my arsenal for expression.
I just hope, I can avoid the predictability of it or rather predictable unpredictability of it.

Well, thanks for pushing me. Oh, and the mix is a perfect mess, too, of course...pfff, so much to wrap my head around.

Your track sounds cool! like you are taking the idea of Dubstep and running it through your style... Which is kind of what I end up doing. I don't really 'get' dubstep either. It's much less traditionally musical. But hey, maybe we're doing something fresh?

[TrojakEW]

This one is really challenge for me. It sound very very very dirty and have problem to create clean sounding preset. For me even dirty sound should sounds clean. Even noise sounds very dirty here .

The main problem with Digits is that velocity in piano roll doesn't do anything. If it is set to min/zero or max still same volume at least for me in flstudio 12.3. I have solved in now with automation events but with velocity it will be easier and faster. Does this thing support it?

[liqih]

This one is really challenge for me. It sound very very very dirty and have problem to create clean sounding preset. For me even dirty sound should sounds clean. Even noise sounds very dirty here .

The main problem with Digits is that velocity in piano roll doesn't do anything. If it is set to min/zero or max still same volume at least for me in flstudio 12.3. I have solved in now with automation events but with velocity it will be easier and faster. Does this thing support it?

You can make clean sounds with some efforts: no FM, close the Filter, and less PD oveall. But yes usually it sounds grungy. Velocity works perfectly, You have to use the two sliders at bottom left.
Hope that helps.

[Taron]

First off: ZPrime!!! That is so fantastic! I will listen through those and see what I can absorb. I'm scared but also excited, haha. Scared, because I hardly ever listen to music let alone styles I normally can't handle...so it's like asking someone, who's scared of spiciness to eat through a menu of really hot peppers from around the world, haha.

I'm trying to like a lot and am even making myself adjust to certain things in order to understand them, like weird Arabian flutes like the Arghul, for example (Luigi knows!) , and there's real magic in there. Once I develop a feeling for the nature of a certain style or field, there comes hope I would be able to tell what's weak, what's wise and what totally rocks, hehehe.
When I first heard Skrillex (which was the first time I ever heard dubstep) I completely, hair-raisingly hated it. But because it was in a game, I had to listen to it again and again, even if I turned it down, but at some point the usually hypnosis thing happened and I began to recognize things in there that were kinda nice and so on...until I actually freaking liked it - and Ellie Goulding's voice or what was left of it, haha.

But that's about it.
Again, Z, that is awesome and I'm really excited to see, if I can do you proud!
THANK YOU!

Jas, man, with a sense of familiarity and closeness to you, you're making me see you as a victim of all this, too, hahaha. Comforting, and totally unsettling, because you're such a master at it from where I stand and, well, most others, I assume. You're so advanced in your wildness sometimes, that it's impossible to learn from you before one has learned to even hear all the layers and intricacies.
However, I still would love to hear the full you, because I'm excited about your genius. I also wonder, if we somehow may break free from all specific styles and figure out some genuinely new ideas between us all. And I'd expect you to pull hardest!
Thanks, man, really. And of course that is what's meant to happen, but I want my style not to be in the way, which is what it feels like to me, you know. I want my style to evolve. Right now it's like I got brand new skates and now I manage to make it look like I'm walking, hahahaha, but the whole dancing stuff is still to come!

Cheers to you all so very much! ...off to grind a lil'...

[TrojakEW]

Velocity works perfectly, You have to use the two sliders at bottom left.
Hope that helps.

Ehm Im confused. Do I have to enable it somewhere? Im talking about velocity per note (in pianoroll).

[liqih]

Velocity works perfectly, You have to use the two sliders at bottom left.
Hope that helps.

Ehm Im confused. Do I have to enable it somewhere? Im talking about velocity per note (in pianoroll).

Yes you have to set the velocity rensponse in the synth, bottom left:
Map (Vel)....
Amplitude and Shaper sliders,
to adjust the amount of velocity sensitivity to those two parameters.

[Taron]

omg, omg, omg...I can't do it. ...I'm trying to listen to these tracks and I'm suspending 90% of my being, yet, even the 10% left are going and I turn at myself and go , but I can't snap out of passionately disdaining these dubstep tracks. It's so...like a broken Donald Duck robot, who's raping a drugged teenager into his brains while quacking through a megaphone into his/her ear with totally molded mechanisms that he borrowed from some other deprived cartoon character, who secretly works for a superior group that's out for world domination by destroying the minds of humans in and around their prime. ...or something like that.

Maybe I should wait until the afternoon, but in the mornings, this is like self-mutilation.

But, I have to honestly say with real, serious respect: The mixes are amazing. I really have to figure out how to arrange my instruments and clean up where they sit in the spectrum to fill it up so evenly and powerful as those guys know how to. My stuff sounds like total utter crap compared to theirs.

In the meantime, I shall explore mixing improvements and simply try to think up what power elements I can really transform into something I would be happy to present to you. AND I'm still grateful, despite my tantrum up there, Z, that was/is highly educational in great ways, too!

[bjporter]

New prize: LuSH-101 Cloud Layers soundset by Touch the Universe