I need some rythm schooling!

Noizemaker

Noizemaker

New member
So a few months ago I felt inspired to take on the hobby of making heavy dubstep/ambient type music, and I've come quite a ways so far. However my only musical background is playing lead guitar (mostly heavy metal) for several years and I have little experience or understanding of percussion, beat types, rythm structure etc. And being that dubstep is primarily percussion based, this has become quite a stumbling block in my creative process. Most of the beats I make simply "don't fit" with the music and I end up deleting 95% of them. I'm not really sure where to go from here, but if anyone has any helpful hints, tips, secrets, etc., please enlighten me.

Thanks!
 
HalfBlacko0000 said:
Do you understand bar structure 4/4 3/4 etc.? Do you know where the kicks and snares are usually placed?
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Yeah I know bar structure. I have a vague idea of where the kicks and snares tend to go, but that seems to vary alot....

---------- Post added at 09:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:27 PM ----------

like I know that Dubstep is basically a subgenre of EDM, but I don't quite understand the difference between makong a quality beat for dance music or one for rock music.

Really, I'm just new to making beats and I suck cause I've never done it before and don't know what I'm doing......
 
Look on top of you DAW youll see 1 - 2 - 3 -4 - 5, 1-5 is 4 bars now put your bpm at 90bpm and put a snare on 2 & 4 and a kick on 1&3 now adjust the bpmvto ur liking and listen to how the sound changes ill be back if you still have ?

---------- Post added at 04:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:02 AM ----------

Try adding kicks in different places between 1-5 so you can see how the sound changes. After you get that down erase everything change your bpm to 180 and put a snare on 3 and kicks on 1-2, 2 1/2 and 4 this is called double time it sounds like 90 bpm but its faster bpm the notes are just spread out farther. If you have amy questions hit me back
 
fundamentally rhythm use in drum parts is about layers of rhythm or rhythmic density:

  • Other instruments - decoration as needed
  • Hi-hats - 1&2&3&4&, offbeat only, other
  • Snare - 2 and 4, 3, other
  • Kick - 1 and 3, 1-2-3-4, other
 
What kind of music do you wanna produce?

---------- Post added at 07:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:45 AM ----------

Dance music and rock there arebso many kinds of both genres its all sound selection obviously if you want rock you need a good acustic drum kit a electic bass electic guotar and maybe a synth if you listen to most rock there isnt a whole lot going on as far as instruments hard drums a solo or 2 with the guitar and a bass under it all playing the root notes. Then again I dont really make either genre so your best friend is youtube type in what you wanna learn that day and go to town dont give up try to be more detailed on what you need to know when posting take it one step at a time
 
What you wanna do is put youre tempo at 140, place the snares on 3 instead of 2 and 4 to get that half-time feel which are used in dubstep.

Youre welcome
 
Its as fast as you want it to be you gotta try what I said to understand bpm and how you use it make sure ur listening its the same speed

---------- Post added at 02:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:45 PM ----------

You can make a track 200bpm and make it sound like 100 bpm

---------- Post added at 02:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:46 PM ----------

Do you plan on making music for a living if so get that norm bullshit out of ur head it will only hurt you
 
Most dubstep is at 140bpm (or 70bpm), but it's not fast. It's actually quite slow because it's half time. But there are dubstep tracks at all sorts of different tempos. I think skrillex's bangarang is closer to 110bpm actually. Dubstep generally uses bassy snares, so although it's halftime, it can have a "four to the floor" feeling like you do with most house and other electronica music. If you have the kick on the 1 and 3 and the snare on the 2 and 4, that's all it takes sometimes; and I've heard some really hardcore, awesome tracks with that simple of a pattern. But if you have a simple drum line, you have to fill that void with complexity somewhere else, like in the crazy basslines.
 
I'm not sure it's technically dubstep unless the snare is on the 3 tbh. What i do is put a snare on every 3rd beat of a 4 or 8 bar loop. Add a load of kicks until i've got a groove. I like to make the kick pattern different in each bar over 4 bars (so that would be repeated once in an 8 bar loop) Then i'll take the same snare, pitch it down , reverse it and place it at the end of the 4 bars so it sucks into the first kick of the next 4 bars. Then i'll reverse another snare add a big long reverb, bounce it in place (or resample it) then reverse that so you've got a long reverse reverb effect, do the same with delay, pitch some up , some down, try gating the reverb etc. Then arrange them throughout the loop until its grooving nicely, by reversing and adding effects like this it's easy to get that push , pull snare grooving effect. It's all about the swing on the hats too, dubstep doesn't want to be straight. In terms of tempo 90percent of dubstep is probably 140bpm but that doesn't mean you have to conform to it. Glitch hop is fun to make and is similarly swung but has snares on the 2 and 4 and is generally betwen 80-110 bpm. Hope that helps.
 
Oxygen Beats said:
Most dubstep is at 140bpm (or 70bpm), but it's not fast. It's actually quite slow because it's half time. But there are dubstep tracks at all sorts of different tempos. I think skrillex's bangarang is closer to 110bpm actually. Dubstep generally uses bassy snares, so although it's halftime, it can have a "four to the floor" feeling like you do with most house and other electronica music. If you have the kick on the 1 and 3 and the snare on the 2 and 4, that's all it takes sometimes; and I've heard some really hardcore, awesome tracks with that simple of a pattern. But if you have a simple drum line, you have to fill that void with complexity somewhere else, like in the crazy basslines.
Click to expand...

sasquatch100 said:
I'm not sure it's technically dubstep unless the snare is on the 3 tbh. What i do is put a snare on every 3rd beat of a 4 or 8 bar loop. Add a load of kicks until i've got a groove. I like to make the kick pattern different in each bar over 4 bars (so that would be repeated once in an 8 bar loop) Then i'll take the same snare, pitch it down , reverse it and place it at the end of the 4 bars so it sucks into the first kick of the next 4 bars. Then i'll reverse another snare add a big long reverb, bounce it in place (or resample it) then reverse that so you've got a long reverse reverb effect, do the same with delay, pitch some up , some down, try gating the reverb etc. Then arrange them throughout the loop until its grooving nicely, by reversing and adding effects like this it's easy to get that push , pull snare grooving effect. It's all about the swing on the hats too, dubstep doesn't want to be straight. In terms of tempo 90percent of dubstep is probably 140bpm but that doesn't mean you have to conform to it. Glitch hop is fun to make and is similarly swung but has snares on the 2 and 4 and is generally betwen 80-110 bpm. Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Thanks, both helpful posts!

Just to clarify, I'm not really into making the Skrillex/Flux Pavillion kind of dubstep. Most of the stuff I make is closer to Chrispy, Cyberoptics, Inf1n1te, etc. Not sure if that changes anything as far as tempo/rythm is concerned......

And since I'm here, I might as well post what I'm working on and see what you guys think. I know this isnt the feedback forum, but here it goes.
This ones in 110bpm:


EDIT: FYI, this is still a WIP, its not been mixed or mastered yet.

EDIT AGAIN: I lied about the bpm. Its actually 130 until the first drop, then it switches to 110.
 
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Wow, I was not expecting that song to be that good. Good job. You're right about the drums though. I can't help you with the technical stuff, but I do have some advice. I think you're snare placement is good, and the kicks patterns aren't necessarily bad, they just need some variation. You'll notice a lot of producers use the kicks to accent the rhythm of the bassline. For example the three notes right at 3:00 would sound good with kicks behind them.

I think rhythm is something you have to feel. In a way, you can let the bassline write the drums for you. Or you can try to dance to it.
 
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