prodigy drumbeats

N

newera

New member
anyone got any tips or advice on how Liam manages to create those huge drumbeats on his later stuff in tunes like diesel power on fat of the land
 
Heavy kicks, deep underlying basstones, EQ (heavy but subtile), and compression compression compression (and compression).

Try to learn the basics of compression and practice practice practice (and practice).

Cheers. :cheers:
 
beside THM´s points i think layering drums/drumloops and/or interaction of more than one drumcomputer creates the magic here.
 
just while we are on the subect of compressors.
is it true you need really expensive compressors to achieve a "big sound"
Ive been trying to compress my Kick and basslines with my Behringer Ultra Dyne Pro, but its not giving that thud Im after.
I've played with the settings and tried all sorts of presets, even went back to the arrangement to see if there was something wrong there,
should I be recording from my synth without compression, or should I apply compression after I have recorded from my synth to sequencer.
 
Jupiter said:
just while we are on the subect of compressors.
is it true you need really expensive compressors to achieve a "big sound"
Ive been trying to compress my Kick and basslines with my Behringer Ultra Dyne Pro, but its not giving that thud Im after.
I've played with the settings and tried all sorts of presets, even went back to the arrangement to see if there was something wrong there,
should I be recording from my synth without compression, or should I apply compression after I have recorded from my synth to sequencer.
Click to expand...

1st learn how to really use a compressor and then it all gets a lot easier :) this article is great:

http://gonzoft.tripod.com/articles/a4/a4.htm

As a general rule though record clean & add effects only on playback - that way you can change em.

:)

MM
 
Really watch how much compression you put on things. There's a lot more that you can do to make that huge sound. While compression is one method, it can and will take out a lot of quality so be careful how much you use. And also as said before, drum layering is very important. I normally do a two patch layer for kicks: one for the low deep end and one for the tonal part of it. Work with lowering the pitch of the kicks as well as it will provide a deeper sound (go figure). And make sure they are toned down enough so the low ends are tuned to just the right amount where the low ends will sing. There's also subharmonic effects that adds a super low synth sound to any low end. You can tune it to what hz you want, how much bandwidth you want it to pick up so you can tweak it to match the tone you're using. There's a lot of things you can do, but experiment. Just be careful how much compression you use because that can kill low ends.

nw1
 
i have studied the production style of liam from the prodigy and have a noticed a few things about his production style.

firstly he seems to find old breakbeats and chop them up and play them in infinite variations.

then he layed subkicks, and bass tones over them.

then he adds additional sounds that fit the vibe. for example the boiing in the out of space tune, and the sonic hedgehog sound when u pick up a ring in the tune charly.

u will definitly need to compress ur drum trakks heavily, but also u will do have a big libary of drum breaks, that contain many different textures in the loops meaning u will be able to chop them up well. a big drum sound libary to layer over the breaks is also essential.

now check out this website, it lists all the samples that the prodigy have used in their last 3 albums...

http://theprodigy.info/samples/experience.shtml

http://theprodigy.info/samples/jilted.shtml

http://theprodigy.info/samples/fotl.shtml

now download these tunes, and listen to the prodigy versions, and u will definitly have learned something
 
did u know the diesel power breaks second snare is a sample of bones crusing, taken from the Wu-Tang Clan "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuttin' Ta F'k Wit'" ????
 
Apart from the compression and layering bit, you also might want to experiment with reverbs and side chain noise gating. It sounds like there's lots of large room reverb on certain elements of the beat, especially on the kicks on each down beat. The reverb tails seem to be gated by the off beat snare flams which are a bit drier and then the reverbed parts of the beat are heavily compressed. That makes the reverb sound like it's swelling up towards the next drum hit.
 
There's an article on the Propellerheads site about how Liam is using Reason these days for all of his new material. Evidently all beats and synth and noises are sequenced in Reason, and then the tracks are assembled in Protools, adding analog bass sounds and other instruments...
 
tonepoem said:
There's an article on the Propellerheads site about how Liam is using Reason these days for all of his new material. Evidently all beats and synth and noises are sequenced in Reason, and then the tracks are assembled in Protools, adding analog bass sounds and other instruments...
Click to expand...

Yeah, thats a good article, and definetly recommended.

R2B, I don' think this can be done with just using FL...?
 
Zer0PointEnergY said:


R2B, I don' think this can be done with just using FL...?
Click to expand...
Was that a question? err... it takes a bit more than just FL I suppose. I never work with FL though, mostly Cubase and hardware.
Reason sounds reasonable to me but I don't know it too well either.
 
I made a lil' loop using the technique I described above. I fiddled just 1/2 hour or so, so it's a bit sloppy. Just for the idea...


ez
B#
 
Zer0PointEnergY said:


Yeah, thats a good article, and definetly recommended.

R2B, I don' think this can be done with just using FL...?
Click to expand...

It can't be done with JUST Reason actually! You'd need Recycle to chop the beats up first before using Dr. Rex. FL Slicer does a pretty good job IMO, and it's not another purchace (though I do like to use Sound Forge to mark the regions up instead of having it all done automatically). Having said that, I'm NOT a "FL is better than Reason" type of person. Reason has some really nice sounds, and I'm a big fan of it's Subtractor soft synth.
 
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