Ghost notes in Drum and Bass style.....need help in english

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Supa Drop Kick Man

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I have read a few explanations on the concept and creation of that wonderful stuttering breakbeat composition, but most of these pertained solely to the program Buzz. I love Buzz, but have still a lot to learn and was wondering if anyone can translate the concepts of the quick breakbeats in pertaining to Reason or on a 32 or 64 slot scale.
I can tear up samples forever on Acid, but want to compose my own from scratch...and can't get a bmp of 150+ to sound anything but sped up garbage....

Heres what I can figure. With a bpm of 150+ the bass drum usually starts at slot 1 and then hits again around 10 or so. Snares seem to live in the 13th slot or the 5th slot. What seems to define the sound is the stuttering hi hats and variations in the beat's tone.

But can anyone help explain the concept of ghost notes and how they approach the creation of the wonderful and enigmatic (to me) Drum and Bass.

Thanks all,

~SDKM
 
I don't know the term "ghost notes" but I think I may know what you're referring to...in my experience it is MUCH easier and better sounding to chop a sampled break and build on it, rather than trying to program your own realistic-sounding breaks...take for example the most overused break in DnB, the Amen break, at like 110bpm or so it kind of goes

Boom boom Chick chicka-chicka-boom Chick chicka-
1--------2-------3------- 4-------5-------- 6------ 7-------8

right? Boom = kik, Chick = snare, chicka = that cool rolling hihat sound that has kind of become a trademark of DnB breaks (actually all breaks). I think what I call "chicka" you call a ghost note...am I right? The trick to getting your sampled breakbeats to sound ill and not messed up is to break them up right. First make sure that your original loop is tight. Then just divide it into 8 equal parts. You can do 16 but 8 is easier to get your head around. Make sure each part starts on some kind of drum sound, you don't want any clicks or pops in there. Then sequence the individual chunks in a clever order to make a fat rythym. I think Recycle is used most for this but I just chop them up manually on my sampler. Anyways, if you're making a dnb track, you obviously need more than 110bpm, more like 180bpm...so just increase the tempo and it will still sound good if you broke up the break correctly.


that's just a basic description, there's plenty more to it than that......
good luck
 
lemme say you want a stupid techstep 2step beat



that's the basic bar

kicks:::: : 1_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1_ _ _ _ _
snare:::: _ _ _ _ 1_ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1_ _ _


now of course you can very this scheme, add another kick at the 9th position, or at the 3rd, even on the 8th and the 9th

the important thing is that you avoid any 4 to the floor ish elements, like kick and snare together, or the typical BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM in a rather symmetrical way.... try different positions for the snare (try the 5th and the 11th for the "jungle styleee")

now add hihats, tamborines, shakers etc,....
 
as a general rule
bass on 1 and 3.5 and snare on 2 and 4

this of course based on (4/4)

for a drum machine scale of 16th notes that would be

bass on 1 and 11 and snare on 5 and 13

thats a basic 2step
 
this is all very good advice thanks guys i'm stoked ... lappin' it up!
 
a ghost snare
you lower the volume than the original snare
and raise the pitch slightly
 
ohhhhhh,
I hear that beat all the time. I didn't know it's a D&B break. cool, I learned something.

yeah, and from playing drums... a ghost note is when you don't hit the note as hard as the rest. Sounds not just quieter, but rather softer. maybe add some reverb or EQ too, to make it a bit softer
 
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breakbeats sped up to 160+ bpm are an essential part of expanding human consciousness

Hehe, can't remember where I heard that, but it sure is a cool line. :)

Anyways, ghost notes can be accomplished just be dropping the velocities on your snares that don't fall on 2 and 4, and/or using a pitched or different sample altogether. A steady highhat or other percussion part is important to keep things flowing in a straight line as well. I like to use velocities that compliment my bass line, (quietest, quiet, loud, queiter if I've got a heavy bass note later in the bar) and vary closed vs pedal hihats with an occasional quiet open hat to add a little barely audible "ssssh-kah" near the middle of every couple bars.

As far as placement for ghost snares, you can stick em wherever you want but you'll find the best places are in-between the 8th notes (so 2,4,6,8,10,12,14 and 16 in your typical drum sequencer layout). The totally cliche spots are right before and after the 3rd beat (8 and 10 ala roland X0X) but another good spot is right on 16 cause it rolls nicely into the kick at the next downbeat. Judicious use of different velocities is really important to keep your breaks from sounding dull and canned. Try throwing in a brief roll with almost inaudible snares that crescendo up to only about half what your hitting your 2+4 foundation snares at.

If you want to call yourself a serious breakbeat producer though, ease off the sampling. It's fine to pull individual drum sounds, but the problem with too much drum & bass nowadays is the ridiculously small genepool of new beats. You hear producers yapping about how lame house is, how all it is is a four-to-the-flour and meanwhile they're just looping the same 2step that's been around forever. A fun way to learn breaks is to cut a phat sample, then sequence some stuff that compliments it (makes the kicks bigger, add some snare hits, etc). After you got something that grooves well together, turn off the sample and play with what you've created until you get something that sounds nice.

I used this technique in one of my remixex of DJ Zinc's On Fire Tonight. It think it's pretty obvious when the sample kicks out, and fades back in, but playing around with loops at sequencing underneath it has taught me a lot.
-mj-
ps: god damn why won't this link work!?
http://www.mediaportal.org/mp3/DJ Zinc - On Fire Tonight (modular%20jack's%20melodic%20mix).mp3
 
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TRY THIS ONE ......

Try this as a starting idea,

Program your hats; 1 hit on every 8th of a measure and then push the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th hits slightly out of time
(TIP; if you have an RM1x this is so easy to do using the Clock shift function under the groove controls).

Depending on which way you push the hits out of time it will either sound more laid back or the total opposite more manic and immediate.
Be careful here as it's eay to create some excellent sounding rattling break which sounds so cool on it;s own but when mixed with an actual (well known) break is so out of time it's unreal !

Try deleting some hits, or 'stuttering up' to give some variety to your break and also adjust the volumes of each hit.

Also, try adding some slight delay to your snares (low repeats) until you get some crazy 1995 jungle style pattern. Record/embed the midi notes and then as said before adjust the pitch and volume of the ghosts.
This will give you a more reserved and modern sounding break which moves nicely and doesn't sound too mad.

Add compression to your kicks also to give more presence so that any bassline you decide to use doesn't eat it all up.

I think somebody has mentioned already but, try spinwarp.com.
A very useful site, a lot ofthe tips are tailored toward Buzz and F.Loops but most can be translated into any software or hardware setup.

Hope this is all useful and not just a load of Sh@t !

Take it Ez yeah !

Rich
 
Program your beats at difrentspeeds and then change them to other speeds and then rearange...sometimes you can get great things from that...try to make it natural...and when you tak it into acid and break it up and cut and past it will remane somewhat natuaral.

Taos
 
Code: 
1_ _ _    _ _ _ _    1 _ 1 _    _ _ _ _    (KICK)
Code: 
_ _ _ 1    _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _    1 _ _ _    (SNARE)
Code: 
1 _ 1 _    1 _ 1 _    1 _ 1 _    1 _ 1 _    (HiHAT)
Code: 
_ _ _ 1    _ _ _ 1    1 1 _ _    1 _ _ _    (GHOSTSNARE)

Ghost = lower volume higher pitched version of the mainsnare (emulating a drummer hitting the outer edge of the drum lightly)


this is a basic example, add more hihats, kick variations, snare variations, bongos, etc....

example 2:

Code: 
1_ _ _    _ _ 1 _    1 _ _ _    _ _ _ _    (KICK)
Code: 
_ _ _ 1    _ _ _ _    _ _ 1 _    _ _ _ _    (SNARE)
Code: 
1 _ 1 _    1 _ 1 _    1 _ 1 _    1 1 1 1    (HiHAT)
Code: 
_ _ _ 1    _ _ _ _    _ _ 1 _    1 _ 1 _    (GHOSTSNARE)
 
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Ghost notes, in theory, are notes that don't exist. They are a jazz technique that makes a beat sound more filled out but by playing certain notes in a certain pattern. I don't know enough to give a detailed description, but it's usually involved in high hat, snare, and kick work that sounds like the person is playing twice what they actualy are.

Do we have any jazz drummers on here who can adequately describe this?
 
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