Hey guys. I wasn't sure whether to post this in the composition or the sound design section but I felt that the composition section was more suitable.

It's always been beyond my understanding how people manage to create drops like these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkwtq2uhbmU 1:37

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYaeoeLHva8 0:35

For those of you dubstep/glitchhop producers out there how do you go about making this stuff? It's not as straight forward as the progressive trance/house stuff in my opinion. The only thing I've been able to observe about it is this type of "call and response" feel all the sounds have when they're put together.

I've checked out a few of virtual riots tutorials. They're really good quality. Maybe I'll revisit them and try to analyze what he's doing. The fact that not many people have replied leads me to believe that there aren't a whole lot of dubstep/glitchop producers on the forum that know the answers either. (Please prove me wrong guests/users)

Honestly, a lot of glitch and dubstep stuff can be made with pure audio manipulation.

There's no real way to do it outside of that, you have to bounce your sounds to stems and then chop it up how ever you see fit.

You can do crazy automation as well, but it might not be as consistent compared to bouncing out that crazy automation.

Then, with those crazy automated parameters bounced, you can process it even further with a stem.

It's all revolved around sampling, and treating the sample

I'll be sure to check out mr bills tutorials. I hadn't heard of them prior to this post. It isn't necessarily the sound design that I don't understand. I've experimented with lots of glitchy type stuff before through the manipulation of audio files.

What I dont understand is how they go about putting all that stuff together. My mind might be overcomplicating things but there sounds like there's least 10 sounds in those drops. It's that process of turning those 10 samples into music that actually still maintains harmonic its melodic complexity that gets to me.

Hoping the mr bills stuff is what I'm looking for. Thanks Marrow & Mussar!

Be careful with mr bills tutorials, i found them to be quite convoluted. Then again I haven't really used ableton that much and kind of jumped in.

BUT, what i got out of it was the ability to chain certain effects together and to keep them organized to achieve an end result.

Quote from: Lydian on March 13, 2016, 10:14:59 pm

I'll be sure to check out mr bills tutorials. I hadn't heard of them prior to this post. It isn't necessarily the sound design that I don't understand. I've experimented with lots of glitchy type stuff before through the manipulation of audio files.

What I dont understand is how they go about putting all that stuff together. My mind might be overcomplicating things but there sounds like there's least 10 sounds in those drops. It's that process of turning those 10 samples into music that actually still maintains harmonic its melodic complexity that gets to me.

Hoping the mr bills stuff is what I'm looking for. Thanks Marrow & Mussar!

Be careful with mr bills tutorials, i found them to be quite convoluted. Then again I haven't really used ableton that much and kind of jumped in.

BUT, what i got out of it was the ability to chain certain effects together and to keep them organized to achieve an end result.

I felt the same way. I think I'm just going to do it the old fashioned trial and error way. The new track that I started sadly isn't a dubstep/glitch-hop track so I can't really experiment with it.

Here are something things I've been able to determine about these types of complextro/dubstep/glitch-hop drops through critical listening.

1. The drums usually maintain a consistent pattern.
2. The growl/wobble/omgwtfbbq basses maintain the root note of the harmony (or simply the bass if there is no harmony).
3. If the drop is harmonic in nature then usually there is some type of chordal element that will play for a few beats and then dissapear to make room for all the other noises.
4. It's pretty trendy to include some sort of pitch fall bend on beat1 of the drop. (Isn't used all the time) (Madeons Icarus is a good example)

Honestly, it's hard to try to find patterns within dubstep drops because for one they aren't all the same and two there's always going to be someone who kinda just does their own thing.

I'll revisit these thoughts later. I know that I am going to feel incomplete as a producer if I never figure out how to make these types of drops.

Ooh, can I be the dubstep guy?

Quote from: Lydian on March 13, 2016, 03:53:48 am

The only thing I've been able to observe about it is this type of "call and response" feel all the sounds have when they're put together.

Funny you mentioned call and response. That's what makes a good drop. Usually, you'll be building the drop around one or two key elements, phrasing them with enough space to breathe, then filling in the gaps with other sounds.

Example/plug: https://youtu.be/ALB3x5pyqho?t=3m45s

The "key element" is the supersaw (and the bass under it). It trades off with a few other basses, plus there are leads trading off on top of all those.

Nice music Wontolla. Sine you seem to be the dubstep guy around here do you think that complextro/glitch-hop drops are similar in nature?

It's like you mentioned I've noticed that most of the drops seem to revolve around a few main elements with a bunch of bass/lead sounds in between.

do you think that complextro/glitch-hop drops are similar in nature?

Pretty much. A lot of popular dubstep, drumstep, complextro, and glitch use the same sounds and techniques, just different beats. Glitch trends towards randomness though, since it's supposed to be more bouncy (especially with the 16th note swing). Some people (me included) count "110bpm dubstep" as something separate from glitch hop. It's basically drumstep but faster.
Glitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ0JolIcnq8
110bpm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I_P4ssS9yI
The glitch track is slower, rhythmically looser, and has a swing feel on the 16th notes, plus the drop switches between elements faster.
And because I never miss a chance to plug my own stuff, here's the same track arranged as:
Glitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYsqJP7vq20
110bpm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIirscNILIs

I like to produce dub step. My main technique is to play a basic dub step beat and make and 8 or 16 bar loop for the main drop. I'll usually use between4-6 different synth instances for the drop. I do use the call and response approach. But then I'll bounce that down to audio and once I do that it on!!!! That's when I can really chop it up and automate different effects, pitch etc. then bounce that down to a single audio wav. Basically as some one here already said. Audio manipulation. I just finished this track. I dig it. I think it has that feel to it. L
https://soundcloud.com/theovoid/the-stepz