Elektronauts dnb/jungle tunes/tips

Will do

Djing D&B and organizing D&B parties in my hometown (Grenoble, France) from 2000 to 2015, I always struggled to really make my own D&B tracks on computer.
Other kind of music were ok, but I failed miserabily each time I tried to make a D&B track that could compare to what I was listening to.

So last year I decided to try making D&B again, without trying to match today’s standards, just for my own pleasure (and friends one :slight_smile: ).
Using only hardware, because spending 40h/week in front of computer for work.
Was a big challenge, and took me something like 30/35h by track, and as I don’t have that much time to spend on music making, I could only make these 2 D&B tracks.
“Unstable” is mastered by a friend of me, “Corrupt.sys” is not mastered at all.

5 Likes

Thanks for posting up :+1:

Thanks mate :slight_smile: I can’t pretend I know what I’m doing but it makes me happy that a few here have enjoyed it as never imagined even sharing it until this thread popped up! So another thanks to Symian for creating it and really enjoying hearing people’s work too.

I think certain styles of d&b/dnb(?!) might lend themselves more to hardware over software or vice versa or a combination of both. I’m totally lost on the sub genres etc but some typically seem to have levels of sound design I couldn’t imagine possible with hardware alone (this is pretty much based on nothing though, ha) and the few in-the-studio artist videos I’ve watched they often seem to be sampling hardware into a DAW and doing a lot of sound design, automation and the arranging in there. Then probably back out for hardware mastering? I don’t listen to loads of the genre and all the sub genres but I’m always blown away by the production values even if musically things aren’t always my cuppa.

2 Likes

So I’ve done a wee bit more work mix wise to the amen track I posted and also added some vocal samples from T la rocks this beat kicks… anyone wanna take a listen and see what you think?

10 Likes

Wow! This is pretty dope! Is it all made on hardware and hardware sequenced? Sounds very nice!

1 Like

Thanks, wish I could say it was but I got rid of my hardware as I’m a software guy at heart so now I work on iPad and in Ableton… I stick around here cos I enjoy the company… probably the best bunch of any forum I’ve ever been on… :+1:

3 Likes

I’ll try to remember to check this out when I’ve got more than a phone speaker.

1 Like

Here’s one I’ve been tooling around with but I’m scratching my head when it comes to finishing it, I feel like it’s got the bones of something but can’t quite get it over the finish line…

8 Likes

Thanks a lot! Yes, hardware only : Deluge playing drums, some short samples, and sequencing Blofeld, Micromonsta2, Wavestate, and Mc101

1 Like

Octatrack is great for jungle. I’ve been making a lot of drum patterns, haven’t actually made full songs yet but the drums are a blast to program with the OT.

Been following Ned Rush’s tutorials to get started: Conditional Amen Break Glitching Octatrack = Ned Rush - YouTube

2 Likes

as another option for using amen breaks.

I collected some of the breaks in Ableton, aligned them to the same tempo.

I cut it into pieces. saved every piece. sorted 64 pieces.

then, using the octachainer, he glued one file with the file for OT, where he understands that each piece is a slice.

then played the slices.

it can be chaotic, but there are excellent combinations that cannot be obtained using only one amen.

lfo works just as well for choosing a slice, but not for all triggers, some triggers need to be without lfo so that they show the beginning of the measure, for example.

I personally don’t like too much randomness, even if the OT is capable of it. I like drum patterns that feel like they’re constantly moving forward and not glitching too much.

1 Like

I don’t like random either. but, look at it as a kind of archive with 64 pieces, and not 8-12 slices of one amen. the point is not to play more than half of 64 slices :slight_smile: the point is to find interesting combinations of some pieces, and then work with them using parameter locks. lfo on a slice, was like one of a bunch of possible options …

1 Like

Ah, right. Yeah that functionality is why the OT is just the best way to program jungle drums. Well, as far as hardware goes.

1 Like

Great! Real good job, you really improved your original track

This is killer!

Thanks guys…:+1::heart:

Right I’m finished with it… The unfinished track that is not music in general😅…

Got rid of the bass growl, it was a poor choice, added some extra chop socky samples and rhythmic elements too…

12 Likes

So much to catch up on here! So glad this thread is thriving!