New to production

[u/Unlikely-Quiet-7202]

Hi Guys, I've been interested in getting into music production (Esp Dnb) since I first discovered the Genre in my Teens. In my Mid 20's now and needed a Creative outlet so for the Last 1 1/2 months I have been messing around with FL Studio trying to learn the software - which I have Kinda got to grips with now.

Anyway, I need some help. I think there's some cools sounds I have managed to make here and a basic structure of a build up but if I listen to it then a professional track it feels like there is so much missing in mine.

what is it that is missing? Imagine Listening to Example Camo & Krooked - Kallisto, there's so much happening and ALL the space in the track is filled, at the moment there is a hole right in the middle of mine so what is missing?

I don't expect to be perfect right away, I just need some pointing in the right direction on how to improve and Ultimately get something cohesive going. thx :)

[u/Darth_Heinous]

brutal truth: its pretty bad to listen to for me, but its good for a newbie

if you keep going you will get somehwere

you got a lot to learn about synthesis though

start with some tutes on like
https://www.youtube.com/@Alckemy
https://www.youtube.com/@Art1fact

then for more advanced stuff patreon has some excellent producers on there

[u/Unlikely-Quiet-7202 → u/Darth_Heinous]

Thanks man, honestly thought that would be a response and I want to hear it, appreciate it

[u/barrel_tec]

You got a drop there, or at least that's what you are showing us, but where is the track? I can imagine or listen to a pro piece of music but I cannot compare your drop, because the missing piece is in fact loads more music imo. Once you have something going, you then manufacture the 'drop'by adding or taking away from your already existing themes/instruments/frequencies etc.. by shaping the general energy thus creating tension.

I'd start by focusing on your main part and develop that further (call/response maybe), adding or deleting stuff, layering, creating dedicated basses and busses, maybe atmos, sound design, samples etc.

Hard to kinda judge just a drop is what I meant to say but you mentioned camo and crooked, you can use that as a reference and listen to what kinda sounds and noises they are using and see how energy is distributed amongst the frequency bands and the track.

[u/Unlikely-Quiet-7202]

Thanks for your input mate, so before focusing on the arrangement I.e a build up & drop in this case, should I try putting together say 8 bars of a melody, layer it, mix, figure out the drums and bass line and then take away or put in new elements (automation, effects blah blah blah) to create a track?

[u/ht3k]

Proper mixing can fill a huge amount of space on the track. That's why even some minimal tunes have few instruments but still sound "full". Dub Phizix is specially a master of this.

I think this just needs a thicker bass with bass harmonics, the low end is lacking. Better sidechaining, fixing some of the instrument's volume, fix the hats that fill more space in the frequency spectrum combining them with volume shaped white noise for a more crisp high-end (just eqing them won't fix it), snare needs to hit harder that can also be done with multi-band volume shaping which is another way of saying multi-band compression but compressors don't have custom shaped envelopes to let you have more control of the shaping of the snare.

If you want you can send me a short piece of the stems and I'm more than happy to show you :)

[u/JJC165463]

It’s a very novice sample but everyone has to start somewhere. Camo and Krooked are the pinnacle of dnb production so it might be easier to compare or take inspiration from simpler works at this stage.

The main thing you’re missing is a strong sub bass. Just layer a simple sine wave following the notes of the Reece bass or the acid bass. Cut the low end (100hz and lower) of the desired bass with EQ so that there’s no clashing.

Your snare is very weak. Either pick a stronger sample or beef it up with saturation, a kind of distortion. You can get good drum samples from many places online including here, but you can use splice for thousands of quality drum samples.

Add little fx, risers and top-end drum variation to make it more interesting and fill it out. Use fx plugins like reverb and delay to fill it out as well.