AC Blog

Today I got the Black Album out again after a long long break from listening to it, I mean it must be literally years since I have turned up the office monitors whilst listening to this!

The album was a complete departure (production wise) from anything Metallica had done previously, more than likely as a result of teaming up with the talents of Bob Rock.

The reason I am telling you about this delight is that the album is a fine example of Kick Drum EQ. Sure it is an acquired taste and you’d never catch a “jazzer” using such extreme processing as this, but nonetheless if you are seeking some influence for the baddest kick drum eq of all time(?), check it out.

In addition what would you add to the list of bad ass kick drum eq?

Foto Credit: Metallica Tattoo

I had a blast at MediaCampBucks07 which took place a couple of weekends ago, the experience was fantastic and in between all the learning and sharing there was some music production taking place in the thick of it. I wrote a summary over on my personal blog about the educational event.

As well as this Nuno was caught running around with a video camera and he kindly put together a short summary vid to show off his talent. We hope you like the style and you are set to be seeing more of Nuno’s work on the site in the coming months in the way of tutorials.

Hi everyone,

This is my first entry on the Audiocourses blog - I’ll try to post here regularly with my thoughts on music and production as well as other things that are happening in my life which may be vaguely interesting.

I decided today to spend an hour or so creating a tune in a genre that I don’t usually work in - Drum’n'Bass. Every now and then I like to do something like this as it really freshens you up, especially if you only work in a few genres usually.

Now electronic music isn’t new to me at all - I first got into music production about 13 years ago using a Commodore Amiga 512 (later a 1200) and a copy of OctaMed. At the time I was using 8-bit mono samples and had no MIDI keyboard. everything was put together in the most unmusical way possible. OctaMed was certainly very basic in it’s user interface but somehow I created some of the most innovative music I have ever produced - at the time I didn’t even play an instrument so I was just making it up as I went along with no idea of music theory.

Anyway, I spent a lot of time trying to write songs in the style of Westbam and Slipmatt. A lot of the music of this time was what we would later call ‘jungle’ and this in term obviously had a huge influence on the later genres of ‘Breakbeat’ and ‘Drum’n'Bass’. I drifted out of the ‘jungle’ so to speak and became more interested in the slower, funkier sounds of House and the party-friendly, and now dated, rhythms of ‘Big Beat’.

In recent months I’ve felt a yearning to go back to my roots of electronic music production and so hence my decision today to have a crack at drum’n'bass. Firing up Propellerheads Reason I ramped up the tempo to 168bpm(!), at least 35bpm more than I’d use for house, and a tempo twice as fast as the last band project I worked on. I had a quick listen to some tunes from the genre, namely the fantastic Bodyrock by Shimon & Andy C (which inadvertantly started the whole ‘clownstep’ debacle on internet forums) and tunes from the likes of DJ Zinc.

Anyhow I had a great time layering bass sounds, doubling up loops with programmed drums and applying far more effects than I’d usually dream of. Although it’s not quite the standard of Pendulum, the current darlings of D’n'B, I hope to continue working on it just for practice. Have a listen to an 8-bar section here.

Right that’s enough from me, I’m going back into the jungle…

ben m