General :
Drum and bass is a genre of electronic music which emerged from rave scenes mostly in Britain and America in the early 1990.The style is often identified by fast break-beats with heavy bass lines and synthesizers. Some drum and bass subgenres include break-core, ragga jungle, hard-step, dark=step etc.
From its popularity in the uk, it has spread all around the world with many artists putting there own spin on drum and bass expanding the many style of the genre. This means that the genre is able to grow making drum and bass become even more well known. Here is an example
Influenced on :
Drum and bass has been inspired by many genres including hip-hop, big beat, dubstep, house, trip hop, ambient music, techno, jazz, rock and pop.
Drum and bass uses fast paced drum beats which can be used to create catchy instrumentals with quick melodies as well. Also, drum and bass is mostly dominated by a pretty small group of record labels. This is because most of the major music labels have shown very little interest in drum and bass. This usually means that drum and bass is more viable to small growing artists.
Rhythm :
Drum and bass is usually between 160-180 BPM, in contrast to other breakbeat-based dance styles such as nu skool breaks, which have a slower pace around 130-140 BPM. The earliest forms of drum and bass had a BPM around 130 in 1990/91 but since 1996 the drum and bass tempos have mostly stayed around the 170-180 range. Having such fast tempos make drum and bass music a huge genre for dancing at raves. This is usually because drum and bass music maintain the same drum beat throughout the whole song making it easy to dance to.
Here is an example of a drum and bass beat on drums
Instrumentation :
Drum and bass usually consists of synthesizers, drum machines, samplers, sequencers and even keyboard. The drum machines and sequencers have become a key part of the drum and bass scene with things like 808s and 909s gaining popularity in the 90s. Now we have DAWs we are able to record drum sounds and synth together more efficiently. There are lots of combinations of instruments in the music. This examples shows this:
Melody :
The melodies created in drum and bass music are usually created with keyboards and synthisizers and they usually have a repeating melody throughout the whole track. Sometimes baselines are used as melodies in drum and bass music and even samples can be used as well. Sometimes the mc provides the melodies: Mc Conrad does this here.
Harmony :
Harmonies are typically made with keyboards bay making background chords which flow throughout the melody. Harmonies can also be made through synth and are much easier to create as of recently due to things like DAWs. They are usually used to add depth in drum and bass pieces by working along side the melody.
Structure :
The structure of drum and bass songs usually share similar characteristics to most types of music. Obviously sometimes drum and bass songs will not follow this structure due to the venues the music is played in like raves and night clubs. Usually the songs will also be performed by DJs which means turn tables will be involved
Drum and bass usually consists of an intro, a drop, a verse, a second drop and an outro. This is sometimes changed though with even more drops being added or longer verses. The intro is usually used to progressively build up to the first drop where the main bassline is usually introduced. The outro normally serves as a gateway for the next songs intro to be slowly mixed in, depending on the DJs style.
Modern Technology Developments :
The biggest development in drum and bass is probably the introduction of DAWs. This allows producers to use digital instrumentation in the form of MIDI tracks. The switch from physical equipment to digital has created a more effective way to produce drum and bass music and electronic music as a whole. Also vocals were introduced to reach out to the mainstream even more.
Sources of information
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=drum+n+bass
Internet – https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/a-to-z-of-drum’n’bass, https://dnbradio.com/this-is-drum-and-bass, https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultures-and-scenes/drum-n-bass/
Wikipedia – https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/d/Drum_and_bass.htm
My piece
For my unit 2 piece, I created a drum and bass piece to fit to my blog. I first started by setting the tempo at 170 because that’s what most drum and bass pieces tempo is at. This is because of the speed of the set drum beat.
I then made a drum beat for the piece for the melody to mould around and I did this by using a limiter. The limiter is good because it cant be ruined via human error because the midi controller isn’t involved. This makes things easier and quicker.
I then started creating a melody for the piece. I chose to use a synth lead because that is what is usually used in drum and bass. I chose to use an instrument called tech chords which sounds very futuristic yet also has a 70s vibe.
I then wanted to add some depth to my piece and some more layers so I added another synth instrument playing the same thing. This made it seem as if the melody was constantly changing between the two synths.
I then wanted to add more to my melody so I added in another synth between the gaps to create a bit of a “call and response between the instruments”. This also helped to build tension whilst leading up to a break. This synth was called analog mono lead.
I then went on to create some breaks in parts of the song by isolating the melody a bit and giving it some reverb and attack I did this by using the space designer
This overall is what makes up my song. A lot of synth and leads which help to create texture, whilst also going along with the drum beat. The fact that its at 170 bpm means that it sticks to the drum and bass pace guidelines and overall, the quick pace of the melody helps it to really sound like a drum and bass song. To improve my piece, I could add more panning and volume automation. I could also add more to the melody to make it less repetitive.
My Review
My piece met the brief because it has lots of midi tracks. The piece is also 2:23 in length. I think the structure of the piece and the tempo make it sound like drum and bass. Also, it has drums and bass. I think i could have been more clever with the drums and they could have alternated a bit more. two thirds of the way through the song the vibe changes. It is repetitive and this is stlyistically accurate. I am happy with the way it sounds. The instruments sound authentic and it feels like a drum and bass piece.
Improvements
I could have added some samples into the piece. I could change the feel of it. Lots of drum and bass sound dark. My piece sounds a bit more mellow and housey. So i need to give it more edge. Also, i could have added some rapping or mc’ing to the piece. Lots of drum and bass tunes also have a long intro like this one:
I could have done this. A long intro really helps to get the beat to drop and the listener waits for the drop more in anticipation.