Drum And Bass Essential Mix

[Merilyn Mardis]

Consideringwhat you notice the most with many songs is that the snaredrum gets filtered out the most often and the bass drum usually keeps banging.

Trust the beat of your heart. If it sounds like a snaredrum, you need to visit the hospital

There ain't nothing like a banging, fast-paced drum 'n' bass soundtrack to get you through tough times. Whether that's getting your head stuck in books studying, ticking off your job to-do list or clocking up miles on the run.

A producer tightly wound into XL Recordings' output in the '90s, Jonny L pivoted from his earlier rave-focused productions into drum 'n' bass in the middle of the decade. The biggest mark of this shift was 1997 album 'Sawtooth', featuring the monstrous stepper 'Piper'. You think that hits hard. Grooverider's remix is a musical assault, powered by crazed mechanics that roll throughout. Just when you think everything's calmed down with the lingering synth shimmers, the steam-rolling drums just keep on coming.

That funky riff, man. Gets me every time. So iconic. Then those tinkling strings that go with it, followed by those futuristic, drawn-out synths building up to the rinse out everyone knows that's coming. No wonder Roni Size and Reprazent won the Mercury Prize with 'New Forms', the album this was on. Outrageous d'n'b funk.

When it comes to dark drum 'n' bass released in the tail-end of the '90s - and later down the line - Ed Rush & Optical are masters of the craft. The pair linked up for the first time in 1997 and later launched Virus Recordings, a label that'd become the go-to for the brooding techstep d'n'b sound. The fact the label is called Virus says a lot about the nature of the tunes on it. 'Bacteria' - another apt title - came out in '99, littered gruesome bass groans, eerie bleeps and clip-clap drums. Heavy business from two of d'n'b's greatest.

Bad Company's tunes are baaaaaaad. Bad as in mega good, obviously. '4 Days' is an absolute weapon, heavy on revving bass and so relentless you've done a week's worth of cardio after listening to it. It's rockets like this that've made the group - Fresh, Vegas, dBridge and Maldini - such d'n'b icons.

Late-'90s drum 'n' bass wasn't just vigorous, intense drum workouts. '98 introduced the d'n'b world to the smoother, softer sounds of Northern Irish producer Calibre. In '99 he released 'Mystic' via Fabio's Creative Source label, a hub for the more funkier side of the genre, coined 'liquid funk'. 'Mystic' would precede endless amounts of crooning Calibre tunes from then until now. We should've known then - due to the deft sampling of the pinging riff from 'In The Rain' by Detroit soul group The Dramatics - that his output would be a soulful catalogue of liquid d'n'b gems.

Marcus Intalex, RIP. A boss of drum 'n' bass. His work with ST Files was majestic, penning releases for the likes of Metalheadz, Hospital Records and Doc Scott's 31 Records. It's on this label they released 'How You Make Me Feel' in 1999. Much like Calibre's 'Mystic', 'How You Make Me Feel' marked a shift in the d'n'b sound. Another funk-filled liquid flavour with ice-cold vocals, glistening piano chords and delightful jazzy moments.

Maaaaate. Those bass pumps. Prime for those late-night drives around town. Sub-woofer in the boot. And to set a raver-filled dancefloor into absolute bedlam, of course. DJ Krust you bad, bad man. An unforgettable classic on V Recordings.

There's no way we could've had a late-'90s d'n'b list without Andy C getting a look-in. Andy's one-third of RAM Trilogy alongside Ant Miles and Shimon, responsible for spearheading RAM Records to its status as one of the biggest - and best - drum 'n' bass labels in the world. While tunes by Origin Unknown - another guise for Andy - had contributed to RAM's rise in the early and middle sections of the decade, RAM Trilogy took it to another level. 'Mind Overload' is just a beast, filled with dizzying mechanics and a deep-drilling bassline. Ed Rush & Optical included it in their 1999 Essential Mix, so check that, too.

It took 22 years for J Majik to release a second album, but, oh my gosh, it was worth the wait. Last year's 'Full Circle' is packed full of atmospheric tunes reminiscent of jungle's golden era that it makes you think whether he just dipped into an archive of unreleased tunes and decided to make an album out of them. The point I'm making is that J Majik's a producer of d'n'b and jungle whose tunes bang. Like, really bang. Take 'Repertoire', the 1997 release on Goldie's Metalheadz. Magic. Packing that d'n'b thump, but oozing with sumptuous pads and neck-tingling vocals.

Please give me tips or advice on how to create drum and bass beats on the RYTM. I know that the standard drum and bass tempo is 166bpm and I should record at half of that (83bpm)?. You can post links or any knowledge is appreciated. Thanks.

So, I will give you a tip. Get all your old funk breaks in your DAW and time stretch them to 172 (or your own tempo 166?) and then batch process them as mono ready for the rytm. Import them and play the loops cutting them up, just taking a kick or snare for example. I done this today and these sounds on the rytm is instant OLDSKOOL!

Bass is probably the most important thing to focus on. It really is the entire tune in my opinion. You can make a relatively simple drum loop that will work fine throughout an entire track, but the bass has to be super interesting and have lots of character to hold your interest. When you get your bass line swinging in a nice groove with the beat, everything else will fall in around it.

Add little melodies and atmospherics that constantly change. This helps things stay interesting. Unique percussion hits throughout the track also help. D&B is often all about high-drama, so lots of changes in sound and mood can add a lot of impact. For example, an airy pad section followed by a dense tearing bass line section. Go from hot to cold, and back again, in dramatic fashion. Call and response.

Julia Toppin selects 10 essential documentaries that paint a portrait of 30 years of jungle drum & bass, charting the stories of its origins to the present day. With additional research by Jacob Tucker

This documentary focuses on Dillinja, Lemon D and their soundsystem called Valve. It is a great introduction into the technical side of jungle drum & bass, and an example of why the music is best experienced in a live music setting.

Want more? Read our recent feature on the LGBTQ+ club nights fighting for diversity in drum & bass. Another jungle drum & bass documentary, 'AKO Beatz...25 Years In The Jungle', will be released on Christmas Day

No more short YouTube videos showing you how to make a particular bass (as much as they can be helpful). This article will give you the knowledge necessary to make a drum and bass track from start to finish.

Tip: Ghost snares are just normal snares, traditionally played by a drummer to vary up the rhythm and velocity of a drum pattern. In production, this may be emulated through the use of different snare samples.

If you want to get creative, you can get a drum instrument plugin (e.g. Addictive Drums) and program your own human drum patterns, and then process them to taste to add your own textures. This is not necessary but can give you greater control.

Most DNB basses occupy the sub-bass frequency range, which is typically from about 75-100Hz downwards. This is the frequency range that is well-reproduced by a subwoofer and that vibrates the human body.

In deeper subgenres like Liquid and Minimal, the basses tend to utilize less distortion and upper harmonics (through softer distortion and/or filtering), and in many cases are comprised of just a single sine wave.

The use of them varies between subgenres, but typically they feature longer, drawn-out bass notes with subtle movement over time. In higher-energy genres, the basses can have a lot more variation and quicker movements.

While the number of channels used in a project can be very workflow-dependant, generally you could get away with anywhere between 10-30 channels for most tracks, going beyond that for more complex bass-oriented genres (Neurofunk etc.), sometimes up to around 100.

The aim when mixing DNB is to have a very balanced mix while not compromising musicality. Heavy amounts of compression and distortion may be used for a lot of the bass sounds, but often there is still movement in the dynamics.

Any melodies, hook elements and instruments usually sit just under the drums and bass, creating a nice bed for the rest of the track, and FX are usually pushed a bit more towards the background, maybe coming in louder during builds and energy changes.

EQ is very important in drum & bass, as you want to carve out maximum space for the kick, snare and bass to poke through well. This is typically achieved by using high-pass filters to roll off and unnecessary low end.

Make sure to use reductive EQ to take out problem frequencies. These problem frequencies can build up anywhere on the spectrum (depending on genre), but normally too much 200-500Hz can make a track sound muddy, and too much 1k-3k can start to sound sharp and too resonant, as our ears are very sensitive to this area.

Saturation, reverb, delay and other effects are also great tools to use when you need to use them. There are no specific use cases, so feel free to use them subtly to add interest and warmth to your channels and groups.

From gritty rollers to gorgeous liquid and everything in-between. Laurie Charlesworth brings you a showcase of all things drum & bass! Bi-weekly episodes feature interviews with the likes of Andy C, Kanine, Bou, Mozey, DJ Hype, Chase & Status, S.P.Y and artists from the DnB Allstars camp.

Hospital Records award winning podcast, hosted by Degs, with occasional takeovers from the labels roster of artists. The Hospital Records podcast started in 2006 by London Elektricity following the immense quality of demos being sent into Hospital HQ.

VISION Radio (formerly known as Noisia Radio) is a place where the members of Noisia, along with music journalist Dave Jenkins, select what the tracks the excite them in bass music; drum & bass, electronica, beats and whatever forward leaning sounds they can get our hands on.

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