monophonic insanity

I'm very pleased with how this turned out.  The one rule was that no piece of audio may overlap with another at any point, so there is only ever one sound playing at a time.  It's quite fast paced though, which creates the illusion of there being a lot happening at once.

https://www.indabamusic.com/opportunities/breakmaster-cylinders-beatmaster-challenge/submissions/58ed26a8-0993-11e8-ac4d-0ee9d79f649d

Heh yeah this is how I used to do everything when I first started making music in a daw. To 20yr old me: IDM = Everything must tessellate with no overlaps.

This rules!

Thanks mang!

I've definitely used this technique a fair bit in my beat making, but I've never made an entire track that stuck to it as an unbreakable rule.  I think I'll do more of it in the future!

super cool! i like it. sidechainsaw style. i gotta try this.. how'd you put it together, just all on one track, or multitracks and then cut intersecting bits out afterwards? (or, hardware or aomething)

This is killer my dude.

I love doing this method. Haven't released any tracks with it, but I will have to keep experimenting with it. Love the rhythmic changes. All one BPM with different time signatures or is it different BPMs throughout? The rhythm feels so organic...

  On 2/4/2018 at 12:14 PM, wobbegongs said:

super cool! i like it. sidechainsaw style. i gotta try this.. how'd you put it together, just all on one track, or multitracks and then cut intersecting bits out afterwards? (or, hardware or aomething)

One track of this koto sample arranged into arpeggios, and one track for each drum sample, all of which were grouped together.  I cut each sample so it precisely filled a 16th note triplet, or slightly shorter.  Had the koto sidechained to the kick/snare so that it cut out any time either of those occured.  Had the reverb also side chained to the drums but also automated the volume for it to cut out when the sidechain didn't cut it.

  On 2/4/2018 at 12:24 PM, drukqs said:

This is killer my dude.

 

I love doing this method. Haven't released any tracks with it, but I will have to keep experimenting with it. Love the rhythmic changes. All one BPM with different time signatures or is it different BPMs throughout? The rhythm feels so organic...

Thanks!  It's all one BPM with a couple different feels.

this is crazy man, amazon!!! sorry to be a pain in the ass but some times you have a bass and a kick no? it starts @42s, 2 layered kicks or bass and kick no?

sorry my mistake, it's 2 kicks one after the other, btw how do you manage to make that toned kick? sometimes you pitch it up and down, and it's a bit elastic and quite punchy, i like it a lot... did you synthesized it or is it a sample?

Thanks man!  It is a kick sample that already has a prominent bass tone in it for easy pitching.  I have other kick samples that are similar but without the musical tone, which could create the impression of there being layered sounds.  

First third is fucking ace, wasn't too keen on that middle-ish part, but then the slowed last third or so was great again, especially the wild screaming type sound you pulled out for a second. Great job working within the constraints, I browsed through like 10 of the others and none were as good by a stretch. Good stuff, worthy track in and of itself, imo, the competition/constraints unrelated.

  On 2/8/2018 at 4:42 PM, auxien said:

First third is fucking ace, wasn't too keen on that middle-ish part, but then the slowed last third or so was great again, especially the wild screaming type sound you pulled out for a second. Great job working within the constraints, I browsed through like 10 of the others and none were as good by a stretch. Good stuff, worthy track in and of itself, imo, the competition/constraints unrelated.

Thanks!  The wild screamy sound I believe is Breakmaster Cylinder (who created the contest) impersonating a yelping dog.  He supplied two samples - someone messing around on a koto, and the yelping dog thing.  After making the track I was tempted to do several more with this general concept in mind... though as I approach the end of my second track I find myself wanting to break the rules for the benefit of the track.  I'm not quite as satisfied with this one.  Will probably post it here anyway for fun.

Here's my second submission, glitchy af: https://www.indabamusic.com/opportunities/breakmaster-cylinders-beatmaster-challenge/submissions/d1412596-0e98-11e8-bff2-0e23ec8b8f61

another great track :thumbsup:

i went into your other track and imported it into reaper and there's some little reverb tails overlapping some hi hats and snares once in a while, hehe... might have to do with the parameters on the side-chained compressor... otherwise they're both awesome accomplishments!

btw, where do you get your beat samples? any favorite sample pack you wanna share or make reference to? every kicks and snares sound so punchy and tasty, maybe it's you who beef them up with good eq, filtering and compression...

  On 2/10/2018 at 10:39 PM, THIS IS MICHAEL JACKSON said:

another great track :thumbsup:

i went into your other track and imported it into reaper and there's some little reverb tails overlapping some hi hats and snares once in a while, hehe... might have to do with the parameters on the side-chained compressor... otherwise they're both awesome accomplishments!

 

btw, where do you get your beat samples? any favorite sample pack you wanna share or make reference to? every kicks and snares sound so punchy and tasty, maybe it's you who beef them up with good eq, filtering and compression...

@ reaper thing - you sneaky devil!  I did try to catch most of that.  Are you sure there isn't a tiny cut out in the verb tail where the other sample hits?  I did do that in some spots.  If there is some micro-overlap going on though I guess that's not surprising.  That's less likely to be an issue with that on the second track.  I think the concept is a bit more "within reason" - like I noticed on his sample vid that there was some slight overlap between the very tag end of one sample and the start of another.  I did try to avoid that altogether though.  Anyway, glad you enjoyed them!

As for beat samples, I really hit the jackpot one day a few years back... not even sure how I stumbled upon it, but someone had sampled ~100 drum machines and posted them online.  So I've got a lot of really nice drums samples, but I do add a fair bit of EQ and compression to pretty much any beat I make.  I've actually become a lot better at producing super punchy drums since I started remixing on the regular.  Definitely helped refine my approach.

  On 2/11/2018 at 4:24 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

you sneaky devil!  I did try to catch most of that.  Are you sure there isn't a tiny cut out in the verb tail where the other sample hits?  I did do that in some spots.  If there is some micro-overlap going on though I guess that's not surprising.

here, 1 pair of clean snares, and the other 2 pairs i believe there's a tone in it from the previous melodic content, or maybe they're in different pitches? but i'd say it's the former... anyway i'm juts being picky, that just means i am very curious about your song which is a good thing :thumbsup:

  On 2/11/2018 at 4:24 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

I do add a fair bit of EQ and compression to pretty much any beat I make.  I've actually become a lot better at producing super punchy drums since I started remixing on the regular.  Definitely helped refine my approach.

yeah seems like you're pretty wise in your eqs and comps! good job!

  On 2/11/2018 at 4:47 PM, THIS IS MICHAEL JACKSON said:

 

  On 2/11/2018 at 4:24 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

you sneaky devil!  I did try to catch most of that.  Are you sure there isn't a tiny cut out in the verb tail where the other sample hits?  I did do that in some spots.  If there is some micro-overlap going on though I guess that's not surprising.

here, 1 pair of clean snares, and the other 2 pairs i believe there's a tone in it from the previous melodic content, or maybe they're in different pitches? but i'd say it's the former... anyway i'm juts being picky, that just means i am very curious about your song which is a good thing :thumbsup:

 

Haha I'll say!  That's some good detective work.  I don't think I did pitch any snares on that one, so you may have got me.  Though if I were the judge I'd rule in favour of differently-treated-snare.

  On 2/11/2018 at 7:13 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

Though if I were the judge I'd rule in favour of differently-treated-snare.

Can you reupload this? I remember it being really good and would like to hear it again

  On 11/11/2020 at 12:50 AM, drukqs said:

Can you reupload this? I remember it being really good and would like to hear it again

Hey, sorry I missed your reply earlier.  

Here's a re-upload as per request:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yUoccuSkdJSA9CRG1jE_42SPJXUZkxR8/