How to Make Dubstep

by Marie Brunkhorst

Senior, 2016

Before anyone can create any type of music, first the artist needs to know what they’re creating. In other words, what is dubstep?

According to wikipedia, dubstep is of the electronic dance genre, originating in South London, England (first showing up in the late 1990s as underground music, as stated in allmusic.com). It’s loosely based off of the 1980s Jamaican sound systems, and incorporates drum percussion patterns, bass lines and sub bass frequencies to help support the beat.

Now that the history has been reviewed, what would be the first step in creating this type of genre? It’s somewhat trickier than one may think - especially if that one person had never dealt with any audio systems whatsoever.

The very first step would be to acquire the proper system. The recommendations would be to have (according to the wikihow site):

(for PC)

-Sound card with ASIO support

-2-4 GB RAM

-2 GHz Pentium/Celeron processor

(for MAC)

-2-4 GB RAM

-1.8 GHz w/ internal processor

-OSX 10.5 or later

Though there’s no need to be discouraged if one doesn’t possess the recommendations. All it is is to help the musician create the music easier.

Once you have the computer to work with, the next step would be to find the right music software to help with the creative process. Some of the better softwares would be BTV solo, which is usually about $200 on their website, btvsolostudios.com (they currently have the price lowered to only $40) FL Studios (aka “FruityLoops”), which can be bought on amazon for about $130, and Dr. Drum, which can be purchased on drdrum.com for about $330 (it too, has a sale currently, which lowered the price to only $30). Some beginner software would be Reaper (can be bought on reaper.fm for $60-$225) or GarageBand (which sometimes already comes with the computer).

The third step, courtesy of makebeatsforever.com, would be to understand the chosen drum patterns (one of the most basic elements of any kind of music), the tempo, the melody and the baseline (which must work together) and finally, the song’s structure. Usually a dubstep’s structure has, in order, the intro, the chorus section, midsection/bridge, second chorus, then the outro. It’s not required to follow the stated pattern, but it is how most songs are set up. Though it is necessary to know what types of instruments one plans on using, so it is required to know how they sound, and in what way they can be best utilized.

Next, create a rhythm. Preferably a catchy beat so that the other sounds can follow it’s example. Make use of different atmospheric textures in the sound and try to be creative with it. As stated on soundonsound.com, there is no set way of creating music, everyone has their different approaches. Though most try to merge contrasting sounds to make the composition sound entirely different; make something harmonic with just one sample.

It is also important to know what the lead sound will be - in other words, what the “drop’s” tune will be. The other thing that would be essential is to know where to place certain notes, and what pitch they’d be. Velocity is also an important element to harness (how forceful or long a note is played), so that the tune may sound much more natural when the product is completed.

Finally, it’s recommended that instead of using the same repetitive baseline, one could try experimenting with others all at once. Also improving on the modulator (process of moving keys to another), overlapping and the MIDI sequence to create the best sound possible.

Dubstep is an art form, whether a listener likes it or not. It takes practice to master, it takes time and effort, and it takes a considerable amount of skill to create great pieces. Just like every kind of art form, it can be done by anyone and everyone, so long as the desire resides within the creator.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubstep

http://www.allmusic.com/style/dubstep-ma0000004465

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-Dubstep-Music

http://www.makebeatsforever.com/the-ultimate-guide-on-how-to-make-dubstep/

http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/dubstep-basics