Dubstep Is REALLY HARD To Make [feat. Mr. Bill] 

Btw, Bill and I will be chatting and taking random questions on my stream this Thursday. Subscribe to my streaming channel to view it! RU-vid.com/@alphabasic

Skrillex: DROP THE BASS Benn: HOW?!

i thought mr bill would teach you and you'd make a second one

I laughed my butt off when you said the drop sounded like a Fisher Price toy because I've had the idea in my head for a few months to use "the cow says moo" as part of a funny drop.

Mr Bill is insane at music production. His samples and glitch effects and foley are so uniquely him that I can't help but appreciate him as an artist.

That story about Mr. Bill painstakingly reconstructing one of Benn’s tracks for a uni assignment is hilarious. I bet he waited all this time to trash Benn’s drop. Great video guys. Funny stuff.

Rate Your Drop? I'd say a 6/10. It was incredibly interesting, but it felt very disconnected from the rest of the song. I think there's a certain magic in making a drop that is both surprising and contains elements of the rest of the composition to keep it feeling cohesive.

Actually the origin of the drop, as understood today, is in the Jamaican reggae sound systems in late 60's early 70's. It was copied later in hip hop, techno, House etc. The sound systems used big (like very big for the time) home made amps that had internal filters/crossovers routing to three pairs of outputs connected to the treble horns, the mid-range cabinets (mix of 8" and 10" usually) and several 15" and/or 18" bass bins. Each output had a switch to mute it, especially the bass channel. The Selector (what a sound system DJ is called) would on occasion either begin a song with the bass channel off or sometimes switch it off mid track such as immediately after a chorus. Then after letting the track run for a time, usually until a suitable drum fill, they would switch the bass cabs back on. Boom! This was known as "dropping the bass". It's were the term "drop" comes from. So in this respect just as pretty much all of rock 'n roll can be traced back to the delta blues pretty much the whole of electronic dance music can be traced back to the Jamaican dance hall reggae styles.

The drop was really sick but to me felt a bit disjointed from the other portions of the track (which sounded utterly sublime). Huge respect for sharing this journey with us. Got me feeling very inspired. Thanks for what you do.

I'd like to hear another attempt at making a drop, but with a focus on pulling ideas through into it. One of the problems with the one you showed in this video imo was how disconnected the drop was from the previous section. I'd like to hear some resampling from the first section dropped into the glitchy bit and bringing back aspects of the first beat / melody sooner and higher in the mix after the drop lands. To be fair I definitely enjoyed the start, the drop, and the ending in isolation, but it felt more like two separate songs being smushed together.

As a dubstep producer this is going to be really fun to watch. You have been one of my favorite music production channels for a while, so I can't wait to see you try and make dubstep. Especially with Mr. Bill.

As someone who's made dubstep since its inception and experimented with bass, sound and electronic music for decades, the challenge isn't making dubstep, it's making innovative dubstep. Respect and love!

Making this video without attending a dubstep show is what is missing. So much of dubstep is how it's enjoyed live.

I liked your drop, but listening to it I really wanted a part of the previous section to carry through the drop, something to keep it slightly connected. It just felt like a hard cut to a completely different song almost. Ether using the cords or parts of the lyrics. Idk, I've just barely gotten into making music but that's the only thing that stood out to me. Loved your video and super glad you included your annecdote on how you do your drums. I saw you do them like that in past videos but couldn't figure it out, awesome to know.

Can confirm: Harmor is nuts and is crazy.

This video made me think a lot about how to take criticism 🤔 And Benn, you took it like champ. Or maybe more likely, like a professional. This was really eye opening. You allowed yourself to be quite vulnerable in public, and that was probably quite hard. Thank you 🖤 (and I love your music)

I'm all about that Practice Drop. That thing has some really cool rhythm in it and feels more like a unique take, as opposed to the "bro-step impression" that is the main drop of the video. Make more stuff like that practice drop, haha

I love dubstep. Both the 140 underground UK stuff as well as the aggressive modern sound.

Benn is the most technical FL Studio user I've ever seen. Damn ...

I rate the video 10/10 The drop though honestly 2/10 It kinda felt like someone doing something they don’t love, like a forced school project, which in a feeling driven genre is the kiss of death. Felt a little rushed and a bit throwaway. All way better than I can make though, obviously. Mr Bill is an all time fave for me and his collab with Virtual Riot, Thwek!, which is only on Soundcloud is maybe my favourite piece of EDM ever.

Now I want to waste time in Harmor, lol. What do you use for the visualizer of your audio during the song sample at 11:00 ?

the collab I never expected, but now need. AWESOME

Dubstep and harder bass music has been figured out alot more nowadays than in 2010. It's all about sound design and flow. A good rythm to it all. Usually it's better to make just one sound and create small variations of it during the song with automation. Use other sounds only like small fills and for a little variation. Spamming different bass sounds everywhere just creates a chaotic mess that is also hard to mix.

This is such a highlight of your channel! Really appreciate your vulnerability and stories

Honestly, if I heard a drop like the ones you made at a festival, I would lose my mind. While they might not be the most innovative or current sounding, they're really fun to listen to listen to and definitely stick out from what's currently popular in a good way

As someone who's learning to make dubstep atm, I can confirm that dubstep is indeed hard to make

Awesome video Benn! I honestly like how the track came out. But most of all, this video inspired and reminded me that I really need to get back to stepping out of my comfort zone. My favorite aspect about your drop is it sounds like nothing else out there, with your blending of influences and genres. It honestly leans more innovative and uniquely creative vs an imitation; and for that I really enjoy it

This video made me enjoy ott’s music even more. Really nice way to showcase the complexity of going from an idea to a complete song WHILE building a framework to develop drops etc that feels natural for the producer

I’m glad to see my two favorite RU-vid music creators working on this video together.

I really felt the same way about your drop as Mr. Bill, although to me it's closer to a 3/10. I can feel the insecurity in sound design and selection, which , with your IDM background, is really reasonable. Kinda reminded me of early RU-vid dubstep "remixes" with lots of wubs just thrown together, haha. The effort you put in it, on the other hand, is definitely commendable.

The drop releases an ambush wave of serotonin while the mdma is already kickin' in full force. - it is the best feelin' ever

Thank you for making this video. For one, I really enjoyed watching your process from someone who doesn't make this genre but knows how to sound design really really well. I also appreciate it because as a dubstep producer myself, people often like to put the genre down for being something just generated by a computer. However it clearly is much more than that lol and is definitely a thought out and very intentional style of production. Especially, considering how everyone is constantly trying to out do each other in sound design etc. I'd love for you to do another video showcasing something maybe Bill has taught u and applying it!

Mr. Bill is easily my favorite artist atm and I've been binging your stuff lately too. This is GREAT

nonononono the drop comes from Reggae dub versions the producer would drop the beat and while pushing up the feedback knob on a echo let it tail off and then bring the beat in AND it was big in Jungle/DnB before UK Garage(which was basically people who outgrew jungle and started making house produced like a jungle track...) it had nothing to do with any US style of music

thank you for making this benn

I think a very easy trap (hehe) to fall into when making drops is that you focus so much in making the sickest, most intense drop, that you lose sight of its place in the song and its relationship to everything else. For yours, I think the intro of the track with the vocal melody is so strong that I just wanted a bigger, more intense version of it for the drop. When you get something completely unrelated after the build-up, the hype just dies down and you get confusion instead.

I was feeling the 4/10. You’ve really shined some light on the art of the drop. In my very limited non-drop making experience, a filter sweep right before the drop goes a long way for the build up. There was something lacking in the drop though. Not enough sub-bass? Idk.

Harmor was the first synth I ever learned! Love that you can load an image as a waveform. Making sounds out of memes is a video I should totally make.

Yesssss Benn!! Perfect description of bro step ! Make me so happy when I hear these comments in fact so happy I had to rewind and hear it again .

Ben - I SOOOO respect your authenticity man. I been making music - badly since the mid 90s - I wasnt a fan of drops - but I get that they are worthy of exploration - thank you..

Drops r interesting because i think its less often about the drop itself and more about how you set it up beforehand, and also about how you keep the interest rolling. Thats probably why the idea of a "semi drop" before the actual drop is such a powerful idea, cuz u can introduce some simple concepts that get you excited, strip it back a bit, then absolutely slam you with a dramatic reimagination of those simple ideas with the "real" drop. The semi drop also acts as a tool for the dj for mixing purposes, so theres a lot of intent that goes on behind the seemingly straightforward idea of buildup and release, and theres lots of ways of going about it thats not just 8 bar riser into bass

Dope video, nice to see someone who doesn’t think modern dubstep is the worst thing that’s ever happened to the world. It’s not like zomboy took burial out back and shot him, both styles can coexist fine

Very grateful for your channel bro

man that practice drop kinda gives off old uk dubstep vibes but with modern sound design, i kinda like it

i find it helpful to start the project making the peak of the song, then take bits and pieces from that to write everything else around it. The additional sections remain simpler and maintain relevance to the focus of the song. The song almost puts itself together at that point. It is also much easier to bring the song down and create builds for the "hype" that is already there, rather than attempting to feel fulfilled by a large build you made without knowing what would follow.

Im gonna be honest. I dont spend a lot of time on YT other than for vocal warmups and maybe a few clips. I also dont often revisit things I sub to as much either so Im always behind. But I do have like 2 channels I keep up with now, and yours is one. Great content really.

That audio visualiser looks amazing, what is it? And can us mere mortals obtain it

I hadn’t heard of Mr, Bill till around 2016 when I saw him at a small, now defunct, Colorado Springs venue, opening for Infected Mushroom. His whole set, my jaw was on the floor. Then afterwards I saw him on the patio smoking, so I walked up and told him how happy his set made me, he just gave me a big hug and we talked about music for a while. He’s a really nice dude, and even more talented.

It was one of the drops of all time. The video was fantastic and a pleasant surprise considering previous promises to never make dubstep.

A drop can be as simple as just sub bass coming in with no bells and whistles and over the top build ups , just sub giving the movement and energy. Thats the best kind of drop imo like in lots of dub music.

Dope! Vid collab with Mr. Bill and his insights and explanations. Awesome video Benn!

"Harmor is nuts.... Harmor is crazy" - I've used it on nearly everything I've made for like a decade and I still sit back and have those moments constantly. Fun video!

I'd love to see a "how to" mini video on your automation process in FL studio. The video was great and the Mr.Bill story was amazing, worth the build up itself.

Awesome video, Benn. I rate your drop a 6/10! It wasn't bad by any means and was enjoyable to listen to, but it felt less like a bass drop and almost like a drum solo? When I think of a drop I think of a portion of a song that changes tone on a dime but can be faded, transitioned or otherwise blend harmonically back to what the song was prior to the drop occurring for a more cohesive listening experience. As someone who is horrible at making music but slowly learning themselves it was very cool to see the process, thanks for sharing!

Great video! IMDB part finished me:) Cat is also a plus. Insightful conclusions. Thank you!

When I saw this video pop out, I knew it'd be a good one. Always cool to see you branching out and doing the new things! :) Cheers, it was a fun watch! The drop was alright too, I guess. I'm gonna "Fantano" it at a "Decent 5"

I've always preferred the drops in more jungle/d+b style music. Often a long pre-drop amble to let the baseline groove set in (not the bass line lol), sometimes even a bit of teasing with multiple stages of drop (deceptive drops) where a new beat might enter, only to fade away and come back twice as mean, then hit with the heavy sub-bass when extectations are stretched. Funnily enough the people I knew in the 90s called that "when the tune kicks off" because the term drop came a little later... Then there'd often be a second drop, more syncopated and with a different accent on the rhythms. That said I'm sure I'll learn something valuable in this video!

I liked your drop by the way. I can see what Bill is saying, it's definitely an IDM drop. That's probably why I like it : )) I did find the transition back to the regular beat could have been stretched out over 16 bars or so, it felt a bit sudden, but I liked how jarring going into the drop was. It also needed more subs I guess.

@BennJordan Big fan of the fish out of water concept dude. Forced play within a genre you find formulaic seems a fun excercise to pull out your unique take, interpretations and influences.

I LOVE your drop, its very fresh. Would love to listen to more.

I actually loved the practice drop, all that glitchy, resonancey and rhythmically interesting feedback sounded very cool. Would love to hear a more polished version of that type of sound. Real drop was cool as well but same sentiments as everyone else, a bit disconnected from the prior music. Am not a dubstep producer,/ much of a dubstep listener, but definitely appreciate Mr Bill's artistry, his sound design absolutley blows my mind!

I'd love to hear your take on the modern UK garage sounds, there's been a huge wave of very technical drum patterns combined with the familiar rhythms that defines the genre.

Nice to see another fellow N. Georgian. I really enjoy your channel. Just found it recently.

10:37 Love seeing the Kii Three monitors. Those and the Dutch & Dutch 8c are oncredible for gettign accurate bass and mid ass in a room with their room correcrion and cardioid dispersion. Or for a crazy system Genelec has some massive woofer systems that turn their monitors into incredibly capable towers.

Mr. Bill was pretty accurate in his score imo. I also gave it a 4/10. Musically, I think your style is closer to someone like Kaskade or more chill step artists. Maybe looking into those types of artists for drop inspirations would give you a better direction to include drops into your style of music going forward if you so choose.

2:55 As a self-proclaimed "dubstep hipster" who "liked it before it got mainstream" in the US, it's alright and you're not wrong. It seems that once a major industry corporate player gets ahold of something new, it goes through a sort of "junk food-ification" and that's absolutely what a lot of it sounded like - baby music for big lost boys. I'm excited to see how y'all blend your EDM signature style with my guilty pleasure, obnoxious dubstep and industrial bass. edit: okay you know i love you but that first drop needs work but I'm so happy you tried

I'd describe dubstep drops with a variety of sounds in sequence as a electronic *buffet* of sounds... but I guess "baby music" works too, the visceral reaction to intense bass does feel pretty primal, so I'm gonna take that as a compliment, and say I was born with a need for bass.

awesome video benn

Maybe I'm just a huge IDM fan but that drop gave me more dopamine than any EDM ive ever heard

You're threading in deep waters if this is Brostep and not Dubstep 🙃

hearing the amen break at the start of that drop is like hearing a jazz musician play the lick lmfao

love your stuff Ben! had no idea Slicex had it's own p-roll like FPC.

I'd love to hear a song length version of the practice drop! The reverby sfx chord into the drop sounded so clean and other worldly

I was pretty surprised that you didn't mention about classical music in context of drops and tention. Great video 🎉

nice take on it! It is so nice to see a deep dive from a pro american producer point of view into something that we brits kinda grew up and grew into!

As a dialogue sound editor and post production mixer, may I congratulate you on the cut away to the rain outside to "justify" the sound of rain on the roof! The number of times I've wished editors would do that so that I didn't have to try and denoise the sync dialogue is ridiculous! By having that one cutaway shot allows the viewer to "accept" that background "noise"

Great work, thanks. I'm really interested in the psychological effects of different music styles and parts within those styles.

Off topic, but just wanted to say that after watching your videos for a while (they're great!) I recently started listening to The Flashbulb and I absolutely love it... You are so god damn talented. I work with software development and tend to only listen to instrumental music (often game OSTs since it's kind of designed to make you focus on what you do) and your albums are basically the only thing I listen to atm. Keep up the brilliant work you're doing!

Kudos at having a try! Most art forms turn out to be not so easy when one actually makes an attempt. I've seen many people attempt Jackson Pollock paintings but there's always something essential missing.

i have not even started this video and i cant begin to express how exciting this collision of worlds is to me. my favorite producer/personalities ever

Awesome to see you get out of your comfort zone! Great video as always Benn.

I really love seeing you actually using FL and doing weird stuff in the DAW, I learned more from that FL21 video than in most tutorials

Great video! G'Day from Australia.

Love watching Mr. Bill and Benn talking when the real Legend jumps on Benn's lap!

I feel it was sick, a Ben Jordan twist. That song was amazing . First time I heard your music, the intro was very beautiful And the drop had surprise, like no vocal chop to introduce the drop, I could totally tell that was by design, how the drop came in , as far as timing was all surprising and by design. Stay inspired bro you got skills

Great video. I don't think I could define a "drop" before but now I think I understand what it is at least, and I really like the idea of finding them in other genres of music. In genres I am familiar with I think we focus on harmony or lyrics for tension and release and it is fun to explore the idea that dynamics, timbre, instrumentation, and rhythm changes could be used to play with this as well, so bravo!

I appreciate your non-profit drop. I value and adore your content, channel and spirit. Thank you.

id love a part 2 learning and practicing more!

I'm a brostep aficionado who loves your work, so thank you! In terms of review I would say that the drop you made is exactly what you described you considered a drop to be in the intro lol. I might suggest introducing additional tension and release within the drop itself, so that it isn't just "lots of sounds all at once" and instead has the sounds play off of each other in a call/response fashion. Seems like Mr. Bill also suggested just doing less. This is awesome, thanks :)

I love that your "2007 UK bass drop" was literally one of my old tunes

As someone who makes "aggro dubstep" (lol) as a hobby, I think I have some insight on what went wrong with yours, cuz I literally laughed out loud at it, it's like all the things I have stuggled with myself in the last years knocked you over the head at once, and you have no idea how to deal with this stuff. Here's some thoughts from me, take them with a grain of salt: 1. Do the drop before the buildup. The buildup isn't just a way to build tension, it is a transition, if you have a more melodic part before the drop, you need to transition toward the more agressive atonal stuff that you'll have in the drop during the buildup, without spoiling the energy. At 13:30 Mr. Bill correctly assessed that your buildup wasn't really transitioning to new ideas, but just building up tension toward a bigger/heavier version of the ideas before the drop. You essentially wrote in a circle and that's why the drop ended up disappointing. 2. There is theory behind the madness, most of us just do it on instinct, having heard a lot of Dubstep and knowing what sounds good, but if you want some names to the concepts at play, look into "Hocketing" (Adam Needly has a video on it) and the concept of "Tonecolour Melody" (or "Klangfarbenfmelodie" in the original german). 3. At 16:35 you say that it would make your music more methodical, as a proof to the contrary I would raise you: Camellia, a japanese electronic producer that is most certainly not predictable, but uses builds and drops in insanely creative ways. If you bind yourself to the classic "intro - buildup - drop - bridge - buildup - drop" structure it's of course going to be formulaic, but drops can do more then that standart procedure. Concepts like fakeouts and double drops come to mind, it's a tool like any other and can be used more or less creatively based on the user. 4. The calm pad under the drop weakens it a lot, if you want a crazy energetic drop, you need a crazy energetic backdrop, hocketing comes to mind again, fast arps, alarm sirens, screechy sustains or highpassed riddim chuggs, crowd noise, chants, whatever it takes. Those pads would work for Melodub, but not for brostep, they kinda undermine the mood. Otherwhise you could also try and make a more chill drop, those exist (but let's be fair, they're boring :P) 5. You seem to like more melodic/harmonic music, look into Colourbass sounddesign for a kind of Dubstep drop, that might be more to your taste and fit your style better. 6. Make yourself a fatrack, a kind of default processing chain consisting of mostly Compression and Saturation (for starters just use a default OTT followed by a CamelCrusher on the "british clean" preset), and make a habit of putting it on the channel before you even start sound design in the synth, so you make sounddesign decisions based on what's interesting, not just what's louder and brighter, because it's already loud and bright enough by default. This is the secret to Dubstep's agressive sound.This sounds like a joke but funnily enough, it's not: If in doubt , just add more OTTs, and if the sub gets muddy, highpass and layer with a separate sub synth. Virtual Riot and Au5 make great tutorials on all things sounddesign, when in doubt, they know. I would highly recommend you try and really experiment with this concept a bit more, because there's a world of music out there to be explored with drops, it's just a range of emotions that are hard to express any other way, and it limits your palette to not use them at all. Here are some personal listening recommendations so you see kind of the different directions that modern Dubstep and Drops can take: "The Living Proof - Control" a prime example of modern Brostep that incorporates both heavie and melodic chops interspersed. "Virtual Riot - In My Head ft. PRXZM (Panda Eyes Remix)" Melodic but Heavie, I've cried to this track 10/10. Also it's got an interesting drop structure that is fairly uncommon. "Convexity - Displacement" this one's jazzy as hell, Dubstep has quite the range and this one features some surprisingly harmonic dubstep noises, not any less crazy though. "MARAUDA - AVOIDABLE CAUSE" here's the opposite extreme, just heavieness no harmony, pure tonecolour melody, Tearout Dubstep at it's best 🔥 "かめりあ feat. かめりあ - 灰の羽搏" not that much dubstep in this one but Camellia sure knows how to drop it in a million different ways, this guy is painting with ALL the colours at once. hope I could convince you of giving Drops another chance, good luck with your musical explorations, have fun ✨

This is a wholesome artistic journey in 17 minutes long good work bro !!

ngl I LOVE THIS VIDEO other than people in their mid 20s like me, working on basses and sound design- its soothing to watch someone like Benn working on dubsteppppp!

Love it Benn!! Your drop was really fun and super complex. Remember that amazing Kristuit Salu vs Morris Nightingale track? Conceptual something. That was ‘02, so it was called “glitch hop”.

As much as I love your videos, my favorite part is when you tell us to keep creating. Kudos.

Great look at other styles. Love this kind of video.

i dig the exploration into the uncomfortable when it comes to learning new production skills. You may not be cramming a drop into every singel song going forward, but you might end up using some of those ideas within other contexts in your music. that why i like remixing. because i get to dissect somebody else's production style and work around choices they have made.

The drop felt 4.5, but the buildup is crazy good, at least an 8! I think that if there was a "leading bass" with a simple groove in forerfront with the other crazy sound in the background could have lead to a great piece. Feels like an unpolished diamond

Not bad for a first drop! I’ve been trying to learn to make bass drops for the last year or so and your first one was on par with maybe my tenth one. If you wanted to keep at it I bet you could get really good

I've been listening to electronic music for over 20 years and dub-step for over 15 years. I've been producing music for about 10 years. On the surface, or the outside, it seems so simple.. There's been countless times that I've heared a song and thought "I could do that, easy!" Then to sit down and try to emulate it while doing your own thing is a whole different story. I feel you on this one. It's oddly difficult to make everything jive. I find I get the best results when I stop striving for something, and just push through til I have something. BUT, like you did, I always end up with something that isn't quite the style I thought I was shooting for. Although typically I'm still impressed with what I was able to create, even though, once again, it wasn't dubstep lol. Thanks for sharing! Id give it a 6/10!