Atmospheric D&B for your delectation

[SafeandSound Mastering]

Said track:

https://youtu.be/EauecXWisuc

Production blog write up :

https://www.masteringmastering.co.uk/at ... track.html

Enjoy.

[Drew Stephenson]

Listening now.

[amanise]

Excellent!

[Eddy Deegan]

D&B is a genre somewhat outside my comfort zone but listening to the mix I thought it was really good. Spacious, with a lack of different synth parts contending for the same frequencies (a problem I'm fighting all the time seemingly!)

Well done

[Folderol]

Not really my 'thing' but I can appreciate it as a good fit in the genre.

[SafeandSound Mastering]

Much obliged, thanks for the positive words, fancied a little change.

Following on a little regards sounds not fighting. What I find helped is a good chord sequence is an influence for adding too many sounds/layers as the musical bed is solid and carries itself somewhat (taste driven of course if you like a chord sequence feel, whther you door not if it has a strength it allows easier writing/natural composition decision making I find.).

I made the main filtered pad quite warm, some of the bell like sounds naturally want to occupy the upper mids, even highs, the kicks in the breaks are fairly high register as they are sped up of course (sitting around 80-140) so the 808 boomer bass line sub does not interfere which is as low down as 37Hz), the wah style guitar melody (synth) was kept fairly warm but is far away in timbre from the pads. I have a secondary 4 chord descending set (they are just 2 note chords that I just made up the sweep like "fizzy" etheral pad) Also some sounds pushed upwards at times by 1 - 2.5dB) depending on what is happening to allow focus on those sounds and unmask them a little.

I am not entirely sure if this is something that comes with time or is an "engineering" mindset which is firmly in place during creation ? I tend not to think too much whilst writing and feel what is happening of course, as it is conveyance of a feeling in the main for a listener. A decent mix helps of course.

Also EQing some holes (A little cut here and there) in the instruments allows them to coexist without too many problems.

Problems I encountered : Snare on the main drum break has an almost relentless, harsh set of partials that kept me on my toes as it was catching my ear (pitched up as are all breaks timestretched or otherwise for D&B) as I don't want it "un-turn-up-able"

And the bass, yes even though I have a very good situation acoustically it takes time to get everything working as well as it can be given the extremely deep sub bass present. A bunch of different processes, careful MIDI velocity editing, a little compression, a little EQ above fundamental (even though it is essentially a sine wave bass) and listening from start to end how the notes land in each section so a little volume automation upwards to bring the the sub forwards in specific sections. Making that at least acceptable on the smallest of systems. ALthough of course the laws of physics ultimately dictate this.

Hope that helps a bit. Using some basic almost obvious technques can do the lions share of the mixing (beyond fundamental fader level/ear balancing). I used no side chaining that is common these days. In the main because it is not aiming that kind of unnatural set of dynamics. Though that can work to good effect.

[Arpangel]

Nice! perfect for sitting and staring at the plants and birds in our garden in a strange atmospheric way. And even stranger, it goes perfectly with this new stripy T-Shirt I just bought.

[SafeandSound Mastering]

Good on you Arp, I think many people think D&B is mainly very brash and aggressive sounding but it does have its lighter side.

[Arpangel]

Good on you Arp, I think many people think D&B is mainly very brash and aggressive sounding but it does have its lighter side.

I like everything, some more than others, but you know what I mean.
I often hear D&B tracks that I like, but haven’t a clue what it is.

[Jay Menon]

Not my usual style of music - but I enjoyed that. I liked the chord progression too…

[SafeandSound Mastering]

Much obliged.

[awjoe]

It's really good. it really lights up for a moment at about 2.30 and again at about 3.30 and again at 5.00 and winds up properly. Who mastered it? The reason I ask is twofold. I wonder if you master your own stuff. And more importantly, if you can craft stuff like this, why are you mastering? Craft more stuff like this.

[SafeandSound Mastering]

It's really good. it really lights up for a moment at about 2.30 and again at about 3.30 and again at 5.00 and winds up properly. Who mastered it? The reason I ask is twofold. I wonder if you master your own stuff. And more importantly, if you can craft stuff like this, why are you mastering? Craft more stuff like this.

Thanks for that, nice commentary : ) Yes I mastered it myself. It was made over a time span of about 14 weeks, though mainly cause of lack of free time and normal life events getting in the way a bit.

As I general rule I make music quite slowly, I do not have a fixed completion time 3 weeks - 4 months per track is fine. This has a benefit of objectivity being intact towards the end as there are lots of breaks and reflection points. It is no problem to master my own music in this regards and as mastering is my job I am well aware of any potential pitfalls. (I am very well equipped for it as well.)

Also the mastering is quite benign as I mix my music quite precisely so the mastering is not really heavy handed.

I solely master music as a living cause I love it, that is my job and has been for about 13 years.

I enjoy making music just as a serious hobby, same as many people. It serves as soft promo as well, though not sure how effective that is. I enjoy it and like writing a bit about things I understand well on the blog, so it scratches an itch.

[BigRedX]

Liking that a lot.

When I have more free time will be listening to the rest of your YouTube channel.

[SafeandSound Mastering]

Thanks, I just do my thing really, mainly electronic styles, bit of this and a bit of that. I try and do something that I really wnat to do, so often a break in between everything, then it keeps me keen when I start again.

[N i g e l]

very good

[SafeandSound Mastering]

Thanks N i g e l

[tea for two]

Diggin Big time the Roni Size Brown Paper Bag style Acoustic Double Bass. Shades of AdamF LTJBukem. That's some big boots lol.
Due to my messed up ears the snare cymbals bother my ears, is there a version without them SASM.
Some 90s DnB their snares cymbals hurt my ears, didn't hurt in the 90s lol.

[SafeandSound Mastering]

Thanks Tea, I worked a lot with the main break snare as it had partials/harmonic content that I also found a bit "ear pokey" (the break is pitched up of course), though there is only so far one can go before presence and character goes missing. It's a fine line.

Cymbals, they seems pretty smooth to me, not too "sticky outty".

[SafeandSound Mastering]

Opened this session the other day and saw I had a B0 in the bassline at 30.87Hz just briefly. I wrote about how I tweaked the sub bass in the article, a multi pronged approach (Synth amp envelope, MIDI note velocities, comp, saturation, EQ, fader riding etc.) It's never usually one thing in audio.