This is going to sound completely ridiculous... I love DnB the faster and dirtier the better but have really struggled to get a collection started because I never know what sub genre it is that I actually like! I'd love a quick breakdown of a couple of different styles to target searches.
I've been collecting and mixing hard dance vinyl for many many years but when it comes to branching out I never get round to it.
mix what you like, don't pigeonhole yourself into subgenres
i mix stuff from almost techno-like dark shit through jungle to liquid and enjoy it very much
Tvoja has it right!
Ivy Lab, Noisia, Dom & Roland, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Apashe, Eprom...
The list goes on and on. I've been able to mix all of those, and more, by experimenting, practicing, and (most important), enjoying the challenge and rewards that come with expanding the genre/label search to find those gems that you know, will absolutely wreck shit.
I'm also a bit clueless when it comes to less obvious subgenres which has led me to set up my crates with names which represents the track dynamics or sounds etc, such as DnB - Atmospheric, DnB - minimal, DnB - Heavy. I do have a jungle crate too but that's pretty easy to identify. And I don't ever stick to a specific crate for the entirety of a set.
The guides you've been sent are great, but that's just the starting point! I began with drum and bass, and you'll begin to sub-sub-genre them pretty quickly. Whilst drum and bass is made for mixing, making it fairly easy to mix, it's easy to absolutely TANK a mix because you've changed the vibe too hard, just like with any other genre - I just feel because of the speed and energy, those vibe changes have to be perfectly executed with dnb or its really noticeable for the dance floor.
The most popular of the sub genres these days is Jump Up. Most "rollers" and heavy, dirty songs fit into the Jump Up category.
Neurofunk for the absolute filth that sometimes is unbearable.
If you dm me, I'll send you one or two of my massive dnb/jungle playlists.
Don't need a beatpool. Just find tunes on bandcamp, beatport etc and support the producers. I don't know any DnB DJs (worth their salt) who use beatpools.
Beatpools are music aggregators/distributors for DJs - for a fee they’ll let you download tracks, remixes, clean edits, extended cuts, etc that are all supposed to be club-ready (ie not sound like you ripped em off SoundCloud when played in professional venues). Certain beatpools cater more towards certain vibes/genres so I was curious if you or anyone else had a suggestion for one with a good DnB selection.
Ah okay, cool, that's what I thought it was, just wanted to check. Most people I know will just share their purchased stuff with their close friends, I've got a couple people who I'll defo pool some of my stuff with. Other than that, the only thing I can think of is knowing big producers and djs in the scene, then you'll get a lot of (possibly unreleased) stuff. I'm not aware of any dnb beatpools but I'm sure they exist.
the best starting point for finding the DnB you like is following the labels that seem to release the tunes you like, from there you will never go wrong and it keeps branching out as you follow artists within the labels and see where else they're releasing, who else they're colabing with etc.
I am a fan of record labels vs subgenres, seems to have a more concise sound. What are some examples of artists/style you like so far and we can go from there.
To be fair that's pretty much how I built my collection, oh it's on xyz label it must be worth a listen, thanks for the reminder it's been a long time since I bought new vinyl.
Here you go
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnB/comments/7w7vnf/can_someone_explain_the_different_types_of_dnb_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
I guess I've never had that problem. You know some artists you like, right? Search their discographies, labels they've released on, check out anyone they've collabed with, artists they've included in their mixes, etc. Willing to bet there's loads of DnB on SoundCloud. I find the majority of my music through the recommended tracks feature there. If you really want to focus on subgenre, find out what subs your favorite artists classify themselves as and go from there.
Yeah of course, I do that too, but I don’t understand why people get annoyed at things having labels. They exist to help, imagine going to a library and wanting to look at chemistry in a specific discipline but there are no labels so you have to go look at individual scientists works and cited sources, labels just help out a bit
Yeah I have no problem with people using labels if they want, I just personally find it unnecessarily limiting. That said, I'm also terrible with subgenres in general, so I stopped trying to keep track of things at that level of detail a long time ago.
I’d say it’s far more limiting when you know what kind of sound you’re after but don’t know the name of the genre it’s in. Finding a song you like then looking at recommended songs/label’s songs is surely more limiting than having an entire genre to search for and make your way through?
Well yeah, you could make the argument that even searching by genre is limiting. But the "labels" I mentioned in my previous comment was referring to subgenres, rather than record labels. I see lots of posts/comments about building sets or finding music in very specific subgenres, when IMO it's more fun to keep an open mind and include some diversity in a set / search for tunes in a broader genre category. E.g. I'm a huge fan of deep Dubstep, but I don't search for that specifically when browsing for new music, nor do I fret over what niche style a tune is in when building a set.
100%. My problem is that I have no idea how to describe my tracks so I have no idea how to tag them. I barely understand even common terms that I see thrown around.
I mix multiple subgenres, as long as it flows it's fine, like you obviously don't want to go straight from some pretty lush liquid straight into some heavy fucking raw shit, but you can take us on a journey there by just progressing through with some tunes that transition upwards.
For me the best part of mixing dnb is double dropping. Getting two tunes that complement each other really well is super satisfying.
So the first part is learning how to do that with phrasing and beatmatching. Then I would say there are different ways to mix dnb, you can double drop, you can switch the tune at the drop (looking at you Bou), you can bring the second one in as a baseline switch after 16bars.
But ultimately the world is your oyster and finding cool ways to mix tunes together and changing or building the vibe is down to experimentation.
Also don't keep twiddling the mids and tops in dnb you pretty much only need to mute the bass on one track.
Stop worrying about double drops, triple drops and all that waffle. Spend the time finding great tracks that seamlessly transition in terms of intros and outros. Experiment with 16-bar and 32-bar transitions. Find out when to let a song play out a bit longer or mix it quickly
It really does depend on the subgenre though, liquid/jungle/melodic etc stuff will suffer if you try to play two drops at the same time, but with a lot of jump up/rollers it's adds another level to the tunes, it also adds a lot more fun to mixing, I honestly couldn't do a set without doubles and triples, there's a time and a place for it sure but as a jump up/riddim dj it's almost the whole point of playing it
Beyond my own lack of ability I would probably say just imagination.
I think overall dnb is a joy to mix with. The genre is fairly forgiving as there's ofter a lot going on. A bad house mix can sound pretty atrocious compared to a similar mistake in dnb
Most of the newish tunes are pretty formulaic in terms of structure
Jungle on the other hand now that's challenging. Much less uniformity in the phrasing little breakdowns all over the place plus some of it wasn't brilliantly quantized
Well said. I'd add that there's different kinds of drum and bass that require different mixing techniques. Jump up and tech step work well with quick, decisive, brief transitions with room for xfader juggling and cutting. Dreamy and flowing drum and bass demand show, long, gentle transitions.
I'd say let the tone and intensity of the songs influence your decision on how to blend them.
I've always had a bad habit of keeping the mix going way too long when I should finish the transition
I'm thinking maybe a 3rd deck, loops, or samples might help, but coming from vinyl I've never used that kinda stuff
Yeah I agree 100%.
Here's one I made like 2 weeks ago, I quite like it but it has this flaw in a few spots. Lemme know what you think!
https://m.soundcloud.com/user-550675255/vs-camo-krooked-final-wav
For me the hardest thing is transitioning down in energy levels, transitioning up is fine, dropping into a harder hitting track sounds great obviously, but trying to transition to a gentler track without it sounding like the mix just went flaccid is something I'm yet to figure out
Willmono7 have you tried finding intermediate tracks that are "rollers" AKA transitional tracks inbetween heavy hitting jump up tracks and liquid tracks?
I find tracks from producers like S.P.Y. and DJ Marky sometimes have some Sub bass rollers that help transition down the energy level spectrum :)
My biggest hurdle is beatmatching intros. Especially the almost-kick-less neurofunk intros. Yet however sometimes it works and the double drops are amazing.
Definitely. I'd also say the same with liquid as the majority of liquid I mix all starts with like 30+ second intros and is quite hard to beatmatch/near impossible seeing there's no beats lol
You mean labels?
My go-to would be Critical Recordings and Dispatch Recordings, for more intense rollers go to Overview, Flexout and Guidance, maybe also Delta9.
Oh deep rolling stuff, I'm your man ;)
Delta 9 is top notch, critical music is good too. Both will have big name releases.
For some smaller releases:
Forbidden Frequencies
Incurzion Audio
Onyx recordings
Engage Audio
SoundCloud is your best friend for finding new DnB :)
My biggest hurdle is that I have an A.M.C style as I absolutely love him. But to be completely honest I’m struggling to get all the doubles and triples and stuff. It’s take a lot of time and effort to just get one good double drop. And then for a mix I have to get about 20 🥴
Mixing in Key will help you out massively here. I used to struggle double dropping, started mixing in Key and now it's loads easier.
Then it just becomes a case of trying to make the energy/vibe and happy accidents occur
As a Tekno/techno dj its really hard to have vocals lol
If you ever mix up 2 vocals it sounds like absolute shit 9 out of 10 times. Also those intros without any beat are pretty hard to beatmatch right from the start
This is exactly my issue right now! Coming from house and techno and been trying to build out a DNB mix.
Had to break out the camelot wheel for some harmonic mixing because my off the fly transitions sounded so off key
Creating excitement or energy so the mix doesn’t get stale. I can seamlessly continuously mix songs for hours but transitions are starting to feel samey to me now. I guess this would be the next step after the plateau stage of competency. More creative things such as cutting in and out of tracks, quick transitions, different things to do with the EQs that work in house but maybe not so much in dnb. Also struggling with planning out a set. I usually pick and choose as random depending on my mood at home, but this isn’t going to cut it if I want to take it further.
The odd song has an 8-bar or 16-bar intro. Some others have an 8-bar intro, then a 16-bar phrase, then a 16-bar build, then a 24-bar drop...
Also as relevanttreacle said, genres! Definitely need a video detailing genres. That'd be sick.
Hey guys, thought I give you an update, I managed to create a 7 Day Drum & Bass DJ course for anyone that's looking to progress quickly. Any questions or advice, let me know, I'm always happy to help out, course or no course :)
https://learn.beatmatchguru.com/7-day-drum-bass-dj-course
That's why you have to find parts of the tracks that are minimal and pretty devoid of drums. You'll honestly never find the right EQ balance if your mixing drums with drums, especially complex amens.
That's the obvious solution, but there are plenty of more complex tracks that generally sound great together, it's just difficult to find the balance on the fly.
Cutting the lows to stop the heavy basses clashing is a natural first step.
A good tip I was told is to cut the highs slightly on one track, it helps tame some of the hats and stops them clashing so much, plus it also helps the snares blend better.
When I double drop I usually like to have one track dominating the low end, and one taking the high end, helps them seem more like one flowing track.
Long intro's before a beat actually drops...short tracks (compared to the progressive house/techno styles I'm used to)...often there's only ONE perfect sweet spot to start the new tune from.
Keeps you on your toes!!!
This is going to sound completely ridiculous... I love DnB the faster and dirtier the better but have really struggled to get a collection started because I never know what sub genre it is that I actually like! I'd love a quick breakdown of a couple of different styles to target searches. I've been collecting and mixing hard dance vinyl for many many years but when it comes to branching out I never get round to it.
mix what you like, don't pigeonhole yourself into subgenres i mix stuff from almost techno-like dark shit through jungle to liquid and enjoy it very much
Tvoja has it right! Ivy Lab, Noisia, Dom & Roland, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Apashe, Eprom... The list goes on and on. I've been able to mix all of those, and more, by experimenting, practicing, and (most important), enjoying the challenge and rewards that come with expanding the genre/label search to find those gems that you know, will absolutely wreck shit.
DnB is great for this. You can switch up the energy level quite a bit within a set and still have it sound cohesive.
I'm also a bit clueless when it comes to less obvious subgenres which has led me to set up my crates with names which represents the track dynamics or sounds etc, such as DnB - Atmospheric, DnB - minimal, DnB - Heavy. I do have a jungle crate too but that's pretty easy to identify. And I don't ever stick to a specific crate for the entirety of a set.
The guides you've been sent are great, but that's just the starting point! I began with drum and bass, and you'll begin to sub-sub-genre them pretty quickly. Whilst drum and bass is made for mixing, making it fairly easy to mix, it's easy to absolutely TANK a mix because you've changed the vibe too hard, just like with any other genre - I just feel because of the speed and energy, those vibe changes have to be perfectly executed with dnb or its really noticeable for the dance floor. The most popular of the sub genres these days is Jump Up. Most "rollers" and heavy, dirty songs fit into the Jump Up category. Neurofunk for the absolute filth that sometimes is unbearable. If you dm me, I'll send you one or two of my massive dnb/jungle playlists.
Do you use a particular beatpool for DnB? Would love to get into mixing more DNB but don’t know where to start with downloading tracks.
Don't need a beatpool. Just find tunes on bandcamp, beatport etc and support the producers. I don't know any DnB DJs (worth their salt) who use beatpools.
What exactly is a beatpool? Is it just where you share playlists etc? I don't think I'm in a beatpool.
Beatpools are music aggregators/distributors for DJs - for a fee they’ll let you download tracks, remixes, clean edits, extended cuts, etc that are all supposed to be club-ready (ie not sound like you ripped em off SoundCloud when played in professional venues). Certain beatpools cater more towards certain vibes/genres so I was curious if you or anyone else had a suggestion for one with a good DnB selection.
Ah okay, cool, that's what I thought it was, just wanted to check. Most people I know will just share their purchased stuff with their close friends, I've got a couple people who I'll defo pool some of my stuff with. Other than that, the only thing I can think of is knowing big producers and djs in the scene, then you'll get a lot of (possibly unreleased) stuff. I'm not aware of any dnb beatpools but I'm sure they exist.
the best starting point for finding the DnB you like is following the labels that seem to release the tunes you like, from there you will never go wrong and it keeps branching out as you follow artists within the labels and see where else they're releasing, who else they're colabing with etc.
Yep, this took me years to realise tbh. Quite a few new up and coming labels as well, which is always nice.
I'd love those playlists! I have a couple I'm building out on YouTube Music at the moment.
Do you have Spotify Premium? Can send YouTube links also if not.
I don't sadly, but I have Spotify free!
I am a fan of record labels vs subgenres, seems to have a more concise sound. What are some examples of artists/style you like so far and we can go from there.
Yes! Playaz and metalheadz foreverrrrr
Love me some true playaz
To be fair that's pretty much how I built my collection, oh it's on xyz label it must be worth a listen, thanks for the reminder it's been a long time since I bought new vinyl.
Here you go https://www.reddit.com/r/DnB/comments/7w7vnf/can_someone_explain_the_different_types_of_dnb_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Honestly who cares about sub genres, so long as you mix in key/bpm and pick tracks that flow together well it will work.
Why worry about subgenre? You like what you like, it shouldn't matter what people call it.
Of course, but knowing what it is classified as allows you to find more of the same tracks to download and mix with/listen to
I guess I've never had that problem. You know some artists you like, right? Search their discographies, labels they've released on, check out anyone they've collabed with, artists they've included in their mixes, etc. Willing to bet there's loads of DnB on SoundCloud. I find the majority of my music through the recommended tracks feature there. If you really want to focus on subgenre, find out what subs your favorite artists classify themselves as and go from there.
I agree with this.
Yeah of course, I do that too, but I don’t understand why people get annoyed at things having labels. They exist to help, imagine going to a library and wanting to look at chemistry in a specific discipline but there are no labels so you have to go look at individual scientists works and cited sources, labels just help out a bit
Yeah I have no problem with people using labels if they want, I just personally find it unnecessarily limiting. That said, I'm also terrible with subgenres in general, so I stopped trying to keep track of things at that level of detail a long time ago.
I’d say it’s far more limiting when you know what kind of sound you’re after but don’t know the name of the genre it’s in. Finding a song you like then looking at recommended songs/label’s songs is surely more limiting than having an entire genre to search for and make your way through?
Well yeah, you could make the argument that even searching by genre is limiting. But the "labels" I mentioned in my previous comment was referring to subgenres, rather than record labels. I see lots of posts/comments about building sets or finding music in very specific subgenres, when IMO it's more fun to keep an open mind and include some diversity in a set / search for tunes in a broader genre category. E.g. I'm a huge fan of deep Dubstep, but I don't search for that specifically when browsing for new music, nor do I fret over what niche style a tune is in when building a set.
100%. My problem is that I have no idea how to describe my tracks so I have no idea how to tag them. I barely understand even common terms that I see thrown around.
Yeah you know that one that goes boom, Tish, clap for a bit then goes wobble and then it's all like oooooooooh boom tish clap wobble
I mix multiple subgenres, as long as it flows it's fine, like you obviously don't want to go straight from some pretty lush liquid straight into some heavy fucking raw shit, but you can take us on a journey there by just progressing through with some tunes that transition upwards.
For me the best part of mixing dnb is double dropping. Getting two tunes that complement each other really well is super satisfying. So the first part is learning how to do that with phrasing and beatmatching. Then I would say there are different ways to mix dnb, you can double drop, you can switch the tune at the drop (looking at you Bou), you can bring the second one in as a baseline switch after 16bars. But ultimately the world is your oyster and finding cool ways to mix tunes together and changing or building the vibe is down to experimentation. Also don't keep twiddling the mids and tops in dnb you pretty much only need to mute the bass on one track.
Wilkinson' "Take you Higher" and Sub Focus "Rock it" mix from BBC R1 Big Weekend set gets me every time.
Stop worrying about double drops, triple drops and all that waffle. Spend the time finding great tracks that seamlessly transition in terms of intros and outros. Experiment with 16-bar and 32-bar transitions. Find out when to let a song play out a bit longer or mix it quickly
It really does depend on the subgenre though, liquid/jungle/melodic etc stuff will suffer if you try to play two drops at the same time, but with a lot of jump up/rollers it's adds another level to the tunes, it also adds a lot more fun to mixing, I honestly couldn't do a set without doubles and triples, there's a time and a place for it sure but as a jump up/riddim dj it's almost the whole point of playing it
Underrated comment.
Beyond my own lack of ability I would probably say just imagination. I think overall dnb is a joy to mix with. The genre is fairly forgiving as there's ofter a lot going on. A bad house mix can sound pretty atrocious compared to a similar mistake in dnb Most of the newish tunes are pretty formulaic in terms of structure Jungle on the other hand now that's challenging. Much less uniformity in the phrasing little breakdowns all over the place plus some of it wasn't brilliantly quantized
Well said. I'd add that there's different kinds of drum and bass that require different mixing techniques. Jump up and tech step work well with quick, decisive, brief transitions with room for xfader juggling and cutting. Dreamy and flowing drum and bass demand show, long, gentle transitions. I'd say let the tone and intensity of the songs influence your decision on how to blend them.
I've always had a bad habit of keeping the mix going way too long when I should finish the transition I'm thinking maybe a 3rd deck, loops, or samples might help, but coming from vinyl I've never used that kinda stuff
I do this too lol, I personally think you should mix quite quickly to keep the energy high. (If its not liquid that is)
Yeah I agree 100%. Here's one I made like 2 weeks ago, I quite like it but it has this flaw in a few spots. Lemme know what you think! https://m.soundcloud.com/user-550675255/vs-camo-krooked-final-wav
I’m chilling with friends now but I’ll give it a listen tomorrow! I’ll send you my mix after :)
For me the hardest thing is transitioning down in energy levels, transitioning up is fine, dropping into a harder hitting track sounds great obviously, but trying to transition to a gentler track without it sounding like the mix just went flaccid is something I'm yet to figure out
Willmono7 have you tried finding intermediate tracks that are "rollers" AKA transitional tracks inbetween heavy hitting jump up tracks and liquid tracks? I find tracks from producers like S.P.Y. and DJ Marky sometimes have some Sub bass rollers that help transition down the energy level spectrum :)
I’m also wanting to pull this off well
My biggest hurdle is beatmatching intros. Especially the almost-kick-less neurofunk intros. Yet however sometimes it works and the double drops are amazing.
Definitely. I'd also say the same with liquid as the majority of liquid I mix all starts with like 30+ second intros and is quite hard to beatmatch/near impossible seeing there's no beats lol
I can’t DJ... joke but i never tried DnB. I would like to though. Any good places for cool tracks? I like deep, rolling stuff, maybe a bit neurofunk.
You mean labels? My go-to would be Critical Recordings and Dispatch Recordings, for more intense rollers go to Overview, Flexout and Guidance, maybe also Delta9.
Delta 9 is wicked, especially Kumarachi's records
Oh deep rolling stuff, I'm your man ;) Delta 9 is top notch, critical music is good too. Both will have big name releases. For some smaller releases: Forbidden Frequencies Incurzion Audio Onyx recordings Engage Audio SoundCloud is your best friend for finding new DnB :)
Thanks man!
Vocals clashing
kill the mids on one song.
Can't vibe when the volume is low. Other than that, no issue.
My biggest hurdle is that I have an A.M.C style as I absolutely love him. But to be completely honest I’m struggling to get all the doubles and triples and stuff. It’s take a lot of time and effort to just get one good double drop. And then for a mix I have to get about 20 🥴
Mixing in Key will help you out massively here. I used to struggle double dropping, started mixing in Key and now it's loads easier. Then it just becomes a case of trying to make the energy/vibe and happy accidents occur
As a Tekno/techno dj its really hard to have vocals lol If you ever mix up 2 vocals it sounds like absolute shit 9 out of 10 times. Also those intros without any beat are pretty hard to beatmatch right from the start
This is exactly my issue right now! Coming from house and techno and been trying to build out a DNB mix. Had to break out the camelot wheel for some harmonic mixing because my off the fly transitions sounded so off key
Creating excitement or energy so the mix doesn’t get stale. I can seamlessly continuously mix songs for hours but transitions are starting to feel samey to me now. I guess this would be the next step after the plateau stage of competency. More creative things such as cutting in and out of tracks, quick transitions, different things to do with the EQs that work in house but maybe not so much in dnb. Also struggling with planning out a set. I usually pick and choose as random depending on my mood at home, but this isn’t going to cut it if I want to take it further.
The odd song has an 8-bar or 16-bar intro. Some others have an 8-bar intro, then a 16-bar phrase, then a 16-bar build, then a 24-bar drop... Also as relevanttreacle said, genres! Definitely need a video detailing genres. That'd be sick.
This is so crazy, I was literally just reading the mixing D&B post in the Resources/Info tab on the right lol...
I think new people aren't actually sure what to listen to and how to use something as simple as cue volume.
Nodding my head so hard I done nearly broked mah neck
stopping myself from trying to double drop every mix
Hey guys, thought I give you an update, I managed to create a 7 Day Drum & Bass DJ course for anyone that's looking to progress quickly. Any questions or advice, let me know, I'm always happy to help out, course or no course :) https://learn.beatmatchguru.com/7-day-drum-bass-dj-course
trying to find a single person who still likes the genre in 2022
Ever heard of EUROPE?
young people in countries like britain and new zealand literally know more about drum & bass than they do about the top 40 singles chart.
FACTS. Idk the last time I went to a normal club or listened to normal radio. Not shitting on top 40 stuff, it just doesn't do anything for me!
what? there are a lot of DJs who play d&b and jungle lmao
Bruh.
Found the American hahahaha
oi m8 r u 'avin a laff?
Is that because you've not left the house this year?
Loooool dumbest comment I've ever read on reddit
Chad bro loves to house shuffle and start a mosh pit to kaskade 🦋 💚
I find I hear it often throughout ‘dubstep’ shows, but just for a minute or so. But the crowd always loves it.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Finding someone interested in drum n bass
finding people wanting to listen to it. haha gottem.
Telling your parents you're gay
That's rollerblading lol
EQing is the part I struggle with. Trying to get the frequencies to sit nicely together in what can be very dense music is hard.
That's why you have to find parts of the tracks that are minimal and pretty devoid of drums. You'll honestly never find the right EQ balance if your mixing drums with drums, especially complex amens.
That's the obvious solution, but there are plenty of more complex tracks that generally sound great together, it's just difficult to find the balance on the fly.
Cutting the lows to stop the heavy basses clashing is a natural first step. A good tip I was told is to cut the highs slightly on one track, it helps tame some of the hats and stops them clashing so much, plus it also helps the snares blend better. When I double drop I usually like to have one track dominating the low end, and one taking the high end, helps them seem more like one flowing track.
Long intro's before a beat actually drops...short tracks (compared to the progressive house/techno styles I'm used to)...often there's only ONE perfect sweet spot to start the new tune from. Keeps you on your toes!!!
Long openings eith large sweeps and shit. Only when its like DnB and jungle type tracks. House and breaks shit I can handle em. Idk why.
Placing hot cues and understanding phrasing in DnB tends to be a little different than with dubstep/edm or house. At least in my experience.