Joe Villa

10/24/10
Capstone
Genre Research

Broken Beats

The album being produced includes three different genres of electronic music, but all three have
a similar backbone to them, the breakbeat drums. One of the main factors differentiating them is the
tempo, or beats per minute. Drum'n'Bass is set at around 160-190 BPM, most current releases run
around 170-175BPM. Breaks (or Big Beat) has been seen from 110-150 BPM, but current sits in the
130-135 BPM range. Dubstep has consistently been produced at the 138-142 BPM area.

Each genre focuses on the use of sampled drums as the backbone of the track, giving it its
groove, along with a heavy emphasis on basslines. Both Drum'n'Bass and Breaks have subgenres that
have their own style of uniqueness to them, like Techstep's darker melodies for the former, and
Progressive Breaks' use of ambient pads and melodies. Dubstep has seem few changes, but has a
noticable contrast to its roots in Dub and Grime, e.g. the heavy use of “wobble” bass, bass parts that
use LFOs to fluctuate the sound in filters, volume, etc.

Going over many production videos by some of the top producers of these genres (Rennie
Pilgrem, Rusko, Danny Byrd, TC), the general consensus was to start with drums when making any
track. There is more emphasis on the kick and the snare drums, with agreement that kicks should have
more presence in 80-100Hz and cut below that (to make room for the bass synths), and snares around
200Hz. Having flat EQ on the drums makes everything equal. Another big part of the production is the
use of layering of drums, to make the sounds bigger and fuller. After completing a drum loop (or
break), they create a bassline as the second foundation of the track. Some branch off with hardware and
then sampling the sounds they use, and others rely on software options. They all jam on a bass until
they find a good bassline to work with, and then build the rest of the song off of that.

The songs in these genres don't always follow the common verse-chorus-verse form of writing
found in popular music. Most songs are produced for Djs to be able to “spin” at shows. In the
beginning and end of songs, there is a mixing section. It usually comprises of just drums and some
elements of the main parts of the song.