PRODUCTION JOURNAL OF DANIEL STEIN

INTRODUCTION
Daniel Stein who was born in Worthing and is an English DJ as well as
record producer for making electronic music, who is also commonly
known as Dj fresh. Daniel Stein was born April 11th 1977 which makes
him age 38, he was also one on the ethic members of Bad company.
Bad company is a drum and bass group made up of 4 UK producers
called Jason Maldini, Darren White, Dan Stein and Michael Wojcicki
which were ongoing from 1998 to 2005 when Dan Stein also known as
DJ Fresh left the record label to carry on producing several solo
recordings under different record labels such as; Ram records, V
records, Ministry Of Sound and many more.
Daniel Steins target genre is drum and bass, Electro house and
Dubstep. This means that Daniel Steins most targeted audience would
be Teenagers and Young adults because all 3 music styles are
originated in the early 1990s until this previous date. Where as the older
generation will stick to their certain style of music throughout the 70s and
80s as that is what they have grown up listening to and is now their
preferred type of genre. However since he originated from Worthing, this
means that his friends/ family in Worthing as well as people from the
actual town will most likely support him as well due to the fact that his
made a good name for that town.
Daniel Steins target audience is English electronic record labels such as;
Ram Records, Ministry Of Sound Recordings,Data Records and many
more This is so that he can promote his track as well as his own
record label who is also joint founded by Adam F. The people he will be
aiming to impress within these record labels will be the founders of the
record labels which is Andy C, James Palumbo and The Universal Music
Group.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Djfresh
https://soundcloud.com/djfreshuk
https://twitter.com/djfreshuk
https://www.facebook.com/djfresh?fref=ts
Daniel Stein uses a variated amount of different recording techniques
when he records a track, for instance; he will make the drums very

simple but extremely good at what they do, this means that they will hit
the right frequencies in the right places. This is a good idea to use
especially when creating a drum and bass track due to the fact that you
want to emphasis the drums and create tension just the before the main
build up of the song. Another recording technique that Daniel Stein uses
is nexus he thinks its a great program to bring up a quick patch of a
sound similar to what you want to then build it up later as of when you
need to. This is a good idea to use when working with clients that have
not got much time to record within the studio because you can carry on
to finish piecing the final adjustments needed to the song in your own
time. However a key thing for Daniel Steins recordings is to keep it a
very simple recording by this meaning as less of layers as possible. This
is because he dont like the idea of a messy song with instruments all
over the place without a signatured time structure.

Dj Fresh & Adam F - Believer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCzzv_3KFbw
https://soundcloud.com/djfreshuk/dj-fresh-adam-f-believer-radio-edit

Features Within The Song

heavy bass drum programmed
hi hat effects programmed
snare effect programmed
heavy baseline programmed
sub bassline progammed
vocals recorded reverb

reverb/ echo grand piano repeated

choir pitched / sampled
space sample
Synth chords

In the song i have chosen to use which is Believer by Dj Fresh & Adam
F there is a wide amount of instruments used within the song from live
sounding programmed drums to heavy electronic bass lines. These are
used well within the song because as the bass line enters the song it
automates the drums to the same volume creating tension within the
next couple of verses to emphasise the drop of the drums a lot more.
Another Instrument Daniel Stein has used well is the reverbed piano that
is repeated throughout pretty much the whole of the song. I Think that
Daniel Stein has used this well because it blends into the background of
the music behind the Drums and the vocals which emphasises the bass
line when it comes into the mix. Another thing Daniel Stein uses well
within the song is a space sample. This helps emphasise the bridge to
make the chorus stand out a lot more when than the rest when reverbed,
to make the drop a harder drop without changing the his actual structure
of the song. Another thing i have noticed that Daniel Stein does within
the song is that he has pitched a choir that may have been sampled to a
various amount of pitches. This is a good idea to use within the song so
he can use their voices as an actual instrument, once being edited
through a sampler and pitched to different octaves its pitched better than
if the choir sang the notes in the different pitches acapella.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQVv40_9NSo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnY5q-IYqfw
The Inspirational track that Daniel Stein based his live sounding
programmed drums on for Believer was 2 Bad Mice - Bombscare. The
drum beat within the two tracks sound very similar but, Daniel Stein has
changed the Drum beat very faintly to the original adding in extra hi hats,
kicks and snares also by using effects such as; compression,
equalisation and reverb. However the inspirational track that is used for
the bass line within the song Believer is Terrorist - Renegade. The bass
line within the two tracks sound extremely similar although Daniel Stein
has moved it up an octave with a brighter bass line to create a higher
emphasis throughout the bridge to highlight the chorus from the rest of
the song just after the drop.
I believe that Daniel has achieved his specific genre which is drum and

bass, this is because the effects and recording techniques he has used
within the song is similar to most other famous drum and bass songs, for
instance; the simple live sounding drums that have been programmed
and reverbed, is used throughout the entire song and is used throughout
a wide variety of drum and bass tracks from as early as the 1990s when
drum and bass was first originated with the genre old school jungle.
Another Recording technique i realise that Daniel Stein uses within the
song Believer is using a 2 step beat. This is a really good technique to
use within electronic dance music, this is because it helps to create a
swing into the rhythm which will then make people more intrigued in the
song as it is a song they can actually dance to as well just sing.
The effects i believe Daniel Stein has used within his composition
Believer is Channel Eq, Compression and Reverb. Firstly, i believe that
Daniel Stein has used Channel Equalisation well because although the
drums are programmed through a MIDI sequencer and a digital
workstation the drums sound as if they were pretty much recorded from
a live drum kit. However Channel equalisation is something quiet hard to
learn how to do, if u dont know what frequencies the instruments go
through then you wouldnt have a clue on what to pass through a high/
low pass filter or even a high/low shelving filter. I also believe that
Daniel Stein has used Compression well within the song Believer. This
is because there are vocals throughout pretty much the whole song.
Which vocals are normally one of the key things to be compressed, this
is because when vocalists sing a recorded piece of music the
microphone usually also picks up the background noise. Where as the
vocalists normally moving around with the mic this variates the space
between the singers mouth and the microphone and also affects the final
recording without being compressed. The final effect i believe that Daniel
Stein also known as DJ Fresh used well within the song Believer is
reverb. This is because all throughout the song he has reverbed the
vocals as if they were in a live theatre where as they were really
recorded in an average bedroomed size studio booth, this means that
Daniel Stein has added depth and fullness to the vocals.
The things i have found successful within Daniel Steins song Believer
is that firstly, the structure seems very well built from start to finish with
loads of interesting yet slightly different drops and off beat rhythmic
synthesised chords. I think that this worked well within the song because
it created an offbeat swing which is usually thoroughly enjoyed in drum
and bass music. However, the things i have found that was less

successful was that Daniel Stein had sampled two key features within
the song the bassline and the drumbeat. I think that this didnt work well
because the bassline was too deep and too plain for the drop on the
other hand, i found that the drumbeat was too full and that there was too
much going on with the drums at once. The song Believer matches the
requirements of the drum and bass genre by having an uptempo beat to
it with loads of live sounding drum feels throughout the song creating a
fast rhythm and by having a heavy bassline that creates tension for the
beginning of the next verse.