Making a Dubstep Track in 7 days (Reason 4)

Great Reason tutorial on Boy in a Band.
Here are the 7 How-to videos :

Day 1: Making a Dubstep Beat
MClass Mastering suite and a 16:2 mixer.

Tempo : 140bpm

ReDrum :

Two kicks, 2 Snares, a clap, a closed hat, an open hat and a ride.

32 steps.

“Shuffle” button on (to add in a nice swing which makes the change between the 16 and 17 kick drum hits).

Kick drums :

Same sample on 2 channels.

Channel 1 : reduce the length (so it’s a sharper hit with no tail end) + reduce the pitch and tone (so it’s much bassier, providing the meat of the kick sound, where channel 2 will provide the click).

Put C1 on the 1, 16, 17 and 21 steps.

Channel 2 : a bit quieter with a higher tone.

Put C2 on the 1 and 17 (to really emphasize the start of the bar).

Snares :

Channel 3 : punchy snare (with a lot of body).

Channel 4 : snappy (more high pitched snare).

Channel 5 : nice well-rounded clap (that’ll fill out the mid-hi end).

Put all three snares on the 9 and 25 steps (kinda bouncy beat).

Hi end :

Pattern 2 : a ride on every beat and an open hat on every offbeat.

Reason sequencer window :

Add some closed hats with triplets (1/3 intervals over a 4/4 beat, instead of one-two-three-four, it becomes one-two-three-one-two-three). Must stop using ReDrum sequencer and start with the Reason sequencer window (“Copy pattern to track”). Make sure you click the “Enable Pattern Section” button.

Select 1/16T. Putting hats on offbeats.

Right click ReDrum and create > MClass Equalizer to emphasize kick and snare. Hit the low shelf on and beef up the sound around 50hz by about 5dB.

Q (bandwidth) up to full so it affects a smaller area of the frequency spectrum, really emphasising that low end.

Next, hit param one or two, and boost around 1.5khz by about the same amount to really give your snare that crack that will pierce through the mix. Take down the Q (bandwidth) to about a quarter so this is spread more evenly over the snare sound.

Mixer :
Add RV7000 advanced reverb. Turn the aux 1 knob on your beat’s channel to about a quarter to give a bit of room to the effect.

Day 2: Making the Dubstep Beat More Interesting




Day 3: Making the Wobble Bass




Day 4: Making a Dubstep Lead and Bass note



Day 5: Arranging the Dubstep Song




Day 6: Bass Drops and Fills



Day 7: Mixing & Mastering and the final song