Merry Christmas! Enjoy some Holiday Dub-Hop/Bass Music

[Kaiborg]

Happy Holidays!  Merry Festivus!  Christmahanukwanzika! 

Here's a nice little trilogy of classic Holiday tunes for you to enjoy.  And if you're wondering why it's dubstep...  what better way to subject your family members to passive-aggressive behavior?  I kid. 

Seriously, I hope everyone is starting their season in good health, and in good spirits.  I actually just had my motor scooter stolen yesterday, but whatever.  Things could be worse, right? 


A Very Special, Very Dubstep Xmas

[Juan]

Ha. How about some technical details.

[Kaiborg]

Thanks for asking about the details, and sorry it's taken so long to get back!

As Christmas day approaches, I had to churn out a few more "classics" and do a proper holiday EP.  Click on the garish graphic below for the band camp page.

1.Carol of the Bells 01:30   
2.Bring a Torch Janette Isabella 02:22
3.Deck the Halls 02:49
4.Holy Night 01:39
5.Silent Night 02:44
6.Jingle Bells 02:17



Oh yes, DETAILS!  Where does one even begin?  You pretty much start with your MIDI composition, which you play on a keyboard, and quantize to taste.  Sometimes, just for shits and giggles, I'll use a dumb and boring synth patch just to get the part sequenced, and THEN I'll work on the timbre/sound.  From there, it's just being tasteful with your synth patches (which are all semi-programmed from scratch for the specific part), along with some half-decent mixing.  Just the standard compressors and EQ's in that dept., along with some spectral enhancement, reverb, and other stuff used sparingly.  They say arrangement is everything, and you really do have to be mindful of your parts, instrumentation and structure.  In this regard, you also have to choose or design some nice hits/crashes/swells for your transitions.  Drum Parts are relatively easy for the house, trance, or disco parts, while the "dubstep" is just some triplet grooves, for the most part.  The 3/4 timing in "Carol of the Bells" was no sweat either, but maybe it's kind of drum n' bass sounding?     "Bring a Torch Janette Isabella" is also 3/4, but has a more traditional disco feel.  Had to try and keep that one "K-Pop" sounding!  And I'm not Korean!  Obviously, any loop samples you're using at this point (drums only) are going to be chopped up, cropped, and re-arranged.   Most of my drums are sequenced like everything else, though.  Maybe I'll bullet point some more interesting things:

• My MIDI "controller" is a Roland Fantom - I also use it to sequence stuff when my computer is busy playing netflix.
• The reggae guitar on the intro of "Holy Night" is real, and was performed by the esteemed yet deposed Prince I&I ASIanman of Jah-Rastafari.  The Prince is currently in contact with C2C for an upcoming guest spot.
• I use Massive (the vst soft synth) for a bunch of parts, but a host of other vst synths are used too.
• "Carol of the Bells" contains a sample of a human scream, to signify the true horror of the holiday season.
• It was all done in "in the box" using REAPER.  Pro-Tools was not involved
• If you want to see a complete gear list, check out my studio webstie at www.MusicStudio13.com

With that said, you should probably ignore everything I just said and check out the music straight away.  Unlike my rambling and near-meaningless technical details, the actual music is kind of rad.

[ziznak]

you should get a live band together for your black metal stuff!!!

[Kaiborg]

you should get a live band together for your black metal stuff!!!

It's so funny you mention that, because I'm actually on it as we speak.  Here's a video from earlier this month...


Night of the Chupacapbra (Live) 12/8/2012

Oh btw, the song we're playing might relate, somehow.  Obviously, it was inspired by the Chucapbra of Art Bell's heyday.  Merry Xmas.

[ziznak]

thats awesome... cellphone vid had me thinking it was just you and a drummer but i heard bass... then you see him for a sec lol... guess whose gf filmed this???

man I can't wait to get another project going.  Me and an old friend that used to sing in this lil death metal band I had wanna put something together kinda ministry-ish... ya know just a couple of guys and some recording equipment.  Here's a lil linky to some live recording of my old band (not the death metal band)... its not bad for a live recording.  I think everything went through the board and was somewhat mixed. 

https://soundcloud.com/zhz77/04-track-4

[Pragmier]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone. I, for one, may not have everything, but I am blessed to have what counts. Hope everyone can find something to be thankful for, and if not, may 2013 see your lot improve.

[BobGrau]

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Special Kristmas.