Generally unimpressed with dubstep DJs

[TABS]

yeah with mp3s + sync

DONT DO IT

NOT COOL


also is rusko using traktor in that vid? tough to tell...

ill just scratch and fader slam, then watch the college girls go wild when i drop Katy Perry Firework...

[DJ LIVE LONGSHOT]

I'm open to all genres and good contributions to music, Dubstep has it's own movement. It isn't for everybody though, just like you have some DJ's that head hunt controllerists. If it contributes to the EDM movement then I respect it.

...but I think it's a little judgmental to pick apart a whole movement like that.

P.S. Raver Special is mean!

[*Otter*]

I spin mainly Dubstep with some dnb/breaks and the occational electro song. The think you have to understand is Dubstep is a loose term being thrown around right now by people who have no clue. There are many different subgenres and that is what makes it interesting to mix. The journey is in the song selection. Yes its all gonna be 140 halftime but knowing when to drop a heavy brostep drop and when to play something more chill and subbassy takes a good ear and knowing the crowd. Headliner Producers usually draw the masses who could give a F$#K whether the producer they came to see is mixing or not! I mean look at Skrillex and the people he brings to the club.... they have no clue what Dubstep really is.

Emalkay, Skream, Benga, and Noah D are the real salt of the dubstep earth these days!

[xtianw]

yeah but nobody answered JesC's question.

I wanna know too

[padi_04]

yeah but nobody answered JesC's question.

I wanna know too

+1

also is rusko using traktor in that vid? tough to tell...

[JuanSOLO]

I don't like dubstep anymore. It got all bro'd out.

Drumstep, eh, that's a little bit cooler I guess. But I miss the days when everybody was trippin out on dub delays and subsonic basslines. Wub wubs don't satisfy me anymore, it's all just a penis size competition on who can burn the most cpu cycles processing their basslines.

Well put. "BroStep" It's all Jersey Shore now.

[Ed Paris]

i hate dubstep!

[Ed Paris]

whats dubstep?

Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South East London. Its overall sound has been described as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals".

The earliest dubstep releases date back to 1998 and were darker, more experimental, instrumental dub remixes of 2-step garage tracks attempting to incorporate the funky elements of breakbeat, or the dark elements of drum and bass into 2-step, which featured B-sides of single releases. In 2001, this and other strains of dark garage music began to be showcased and promoted at London's night club Forward (sometimes also referred to as FWD>>), which went on to be considerably influential to the development of dubstep. The term "dubstep" in reference to a genre of music began to be used by around 2002, by which time stylistic trends used in creating these remixes started to become more noticeable and distinct from 2-step and grime.

A very early supporter of the sound was BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who started playing it from 2003 onwards. In 2004, the last year of his show, his listeners voted Distance, Digital Mystikz and Plastician (formerly Plasticman) in their top 50 for the year.[2] Dubstep started to spread beyond small local scenes in late 2005 and early 2006; many websites devoted to the genre appeared on the internet and thus aided the growth of the scene, such as dubstepforum, the download site Barefiles and blogs such as gutterbreakz.[3] Simultaneously, the genre was receiving extensive coverage in music magazines such as The Wire and online publications such as Pitchfork Media, with a regular feature entitled The Month In: Grime/Dubstep. Interest in dubstep grew significantly after BBC Radio 1 DJ Mary Anne Hobbs started championing the genre, beginning with a show devoted to it (entitled "Dubstep Warz") in January 2006.


Dubstep's early roots are in the more experimental releases of UK garage producers, seeking to incorporate elements of drum and bass into the South London-based 2-step garage sound. These experiments often ended up on the B-side of a white label or commercial garage release. Dubstep is generally instrumental. Like another, more vocal garage hybrid, grime, the genre's feel is commonly dark; tracks frequently use a minor key and can feature dissonant harmonies such as the tritone interval within a riff. Other distinguishing features often found are the use of samples, a propulsive, sparse rhythm,[9] and an almost omnipresent sub-bass. Some dubstep artists have also incorporated a variety of outside influences, from dub-influenced techno such as Basic Channel to classical music or heavy metal.

Rhythm

Dubstep rhythms are usually syncopated, and often shuffled or incorporating tuplets. The tempo is nearly always in the range of 138-142bpm.[9] In its early stages, dubstep was often more percussive, with more influences from 2-step and grime drum patterns. A lot of producers were also experimenting with tribal drum samples, a notable example being Loefah's early release "Truly Dread". Over time, key producers at the time started to experiment with the half-step rhythm which created more of a spacious vibe, and head-nodding rhythm, a feature which started to be used more and more and has become a signature of the genre. Similarly, the half-step rhythm also started to dominate grime, and producers started to lose the more complex and jerky rhythms influenced from 2-step, and started to work with more hip-hop influenced beats.

Dubstep rhythms typically do not follow the four-to-the-floor patterns common in many other styles of electronic dance music such as techno and house but tend to rely on longer percussion loops than the four-bar phrases present in much techno or house. Often, a track's percussion will follow a pattern which when heard alone will appear to be playing at half the tempo of the track; the double-time feel is instead achieved by other elements, usually the bassline. An example of this tension generated by the conflicting tempo can be listened on the right. The song features a very sparse rhythm almost entirely composed of kick drum, snare drum, and a sparse hi-hat, with a distinctly half time implied 71bpm tempo. The track is instead propelled by a sub-bass following a four to the floor 142bpm pattern.

In an Invisible Jukebox interview with The Wire, Kode9 commented on a DJ MRK1 (formerly Mark One) track, observing that listeners "have internalized the double-time rhythm" and the "track is so empty it makes [the listener] nervous, and you almost fill in the double time yourself, physically, to compensate".

Wobble bass

One characteristic of dubstep is the wobble bass, where an extended bass note is manipulated musically. This contrasts with other styles of music where the same, unmanipulated sample is played at different pitches to make a bassline, as on a musical score. Wobble bass is produced by using a very low frequency oscillator to manipulate a bass parameter, such as volume, distortion or filter cutoff. The resulting sound is a bassline dominated by single, extended bass note which has a distinctive wobble sound.
[edit] Structure, bass drops, rewinds and MCs
Man sitting in a studio before two turntables and audio turning buttons, adjusting the sound as he listens over earphones.
Mala of Digital Mystikz

Originally, dubstep releases had some structural similarities to other genres like drum and bass and UK garage. Typically this would comprise an intro, a main section (often incorporating a bass drop), a midsection, a second main section similar to the first (often with another drop), and an outro.

Many dubstep tracks incorporate one or more "bass drops", a characteristic inherited from drum 'n' bass. Typically, the percussion will pause, often reducing the track to silence, and then resume with more intensity, accompanied by a dominant subbass (often passing portamento through an entire octave or more, as in the audio example). However, this is by no means a completely rigid characteristic, rather a trope; a large portion of seminal tunes from producers like Kode9 and Horsepower Productions have more experimental song structures which don't rely on a drop for a dynamic peak - and in some instances don't feature a bass drop at all.

Rewinds (or reloads) are another technique used by dubstep DJs. If a song seems to be especially popular, the DJ will 'spin back' the record by hand without lifting the stylus, and play the track in question again. Rewinds are also an important live element in many of dubstep's precursors; the technique originates in dub reggae soundsystems, is a standard of most pirate radio stations and is also used at UK garage and jungle nights.

Taking direct cues from Jamaica's lyrically sparse deejay and toasting mic styles in the vein of reggae pioneers like U-Roy, the MC's role in dubstep's live experience is critically important to its impact. As the music is largely instrumental, the MC operates in a similar context to drum and bass and is generally more of a complement to the music rather than the deliverer of lyrical content.

Notable mainstays in the live experience of the sound are MC Sgt Pokes and MC Crazy D from London, and Juakali from Trinidad.Production in a studio environment seems to lend itself to more experimentation. Kode9 has collaborated extensively with the Spaceape, who MCs in a dread poet style. Kevin Martin's experiments with the genre are almost exclusively collaborations with MCs such as Warrior Queen, Flowdan, and Tippa Irie. Skream has also featured Warrior Queen and grime artist JME on his debut album, Skream!. Plastician, who was one of the first DJ's to mix the sound of grime and dubstep together,has worked with notable grime setup Boy Better Know as well as renowned Grime MC's such as Wiley, Dizzee Rascal and Lethal Bizzle. He has also released tracks with a dubstep foundation and grime verses over the beats. MaSp, Coki and Mala of Digital Mystikz have experimented with abrupt, 16-bar intros and have produced tracks with dub vocalists,and dubstep artist and label co-owner Sam Shackleton has moved toward productions which fall outside the usual dubstep tempo, and sometimes entirely lack most of the common tropes of the genre.

[basspenetrator]

@earl: wikipedia? will read it 2morrow, seems interesting..

i spin dubstep regularly at my residency (anounced as electro, fidget, dubstep) and the crowd seems to like it more and more each week. no brostep, just either really heavy tunes or the usual chill, which was mentioned before.
you can really mix dubstep in different ways. one thing i like to do sometimes is just cutting every now and then (2-4 bars) hiphop style between tracks which fit together.

[THEWETBANDITS]

[QUOTE=kami;217667]From the videos I have watched online, I have been generally unimpressed with the mixing abilities and techniques of dubstep DJs. I'm talking Datsik, Rusko, etc. From what I've seen it seems like they crossfade songs with no beatmatching or timing whatsover, and their favorite technique is to turn the volume down and up so the fans can "hum" the melody. What is this? I know a lot of the fans are either high as balls or are on MDMA so they don't care, but come on!

I dont really know what you are complaining about, in all the videos you posted the crowds seem to be having a great time -- which is ultimately the only thing that matters. I have seen Rusko live and it was probably the most explosive thing I have ever experienced, if you notice in the videos he is drenched in sweat -- the guy is an absolute animal.