Conversation with Anthony, my client
The finished track on SoundCloud - also available on dropbox
The finished track arrangment in Ableton Live.
Composing a Drum and Bass Loop
On Friday 4th November 2016 I contacted my friend Anthony Sampson, asking if he was working on any projects that needed music. He makes custom game maps in his spare time, usually for Call of Duty. He said he was working on a map at the time and would be able to fit some music in there somewhere. He was after a drum and bass loop to go on a radio within the map which players would hear as they walked past it.
I asked him how long it needed to be and he said only around one minute, as long as it loops, and it can be pretty basic.
I decided to use Ableton Live for this project because it is, to me, the easiest DAW to use when working with samples.
Monday 7th November 2016
I started working on the DnB track, starting with a simple drum line from some samples I had saved from old projects.I built up a drum line to go throughout the track and stretched it to around the one minute mark.
I started adding some of the built in synthesizer sounds that come with Ableton Live. I found a few different synths that I liked and tried making a melody line.
I did not get a melody line I liked so scrapped the idea and instead decided to use some ambient pad sounds. I found a few pads that sounded nice together and started inputting some notes. I used these as the basis of the melody.
Saturday 12th November 2016
Looking back on what I had already done, I started expanding the drum line, adding some claps and strange samples I had saved. One of the was called 'Vibraslap'
I evolved the pads and added some more melodic content.
Friday 18th November 2016
The track was missing something, so I added a small breakdown at the end of the loop.
I decided that what I had was a good amount for a simple drum and bass loop so looped it and had a listen.
The track sounded okay, so I exported it to send to my client.
Saturday 19th November 2016
I sent off the track to my client as it was and awaited feedback.
The feedback was mostly positive, except that the drums were too quiet and some of the synths sounded out of place.
Friday 25th November 2016*
I acted upon the feedback given to me and increased the drums in the mix. I also removed a few synths to see what my client would think. I sent the track back the same day.
He was happy with what I changed and thought it sounded good as a finished track.
The track is very simple as requested by Anthony and has everything that a simple drum and bass track needs. The end result to me was very good and I was pleased with what I created considering composing music isn't my strongest suit.
After discussing the work with my client we both agreed that the final result was good and could be used in the game map. The map he has been creating has not yet been finished and as such the track hasn't been used in it yet.