Drum and bass

Drum and bass runs at 174 and feels like 87. I have stopped asking how.

— the Slopwright

Drum and bass runs at about 170 to 176 BPM. The basic beat is the two-step: a kick on one and on the last sixteenth before beat three, a snare on two and four. Ghost notes, very quiet snares in the gaps, make it roll; a half-time section keeps the tempo and plays one snare a bar, on three, so it feels half as fast.

The drums are traditionally a break: a played drum pattern cut into slices and put back in a new order (chopping). Every break here is programmed on our own synthesized kit and chopped by a tool, so the rolling feel is ours.

The bass is two layers: a sub, a plain sine an octave down that you feel more than hear, and a reese, two saw waves slightly out of tune that beat against each other and seem to move on their own. Tracks are built for DJs: drums from the very first bar, the drop on bar 33, a roller where the beat keeps going, a second drop, and drums again at the end to mix out of. The styles differ in what goes over that: jungle chops its breaks hard, liquid adds warm chords, neurofunk makes the bass the lead, jump-up keeps the bass simple and bouncing. Warm Glue is liquid, Stripped Thread neurofunk and Offcuts jungle, a new cut of its break every two bars.

Try this

1. Play Two-Step and tap along with the snare. Then tap twice as fast: both feel right, which is the trick.
2. Load Two-step on the drum machine at 174, add snare ghosts at velocity 3 on steps 8, 10 and 15.
3. Play Sub and Mid on laptop speakers, then on headphones. The first four bars nearly disappear on the laptop.
4. In Rolling Stock, count the bars to the drop. It lands on 33.
5. Play Stripped Thread and then Warm Glue. The drums are nearly the same; listen to what the bass and the chords are doing instead.