I finished my DnB-esque song though I think DnB loses something with a single DMG. Maybe I need to program better breaks. Thanks breakphase for the breaks .zip will definitely be rooting through these.

a single DMG is more than capable of really cool DnB. promise.

but then it sounds clunky! you'd have to tune it all to match the bpm

Renoise actually now has a break autosync to tempo (or user-defined number of tracker steps)

The Silph Scope wrote:

You need to have a beard, for maximum BRK.

i just want to mention my body looks weirder than usual because i'm wearing 4 hoodies because of something i heard as a stage technique in The Art of 16 Bars.

as for all of this business going on here

it sounds like you're going down the path of 'chipbreak for the sake of chipbreak'. i'd say a good 90% of people who make chipbreak are in the same boat, so i guess that's okay.

i've been doing this shit since '03/'04, because, as cheesy as it sounds, it's what's been in my heart. that's important to this kind of thing, to me at least.

here are some tips for avoiding generic chipbreak, although i'm pretty sure that isn't your goal:

there's hundreds of breaks, the amen is just one of them, and there's all kinds of variation on even just the amen. look up stuff like 'jungle breaks sample pack' 'drum n bass drum samples' etc on google.

you don't have to use just one break, i usually have at least 8 different breaks per track. learn to layer drums. have a steady, loud main beat, and use the space around that for chopping.

repetition is death. change things early and often. treat the lead melodies like a solo that lasts the whole song. change the key, the structure, the tempo, the feeling, whatever, as the song progresses. try to make something where, if you played the first 30 seconds and the last 30 seconds of it for someone, they wouldn't think it was the same song.

keep your ears open for samples, all the time.

use synthesis methods from all kinds of console hardware (i routinely mix pulse waves, PWM, FM Synthesis, etc), then mix that with more modern sounds.

don't limit yourself to ANYTHING. DON'T set out to do something specific. let the medium take you along with it. be ready to abandon ideas that don' fit, because forcing them won't work. i said this on twitter the other day while working on a new track: "the reason i love writing music is because you're constantly approaching a blank canvas and surprising yourself." so just constantly experiment with sounds, melodies, chord changes, etc. eventually you'll stumble onto something amazing.

put some heart into it.

i think that's all i've got. maybe this'll be a good example, maybe it won't, but it's at least what i think chipbreak should be like.

hope this helps at least one person.

There are parts in this that are just really gorgeous.

Here's my lazy way.
First we find a break. I load it in three times, sometimes 4 depending on how many parts there are in the break. I generally refer to these as the kick snare and chka. sometimes you get a crash.

Leave the first one. That's your kick. You want it to keep playing after you leave it so everything flows nicely.

Here's the snare, all I do is chop off anything before that first snare. Again leave everything after it so it can keep playing.

Thirdly I chop off everything before the second snare which starts the "chka". Sometimes I might cut straight to the chka, but i like this better, it gives me two different snares to play with.

Finally you go and sequence it all. Chuck in some different notes but make them short, otherwise your hats will go out of time.

For bonus points play more than one break at a time or use hits from different breaks.

but then it sounds clunky! you'd have to tune it all to match the bpm, and then pitching around snares and such sounds weird.

i use individual slices of every sound, gives you much more control over loose hi hats and such

rex files are the shit

Leave the first one. That's your kick. You want it to keep playing after you leave it so everything flows nicely.

Here's the snare, all I do is chop off anything before that first snare. Again leave everything after it so it can keep playing.

Thirdly I chop off everything before the second snare which starts the "chka". Sometimes I might cut straight to the chka, but i like this better, it gives me two different snares to play with.

Finally you go and sequence it all. Chuck in some different notes but make them short, otherwise your hats will go out of time.

For bonus points play more than one break at a time or use hits from different breaks.

I just wanted to say that it was your EP that got me into chiptune, Saskrotch. I loved all kinds of DnB back then, and when I first heard it, I was blown away. I've been wondering about how you did your stuff and what your philosophy on it was. It was really kinda cool reading that, it was nice getting some thought on the inside of the master.

Also, it's awesome advice if I ever try to do some break again.

sad trumpet etc