I went to see Bjorks show as part of the Manchester International Festival and after a long, long slumber it woke me up again.  It reminded me what I love about live music, instruments being fused with electronics and pushing the boundaries of normal music production.  Shortly after this I transcribed a vibraphone cover of an Aphex Twin track (track one of the druqs album) and this got me going again…perhaps I will post a video of this shortly. It’s funny how you need other people to feed off to keep you going as much as I love being a lonely studio bod for hours on end.

I’ve got some irons in the fire at the moment, I’m considering writing some more drum n bass….and I’m considering a whole new side project which fuses programming with the live instruments I can play and also incorporating people with insane skills along the way.  So if you have any cool skills…if your an MC, play the spoons or are an amazing classical instrumentalist it would be really cool to hear from you. I’m working on some stuff at the moment, I’m not quite sure what it will sound like, but it should be something you can vibe to

Strict Status

Join me on facebook to keep in touch, and listen to tracks on soundcloud with a free download of my Innerparty System remix.

It takes years of practice to get drum n bass production sounding right (it took me about 4 years) and here are a few tips to get you on your way in the right direction… and save you the time it took me to figure it out!

1) Drum Layering

This is a real big one to get your drums grooving along nicely. It’s not as basic as a kick, snare and one hi hat line making your sequencer blocks look like someone had a good go with an uzi. It sounds awful and it doesn’t groove. The main key is to get lots of great little lines going around your main kick and snare. Think about programming lots of interesting layers with different EQ’s and different filters to make it flow. Also play around with pre made drum loops through filters on top of your own programming and it will give a really interesting twist.

2) EQ

EQ is massively important. Think of each EQ band as a letter box. If you try and shove too many letters through one letter box nothing is going to come through the other side and you end up with a mangled mess! EQ is like that. When your writing asking yourself ‘what does this part provide’? Some of it is simple, it’s your bassline or it’s your main synth line. Other parts serve to fill out the sound. In some of my tracks such as my Inner Party System remix of ‘Die Tonight, Live Forever’ there is a ridiculous amount of little layers which some you can barely hear. Some of the sounds are really high in frequency so in your overall mix your getting a lot of bass (easy in drum n bass!!!) a lot of main synth lines to fill out your mids and a lot of moving sounds in your top frequencies to make it sound massive!

3) Compressors

There is two different schools of thought when it comes to compressors. Some people hate them with a passion and some people like myself just can’t get enough of it. If you want it heavy, squeeze every little last bit out of that sound to make your track stomp! These are great on kicks and snares and some synth sounds that may move a lot in their intensity of sound. You want to be able to hear it’s subtle parts come through your mix just as much as your loud parts so you never miss a bit of that cool sound you programmed.

You may even look as happy as this guy with your production!

Hear how this all works here http://www.soundcloud.com/strictstatus

So go away with this all in mind, have some fun and send over some of your tracks to strictstatus@yahoo.co.uk

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So last night BBC Introducing Manchester gave me my first play!  I was dog tired having only had 4 hours sleep the night before but I put the match sticks inbetween my eyelids and listened till it came on at 12:10am!  She was very complimentary and thought my classical percussion background and touring was quite strange considering they were playing a rippin drum n bass tune!  Hear what she said here:

http://soundcloud.com/strictstatus/strict-status-bbc-introducing-manchester

What happens next?  Well it gets passed onto BBC 1xtra to see what they are saying, so if your close with God, put in a good word for me!  I think I may go to the BBC introducing gig at the Ruby Lounge to put a face to a name!  I spent my lunch hour today ringing a multitude of local Manchester radio stations trying to drum up more business.  Wythenshawe FM were really postitive as I live there and so were some bigger ones.   I will let you know if any of these come to fruition!

I’m currently talking with Luke Bhatia from ‘The Kites Of San Quentin’, an amazing dubsteppy group from Manchester about him coming to join me on a live show for Strict Status.  I need some shredding guitar! I can’t ever shake off my love for metal…

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Click link to follow me:

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BBC Manchester Introducing plays ‘Strict Status’

Sunday 6th June 2010 at 10pm on BBC Radio Manchester (95.1FM & Digital Radio) online: bbc.co.uk/manchester/introducing

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I am Strict Status, a Scottish lass now living in Manchester.  I am a female drum n bass producer and musician who is mashing the two together.  I blog on a Monday & Friday imparting all sorts of useful and non useful wisdom on drum n bass e.g. tips on writing dnb, the latest cool tracks, memory lane tracks rediscovered from ten years ago(!), unsigned bands I know of who are hot totty and not yet discovered and any other stuff that is floating my boat.  So does it sound any good?  Well here is what I do in my home studio:

I have been writing dnb for 8 years and dabbled in electronica since 1996 aged 12 writing basic techno on an old rickety computer that my parents bought.  I was backing up onto floppy disks back then……I haven’t moved on much since then having made my EP ‘Physical & Digital’ using only 1GB Ram…….long story.  I have been successful as a musician as a drummer/percussionist playing on albums that made it into the album charts, toured europe supporting the likes of The Fun Loving Criminals and loads of other stuff (maybe I will bore you with it sometime) and throughout all of this, I’ve been a massive drum n bass head….and I also love my metal!!!

I bought my first turntables when I was 17.  I royally smacked my head off a table on entering my first record shop! With the birds tweeting around my head I managed to fall into some drum n bass vinyl and gave it a listen.  I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread (well, wheat free bread for me!).  I terrorized everyone around me with my new found love for bass by DJing at underground raves and awesome house parties in Glasgow.  Not satisfied with that much bass already, I started making my own drum n bass.

It’s taken me four years to come out with my EP ‘Physical & Digital’.  I wanted to be 100% on the money with it and after sitting on this EP for 6 months, I still liked it so decided it might have something to it.  Uploaded two tracks to BBC Introducing and I guess they liked it as they are now playing it on Sunday 6th June on:

BBC Introducing with Sam Walker

Sunday 6th June 2010 at 10pm on BBC Radio Manchester (95.1FM & Digital Radio)

online: bbc.co.uk/manchester/introducing

I’m also well pleased to let you know I am working on an inner party system remix which will be available reallllll soooonnn……..or you could come and stand outside my house or even up my street hearing it being created much to my neighbours dismay and to my absolute pleasure.

Until next time, keep it heavy!

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