how was old school Jungle made?

henryspencer · 08-29-2012, 03:11 AM

I ve been checking out allot of old school Jungle stuff and I find the textures in the breaks to be just amazing especially those hollow wooden sounding breaks and how they layer tambs and shakers over the breaks. For some reason this stuff sounds so much more organic and groovy than new drum n bass. I was hoping that some of you could give me some insight into how this kind of music was made especially how those production methods would differ from modern more plastic over compressed drum n bass... In most cases would they be building new breaks from a bunch of hits or are they doing something else like rearranging chunks of breaks?

Also if you could please tell me where i could download some of these old artists like foul play and skanna that would be grand.

relic · 08-29-2012, 03:14 AM

They were chopping sampled breaks mostly. Auto slice technology didn't exist during the advent of Jungle (?) I think often the breaks would get HP filtered to make room for a nice punchy/subby kick drum and an additional snare. I think another part of the sound is probably also lower bit depth samplers.

henryspencer · 08-31-2012, 04:05 AM

What about all those cool female vocal samples they were always using. Would that have been a singer they got or samples?

relic · 08-31-2012, 04:31 AM

Example songs? I'm not sure about tbh.

lolirl · 08-31-2012, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by relic

They were chopping sampled breaks mostly. Auto slice software didn't exist during the advent of Jungle

Fixed.

Not at the start anyway but people were using hardware samplers which often did have features to let you edit quickly, chop at the 0 line or peaks and truncate sounds.
Then came Recycle and people would chuck their samples across to the computer via SCSI so they could chop it visually on a big screen before sending it back across to the sampler and saving it to [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click here to register]
disk. Just imagine, a whole 100 MB, oooh!
SCSI zip drives.

Code:

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.

relic · 08-31-2012, 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lolirl

Fixed.

Not at the start anyway but people were using hardware samplers which often did have features to let you edit quickly, chop at the 0 line or peaks and truncate sounds.
Then came Recycle and people would chuck their samples across to the computer via SCSI so they could chop it visually on a big screen before sending it back across to the sampler and saving it to [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click here to register]
disk. Just imagine, a whole 100 MB, oooh!
SCSI zip drives.

Code:

Content visible to [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click here to register]
.

Thanks for the fix. I wasn't actually old enough to appreciate jungle when it came around : ) I love all those old tunes though. All this power inside our DAWs these days...I wonder if it limits creativity because we don't have to do any real problem solving or work around limitations. I do remember using zip drives though! 100MB was sooooo much space then...

Barry Acid · 08-31-2012, 10:13 PM

The female vocals are mostly old house samples they used. I have loads of them if you want any. I have the breaks from loads of famous 90s old skool drum and bass and jungle tracks. I'm big into old skool Jungle. The new stuff is shite! Might I suggest you also check out IDB (Intelligent Drum and Bass) here is an example of the style.

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relic · 08-31-2012, 10:25 PM

^you can still find those house a capella vinyls about. I've got several of them : ) I think some of those metalheadz/Goldie tunes do actually have original vocals don't they? Timeless? Inner City Life? I thought the vocalist on those had somewhat of a career...though I know those tunes aren't old, old school jungle.

Yea...agreed...a lot of those really early tunes that are almost not jungle...kinda still that hardcore, bleep and bass stuff...when rave was just rave : )

hellscion · 08-31-2012, 10:30 PM

lol, jungle

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oh, jungle. not ragga jungle... my bad

relic · 08-31-2012, 10:33 PM

I also enjoy some ragga...not gonna lie...

niksah · 08-31-2012, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by relic

Thanks for the fix. I wasn't actually old enough to appreciate jungle when it came around : ) I love all those old tunes though. All this power inside our DAWs these days...I wonder if it limits creativity because we don't have to do any real problem solving or work around limitations.

So true, DnB seems to have been the style that lost the most soul when things started going more in the box. Got too technically perfect or something, I dunno.

Can we turn this thread into a classic DnB appreciation thread?

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relic · 08-31-2012, 10:57 PM

I totally agree...I mean I love some dark, twisted reese stuff like Spor, Tech Itch etc...

but there is just something about some dirty, gritty old school jungle...even those terribly mixed Dillinja tunes that are pretty much only good for moving a shit load of air on a huge system...nothing like those tunes being played out in a pitch black warehouse taking over your senses!

relic · 08-31-2012, 10:59 PM

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henryspencer · 09-02-2012, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barry Acid

The female vocals are mostly old house samples they used. I have loads of them if you want any. I have the breaks from loads of famous 90s old skool drum and bass and jungle tracks. I'm big into old skool Jungle. The new stuff is shite! Might I suggest you also check out IDB (Intelligent Drum and Bass) here is an example of the style.

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Yea seriously if any of you could kind of recommend or point me in the right direction as to sources for sampling that would be great. To tell you the truth, up to lately I have pretty much just been into more idm/ electronica from recent years, and am now learning that this early 90's jungle stuff is really where the soul is at.
I just got Foul Plays album "suspected" and Ive been playing it non stop. Amazing!

relic · 09-02-2012, 02:04 AM

^illegal radio stations.

As for sampling...anywhere really...soul/jazz/RnB records. Check your local shop. Or eBay...it's a goldmine : )

Just search for a capella records on eBay...not royalty free most of them...but that's up to you how you handle that...

henryspencer · 09-04-2012, 10:56 PM

Thanks!

One more thing. What about those chord stabs they use in all that old techno and jungle stuff, where it sounds like a single chord mapped across the keyboard? Is that the result of them sampling one chord onto their sampler and then just using that across the keys or from someone just programming different tones on different oscalators of a synth?

Mali · 09-04-2012, 11:24 PM

jungle warfare 1 2 3
goldmine 1 2 3 4 5
reinforced sample cd
data files 1 2 3

these are the big sample cds used through the 90s

vocals are sampled from jazz records, sample cds from that era

tune i made in 2008

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Slignig · 09-05-2012, 12:54 AM

im pretty sure this whole entire genre was spawned from the amen break that was taken and sampled from a jazz drummer. It also spawned and inspired a butt load of other genres as well. Check out the wiki link.

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relic · 09-05-2012, 01:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slignig

im pretty sure this whole entire genre was spawned from the amen break that was taken and sampled from a jazz drummer. It also spawned and inspired a butt load of other genres as well. Check out the wiki link.

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There were other breaks too...the Apache, Funky Drummer etc. But yea...the Amen Break from the funk tune Amen, Brother by the Winstons, which if I'm not mistaken was a B-Side an not a terribly famous tune.

henryspencer · 09-05-2012, 05:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mali

jungle warfare 1 2 3
goldmine 1 2 3 4 5
reinforced sample cd
data files 1 2 3

these are the big sample cds used through the 90s

vocals are sampled from jazz records, sample cds from that era

tune i made in 2008

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Click here to register]

Awesome track man, thanks allot for the names of those sample CD's. DO you think big name artists used those as well?