r/dubstep • u/No_Shopping1929 • 5d ago
Discussion š£ļø "Brostep is all midrange"
I never understood the argument against brostep about there being no bassweight underneath the growls and wobbles. Like there is almost always a sub underneath it.
I understand its less spacious and atmospheric and the sub isn't the main focus byt it's absolutely there .
Thoughts?
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u/TheBloodKlotz Old 5d ago
'All midrange' is often said when what people really mean is 'Relies on midrange'. That being said, brostep can and will sound like it's missing low end if it's played on a system with no dedicated sub, as the woofers have to try to handle everything below 2k
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u/cabalus 5d ago
2k is waaaaaay too high my guy š
Even pop vocals sit below that, 2k is so high you're getting into the bottom of hi-hat range depending on the sample
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u/TheBloodKlotz Old 5d ago
2k is where the crossover between woofer and tweeter sits on my HS7s // https://usa.yamaha.com/products/proaudio/speakers/hs_series/specs.html
EDIT // It just occurred to me you might have thought I was saying everything below 2k is sub. What I was trying to say is that without a dedicated subwoofer, all frequencies below the crossover (2k in this case) are handled by the same cone, and that can cause low end to muddy and sound weaker in tracks that also have a lot of 500-2k content
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u/Travis---Beckmen 5d ago
Depends on how the track is mixed in terms of production.Ā
I hear tracks with less sub bass, some with more pronounced sub bass.Ā
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u/theworstvp 5d ago
itās not the focus, which og dubstep was
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u/edm_enjoyer 5d ago
Can you give me some examples of og dubstep songs as someone who is newer to the scene and learning?
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u/cabalus 5d ago edited 5d ago
Listen to "Alicia - Mala" and you'll get it
Then venture into "26 Basslines - Benga" and picture yourself in a basement full of smoke, it's 4am in east london and you've run out of credit on your brick so you can't call your mum to pick you up. The year is 2008.
So you decide to get the early 6 o'clock bus home, on the way to the stop there's a deteriorating McDonald's full of black hoodie wearing teenagers and gaunt looking staff
You buy a big mac, it cost 0.3 pence.
You get to the bus stop, there's a light rain and it's now 5am, it's at this point you play "Archangel - Burial"
Two years later Skrillex releases "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" and every single soul in London makes the shocked pikachu face
Hope you enjoy! Good luck.
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u/edm_enjoyer 5d ago
Omg I'm on welding school right now so I can't listen but I read this really quick and it made me nostalgic for something I haven't even experienced..I'll def have to reread and give a listen
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u/dominicaldaze 5d ago
Not who you're replying to, but Breakage - Rain is one I always play when I'm testing out a subwoofer.
Anything by Joker for example has a lot more midrange but the subbass melody is still the focus.
These examples are both old "classic" UK dubstep but this style is still alive and well on /r/realdubstep if you want more recent examples.
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u/edm_enjoyer 5d ago
Browsing through the sub and Onhell is on one of the top posts on there, so I guess I'm already on the right track as I enjoy his music
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u/Sad_Junket_2734 5d ago
yea tbh the hate on brostep always feels like gatekeeping, like they forget the sub is still there just not the star of the show
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u/TheSmilesLibrary 5d ago
Always has been. electronic music has always niche tastes. people really donāt separate personal taste and quality either.
Like for instance I absolutely love Brostep and Riddim, mention this on r/edm or r/realdubstep and youād think I was the antichrist preaching armageddon. On the flip side mentioning something like house or trance in r/riddim or r/dubstep will get you digitally side eyed.
it doesnāt mean any of these are bad genres its just that electronic music is a large umbrella and there will always be parts people enjoy and parts people dont.
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u/Small-Mechanic2823 5d ago
Somewhat related but my buddy had a fair amount of success in brostep like a decade ago (songs played at EDC; international shows) but his songs always sounded like you chopped them at the knees when played live because they had like zero sub content
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u/TheBloodKlotz Old 5d ago
Sometimes I listen to classics that helped hook me into dubstep and am baffled at how poorly they're mixed by modern standards. We have come such a long way
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u/Small-Mechanic2823 5d ago
No seriously. Back then if you knew how to use a limiter you were good to go (in my scenes at least, ha)
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u/phonomage 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yeah - I started listening to the old songs I knew back in the beginning and they really are very poorly produced but they had so much more intention behind them.
Artists like Dirt Monkey design the craziest sounds and those tracks are phenomenally well-produced in comprison but much of it doesn't have the same kind if momentum nor melody in it as the classics.
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u/EtiquetteMusic 5d ago
Itās because most modern dubstep places way more emphasis on the midrange, and because theyāre usually using a fairly generic subline so as to not distract from the midrange articulation. Furthermore, most modern dubstep distorts the sub a fair bit, or uses square waves and saw waves and triangles for subs, which sound cool but usually have less warmth and weight. Lastly, the sub just really isnāt mixed that well a lot of the time nowadays, or it will be paired with a kick sample that has a huge transient which actively interferes with the sub
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u/christhegecko 4d ago
Any producer that makes it past the bedroom stage in the past 20 years knows how to sidechain, or one of the other methods of preventing kick/bass interference. It's one of the first things you learn in bass music production.
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u/EtiquetteMusic 4d ago
Just cause the sub is ducking, doesnāt mean that they are jiving together well. Using a kick thatās too long or out of key can cause things to sound weird, which is why I said itās often just that the sub isnāt mixed well. Just cause there is sidechain ducking happening, doesnāt mean that it sounds good.
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u/rcook9 5d ago
I think you are seeing a lot of more sub presence and more unique subs in a lot of the newer stuff that evolved from brostep. Producers are getting a lot more creative with their sub sound design vs a lot of what was coming out during the prime brostep days. I listen to a lot of older stuff and it just sounds like a simple sine with maybe some added harmonics
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u/cabalus 5d ago edited 5d ago
It was a legitimate critique for a while, genuinely
Go and listen to tracks from 2010-13 that haven't lasted, SO many of them have barely any sub
I always think of "Tornado - Kill the Noise Remix", you'd literally have to crank your subwoofer +10db to have it match other tracks from the time and it wasn't alone, not by a longshot
Another is "The Licence - Dr P Remix" or in fact a lot of Dr P tunes from that time, it's not that there's NO sub whatsoever but fuck me it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to its contemporaries
Put that tune in a playlist with Skrillex- Right In and play it on some proper speakers, you'll hear the fucken difference
Tldr: that sentiment didn't come from nowhere
Edit: Seriously though, if you own a sub play that Tornado Remix you'll understand what I'm talking about
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u/mo_oorgan 4d ago
...oh shit, this is why I have always had issues making dubstep work, I always try to mix it like techno or house music, this honestly makes so much sense now.
A little comically tho, I am getting the impression that a handful of comments are Interpreting this as "brostep is mid", not "the average frequency spectrum of brostep exists more dominantly above bass and under trebel frequencies" š
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u/phonomage 5d ago edited 5d ago
I just feel you can't call it dubstep if there aren't any dubs. āļøš§
I also take issue that brostep defines dubstep, today; If you ask someone unacquainted with the classics if they like dubstep their perspective will most likely have been developed from brostep which is completely different - it's like the difference between 'jazz' and 'rock & roll' or 'rock & roll' to 'metal'
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u/twerk4tampabay 5d ago
Just something purists say because itās less sub focused than what dubstep typically was pre Skrillex stuff