Tutorials

Keep your eyes posted over to AkumaTutorials for week by week guides, hints and tips on production and synthesis.

In the near future I'll be going over creating solid D&B beats using the wonders of FL Studio's FPC plugin, and the simple but effective mixing techniques you can use to get the most out of your drum samples.

I'll also be going over creating some nice DnB bass sounds using the Rob Papen "Blue" synthesizer, as well as some leads and pads.

I'll also be talking about the various ways you can automate in FL to get more out of your mixes.

See you soon!

Sorry!

Okay, so for the non-existent people who allegedly read this blog, I would like to apologise for my lack of visibility over the past couple of months. I promise you, there's actually a good reason this time.

I have moved from Manchester in the UK to Perth in Western Australia. Yeah baby, I'm on the other side of the freakin' world. Aussie winter is warmer than UK summer, the nightclubs are pretty good and I can still get a pint of Guinness if I really wish.

Back onto the music, Chaotica. Yeah. Erm. With the move and everything, it never really got the loving care and attention that it so very much needed, and with that kind of got scrapped. To be honest, I'd got really tired of rearranging and remixing all the tracks. I could never get them to sound how I wanted, and I don't think I ever will. So on that note, no, Chaotica will never be "released". If you want a copy, just throw me an email, but I can't promise a quality listening experience.

There is a silver lining to all this though, there is new material on the horizon. In fact, since I've been here I've created about 50 (nearly) useless patches for my synthesizers and actually completed two tracks. Yes: completed (until I listen to them in two months time, decide they're crap, re-mix them, re-release them, realise once again they're still crap, and start something afresh).

I see a dangerous and a destructive cycle within my creative process, but the problem probably lies with that the only feedback I am receiving on my music comes from myself. You can never really trust yourself to fully and honestly criticize your own work in the proper way. You spend the first few days with the creation still high on the ecstasy of creating it, therefore altering your perception to be more accepting of it's flaws. Then that high wears off and you become over critical, and decide its crap; but other people could listen to it and think it was actually good.

Without that public feedback I'm never going to grow at this. I'm never going to truly understand my creative flaws and only try to perceive the flaws with my creations, therefore desperately trying to correct the symptoms without ever addressing the cause. And here we are back to destructive cycles again.

I'm not sure whether it's a naivety thing, the fear of embarrassment or just a simple case of temporary loss of confidence and self esteem from not being in work for the past two months, but I just can't bring myself to submit to any labels. Have I been producing long enough? Is it of a good enough quality? Is my music appealing to other people enough? In what circumstance would my music be distributed? As a commercial track, a club track, a tag on the end of the label's yearly compilation CD? I haven't a clue. I know I won't find the answers until I ask the questions, and that means actually start submitting my material to labels, but I'm still not sure I should do.

And now I've written this I could never include the website with the release. Hell, they'd probably Google me, just to see if I had any popularity or following. They'd find this article and probably think I was a problematic nutcase with mild schizophrenia. But then again, I suppose a lot of successful artists have a few similar personality traits.

I don't know.

I have limited internet access at the moment, so the new tracks will appear for preview either on the soundcloud or the YouTube account whenever. Could be tomorrow, could be next month. I seriously haven't got a clue what's really happening at the moment.

"Chaotica" - Full Album Coming June

Time Again

I know it's been a month since my last post, but that doesn't mean I've abandoned this blog or Akuma music. In fact, it's quite the opposite really. I've been working on several things at the moment, all with the intention of producing more quality Drum & Bass tracks.

So what's been happening? Well, lets see...

Chaotica EP

Work has been increasingly intrusive on my social life and free time lately, working night shifts and weekends. This has led to a bit of neglect on promoting Chaotica, which in hindsight might not be such a bad thing.

The full EP is going through a re-master, with some tracks going through some more structural tweaks. After spending some time sitting down to listen to the EP after it's production and after leaving it alone for some time, I've noticed improvements that desperately need to be made.

For example, "Chaotica" and "Don't Scream" are going through an arrangement change at the moment. I'm going to try and shorten the two tracks a little bit and add some punch and dynamics to the drops in each song. "Chaotica" definitely needed some mixing, a little remastering and some sampling changes to the drums. "Don't Scream" was an issue of arrangement mainly, but still needs some serious mastering.

"Bright Lights" is going through a remastering process, and I'm looking to really beef up the bass a little more. Maybe some layering, and possible a couple of sample changes in the drum kit.

"The March" needs some tweaking. Again a little mastering and some synth pattern changes. The bass drum has also be swapped out for something a lot more "punchy".

"The March (Angels Remix)" is being left alone for the time being. That was a joint project featuring my brother's input, so I kind of want to leave that one alone.

Once everything is completed and finalised, I'll look at seriously promoting the EP as best I can. It may look like a busy night tonight followed by me trawling around Manchester city centre with some CDs in a ruck-sac.

New Stuff

There's some good new tracks going to be released after a while, probably appearing on the next EP after I've finished promoting Chaotica. Some new PrimeLoops.com sample packs have helped me with really creating some interesting new drum patterns and sounds creating a little more of a Junglist vibes to these new songs.

Currently, one has a solid title of "Deadzone". The other's project files are simply named "1" or "Drum n Bass Skin". In fact, there's four versions of "Drum n Bass Skin", all built from the first, and all extremely different.

I'm using a lot of classic bass synthesis techniques with this new stuff, adding some heavy distortion/overdrive and other effects to create some interesting wobble and reese bass synths.

For this new stuff I'm concentrating heavily on purely creating my own sounds, rather sculpting sounds from presets included within the many synth VST's that I have. So, after experimenting with bass and getting that to a gold standard, there'll be some more pads and stabs being generated and added in.

So, it looks like this new stuff is going to take a little longer to produce, but it's a hell of a lot more fun to write!

Anyway. That's it from me.

I'll let you know when the Chaotica EP (Final) is out. Bye!

New YouTube Account

I've now created the new YouTube account. As of yet it doesn't have anything uploaded, and I've not even got around to entering all the profile information yet. But, it's up at least.

Obviously, the first thing to be going up will be the Chaotica EP. I really want to promote it a little more since I haven't had much feedback. I think I just have lazy friends... I'm sure they'll get around to giving it a listen, especially if it's easily accessible on websites like YouTube and Soundcloud.

As well as all that I have a few new tracks in the process heading towards the release of yet another collection or even EP. I'm going to make a real go at making this one even better than Chaotica, hopefully sending it off to some record labels. We'll see how it goes first before I bother with that.

I have some time off coming up after tomorrow so I think I'll make up some Chaotica EP Cd's and start distributing them freely. I know a shop in Bury and a couple in the centre of Manchester that would happily sell off my CD if I provide them with free copies.

There's other ways I can promote Akuma, but I'm not getting into the whole details of how I'm going to be doing that here. Well, not yet at least. Firstly I need to buy the CDs, print the CD covers and even look into some binders to make a little album art booklet inside with more information into Akuma and myself.

You have to spend money to make money as they say. Not planning on making money out of this quite yet though.

There's also the issue that if I start getting some shops to start selling the Chaotica EP, I may have to pull down the free download, and just offer the YouTube and Soundcloud streaming versions to people who haven't got access to those shops, or the funds to buy the CD. Plus, do I really think that Chaotica is good enough for people to be spending their hard earned money on? I'm not sure, as I've received little feedback so far.

I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, subscribe to www.youtube.com/AkumaDnB and listen to Chaotica when it's up.

Much thanks!

Feature: St. Lewis

Hey guys. Just a quick post to let you all know about the producer, St. Lewis.

Well to start, he comes from the same area as me and we used to play in a band together a couple of years ago as well. In fact, the first Akuma tracks were produced by Lewis as well (some unreleased stuff I've never found after my computer died). I remember the night we booked a hotel room, got wasted and just messed around with FL Studio all night, and what a night it was. That was the night the name Akuma was born, if I remember correctly.

His YouTube channel features some of the tracks he's completed, including original work and remixes. There's a underlying dark style, with a lot of Aphex Twin influence shining through in a couple of the mixes. It's raw, dark a lot of fun to listen to. Unfortunately at this current moment I'm unable to turn it up to a more Brad friendly volume as I'm in the office. But, I am downloading the MP3s (which are available free) which I'm planning to blast out at home later.

Since Lewis is drummer, and a damn good one at that, each track features catchy and very addictive drum patterns that drives the music through. "Symphony Scratcher" is a must listen.

So get down to his channel here and have a listen. Please leave comments and feedback.

The Chaotica EP

Download "Chaotica EP"

1. Chaotica

2. Don't Scream

3. The March

4. Bright Lights

5. The March (Angels Remix)

The download is currently only available via Megaupload (Link at the top), sorry. I'll source more mirrors when I have time.

Please enjoy and leave any feedback you may have.

The Chaotica EP is Copyright "Akuma"/Brad Smith 2011. If you wish to use or redistribute any of the material used in the download, please contact bradley.smith1990@gmail.com