What is The Ultimate Hum?
This project is a weekly chiptune-influenced theme-based compo with a big vision! All the info and the full rule-set is right here: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1475436
What are the times? (TImezone is EDT)
Typically, it runs each round from Saturday 5PM to the next Saturday 3PM, when we will listen to them all and vote together in a Twitch stream. You can vote on any track the moment it's posted, however, entry period ends on Friday 3PM to give some voting time.
What's allowed?
Any music that includes at least key features from the genres selected and at least some chippy sound design. Consider a 170-175BPM and DnB pattern to be core. Other than that, go nuts!
How do I enter?
Post it on here, Newgrounds, then link your post on the Discord server's #submit_tracks_here, or just post a link to it on the thead here, we'll put it over there for you!
How do I vote?
You will need to be somewhere where I am on Discord, or add me as a friend. Join our Discord server, the NG Audio Pub Discord server or add me (Maximemoring#7769). Then, just send me a DM with your vote on the 1-to-10 scale whenever you want to vote! (There is also FunkyKarl and pumpuli on our server for that)
What about the next weeks' Rounds?
I will make a post like this every week/Round presenting the new genres, and will be announcing it everywhere. Just keep an eye out for it!
If you have any other question, feel free to ask! Now onto the Theme Pack!
and lots of music examples on after that!
Drum & Bass, NeuroFunk & Breaks
Drum & Bass, is one of the few genres which has actually mostly lived through and stayed the same during the multiple phases of electronic music from its conception. In my living history with it, going from being part of techno music, or in some cases shows alike to rock and metal bands (ex: Pendulum), to EDM hasn't caused this genre to go through multiple existential crises but instead naturally sprouted some extra limbs (sub-genres) without changing its core feel significantly. Obviously, the production techniques have changed a lot, and production quality is a lot cleaner and sounds are more varied than it was before. Though considering the tools producers had back in the 90s, that's to be expected.
The biggest change was the gradually more common addition melodic vocals, more commonly female and addition of more melodic elements. UK-style and raggae-style rap, however, are still somewhat common. It has however not necessarily become significantly more melodic, as its more rhythmic and dark-sounding styles are still very common to this day. One surprise is that Dub's wubby sound design hasn't largely "taken it over" like it has with Electro, Glitch Hop, Future Bass, and many other EDM genres. When it is used, it usually is very easily distinguishable as Dubstep-inspired. Some earlier EDM-era Drum & Bass also featured a lot of House inspiration to change things up or for chords.
That's actually the thing about Drum & Bass. Other than the rather rigid genre-defining 165-175bpm, what made it so was always, well, its drums and its bass. For the drums, it's the "jungle" pattern we see 90% of the time, the inversed jungle pattern, more commonly known as "Two-Step", and by extension the straight 4/4 full-stepped-half-step cousin "Jump-up". I know that last one made no sense, it's basically a straight 4/4 kick-snare-kick-snare pattern... it should make sense if you check the examples below lol. And then, well, the bass. Bass is a very prominent feature of Drum & Bass, while it can be both smooth and sharp, bright and dark-feeling, in every case, it very often goes down to sub-bass levels.. which cheaper consumer-grade headphones back in the early 2000s could barely even output.. I didn't get burned, what do you mean!?
But I digress, that is what is key in Drum & Bass, and that is why it is so varied, because everything else is up to the artist, as its intensity ranges from quiet "chillstep"-style Liquid, to energetic and sometimes melodic, up to absolutely balls-to-the-walls upfront NeuroFunk.
Now that you've already heard the terms you may not have recognized, let me explain the main kinds of DnB, all of which are wierdly enough still roughly equally common.
- The usual kind, known as simply "Drum & Bass", is the "exciting" type, with upfront bass and melodies and plenty of rhythmic/percussive elements, with a pretty consistent Jungle beat, to keep the energy high! This base genre is the one that gradually became more melodic over time, leaving more space for the next...
- Its darker, edgier brother, NeuroFunk, is not "funky" as per the usual meaning. It instead goes for a dark, creepy and/or gritty sound design with most often little melodic strength. It nowadays often resembles Dubstep's grittier subgenres, like Brostep (with toned down wubs) in its sound design. "Neuro" is also used as a descriptor in other genres as well to describe its sound design, alike to how "Future" points at those very familiar jazzy chords.
- "Liquid" Drum & Bass is one of those prior-mentioned new limbs. With its soft long-note sub-bass, smooth vocals, piano, immense reverb and delay, and a generally low loudness, it is much less in-your-face and does really great as a moment of rest during logn mixes of high-intensity breakbeats.
Some people describe this last subgenre as "intelligent DnB", and describes Liquid as all works that gets influenced from typical EDM, but I strongly disagree, as Drum & Bass was built upon those same high-energy principles with examples such as early Sub Focus and Pendulum that already included such influences from late Techno and early EDM. (before that point it wasn't yet called Drum & Bass but simply "Jungle") Also.. "intelligent" ...really?
In other words, Drum & Bass (Melodic, Rocky or not), Liquid Drum & Bass, NeuroFunk, Garage, Hardcore Breakbeat, Breaks-based tracks (with emphasis on Bass) including Jungle (base DnB), Two-Step, Jump-up (minimum 150BPM), Jersey Club, Breakbeat, etc. are all legal. Check examples labelled as such to know what those are.
Preemptive Q&A
Q: I'd like to add other beat patterns than jungle, can I?
A: Of course! I would suggest going half-step, or adding some Jump-up to switch things up, or mixing it up with more freeform Breakbeat.
Q: Can I do different BPMs?
A: Somewhat, it depends. Are you trying to go for straight Drum & Bass? Then in the strict definition, not really. You can do a half-stepped drop/section, which is basically 80-90BPM, though, and it'll stick as DnB-based. As for Breaks, though, it can range a lot more. Garage, for example, is technically Breaks & Liquid in feel, and it's in the 120-130BPM range like Electro. Go somewhere in between, and you can certainly experiment with BPM more!
