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Karl D – Hiding in Plain Sight

karl — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 04:13:51 +0000

Not a moment too soon, some drum and bass for life.remixed.

Not much to say about this one, except it’s another one that almost didn’t get made. The keyboard stabs came late and helped finish the job.

Karl D – Hiding in Plain Sight

Karl D – Aeon

karl — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 00:24:40 +0000

Check out this just finished, spaced-out drum and bass track!

“Aeon” is in the same vein of “Things You’ll Need to Know”. It drones on and on with a persistent synth in the background, while a complex drum loop is brought in early to give this song some “intelligent” depth. Overall, there’s some influence of minimal techno quite obviously(and very intentionally) present here.

Very little of my drum and bass work is appropriate for a dancefloor or has a definite climax, but I think the track rolls along nicely.

Karl D – Aeon

Old Tracks: Funk Phenomena

karl — Tue, 11 May 2010 03:13:51 +0000

An early experiment with jungle, using a well-known Redman sample. I love the big bass hits in here, and the keyboard gives a really old-school feel. Lots of complex amen breaks, from a time when I thought it was important to make them that complex.

Karl D – Funk Phenomena

5_05

karl — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:26:20 +0000

After a short break, the random beats series is back!

Granted, this is not the longest random beat in this volume, but I think the livelihood of this very old-school sounding jungle roller makes up for its few faults. I really like the fills that come in during the second half of the track.

5_02

karl — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:43:11 +0000

A sample for the trumpet sound here was not at my immediate disposal. I knew how it needed to sound, but my small jazz collection prohibits the availability of such samples. Thus, I had to synthesize it. I object to the use of synthesized brass in most cases, but the DSK Brass plug in gave it some life. I thought it complemented the growly bass quite nice here.

If you’re an independent electronic musician, I strongly reccomend the DSK collection linked above. I use many of the VST plugins, and there are some very strong synths available. I believe many are sample based.

Note: I just found out the official DSK site is closing its doors! How sad! Fortunately, you can still get the plugins here.

Karl D – The Exchange(Drum and Bass mix)

karl — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 04:11:12 +0000

I felt so passionately about the last remix EP I did for “Existential Funk“, I decided I’d continue. There is plenty more material to remix, and lots more material that needed a platform to be released on(i.e. Toxin).

The EP will be released similarly to “Modify Your Mind”, by releasing the individual songs one by one in the main blog. Once the EP is complete, all the songs will be available in a ZIP file in the download section.

The first remix that will be included in this EP is one of my favorite tracks from “Existential Funk”(Stream here): “The Exchange”. “Exchange” was literally the last track I completed, and it was done within a day. Like some of the other remixed tracks from the last EP, this track is taking on a vivid metamorphosis. The ambient trip-hop drama is transformed into a dubby, introspective drum and bass track in this remix.

4_03

karl — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:58:48 +0000

I liked the solemn, deep quality of the main instrument in here(The deep bassoon-like sound in the background). This track quickly goes from downtempo chiller to drum and bass thriller. With the drum and bass part, I wanted it to have a more “techy” quality than the rest of the track. The computer bleeps near the end and the creepy pad really give that half of the track some great contrast.

3_07

karl — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:16:25 +0000

Make sure you turn those subs up for this one, otherwise you’ll miss the deep bassline! This has an early DEIBC-like quality to it. Hopefully you’ll agree after you enjoy this tough drum and bass.

Old Tracks: Why I Hate Dante

karl — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:33:56 +0000

Through my adolescence I became fascinated with the works of Dante Aligheri. I read the Inferno a couple times in high school out of my own interest, and I continued to read it in my college years. I have read multiple translations and have become somewhat of an Inferno scholar by doing so.

Spending as much time as I did reading the book, it became a natural source of inspiration for me. Unfortunately, this inspiration came about in the form of terrible recurring nightmares about Hell, damnation, and the Devil. A day came in about 2001, when I was just getting into music production, that I was able to focus all of this emotion into a song that I called “Why I Hate Dante”. I finished the song in an afternoon, and I don’t remember doing much of it. Looking back, creating the song was somewhat of a mystical experience for me.

This song remains to be some of my best work. It has a strong trip-hop groove that evolves throughout the song until it finally reaches critical mass and turns into a thrilling drill and bass monster. This is one of my longer works but I guarantee the tension justifies the entire length of the track.

3_02

karl — Mon, 04 May 2009 05:06:39 +0000

This techy drum and bass track started, I think, with the rave stabs you hear through most of the song. I felt the dub delay on them at about 0:53 really explored the space of the track in an interesting way, and the track built itself out from there.

All that space made things a little empty without something extra to push this along. The “call and response” basslines in the second part add some much needed lightheartedness to the track, accentuating the rave influence and contrasting the general darkness of the production.

Old Tracks: Turbulence

karl — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:58:06 +0000

Today, I’m resurrecting an old track from the archives that’s been a secret favorite of mine. “Turbulence” is somewhat different from the majority of sounds I produce – I think it fits in with contemporary American drum and bass a little better than some other work(i.e. “Things You’ll Need to Know“).

When I made it, I wanted the focus of “Turbulence” to be the keyboards in the background. The bassline that rolls through the whole track holds the whole track together, and the keyboards add tension until the big grinding synth comes in in the middle.

The name “Turbulence” came from the helicopter and airplane sound FX laced throughout the track, which add an incredible amount of atmosphere. Generally I don’t use a lot of sound effects in production, but in this case, I knew they belonged from the beginning. I think it was one of the first elements I put in.

2_11

karl — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 06:20:46 +0000

I wanted to create an atmospheric drum and bass track in the vein of LTJ Bukem’s work. This one took a while to churn out, but in the end i think it was worth it. Listen close for the minimal drum break variations. I consider them very important to the livelihood of this track.

Creepy note – this random beat’s ID number 2_11 happens to be the same as the running time on it – 2:11. You can insert your own meaning/conspiracy theories about that.

2_06

karl — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:48:56 +0000

I’m so excited for you to listen to this new track. To me, it seems very similar to another drum & bass track I’ve done – “Things You’ll Need to Know”(You can listen to this song at my MySpace page, or the Soundclick page. Links on the right). The combination of agressive and sublime styles seems to work so well in many kinds of electronic music like d&b and hardhouse.

1_13

karl — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:34:03 +0000

Last one before the new year is some pumped up, acidic drum and bass to get you ready for the biggest party of the year.

Lunik – Weather(Karl D mix)

karl — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:25:41 +0000

Years ago, I entered a remix contest for the band Lunik. For those of you who don’t know, Lunik is a Swiss pop/trip hop(a la Cardigans) band featuring the lovely Jaël as the lead singer. She has also done a couple tracks with Canadian group Delerium.

Lunik held the contest to promote their new album “Weather”. The objective was to remix the title track from the album.

I entered the following to the contest. I felt the tune was perfect for a dnb/trip hop treatment, but I needed to slow it way down to match the tempo I had in mind. You may find the timestretching of the samples sounds obviously “fragmented” in some places because of this.

Sadly, I didn’t win the contest. Either it was because I was American or they just plain didn’t like it. I still feel it’s some of my best work. I’ll let you make up your own mind.

Lunik – Weather(Karl D Mix)