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> ‘I MISS THE RAGE’ - Performed by Mario Judah https://youtu.be/AC979eEzzUE?si=1ZTqjY2q8FO5qln1

> ‘Miss The Rage’ - Performed by Trippie Redd and Playboi Carti

https://youtu.be/e9u0HmXLPmA?si=ggwbX81YCa3MRAVV

the main synth lead and beat for this track has always fulfilled and inspired me. the droning synth, the progression remaining fairly flat, the eerie and foreboding yet energising tone. for me, the only thing lacking was a strong vocal performance. both mario judah's version and trippie red's original fell short of doing the beat justice. with a new interpretation of vocals, mixed with a breakbeat drum loop, I aimed to bring a new energy to a legendary beat.

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> 'Sad Machine' - by Porter Robinson

the 'ou' at the end of the song is iconic in EDM, and is consistently sampled as an ad lib by both Porter Robinson and his peers in live sets and soundcloud remixes alike. The community has latched onto this sample, and therefore latched on to a multitude of vocal samples from anime, in which character dialogue becomes pivotal to a melody. I wanted to not only utliise the 'ou', but imitate this trope by splicing my own japanese synthy vocals.

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Porter Robinson - Sad Machine (Official Lyric Video)

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Was compelled to experiment with breakcore, and continue to hone my skills in splicing synths in tandem with splicing drums in order to create a driving, sequential sound.

Began layering synths, attempting to create a grand, open feel. This would leave space for dense and intense drums to carry momentum through the track.

Mixing synths proved very difficult, as all of them began to take their own defining role in the track. Pushing one synth to the foreground, and experimenting with panning, gave texture to the synths, and helped them become a defined entity in the track, rather than blurring into each other and becoming unnecessarily noisy.

Refined the panning on the plucking synths that became the lead. Enunciated the production, sharpening the eq and adding some reverb to create that plucky but airy sound.

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https://youtu.be/beoNy4MMHTc?si=jRgS5mD6C4JgwhSt

Sewerslvt - 'Pretty Cvnt'

Iconic contemporary breakcore track/artist. Sewerslvt, and in particular her breakthrough track 'Pretty Cvnt' exemplifies what modern breakcore is - vast, open soundscapes and heavy hitting breakbeat drums.

'Pretty Cvnt' brings two standout features - the intense, highly processed vocal samples, and the eerie soundscape created by the synth layers.

It is vital to note that this track famously samples a deeper cut from the iconic band Gorillaz - 'Busted and Blue' from their 2017 Album 'Humanz'. (https://youtu.be/23xSJ19YW1I?si=DuL0cjauDvT2Dd93) The almost siren, drone-like notes that persist through the track accentuate the visceral atmosphere the track goes for.

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https://youtu.be/NNLoH8qDg84?si=1Wf0mIJfafzi4x1P

TURQOISEDEATH - 'Guessabelle'

A deeper cut in the contemporary breakcore scene, TURQOISEDEATH provides extensively lengthy tracks ; showcases of production and sampling skills.

Airy, open arpeggios for a backdrop with cleanly cut bells in the foreground create melancholy, whilst some expertly spliced drum samples drive the song.

Around the halfway mark, the song blossoms in intensity, layering dramatic synth lines.

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https://youtu.be/F4Ec98UJXfA?si=ZDtgP7vzD_KkroPa

TOKYOPILL - Let's All Love Lain

Sampling Frou Frou's 'Let Go' (https://youtu.be/13WAhlE02ew?si=H6gAnXeWlJyohQYY) from their hit debut album 'Details' in 2002. The vocals are sped up and compressed. My admiration in this track comes from the pulsing and driving bassline. It is so resonant in the track, and mixed seamlessly. It fluctuates in key and bounces around the vocalisations from lead singer Imogen Heap's sampled vocals in the track.

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sampling the vox from spliced, i wanted to imitate an almost hatsune miku style of high pitched japanese vocal. i wanted to creater a chopping, jumping effect for the vox that would imitate a key lead.

this was very simple, as the original sample had lots of bouncing moments, and the production was very compressed. the vox already sounded like they had been run through a synthwave table, with even some grain to them that added to my trance ambience.

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experimented with automated panning on the vox to enhance the atmosphere of the tracks

decided against this as it cluttered the sound, and left the vox on the remix track with a critical lack of punch

in future, panning could be useful to create some enticing SFX moments in the song. Typically, breakcore songs sampling songs from the 00s use sweeping reverse snares to imitate trance music. Sienna Sleep often uses this, see https://youtu.be/UfISxtwLJV0?si=V4hSahC5lZ21QMdp for multiple uses of this.

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main drum section that carries momentum in track 1

note the distinct splicing spikes shown here ^

for the drum track, i spent hours meticulously splicing together different samples from the app spliced. these drum breaks varied from amen fills to classic jungle drum leads. however, i struggled lots to implement them into each other and mix them without the levels sounding jarring and rigid. to create the pounding driving sound of a breakbeat drum lead, i automated the levels, and ran the whole mix of drums through a sidechain compressor, which flattened the sound and added some space after i used reverb also.

i became quite frantic whilst doing this as it was a huge learning curve for me - not only was i learning how to splice and create breakbeat drum sections from scratch, but i was also learning how to compress and mix audio i had created synthetically from sampling.

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lead bassline synths began to take shape (orange)

experimented with different styles of drum breakbeats (light blue, not named) - these varied from extremely crunchy, distorted blast beats and blown out 185bpm 808 leads to more dampened lowkey breakcore (darker blue, note the gentler wave).

mixing the two vox together proved difficulty, as they were out of sync to another. i had to cut one of them down to become more synced, and then spliced the other, added reverb to create an echoey movement, and began to further experiement with automation and panning

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all tracks managed to succeed in imitating, but none seemed to invoke much inspiration for me.

the first track provides a classic take on modern (early to later 00s) club trance, taking inspiration from trance DJs now, my track layered vocals and basic synth progressions alongside compressed and punchy 808 1/1 on the floor kicks. The synths are open, and provide a nice ambience through some precise mixing and basic production techniques such as reverb. Some more complicated techniques such a throttling bitrate meant that I was able to achieve a more grainy and bitty sound to the song. I was unable to match this effect with the vox however, which could've been amended to create some atmospheric cohesion in the track.

The second track is a very successful breakcore tracks. I am particularly proud of the synth melodies, and I feel like my mixing abilities really shone through here, as the track sounds seamless, and carries a nice sense of energy throughout. I was unable to create much sense of progression however, and I refrained from adding vocals in fear of tarnishing or distracting from the core elements I had worked so hard to create.

The remix set out to reinterpret the original beat into a more energised and modern sound. I think was successful, as the main melody being created through vocal splicing felt like personal reparations from the previous vocal shortcomings in the prior tracks,

However, I was unable to create something unique in my explorations of these genres. In my inspiration from Sienna Sleep's DJ mixes, I mistakenly copied almost bar for bar the structure and synth layering pattern from their mix I referenced in my accompanying essay. Next time, I could prevent this by experimenting more thoroughly with synth melodies and external synths. My brief exploration of my newly bought Serum was almost too intimidating, and this personal shortcoming disallowed personal growth.

In the remix, a more successful approach would have been to grasp a more solid understanding of the main synth lead in the beat. Manipulating that, perhaps creating my own version of that melody could've proved a more complex and nuanced understanding and appreciation, and could've also then allowed for some progression in the song. A drop out into an acoustic piano rendition could've provided a successful bridge, instead of the abrupt ending to the track.