DNB Production Help

Hey Zac, Welcome to the forums homie!

1. If your reese patch is good enough it shouldn’t need eq. It totally depends on the source. You need to figure out what YOU like in a sound and then make it that way. Sometimes you might want to add top end to a reece. But then an exciter is probably a better option as its adding new harmonics instead of boosting the lacking frequencies. Sometimes scooping the mids can sound cool making it sound further away. If you are having trouble with your reese design try opening up a frequency analyzer when your making it and look for where it is lacking across the spectrum and then boost those parts..even better play around with the patch to get it more even across the spectrum. For the sub it will usually bounce up and down in level because of the detuning. Some limiting with a slow release can help here to get it more constant in level.

2. Never believe what you are told. Yes that is probably the right way and it will save on cpu. But as you say different sounds call for different reverb. If you are trying to glue things together the same verb can help achieve that though. on your drum group. or on your mids maybe.

3.Making an intro that fits the drop is hard work man and i have a lot of trouble doing that also. you want to use elements from the drop so your preparing the listener for the drop. Sometimes when i have no idea on what im going to do for the intro i will Drag my drum loop from the drop to the intro and delete most of it keeping some hats or whatever i think works without giving it all away to quick. then other parts pads or stabs sometimes putting these on a new channel then mess them up with reverb and turn them in to distant pads as to set the tone for whats to come and just keep adding layers and slowly you start getting more ideas and figuring out how you want to structure it. make that drop add more layers than you need then move on to the intro man just do it!

I like to use 2 reverb sends
1 long reverb and a short one for different sounds.

I use the longer reverb for intro sounds and other background elements,
And a short reverb for bass’s and other sounds I dont like being to wet.

Just some quick things I can think of, although I’m probably not someone with enough experience to have a clue really.

Regarding a Reece, have a try boosting the mids with some multiband distortion/splitting the frequencies so you can treat the mids seperately from bass and treble and pushing them hard followed by carving them back down and cutting into them further with some clever EQ placements.

Reverb on a buss can be dope if you set it well and adjust the levels of the sends appropriately but it doesn’t need to be your only reverb, experiment with different types on different sounds.

To make a song with structure you need to use your imagination and think about the story you are conveying with your sounds. Once you know what each sound is trying to say you can create the conversation between each part. Listen to your favourite tunes and hear how they build a story and how each sound plays with the next. Or you could just load in another track and look how it is structured to get an idea what is tried and tested.

There is a video on youtube of Goldie talking about how he and Heist made single petal of a rose and if you pay attention you could pick up some tricks for song structure there.