Drum & Bass Production and Sound Design by Icicle

This new Producertech course comes courtesy of one of the most technically skilled Drum and Bass producers in the industry, Icicle. During the 3 hours of in-depth tutorials, he shares his sought after production techniques, covering synthesis, mixing and arranging. The course will provide you will all the expertise you need to create modern, dancefloor destroying Drum and Bass anthems.

Jeroen Snik aka Icicle is a household name in the electronic music scene, having released on some of drum and bass’s most renowned labels, including Hospital Records, Critical Music, and Shogun Audio. His 2011 debut album ‘Under the Ice’ received widespread critical acclaim, and this was followed up in 2015 by ‘Entropy’, topping DnB charts worldwide and spawning the Entropy Live tour, an audio-visual experience like no other. Icicle has always been hugely respected for his intricate sound design and meticulous productions, which have won him plaudits across the globe and cemented his place as one of DnB’s biggest names.

In this course, Icicle provides a real insight into his detailed production methods, sharing with you a variety of useful tips and tricks. He shows you how to create all the elements of a heavy DnB track, kicking off with some FM synthesised drums. After these are processed with FabFilter plugins, Icicle proceeds to create a warping resampled bassline in FM8 and some FX risers with Massive. The course concludes with a guide to mixing and arrangement, providing you with the knowledge needed to create tense builds and earth-shattering drops.

The course is available to stream immediately after purchase and can be watched 24/7/365. Accompanying the videos are the Live Projects from each module and 100MB of bonus DnB samples, courtesy of Loopmasters. For more information, check out the sample module and track from the course below

Sample Module

Module 1 - Using an Analyser 

The course kicks off with a look at the importance of using a spectrum analyser, specifically Voxengo's Span plugin, which is a free download.

Module 2 - Synthesising a Kick

Icicle teaches how to synthesise a punchy kick from scratch using Ableton's Operator synth, and then resamples it.

Module 3 - Kick Drum Processing

The kick drum from the previous module is processed using a selection of FabFilter plugins to create a powerful kick that will cut through the mix.

Module 4 - Creating an FM Snare

Icicle walks through the creation of a crisp DnB snare, synthesised from scratch with Native Instruments FM8 plugin.

Module 5 - Building a Drum Loop

This video shows the construction and processing of a basic DnB loop, using the kick and snare from previous modules, along with some hi hats to add some high frequency elements.

Module 6 - Slicing the Loop

Icicle shows how to slice the drum loop to a MIDI clip, that can be controlled by a variety of macros, and can also be saved to be used in other projects.

Module 7 - Making an FM Bass Sound

Using FM8, Icicle walks through the principles of FM synthesis, before applying this knowledge to create a dark, warping bassline.

Module 8 - Processing the Bass

The bass sound from the previous module is further developed with some processing, and is the resampled, looped and further manipulated using Native Instruments Kontakt.

Module 9 - Bussing

This module shows how to set up a bus in Ableton, that can be used to process the various elements of the track.

Module 10 - Mixing Part 1

Icicle shows how to use multiband sidechain compression to help each individual element cut through the mix.

Module 11 - Adding EQ

In this video, Icicle continues the mixing process, adding a FabFilter EQ plugin to clean up the overall mix.

Module 12 - Limiting

This module shows how to use a limiter to add gain while keeping the overall sound punchy and defined.

Module 13 - The Build Up

Icicle shares some of his techniques for creating tension building moments in a track, including automating pads and creating a kick drum roll.

Module 14 - Creating Risers

This module shows how to create your own pitch and noise risers from scratch, using Native Instruments Massive plugin.

Module 15 - More FX

Icicle adds some more layers of FX to thicken out the track, including manipulating the sounds made in Massive to create noise sweeps.

Module 16 - Finishing Touches

The course concludes with the addition of some crashes from Kontakt's sample library to fill out the intro and build up sections.