Wow I was thinking about your music throughout this video and how it would be great because your sound is so complex and fluently produced. Also, are you making a label with Fractal?
No wonder why everyone thinks Dubstep is so terrible when people always portray it to be some simple cheesy wobble sounds. Dubstep can be really beautiful at times.
Yeah, but he's just showing that it IS teachable (and should not be ignored as a genre in music education), and that plenty of valuable knowledge can be taught using dubstep as a vehicle within other learning domains - and he is correct.
A lot of the people who complain about dubstep don't actually seem to know what dubstep even is. It just seems like people classify a song with any electronic instruments as dubstep. I've even seen people call songs like Darude - Sandstorm, Call On Me, and I'm Blue dubstep.
It's 2016 at the time of this talk and someone still managed to put this guy onstage without any sort of understanding of what Dubstep has ever been. It has never sounded like this and yet this stereotype haunts us producers to this day, conjuring up the genre in people's minds as a horrendously amateurish and laughable form of music. This just goes to show how academia unfairly trumps any sort of actual musical respectability. This guy brought us the absolute bottom rung of the audio technology ladder along with the most deluded possible perception of what Dubstep is and managed to get the opportunity for an official TED talk due to the over-praising of his academic background. After going through an academic music technology degree and now finally succeeding in a music career thanks in no part to that degree's atrocious curriculum and disheartening collection of lecturers, I'm absolutely sick of people like this trying to claim a level of superiority over legitimately skilled and creative Dubstep artists simply because they've dipped their toe in the "science" behind it. To any of you who've made it through this comment, this is not what Dubstep is or has ever been. The genre is beautiful and diverse if you embrace the attention to electronic sound design and know where to look. You can also find plenty of depth and meaning within the genre and those that surround it. If you found this talk interesting, I implore you to reevaluate why you listened to this man with respect as it may be that his background is playing into the ridiculous culture we have to overly trust academics over anyone actually involved with a musical scene.
I dont think such stereotype will ever end so long as Academics get their "Royal" role over us , the musicians, and getting such mass-indoctrunating Podiums for their absue... So absurd.
I’m from Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, and I’m very proud to be studying at university to become a music educator. I love how he says music is as important to an education as intellectual subjects like math are. Unfortunately the state of the US I live in is somewhat anti-music education in schools. I really appreciate what he had to say and I’m very grateful that I came across this talk.
I live in the Queen City too and grew up elsewhere in NC. You are correct about the schools. Fortunately my dad is a musician and my parents paid for my piano lessons. It shouldn’t have to be that way!
Interesting points, though dubstep and bass music today is a lot more complex than what he previewed there. Nontheless, he made his point. I completely agree on the problems in education. It's dissapointing to see how people despise any genre of music that is a bit unconventional, but that is not entirely because of education in my opinion. A lot of it is an effect of mainstream media and kids wanting to be cool among friends. But better education I think might make people want more out of music, which would help solve the problem :)
Mod3no/XLR8 thanks for getting the point! I guess I should have resisted the click-baity name because as many have complained about, I’m not a producer and it’s really about pluralism in music education. My fault, tho ...
James Humberstone Thank you for the reply. Yeah, I think the name of the speech should have been different because you focus more on education, but this one is more attractive since there aren't many Ted talks about dubstep :)
yea i make electronig music and everytime i show ppl my stuff they be like: "lol what is this crep", "i prefer lil poomp or something", but atleast i got a better music grade lel
@@Isopodfarmer bruuuh I totally feel you. We're on completely different sides of the EDM spectrum (I do outsider house music), but when I play people my stuff and they go "oh this is the sort of stuff you'd here in a fashion shop or hotel lobby" it proper grinds my gears.
I really enjoy making dubstep and once I first started doing it I found it to be extremely interesting on how it works and how all of a sudden wobbles and other noises make amazing music
Damn this is old. But where can I hear your work ? I'm a weathered sound engineer just starting to make dubstep, thou I've made beats for 8 yrs. (am 22)
Logan L He wasn’t explaining the point of dubstep. He was explaining why/how it’s aesthetically pleasing; he’s also explaining this to a bunch of mostly older people, the kind of people who think dubstep is a bunch of random noises, so it’s not like anyone was expecting this guy to drop a stonker. In fact it would only prove those old people right if he were able to create a good dubstep song in a matter of minutes using random notes selected by the audience - that’s the point of the video that you also missed. You’re welcome.
You failed to see the bigger picture. At its core the talk was not about dubstep. That was used to draw audience as you and me in, to keep it interesting, in order to then convey the real message. Everyone is talking about the dubstep genre. Who is talking about the point of the talk? Are you all people really not capable to overlook that and identify the purpose of the talk?
kind of a missed opportunity, that was a terrible representation of dubstep, so much more to show and so many links to music theory and actual science that were overlooked....
@@yodiggidydog9641 Dubstep is super complex. Just look at Virtual Riot doing sound design live. It's a science of its own. LFO 1 to the FM and volume whose source is the other LFO which modulates the volume as well, all the while the 2nd LFO is double the speed of the first LFO, creating a "one two" feeling. The high pass filter cutoff and resonance are being modulated to a third LFO, creating a talk effect and a resonance peak, and the white noise.... it could go on and on for ages.
I was laughed at when I said that Dubstep (IMO) can be as complex and beautiful as the most difficult and artfully composed classical/opera pieces. I love when people break down the notes in Dubstep songs and then render them into piano or violin. It is magical and makes you appreciate the complexities involved in making the songs. It is not all noise and wub wub.
earthstick exactly. It's like, I don't care about the complexity or message or whatever if the OVERALL SOUND if it annoys me to much too even listen that deeply. The fact that it sounds better when transcribed into other instruments only illustrates how the basic sound of wubstep is about as annoying as it can be. It literally seems like every aspect, from the strange tempo, to rhythm that many people cannot even tell exists, to the individual sounds themselves, is specifically designed to be obnoxious enough to annoy parents. It's purpose is not artful expression, or cutting-edge technology, it's simply a way to musically troll people who appreciate more traditional music.
John Crapper I feel like that's a really biased view towards dubstep, to think that its main function or popularity is simply to troll people who prefer different kinds of music. You can't label something as not artful expression because you believe it sounds better transcribed into other instruments. Art is entirely subjective. I'm not trying to make the claim that one form is inherently better or worse than the other, just that they're different and still valid as artful expression even if one doesn't enjoy a particular style.
I am into dubstep, but I find it mean of all of you. He is obviously not capable of producing a complex professional grade dubstep track. But the theory that he talked about, why are you all dismissing that? I found it wonderful how he explained how electronic music producers manipulate sound waves in order to create all the sounds that we hear. He is a theoriser, not someone with a lot of practical capability. And that was beautiful how he explained the theory of waves creating more complex sounds.
@@IroAppe he completely throws that out the window by using such a terrible example. This could've been solved by removing the audience interactions and just using a pre-made track. I will admit this was an issue of time not of skill, however he could've easily gotten around this constraint. Also on a more philosophical note, it's not my responsibility to give people participation medals for mediocre work, he did a terrible job and deserves to know so he can improve in the future when doing similar talks.
Yes. Absolutely. Graduated with a computing degree but was an amateur guitarist through high school and Uni. Learned midi and sequencing in my spare time and made two albums worth of music as well as playing live with an amateur band. Great experience and encouraged me to think creatively. My career has been successful often coming up with more creative solutions to problems on the back of it. Creativity is vastly underrated in our society. THe arts should be funded more. Art is the lifeblood of any civilisation. Without it comes stagnation. Luv and peace.
@@JesseKonijnenberg I know. Whatever works for a particilar person. I've come close to buying it myself but it's going to be about $1,000+ for the full version. The integrated plugins / soft instruments are nice. But I've already forked a lot for Ableton Suite then had to upgrade. So that $1k will go towards more synths or other hardware. The $99 ver. of FL or the usually free version of Ableton lite can get a person up and running provided they have an external audio interface and controller keyboard or pads etc. Or $50 to register Reaper, that's not bad either to record audio and midi tracks. Not sure why I diss FL producers. Maybe I'll stop 🙄 It was more the stigma attached to FL when it was freeware and hardcore producers all used Cubase, ProTools or Reason. But FL has changed a lot, they really amped it up and added a lot of features.
@@drlostcause4427 those comments you're talking about are still appreciating the video for what it is, just criticizing it for what it isn't, which is anything about dubstep. it's more about sound design than anything
I'm Ben Taylor, rock n' roll. Good people, good times, right on. Rock n' roll, Kid Smith is fun to say Kid Smith, yeah! Kid Smith will take you to the mountain! Rock n' roll!
I have never found a worst representation of Dubstep before in my entire life. As someone who aspires to produce Dubstep as a living you cannot find words to describe how ridiculous this talk has been. I enjoy TEDx talks and am very disappointed with this.
to a lamen a parabola just means a symmetrical curve. A sine wave has a few of those. When you are talking to an audience that possibly doesn't remember or never completed highschool math, using general words like that helps them understand.
Hmm... I think the talk would have been more accurately described as being about timbre. There's a lot of great stuff you could talk about regarding dubstep specifically. Why that tempo? Why the syncopation? Why is the bass more regular than the percussion? This is more like a basic introduction to fourier transforms or something.
why not everything? you know, there are other guys having there Talk that day. Covering anything would take AGES. he could have said 2 or 3 sentences bout that but tho
James Humberstone, well done...as for the h8ers, if one wants to discuss the complexities, merits, or even the definition of dubstep, there are plenty of artists, websites, and forums already out in them thar webs. Given that the theme of the Tedx event was "finding x", I believe that, with his particular skills, he did a pretty damn good job of adapting them to that specifically generic genre ... Almost everyone seems to be missing the point (as i understood it) - that focusing on the mathematical properties of music, and using some new-fangled tech (or old tech with a new purpose) , we have alternative and almost unused ways to help students relate science to personal creative outlets. He could have picked almost any music genre to demonstrate his ideas, but i suspect that he may have chosen dubstep specifically so that perhaps a few of the (demonstrably, it seems) intentionally Toopid people out there might at least glimpse the light of enlightenment, even if they only tried to put it in a Glo-Stick and find some fresh wubz
James Humberstone I understand. Stage can make you nervous and confused. Too bad this was such a huge mistake I stopped paying attention the moment I heard this :-( . And judging from the rest of the comments - I wasn't the only one. Anyway, all the best to you and I hope you do better next time :-)
He forgot the main ingredient. Clipping every signal and adding 50 instances of soundgoodizer for each channel. His sound design was on point though, super impressive sine! It muddies up the mix very well. Now we are all experts in dubstep!
nah title should be "Man totally obliterates what Dubstep really is to the point that I need to listen to Virtual Riot for 4 hours to feel better again"
I believe the point of his talk is more about the diminishing music programs in schools as well as the resistance to exploring music beyond the traditional concepts.
My parents, barely from Generation X, like a lot of modern music, but "see no rhythm" in Dubstep. I see Dubstep as a clear direct combination of melody and rhythm, replacing drums with sequencing the melody in such patterns that would normally be added by a drummer. I don't know... can younger minds see more patterns? Do you slowly get worse at recognizing new patterns as you age? Maybe what they say is true... seniors do puzzles and keep their minds active as they age more to prevent going senile. And puzzles are dealt with by the same part of the brain that finds patterns (which are often a major part of puzzles).
Same here. They are less able to catch on to an emerging style. It's something that has repeated through history. Those born in the late 1800s and early 1900s weren't such fans of Chuck Berry, The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix, but they were inspired by earlier yet musicians that were appreciated by the same people. Chain of inspiration and evolving music. Example: Johnny Cash > Tom Petty > Bon Jovi > Skid Row > Aerosmith > Guns n' Roses > Korn > Skrillex. The slow and progressive change is quite interesting to me, because ultimately you go from pre-country music to dubstep. Most people would never associate the two.
I'm hoping to be able to understand and appreciate music in the future, as it unfolds. But it is more likely that one day, dubstep will be considered classical music and the new norm will be 1500 BPM, which is beyond separation by the human mind (like one tone). This form of music exists already, but I think I'll stick to *good old dubstep.*
There's of course rhythm to electronic music much like any music but it doesn't carry any substance to me. Dubstep is definitely one of the more abrasive and irritating ones though. Music is forever evolving so god knows what nonsense will be the norm in the future.
The message here is really important. Music is math and science and language. It increases thought processes and critical thinking. Schools who pull funding are creating boring linear thinkers who hopefully enjoy music on there own.
Dubstep is just a word, by the way! It is not possible to PROVE that a song is in a particular genre! Drum and Bass you say? Jungle you say? Its all just remixed OLD SCHOOL HARDCORE from the 1990s. haha ;) The only thing you can actually say for sure is that its all Hip Hop. Now, you can argue me if you want but just study the evolution of music production methods since 1975. If you still don't agree with me.. study some more.
Its not "The Science of Dubstep" Its more of a "Disrespecting a Genre of Music That's Hurting My Musical Knowledge Just Because I'm An Academically Taught Self-Proclaimed Music Scientist Who Never Gets How This Genre Exists By Making a Mockery of It In Front Of An Audience" kind of thing. I'm sure they just misspelled it and you did a great job in that sir.. Well-done 👏
in "perfect world" physics models of flutes and strings, these exact waveforms are found. in practice, there are a lot of other factors that make the sound different, the human ear is capable of detecting very minute differences in timbre because the ear is built to detect individual frequencies across a spectrum. what you might agree to is that a triangle wave sounds more like a flute than a sawtooth or square, and single note on a violin sounds more like a sawtooth than a triangle (in the same register)
in early videos about analog synthesis this was a common parallel. both of those waveforms would have also naturally been softer when produced with that type of technology
I enjoy almost all ted talks regardless of how they are being filmed, but it is very evident that the video is interlaced and it should have been uploaded as de-interlaced.
All human knowledge and history before discovering written text was forwarded to next generations by creating songs as it is way easier to learn song with complex wording than words on their own. Good point sir.
If anyone ever gives me any BS about Dubstep or EDM in general not being "real music" I'm gonna show them this video lol. Was actually very interesting to watch, he made his points well... And of course just the fact it was dubstep related made it awesome lmao
I teach general music in a public elementary school in Maryland, USA. What I teach gives students opportunities and experiences in being creative with rhythm, melody, and doing it in fun ways. Thank you James!
Dubstep sound Stems from the UK Garage 2 Step sound in London, UK in early 2000z ! The sound was purely created by accident one day!! The name " Dubstep "means this (Dub part) is Acetate Dubplate d&b, rave, jungle, garage era in the UK. (Step part) is UK garage related to the term (2 steppers or stepperz) name that UK Garage records got as they had skippy drums that had lot of off grid swing on mpc drum samplers. That's basically it I have no clue what anyone else is talking about here ??
Meanings change, and that is especiailly true with genres. Some more some less, Dubstep being one of the former. And even then, within dubstep it has such a free-form sound that it's almost impossible to cover EVERYTHING within the dubstep realm and it's many sub-genres in a TEDTalk
Isn't the main science of dubstep FM (Frequency Modulation, where the lower sound note(s) is set to Modulate (alter) the Frequency of the higher sound(s)?)
Great video. Please enlighten our education system 😎... its gone to the dogs (& not fault of teachers) Educators are bound by these standardized tests and are very unhappy about it (in my experience )
This is a well-done demonstration! Mr. Humberstone explains his ideas in a clear and educational way. Plus, the experiential musical format makes it fun.
@WaveRecordings that is uk dubstep, it's more influenced for the Garage Music, I was referring to comercial Dubstep, Brostep like Rusko, 12th Planet, etc
Don‘t get blocked by the short sample. The real content is about theory and education! He is not a professional music producer. Oversee it and take his actual words into account, for example his beautiful explanation about how to take simple sound waves and create complex sounds of it via overtones and filtering.
In China learning music instrument is basically non-existent in school curriculum but as extra-curriculum it is massive and parents would send their kids to learn instruments from a very young age. I think we shouldn't blame schools for everything and parents need to pick up the responsibility for their kids.
Y Qisq But if the kids don't have parents for some random reason like they're both ill and die or the father is in jail or at war, who knows and the mother dies for some random reason or simply both the parents are unfit to parent and the child gets taken from them? I know, they're bad examples but you get the idea. Anyways if they don't have any parents does that mean they're less allowed to learn music and to get access to music? I believe the government and the schools are the ones that should do the efforts and be responsible not the parents.
As so often, when I here about music, I get the uncomfortable sentiment of having missing such an important part of education in my childhood. And now there I so few time left and so much other things to do. Probably, I will dig out my guitar the next days
Hey James, I noticed you seem to be a little obsessed with keeping up with these comments. Just wanted to say that this was a great talk. Music and other arts are amazing and currently greatly undervalued.
He has made dubstep, but yes contrary to popular belief, many of his songs are not dubstep. Edit: To be fair I haven't heard many of his songs so I really wouldn't know would I.
Geeeee8 While not all of his songs are dubstep, many are. For example, Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites, Make It Bun Dem, and many more. If they have the tempo of 135-150 bpm, a carrying bassline followed by a sub, and well, a 1 - 3 kick snare pattern, or any other dubstep drum rhythms, it's dubstep. Don't even start with "brostep" as it is simply a style of dubstep. Sorry if I'm coming off a little tRigGerEd but I just wanted to inform you haha.
He has to justify his favorite music and have it be accepted in the echelons of the greats like Bach and Brahms. He's hoping this program will replace Jazz music classes in college.
So basically he just said “stop saying what is and what is not dubstep, everything can be dubstep if you want, you don’t need to put production value in to it” It’s like saying stop being a culture, stop being organized
Well...
Wow I was thinking about your music throughout this video and how it would be great because your sound is so complex and fluently produced. Also, are you making a label with Fractal?
LMFAO
So poetic *sniff* sniff*.
The Lord has spoken
Make your own TEDx conference about dubstep and tell them what real dubstep is
No wonder why everyone thinks Dubstep is so terrible when people always portray it to be some simple cheesy wobble sounds. Dubstep can be really beautiful at times.
Yeah, but he's just showing that it IS teachable (and should not be ignored as a genre in music education), and that plenty of valuable knowledge can be taught using dubstep as a vehicle within other learning domains - and he is correct.
A lot of the people who complain about dubstep don't actually seem to know what dubstep even is. It just seems like people classify a song with any electronic instruments as dubstep.
I've even seen people call songs like Darude - Sandstorm, Call On Me, and I'm Blue dubstep.
ikr jesus
their loss.
like how Virtual Riot does it.
Why not have Virtual Riot on the show?
Fellow present junkie I see
science of OTT
They couldn't pay him enough to lie like this
@@ronanzaplan3473 lmaooo
Home Cactus fr
you shouldve added an OTT
SOUNDGOODIZERRRR
Lucas Guzman oh well, then, ummmmm, ..........
A B L E T O N I S B E T T E R
more downtempo IMO....
XDDDD
or three.
It's 2016 at the time of this talk and someone still managed to put this guy onstage without any sort of understanding of what Dubstep has ever been. It has never sounded like this and yet this stereotype haunts us producers to this day, conjuring up the genre in people's minds as a horrendously amateurish and laughable form of music. This just goes to show how academia unfairly trumps any sort of actual musical respectability.
This guy brought us the absolute bottom rung of the audio technology ladder along with the most deluded possible perception of what Dubstep is and managed to get the opportunity for an official TED talk due to the over-praising of his academic background. After going through an academic music technology degree and now finally succeeding in a music career thanks in no part to that degree's atrocious curriculum and disheartening collection of lecturers, I'm absolutely sick of people like this trying to claim a level of superiority over legitimately skilled and creative Dubstep artists simply because they've dipped their toe in the "science" behind it.
To any of you who've made it through this comment, this is not what Dubstep is or has ever been. The genre is beautiful and diverse if you embrace the attention to electronic sound design and know where to look. You can also find plenty of depth and meaning within the genre and those that surround it. If you found this talk interesting, I implore you to reevaluate why you listened to this man with respect as it may be that his background is playing into the ridiculous culture we have to overly trust academics over anyone actually involved with a musical scene.
nice to see ya here chime. Au5 already left his remarks and this vid is just funny to watch cuz of how wrong it is
^ Get this amazing artist to do a TED talk. He's one of the nicest people in the scene.
I dont think such stereotype will ever end so long as Academics get their "Royal" role over us , the musicians, and getting such mass-indoctrunating Podiums for their absue... So absurd.
Great words Chime! "Wait for me" is beautiful example of how deep dubstep can be.
According to this making Dubstep is the science of sounding bad.
He's right you know.
oof derek getting intellectual
Lol didn't expect TDR here :D
TheGamingChipmunk lmfao Man i'm having a crazy trip rn lol
oh wow, Mr. Rebellion
They need to get Misanthrop up there and make him explain the art of Neurofunk! The holy grail of electronic music!
“humans love to find patterns”
*immediately thinks of riddim*
Lmaoooooo!!!!!! True thoooo🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Nathan Hubrich I did hahaha!
Absolutely
same XD
subfiltronik blockz innit
I’m from Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, and I’m very proud to be studying at university to become a music educator. I love how he says music is as important to an education as intellectual subjects like math are. Unfortunately the state of the US I live in is somewhat anti-music education in schools. I really appreciate what he had to say and I’m very grateful that I came across this talk.
I live in the Queen City too and grew up elsewhere in NC. You are correct about the schools. Fortunately my dad is a musician and my parents paid for my piano lessons. It shouldn’t have to be that way!
wheres xfer serum?!?!
Neon4k haha
deadmau5
Massive is a lot better -0_-0)
it was pirated so he didn't show it
merijn it was a joke
low pass on a warped saw wave. Nice. dubstep.
Albert Kramer 😂
lmao
The sound design god! Sit down Nosia your time has passed!!!!
Hahah yea
and then chuck in any drums or whatever, they're not important. as long as the bass has an LFO, it's dubstep.
It is because he didn’t apply the Soundgoodizer.
Александр Корочкин haha 😂 And soundgoodizer x 6
on the master
Not enough ott
Good one XD
Nah OTT
Interesting points, though dubstep and bass music today is a lot more complex than what he previewed there. Nontheless, he made his point. I completely agree on the problems in education. It's dissapointing to see how people despise any genre of music that is a bit unconventional, but that is not entirely because of education in my opinion. A lot of it is an effect of mainstream media and kids wanting to be cool among friends. But better education I think might make people want more out of music, which would help solve the problem :)
Mod3no/XLR8 thanks for getting the point! I guess I should have resisted the click-baity name because as many have complained about, I’m not a producer and it’s really about pluralism in music education. My fault, tho ...
James Humberstone Thank you for the reply. Yeah, I think the name of the speech should have been different because you focus more on education, but this one is more attractive since there aren't many Ted talks about dubstep :)
yea i make electronig music and everytime i show ppl my stuff they be like: "lol what is this crep", "i prefer lil poomp or something", but atleast i got a better music grade lel
@@Isopodfarmer bruuuh I totally feel you. We're on completely different sides of the EDM spectrum (I do outsider house music), but when I play people my stuff and they go "oh this is the sort of stuff you'd here in a fashion shop or hotel lobby" it proper grinds my gears.
Tommo i feel ya
Lets see if they say that when you get successful :)
Gl
I really enjoy making dubstep and once I first started doing it I found it to be extremely interesting on how it works and how all of a sudden wobbles and other noises make amazing music
Damn this is old. But where can I hear your work ? I'm a weathered sound engineer just starting to make dubstep, thou I've made beats for 8 yrs. (am 22)
This is sum good dubstep
Said absolutely nobody who knows what dubstep is and has watched this video
I think you missed the point of the video
paradoxed I think the presenter missed the point of dubstep
Logan L He wasn’t explaining the point of dubstep. He was explaining why/how it’s aesthetically pleasing; he’s also explaining this to a bunch of mostly older people, the kind of people who think dubstep is a bunch of random noises, so it’s not like anyone was expecting this guy to drop a stonker. In fact it would only prove those old people right if he were able to create a good dubstep song in a matter of minutes using random notes selected by the audience - that’s the point of the video that you also missed. You’re welcome.
You failed to see the bigger picture. At its core the talk was not about dubstep. That was used to draw audience as you and me in, to keep it interesting, in order to then convey the real message.
Everyone is talking about the dubstep genre. Who is talking about the point of the talk? Are you all people really not capable to overlook that and identify the purpose of the talk?
IronAperture r/iamverysmart
get this man on Never Say Die right now
nah he stole his production classes from megalodon bro
now we can't :(
hmm, Human Music. I like it.
SDSMint Exactly what I thought :D
Lmfao
rick and morty XD
*snaps fingers*
Yes!
My man!
my dubstep loving ears are bleeding
Same
kind of a missed opportunity, that was a terrible representation of dubstep, so much more to show and so many links to music theory and actual science that were overlooked....
@@yodiggidydog9641 Dubstep is super complex. Just look at Virtual Riot doing sound design live. It's a science of its own. LFO 1 to the FM and volume whose source is the other LFO which modulates the volume as well, all the while the 2nd LFO is double the speed of the first LFO, creating a "one two" feeling. The high pass filter cutoff and resonance are being modulated to a third LFO, creating a talk effect and a resonance peak, and the white noise.... it could go on and on for ages.
music theory in dubstep = learn how to sound design before making dubstep! or work on actually getting a good sound and good drums
@@daybrink1267 Yeah but does it sound nice?
@@projektb4rd0n53 nice in what way
Ok USD art grad
4:17 had to take a shower and listen to virtual riot for 2 hours after that mess
🤣
Relatable
I’d listen to Teminite
Honestly, I prefer Excision, Sharks, Creo, or Evilwave
@@kailaine3974 Creo isnt dubstep tf
I was laughed at when I said that Dubstep (IMO) can be as complex and beautiful as the most difficult and artfully composed classical/opera pieces. I love when people break down the notes in Dubstep songs and then render them into piano or violin. It is magical and makes you appreciate the complexities involved in making the songs. It is not all noise and wub wub.
So why hide it in noise and wub wub?
earthstick exactly. It's like, I don't care about the complexity or message or whatever if the OVERALL SOUND if it annoys me to much too even listen that deeply. The fact that it sounds better when transcribed into other instruments only illustrates how the basic sound of wubstep is about as annoying as it can be. It literally seems like every aspect, from the strange tempo, to rhythm that many people cannot even tell exists, to the individual sounds themselves, is specifically designed to be obnoxious enough to annoy parents. It's purpose is not artful expression, or cutting-edge technology, it's simply a way to musically troll people who appreciate more traditional music.
THIS GUY KNOWS!!!
John Crapper I feel like that's a really biased view towards dubstep, to think that its main function or popularity is simply to troll people who prefer different kinds of music. You can't label something as not artful expression because you believe it sounds better transcribed into other instruments. Art is entirely subjective. I'm not trying to make the claim that one form is inherently better or worse than the other, just that they're different and still valid as artful expression even if one doesn't enjoy a particular style.
@John Do you think some of Jazz is doing this as well?
For a professional in sound I would think he had looked into what Dubstep is, instead of just making the stereotype even worse.
I am into dubstep, but I find it mean of all of you. He is obviously not capable of producing a complex professional grade dubstep track. But the theory that he talked about, why are you all dismissing that? I found it wonderful how he explained how electronic music producers manipulate sound waves in order to create all the sounds that we hear.
He is a theoriser, not someone with a lot of practical capability. And that was beautiful how he explained the theory of waves creating more complex sounds.
Bubbly I’m 100th like
@@IroAppe he completely throws that out the window by using such a terrible example. This could've been solved by removing the audience interactions and just using a pre-made track. I will admit this was an issue of time not of skill, however he could've easily gotten around this constraint.
Also on a more philosophical note, it's not my responsibility to give people participation medals for mediocre work, he did a terrible job and deserves to know so he can improve in the future when doing similar talks.
lol
Yes.
Absolutely.
Graduated with a computing degree but was an amateur guitarist through high school and Uni. Learned midi and sequencing in my spare time and made two albums worth of music as well as playing live with an amateur band.
Great experience and encouraged me to think creatively.
My career has been successful often coming up with more creative solutions to problems on the back of it.
Creativity is vastly underrated in our society.
THe arts should be funded more. Art is the lifeblood of any civilisation. Without it comes stagnation.
Luv and peace.
Virtual Riot needs to be on TEDx Talks
Love how he's using ableton and izotope .I feel homely
baron haha same
Yep, serious DAW used by a person who obviously knows what he's doing. I'd have a fit if he was using FL.
Also Arturia Spark.
@@hammercanttouchthis Lots of professionals use FL tho.
@@JesseKonijnenberg I know. Whatever works for a particilar person. I've come close to buying it myself but it's going to be about $1,000+ for the full version. The integrated plugins / soft instruments are nice.
But I've already forked a lot for Ableton Suite then had to upgrade. So that $1k will go towards more synths or other hardware.
The $99 ver. of FL or the usually free version of Ableton lite can get a person up and running provided they have an external audio interface and controller keyboard or pads etc. Or $50 to register Reaper, that's not bad either to record audio and midi tracks.
Not sure why I diss FL producers. Maybe I'll stop 🙄 It was more the stigma attached to FL when it was freeware and hardcore producers all used Cubase, ProTools or Reason. But FL has changed a lot, they really amped it up and added a lot of features.
That was brilliant! And what a lovely bloke! I hope my kids teacher in the future to come is just like this fine gentleman right here.
Oh boy, what a lovely video about showing the science of dubstep. I hope modern dubstep loving fans don’t ruin the comment section
you mean try to save a ruined video by looking at the perspectives of the video that can actually be salvaged?
@@bhavyakukkar wdym
@@drlostcause4427 those comments you're talking about are still appreciating the video for what it is, just criticizing it for what it isn't, which is anything about dubstep. it's more about sound design than anything
@@bhavyakukkar it’s more like the core definition of the genre
@@drlostcause4427 not
hello again to all my friends, together we can play some rock n roll.
RUDEBOY BASS MASH UP THE PLACE!
We have musicians here, making noise. No one is a musician! They're not ours because nobody can play the guitar!
I'm Ben Taylor, rock n' roll.
Good people, good times, right on.
Rock n' roll, Kid Smith is fun to say
Kid Smith, yeah!
Kid Smith will take you to the mountain!
Rock n' roll!
@@prikkiki-ti-2 I thought he was saying "RUB MY BASS! MUSH UP THE PACE!"
@@Tubeytime 😂😂
I have never found a worst representation of Dubstep before in my entire life. As someone who aspires to produce Dubstep as a living you cannot find words to describe how ridiculous this talk has been. I enjoy TEDx talks and am very disappointed with this.
Cannot agree more
Yeah we can tell by the fact that "Xtrullor" is in your name
I dont understand, what do you mean by this representation as the worst one?
You aspire to produce dubstep?
@@Vysair because it has nothing to do with dubstep....
Did he really say, that a sine wave is a perfect parabola??? sin(x)=x^2 ???
to a lamen a parabola just means a symmetrical curve. A sine wave has a few of those. When you are talking to an audience that possibly doesn't remember or never completed highschool math, using general words like that helps them understand.
I remember when I was in highschool..
12171010011010 i remember and i already have my IT Engineering title already
can i make a sinx==x joke here
ZappelFly isnt the sin (x) wave between 0and pi a perfect -x^2
4:16 This is noisia's level of sound design lol
lmao
Noisia wishes
Haha Geoxor was here too
cool concept, uncool clipping on that master channel.
I've never noticed that - erk! Thanks! (I think)
Red gets the girls
Curtis Bird Lmao
Yeah, sometimes a second Limiter works to catch those peaks. Was in the red there.
Who dis?
Most EDM producers are self taught. There is not much formal education, but EDM is the future.
I saw dubstep in the title so I thought it would be a good video
I was wrong
same
Kobe Dancil Coo pr is not dubstep
@@itsJWPH porter robinson produces future bass not dubstep
@@cracknblast8247 he did produce "brostep" back in the day. check his "spitfire" ep
His explanation is decent, but his actual production skill is just awful.
True! I'm not a producer :)
he has like ten minutes to do it tho he's not gonna have a fully mixed and mastered track in that time he's just proving a point
Could have picked better samples, he picked them beforehand anyway.
maybe they wouldn't fit his narrative thus he chose these ones because they are simple/simpler to explain.
should have consulted Virtual Riot before hand
Save your time .
UKF Dubstep Tutorial (Presented by Dubba Jonny)
Minawa San we must be around the same age lmao
Loved that song when it came out years ago
Word
Irony of this track: it's brostep.
@@Offensive_Username when brostep was still good :(
they should have had virtual riot go up there 😂
Preset Junkies
Hmm... I think the talk would have been more accurately described as being about timbre. There's a lot of great stuff you could talk about regarding dubstep specifically. Why that tempo? Why the syncopation? Why is the bass more regular than the percussion? This is more like a basic introduction to fourier transforms or something.
I was expecting it to be all about how dubstep is all about waiting for the drop.
why not everything? you know, there are other guys having there Talk that day. Covering anything would take AGES. he could have said 2 or 3 sentences bout that but tho
Adam Kratz listen some old mala or to skream-rotten and u notice its not about waiting for the drop
Conrad Jordan I will. Thanks for the suggestion.
Whoosh
James Humberstone, well done...as for the h8ers, if one wants to discuss the complexities, merits, or even the definition of dubstep, there are plenty of artists, websites, and forums already out in them thar webs. Given that the theme of the Tedx event was "finding x", I believe that, with his particular skills, he did a pretty damn good job of adapting them to that specifically generic genre ... Almost everyone seems to be missing the point (as i understood it) - that focusing on the mathematical properties of music, and using some new-fangled tech (or old tech with a new purpose) , we have alternative and almost unused ways to help students relate science to personal creative outlets. He could have picked almost any music genre to demonstrate his ideas, but i suspect that he may have chosen dubstep specifically so that perhaps a few of the (demonstrably, it seems) intentionally Toopid people out there might at least glimpse the light of enlightenment, even if they only tried to put it in a Glo-Stick and find some fresh wubz
Since when sine wave is a parabola? Have I missed some mathematics breakthrough lately?
Yeah, that wasn't in my written version - sorry, that was nerves taking over brain.
Thanks for replying and being a real person. It would be fun to chat some day.
Benji Kauth thanks for kind comments!
James Humberstone I understand. Stage can make you nervous and confused. Too bad this was such a huge mistake I stopped paying attention the moment I heard this :-( . And judging from the rest of the comments - I wasn't the only one. Anyway, all the best to you and I hope you do better next time :-)
Could someone explain a parabola to me???
He forgot the main ingredient. Clipping every signal and adding 50 instances of soundgoodizer for each channel. His sound design was on point though, super impressive sine! It muddies up the mix very well. Now we are all experts in dubstep!
The title should be "Attempt to Trick Viewers Into Caring About Music Education by Putting Dubstep in the Title"
nah title should be "Man totally obliterates what Dubstep really is to the point that I need to listen to Virtual Riot for 4 hours to feel better again"
I believe the point of his talk is more about the diminishing music programs in schools as well as the resistance to exploring music beyond the traditional concepts.
My parents, barely from Generation X, like a lot of modern music, but "see no rhythm" in Dubstep. I see Dubstep as a clear direct combination of melody and rhythm, replacing drums with sequencing the melody in such patterns that would normally be added by a drummer. I don't know... can younger minds see more patterns? Do you slowly get worse at recognizing new patterns as you age? Maybe what they say is true... seniors do puzzles and keep their minds active as they age more to prevent going senile. And puzzles are dealt with by the same part of the brain that finds patterns (which are often a major part of puzzles).
My parents say, "its just noise, there is no pattern or melody." But i can clearly hear a melody.
Same here. They are less able to catch on to an emerging style. It's something that has repeated through history. Those born in the late 1800s and early 1900s weren't such fans of Chuck Berry, The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix, but they were inspired by earlier yet musicians that were appreciated by the same people. Chain of inspiration and evolving music. Example: Johnny Cash > Tom Petty > Bon Jovi > Skid Row > Aerosmith > Guns n' Roses > Korn > Skrillex. The slow and progressive change is quite interesting to me, because ultimately you go from pre-country music to dubstep. Most people would never associate the two.
I'm hoping to be able to understand and appreciate music in the future, as it unfolds. But it is more likely that one day, dubstep will be considered classical music and the new norm will be 1500 BPM, which is beyond separation by the human mind (like one tone). This form of music exists already, but I think I'll stick to *good old dubstep.*
There's of course rhythm to electronic music much like any music but it doesn't carry any substance to me. Dubstep is definitely one of the more abrasive and irritating ones though. Music is forever evolving so god knows what nonsense will be the norm in the future.
I think you have found yourself a very good subjects for a master thesis.
The message here is really important. Music is math and science and language. It increases thought processes and critical thinking. Schools who pull funding are creating boring linear thinkers who hopefully enjoy music on there own.
I love dubstep so much
One of the most entertaining TEDx out there
published 2016 yet making dubstep from 2009
most dubstep from 2009 isn't reall....oh nevermind.
archologyzero I know, I know. No point in trying to explain.
You guys don't remember 2009 dubstep?
My copy of Addicted 2 Bass 2009 just blinked out of existence...WTF?!
Dubstep is just a word, by the way! It is not possible to PROVE that a song is in a particular genre! Drum and Bass you say? Jungle you say? Its all just remixed OLD SCHOOL HARDCORE from the 1990s. haha ;) The only thing you can actually say for sure is that its all Hip Hop. Now, you can argue me if you want but just study the evolution of music production methods since 1975. If you still don't agree with me.. study some more.
Its not "The Science of Dubstep"
Its more of a "Disrespecting a Genre of Music That's Hurting My Musical Knowledge Just Because I'm An Academically Taught Self-Proclaimed Music Scientist Who Never Gets How This Genre Exists By Making a Mockery of It In Front Of An Audience" kind of thing.
I'm sure they just misspelled it and you did a great job in that sir.. Well-done 👏
I never thought of square waves as "flute-like" or triangle waves as "string-like"
quintopia Flutes and strings naturally produce these waves when played in real time. Neat, huh?
in "perfect world" physics models of flutes and strings, these exact waveforms are found. in practice, there are a lot of other factors that make the sound different, the human ear is capable of detecting very minute differences in timbre because the ear is built to detect individual frequencies across a spectrum. what you might agree to is that a triangle wave sounds more like a flute than a sawtooth or square, and single note on a violin sounds more like a sawtooth than a triangle (in the same register)
in early videos about analog synthesis this was a common parallel. both of those waveforms would have also naturally been softer when produced with that type of technology
0:53 "so the sine wave is an interesting sound"
0:59 "but its not particulatory interesting"
So, in short...
*_Yes, but actually no._*
I enjoy almost all ted talks regardless of how they are being filmed, but it is very evident that the video is interlaced and it should have been uploaded as de-interlaced.
All human knowledge and history before discovering written text was forwarded to next generations by creating songs as it is way easier to learn song with complex wording than words on their own. Good point sir.
If anyone ever gives me any BS about Dubstep or EDM in general not being "real music" I'm gonna show them this video lol. Was actually very interesting to watch, he made his points well... And of course just the fact it was dubstep related made it awesome lmao
Please, more music teach in education, even electronic music 🙏
That’s so cringey
@cyberpunk64bit I see you are a man of culture.
!= > =/=
@@CompressedSoup not only culture but computer science
@cyberpunk64bit python?
I teach general music in a public elementary school in Maryland, USA. What I teach gives students opportunities and experiences in being creative with rhythm, melody, and doing it in fun ways. Thank you James!
sound, vibrations, and freqencies are life.
10:33 Why this sounds like everyone's first dubstep track production?
My first track wasn't as bad as that
awesome speech !!!! Well said sir !!!! Music is the key indeed !
This was hilarious!!! hahaha "no one admits to being neil's friend???" hahaha
Nicely done, mate.
I hear music as a ever evolving art
10:36 is awesome! Wow! 😍😍😍
It's not a perfect parabola...
Yeah, someone mentioned that above, sorry, I forgot the word I meant to use, that one came out, and yep, it's wrong!
funnily enough its named the sine wave after the sin function
Yeah, he lost me right there. Kinda makes you question the entire presentation when someone confuses basic math.
and a sawtooth wave isn't a violin lol
@@daybrink1267 Dubstep tutorial basic level
Dubstep sound
Stems from the UK Garage 2 Step sound in London, UK in early 2000z !
The sound was purely created by accident one day!!
The name " Dubstep "means this (Dub part) is Acetate Dubplate d&b, rave, jungle, garage era in the UK.
(Step part) is UK garage related to the term (2 steppers or stepperz) name that UK Garage records got as they had skippy drums that had lot of off grid swing on mpc drum samplers.
That's basically it
I have no clue what anyone else is talking about here ??
Meanings change, and that is especiailly true with genres. Some more some less, Dubstep being one of the former.
And even then, within dubstep it has such a free-form sound that it's almost impossible to cover EVERYTHING within the dubstep realm and it's many sub-genres in a TEDTalk
A ted talk from my favorite dubstep artist, James Humberstone howd i miss this one
THAT was a fine SAMPLING of the art of DUBSTEP, and a great sales PITCH for the ARTS.
Isn't the main science of dubstep FM (Frequency Modulation, where the lower sound note(s) is set to Modulate (alter) the Frequency of the higher sound(s)?)
Yes 100%
Anyone else around 9:00 when he played 4,8,11 hear the beginning of the song “Reverend” by Kings of Leon
Wow, that's tune is running still in my mind in my own version of composition!☺️😊👍👌
1800 people were waiting for a drop , even queen is DISAPPOIN-TED x
You have been banned from the internet for that pun.
Great video. Please enlighten our education system 😎... its gone to the dogs (& not fault of teachers) Educators are bound by these standardized tests and are very unhappy about it (in my experience )
Has anyone sent this to Sr.Excision? :) it's fitting! LOVE it
I already saw Chime, The Dub Rebelion and the god Au5 in the commemts.
can someone take the wooos at the end and make a dubstep beat and post it. thanks. you're a god
"A sine wave is a perfect parabola"? WTFFF?
Came here to say the same thing. Weird that he would confuse a sine wave with a parabola.
A parabola just means a symmetric curve.
nimzodragonlord no it doesnt.....
Yeah and a shape being a rectangle means every side has the same length.
The guy is a musical sage!
This is a well-done demonstration!
Mr. Humberstone explains his ideas in a clear and educational way.
Plus, the experiential musical format makes it fun.
Thats not dubstep, jesus...
its dubstep but from 2003
u didn't know about the true origin of dibstep, do u?
This is the old school dubstep 2008
@WaveRecordings that is uk dubstep, it's more influenced for the Garage Music, I was referring to comercial Dubstep, Brostep like Rusko, 12th Planet, etc
Don‘t get blocked by the short sample. The real content is about theory and education! He is not a professional music producer. Oversee it and take his actual words into account, for example his beautiful explanation about how to take simple sound waves and create complex sounds of it via overtones and filtering.
Pythagoras knew about string theory ;)
Beam me up Quarky!
we don't use his model. we use an equal tempered system.
google Disney, Pythagoras.
Seriously,you gotta release this ID man,so gooooooooood.....
In China learning music instrument is basically non-existent in school curriculum but as extra-curriculum it is massive and parents would send their kids to learn instruments from a very young age. I think we shouldn't blame schools for everything and parents need to pick up the responsibility for their kids.
Y Qisq what about governments?
Y Qisq But if the kids don't have parents for some random reason like they're both ill and die or the father is in jail or at war, who knows and the mother dies for some random reason or simply both the parents are unfit to parent and the child gets taken from them? I know, they're bad examples but you get the idea. Anyways if they don't have any parents does that mean they're less allowed to learn music and to get access to music? I believe the government and the schools are the ones that should do the efforts and be responsible not the parents.
i think balance is the clue for all. think about it.
That intro was used in Scott pilgrim with the twins playing synth
Maybe now someone make a talk about modern brostep and/or riddim?
yes
riddim would be the way to go to prove his point...since its all about patterns
I can talk all day bro check out my riddim
i'm on it mate
As so often, when I here about music, I get the uncomfortable sentiment of having missing such an important part of education in my childhood. And now there I so few time left and so much other things to do. Probably, I will dig out my guitar the next days
Peter Wildemann did you? ;)
Hey James, I noticed you seem to be a little obsessed with keeping up with these comments. Just wanted to say that this was a great talk. Music and other arts are amazing and currently greatly undervalued.
Thanks! Yeah, a little obsessed.
James Humberstone ohhhh my god, I have to sub to you now lmao
JAMES, YOU KNOW THAT THIS TALK SHOULDN'T BE ON TED, IT SHOULD BE ON WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW. COM
“One more video and I’ll go to bed”
Me at 3 am:
Music is a great equalizer
Ableton Live..
Nothing get's better than that!
Calvin K well said
+Calvin K Fl
Oh No
...is literally the only good thing about this presentation.
Thank U Mr. James
I always knew Sonny John Moore was a scientist.
bdew7070 bangarang is of course named after the big bang
Skrillex doesn't make dubstep and never has
He has made dubstep, but yes contrary to popular belief, many of his songs are not dubstep. Edit: To be fair I haven't heard many of his songs so I really wouldn't know would I.
bdew7070 dude....it is actually....doct.soony moore professionaly dr. skrillex
Geeeee8 While not all of his songs are dubstep, many are. For example, Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites, Make It Bun Dem, and many more. If they have the tempo of 135-150 bpm, a carrying bassline followed by a sub, and well, a 1 - 3 kick snare pattern, or any other dubstep drum rhythms, it's dubstep. Don't even start with "brostep" as it is simply a style of dubstep. Sorry if I'm coming off a little tRigGerEd but I just wanted to inform you haha.
Fascinating!!
I would describe this as the science of music theory, NOT DUBSTEP
yup 100% that not Dubstep.become i make make Dubstep .thats not how Dubstep sound at all lol
@@deadlinkofficialartst5592 original dubstep (pre skrillex) was much more different
@@southestst yeah i know 🙂
@@southestst well im going to make some dubstep now lol
Fascinating, thank you.
The "Science" of "Dubstep"
The "misuse" of "quotations".
it doesnt need to be good, just technically correct.
Science Step
functionform How so? The title is a bit misleading, but there's still valuable information to learn in the video.
12171010011010 and it's neither of those
Interlaced video in 2016. Very forward thinking.
poor guy is still stuck in 2006
Jack Johnston i dont get it
Christopher Hager He means that dubstep has evolved and is no longer a sine wave with drums, but it also has plucks, basses, instruments and melodies
He has to justify his favorite music and have it be accepted in the echelons of the greats like Bach and Brahms. He's hoping this program will replace Jazz music classes in college.
hahaha
hehe no this guy predicted the total overdrive & clipp trend of 2017
best ted show I ever saw....he was just speakin all the stuffs going on in my mind....loved it....
Great talk James, you are a fantastic ambassador for creativity in learning and teaching.
+Tom Cavdarovski thank you!
listen to more dubstep before you speak about it please. you seemed to have missed the creativity and competitive nature of the genre entirely
Computer colored sheets 3 packs.. c. qqq
No he's not.
At least not at this subject
So basically he just said “stop saying what is and what is not dubstep, everything can be dubstep if you want, you don’t need to put production value in to it”
It’s like saying stop being a culture, stop being organized