ok. lets break it down...uk garage and 2 step

[Lodger]

hey, all-

imwriting this becasue i've been producing for a little while but have generally neglected some genres...what
s garage all about? how does it differ from house...and how is it that the us and uk are different here? please respond with any sort of drum pattern transcription or anything that would help break down the topic...

lodger

 

[KasioRoks]

innit, bling bling, booo *ahem*

OK a history lesson. In the beginning there was house. House spawned a vocal offspring called 'garage' (think divas singing big tunes). This was a US phenomenon. UK djs played garage tunes, but sped it up, hence 'speed garage'. Re-mixes were done for the new tempos and to avoid the way that kicks sound on the 4 at higher tempos some were dropped. 2step was born, chuck in some d&b heads with their b-lines and UKG is where you're at. The rest of it is still going on now, so the lineage isn't clear, but that's the long and the short of it. (Since this is music no doubt everyone will disagree with me, but that's what I reckon).

Now to the sound. I guess the main thing you have to get is the difference between the kicks in house and UKG. In house the kicks are 4 to the floor, like this:
x---x---x---x---.
With a snare on the 2nd and 4th kicks.

In UKG they tend to use a 2step pattern (although there is some stuff that is 4 to the floor .... but anyway)
Basic 2step pattern:
x---?---_-x-?---

OK so in that pattern the 'x' is a kick, the '?' is a snare and the _ is beat three which has neither a snare or a kick on it.

On top of that you tend to have skippy hats (think sixteenth note triplets or 16+8 groove) and occasional skippy kicks & snares leading into the main beats (1 2 3 & 4).

HTH
KasioRoks

 

[Rayne]

UKG is really R&Bish... anyone knwo why?.... the wya I usually think of it is pausing for teh first beat... it has liek a fractured quiality to it.... when you stop and try to count it.. I have to stop sometimes.... or repeate a number again to make it make sense to me..... I'll be liek 1..2...3.........2...3...4...(pause)..2.3....4.... For soem reason it just seems easier to start with 2 alot.... (probably hence the name 2-step)... Hous eis almost always 4 ont eh floor... or it'll have some breaks..... I actually have never heard a UKG tune witha 4 floor count.... who does this??? I haeva friedn who whent for a semester over in London... (we're from teh US).. and he siad grage was REALLY big there, and he thinkins it's the next thing that will be comming over the pond... (I knwo whenever I go to london I hear it alot)... anyone else think so?... if you don't think it's UKG, what do you think is the next thing??

 

[KasioRoks]

See I hear UKG as much ... rougher I guess, than R&B (if you leave out MJ Cole & Craig David). I lurrve the fractured beats and rood bass. I'll find some 4 to the floor UKG for you, can't think of any tunes off the top of my head (probably 'cos I'm not a dj).

Garage is huge in London (esp South London, where I live), and it's made its way onto the radio nationally. To be honest though it isn't huge in the clubs nationally yet.

I'd like to see UKG break over in the states, but I think the stuff I like isn't polished enough to do it (and I like it 'cos it isn't polished). I guess the closest you'll get is MJ Cole and Craig David, who, like you say are really like R&B. In which case what's the point 'cos you got plenny of that homegrown.

KasioRoks

 

[tommy2002]

Most beat pattens follow the 16 steps per bar.
But 2-step garage is done at 32 steps per bar.

it would be programed like:

X_______XX____X_______XX_X______
____O______O_____O_________O___

X = KICK DRUM.
O = SNARE

House/trance 4/4 would be like:

X____X____X____X
____O________O