j-level

hey guys, hows it going. have been holed away for a month now eating, making music and watching football.... then end production is lots of new music.... and i have posted two up on my space 1. i like ur hair (thx 4 da add) - i down beat psy breaks track 2. piece of the pie - another downbeat psy breaks track but it flips comletely in the middle piece of the pie is available for download they are tracks 2 and 3 on the page enjoy and feel free to let me know your thoughts! peace J

hahaha, couldnt think of a better way to bring in the summer cant wait to hear

thanks again my friend - thats the thing about music - no two people hear the same thing in the same way - and i love the fact that people have strong enough opinions and have listened to my music enough to form those opinions i really appreciate your honest and i am glad you enjoyed listening i will definately take some of what you have said on board!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 peace

thanks for your comments man, not too sure what you mean about the bass - its mostly pure sub bass - 60khz exactly - and when i played it through my mates rig the bass nearly blew my teeth outa my head its my first dnb track that i have written for maybe over a year so - but i guess its only really dnb because of the speed - i havent written it to be a dnb tune - i never usually stick to any tempo - iguess i also said there are psy-elemennts not because its similar to psy trance but because in my music i try to create a psychedelic atmosphere - i wouldnt say my other tracks were 'psy' tracks - they are j-level tracks that just happen to be good to trip too!!!! trust me i dont follow trends at all the bpms for my last 5 tracks have been 152, 102, 176, 84, 120 and the only thing that links them is my sounds. its an interesting point you make - not to follow trends - alot of music scenes try and promote non trend following but then are unwilling to give something that sounds a little different a chance - that pretty much why i stoppped writing drum and bass in the firstplace and concentrated on making my own style of music!!!! anyways thanks again for the comment :) would really reall like to know what you think of the first track on my myspace too - i enjoy having feedback. :)

hey guys, have just finished a new tune - was given a guitar riff my a friend about a month ago and he told me to do whatever i wanted to it - as i lidtened a huge smile fell upon my face - it was a heavy guitar track!!!! and i was sure i knew the bpm staright away - turned out i was irght, didnt even need to timestrech the riff it to the dnb - amazing - the track obviously has big psychedellc elements as i cant help but incoprporate them - it just has the ferocity of a big dancefloor drum and bass tune - and, well, would love you all to hear and tell me what you think!!!!!!!!! its called dig it up and you can here it here - http://www.myspace.com/jlevel and its track 4 enjoy guys! J

generally my favourite time is early morning, especially in the summer - window open - cool air - quiet outside. Then i ruin the air with spliff smoke and ruin the silence with my beats i just feel fresh in the morning i think its the best time for me to be creative! though - night time i am much better at getting down with the nitty gritty - sequencing/fillins - overall sound production but lol - cos i work at the moment, alot of the itme i will come home, maybe not even take off my uncomfortable cloths and just get stuck in so really i guess its mainly when i cant not be writing music - you know - when you just have to be doing it or you feel like you might explode.

Hey guys – just had some good news so thought I would waste no time in posting it up. The J-Level Remix of the Avitaz’s hit “Cantate” will be released on vinyl this summer. The track (which quite hugely differs from the original) features Victoria Wilson James who notoriously sang with ‘Soul 2 Soul’ and was the voice behind ‘The Shamen’. It will be released as part of a double a-side remix pack shortly after the original is released. For a preview listen of the track go to this address Cantate j-level mix Thanks for everyones support, keep an eye out for this and album release dates @ http://thirteenrec.com/jlevel  Peace J my music

You been workin on your track to long When: you have smoked yourself into next tuesday and you are so stoned you dont realise you have been listening to the same 4 bar loop for 16 hours you realise the track is now 45 mins long with 10 breakdowns, 20 change ups and a 17 minuite outro you start intesely beatboxing rythms and basslines (badly in my case) in front of random strangers who blatantly think you have terrets or some kind of mental illness you lose the ability to soialise. you go out and all you have in your head is "need to finish the tune, need to finish the tune, need to finish the tune"

if you could describe to me exactly how yo have everything wired up i.e mic into mixing desk, mixing desk into line in on sound card etc im not hugely familiar with cool edit, but if you are running windows i can sort you a version on wavelab j

wicked - glad you liked, will put a selection in the post for ya - alot of my music is signed but i have some select stuff that i know you will like that i can send ya keep an eye out J

for sure! my perosnal favess are z3ta - awesome synth - massive sound building capabilities and really good for bass and lead sounds. Has 6 occilators that you can use and just sounds really clean and punchy novation v-station - another good lead synth, good trancy sounds imposcar - good lead and bass synth, quite new and not hugely versitile but ver good nonetheless spectrasonics atmosphere - awesome atmospheric synth with a massive massive sound bank allowing up to a million sound possibilities, ads great depth to any track absynth 3 - like nothing you have ever heard before - probably the most difficult synth i have ever worked with as it is so intricat and the sound is unique - the only synth of this power that you can load your own samples into quadfromage - great filter, really crunchy and spacey very very versitile camelphat - another good filter, but its much dirtyer waves 4 plugins - everything you need from reverb to delay to compressors to pitch - is a very good package of industry standard effects thats all i got for ya right now off the top of my head....... hope thats helped - anything else you want just ask J

hey mate, i got some ambient stuff for you to check out...... should i send you a cd of a few for you to choose from - good examples here jlevel tunes let me know if you think my style could fit in with what you want - all these are very good representations of the ambiet stuff i write - enjoy J

i would probably agree that protools is the 'best' for its actual sound and capabilities however - you ask any producer and they will swear by their software/hardware. this is because thats what they are most comfortable using. i use cubase sx2 and have been using the cubase range for years. I know for a fact its not the 'best' out there but its what i know!!!! Im friends with a guy who works for steinberg and he basically showcases to big producers their new software - he tells me the people who use cubase and its as long as the ones who dont - i even know people who use reason and make and release sick sick dnb tunes - like i said, its all to do with comfort - regardless of the slight differences between the programs hope thats helpful - if you go for cubase or protools get in touch and i can reccommend some vsti's J

same as mate, am looking to get some sets this summer, mightbe going to ibiza to play some chillout and breakbeat for my label, but other than that im struggling to find some, know any i should maybe get in contact with for that kind of music??? you create an integral part of a gigs atmosphere, i respect the fact you do all of that a great deal, i use to promote parties when i wa sliving in leeds and i know how much work every aspect of the party can be ! J

i mix all sorts of muisc - dnb, breakbeat, chillout, hip hop, funky house, rock - and often a mixture of alot of them - the best tips and tricks i have are this - 1. obvious but sometimes well over looked - tune selection, mixing essentially is not hard, but what seperates the good dj's from the great dj's is finding tunes that fit together to perfeciton, its as important as any eq tricks. 2. eq cancelling is good for effect definately, but the more precicely used the better, its not somthing you wanna overkill 3. chopping the tunes in and out of each other always sounds amazing when exceuted well, again, find 2 tunes where chopping em up enhances the actual music - even create a whole new tune/rhytm by doing it 4. lastly id say keeping the crowd on their toes- be quick and mix in intros to tunes that you are gonna play later on in the set, the big tunes you know people are gonna know. mix thier intro or bits of thier intro in before the middle break down of the tune. then mix another tune into it properly..... doing it a few times with the same tune during the set is really effective in keeping the audience involved and anticipating your every mix id also recommend getting a mixer with and fx unit on it - ive got a pioneer djm600, but am a bit bored of the fx now though they are wicked! alan and heath make a sick sick mixer too but its heafty in cost hope thats of some help J

am well liking the tunes man, real good atmosphere in em, good changes into madness!!!! love it production is sounding pretty tight to - got nice bass sounds, and general atmospheric sounds are well made and positioned within the track your art is outstanding!!!! where are the parties that your have/play em??

hey mate, how are you? the record label i am signed to is called Thirteen records- i am gonna be released on thier sub label thirteen blue. My album which should hopefully be coming out in the summer time will be called 3eb though the final 10 tracks have not been finalised! thanks for you comments on my music. I use to be fully involved in the drum and bass scene as a dj and producer - i won a competition on bbc radio 1 xtra a few years back and had 3000 copies one of my tracks given out all over the country. i got pretty sick of the Uk dnb scene and the people who essentially run it, so i kind of moved away from it. I think alot of mu music has a dnb element to it, be it the breaks, the bass or the recce synth sounds i love to use (my track velocity structure is a prime example). am working on a breakbeat tune at the moment to, and have put some ideas down for a psy trance track - how about you, where can ihear some of your tunes???? better run - i have been on jury duty the last 2 and a half weeks and im late every day :s peace J

ok, seems am i am new to the forum this seems like a good first post 1)What programs you use, and any hardware instruments, midi controllers, etc (PC Specs too)? Sequencer Program - mainly use cubase sx2 through which i tend to use rewire reason for the use of the malestrom or the dr rex player. PC - Pentium 4 3.6, 2GB ram, 120gb hard drive SoundCard - Delta 1010 Mixing Desk - Mackie 1642vlz Monitors - Alesis MK2 (not the best but i love their warmth and i am use to thier sound) midi controller - Alesis photon hardware - FATMAN compressor, RODE NT2 mic, Software VSTi's: - Syths - Spectrasonics Atmosphere, Z3TA, novation v-station, albino, iposcar, absynth 3 amongst a few others Samplers - Battery, halion FX - Wave 4 fx, Quadfromage(filter), camelphat filter, orange vocoder, amongst others whos names dont spring to mind 2) On average, how long does it take you to build and finish a Song? on average at the moemnt id say 6 weeks, as i have only got time to work on the weekends and maybe an hour or two a night but if i had a load of free time i dont know how much i could do....... am working on liek 5 at the moment, have gone a little crazy 3) Which parts do you find tedious when building your track (if any), if it pattern sequencing, automation, etc? i thikn the most boring part for me is the mixing down, i would say labourius more than boring 4) Where did the inspiration come from to start producing music? always loved music and wanted to play, played the guitar (very averagely) for years and then got decks and bought a computer when i got into digital music - every piece of music i hear inspires me at teh moment, its so wired im in a constant zone 5) AND Your favourite style to produce? id say pschedeliic trip hop - j-level style

hey guys, just wana introduce myself to the forum - im david - J-Level - ive been making music for a good few years, trying different things, and well in the last yuear or so ive found music that i am completely comfortable when im making and that comes most naturally. would say that my music has a big psychedellic element whilst bringing influences from the other music i listen to. in all honesty its hard to describe it and it cant really be put into a single genre! have joined the forum to meet like minded producers and hear plenty of new music - mayeb eevn meet some people to collaborate with. here the plugs....... jlevel.co.uk- my offical website under reconstruction! http://thirteenrec.com/jlevelmy page on the website of the record label i am signed to Myspace.com/jlevel myspace page - hear my latest tunes there would love to hear peoples opinons of my new track - 'SUPERMAN WEARS JACK BAUER PAJAMAS' you can hear it on the myspace link above. have had really good feedback so far and honestly think its the best thing i have done Peace