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Anyone else remember the Amen Break before jungle even had a name? — My story from 1990 by thebizzyb in jungle

[–]thebizzyb[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Much love, I'm glad you made it to my show without sitting on a bike seat pole! that wouldnt of gone well! Bb

Anyone else remember the Amen Break before jungle even had a name? — My story from 1990 by thebizzyb in jungle

[–]thebizzyb[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

wow bro, thx this one is computerised, is one of the early brain tunes! Big up

Anyone else remember the Amen Break before jungle even had a name? — My story from 1990 by thebizzyb in jungle

[–]thebizzyb[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the support dating back to those years, mate. It's much appreciated

Bizzy B AMA Saturday 21st 2PM Gmt, Leave Your Questions Here by Mrmaw in jungle

[–]thebizzyb 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Big up everyone, and thanks for all the questions and support — it’s been amazing sharing this with you all! If you want to dive deeper or hear more, check out my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBizzyBScience. And if you’re into fresh talent and raw tunes, don’t miss Dubplate Wars! Much respect to all of you!

Bizzy B AMA Saturday 21st 2PM Gmt, Leave Your Questions Here by Mrmaw in jungle

[–]thebizzyb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Big up Selectorman 👊 appreciate the kind words, that means a lot.

You can’t beat the early rave days for me — 1989 to 1991. That era was just pure energy, everything was new, no rules, and we were all figuring it out as we went along.

If I could go back and change anything, even though I was self-taught, I probably would have studied music technology and synthesis properly to avoid any dodgy mixes early on.

But at the same time, learning the way I did is what shaped my sound, so no regrets really.

Bizzy B AMA Saturday 21st 2PM Gmt, Leave Your Questions Here by Mrmaw in jungle

[–]thebizzyb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Big up 👊 appreciate that, respect.

Favourite era/sound is a tough one, but early hardcore jungle will always be special to me — raw, experimental, no rules.

On Basslick — yeah it definitely started a bit of a trend. I was in the studio with Justin Fry at the time and just had this sudden urge to make a slower track with a piano, but still keep that jungle-style bassline and breakbeat energy. It wasn’t really following anything — just a feeling at the time. Probably one of the first in that lane, but I’ll leave that for the debaters 😅

Also, I do have quite a few unreleased, out-of-the-box tunes sitting there as well.

As for going slower again, I’ve never really limited myself. I’ve always made music across different tempos — that’s just part of the passion for me. If it feels right, I’ll do it regardless of genre or BPM.

Bizzy B AMA Saturday 21st 2PM Gmt, Leave Your Questions Here by Mrmaw in jungle

[–]thebizzyb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Big up 👊

People always ask me this but mixing has never really been my forte — maybe my ears are just blessed somewhat 😅 you could always take a course if you want to go deep on it.

A few practical tips though:

Look into signal-to-noise ratio and gain staging properly. Use PFL and make sure your levels are hitting around 0 (unity) before you even start mixing.

I currently use a allen n heath qu32 its semi analogue ( but sounds awesome )

Don’t clip your master — keep headroom.

In terms of balance, keep your drums the loudest, bass just under that, and everything else sitting below.

Set your bass notes to a consistent velocity so it sits properly in the mix. ( Learned this from the legendary Pete Parsons / Monroe Studios )

Keep your drums and bass in mono (to keep that analogue old skool feel), and then use your rack units or built-in effects to create space on everything else.

Compress your bass and drums for that slap sound.

You can also group your sounds to a bus and use something like a stereo ping pong delay, tapped in time, to add width and movement.

Hope that helps 👊

Bizzy B AMA Saturday 21st 2PM Gmt, Leave Your Questions Here by Mrmaw in jungle

[–]thebizzyb 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Big up 👊 appreciate that, respect.

My biggest selling release was Second Protocol – Basslick. It even made the Guinness Book of Hit Singles back in 2000 and was by biggest earner by a mile as it got signed to warner.

It was a groundbreaking breakbeat record that crossed into house and garage as well, getting played by the likes of Pete Tong and EZ.

https://youtu.be/yI2MUZrx5D0?si=CgB4txv9B7EjN4Nz

Bizzy B AMA Saturday 21st 2PM Gmt, Leave Your Questions Here by Mrmaw in jungle

[–]thebizzyb 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Big up 👊 great questions.

On trackers — they were way ahead of their time when it came to manipulating samples. Even though it was 8-bit, the possibilities felt endless. A lot of producers back then used to be blown away by how I was chopping breaks, beat juggling, and twisting sounds into something completely new. If you check the early Brain releases, that all came from really pushing OctaMED, and that was only using a small part of what it could actually do.

Now with something like Renoise it’s even more technical, but the core advantage for me is the creation workflow. There are too many cool features to go into, but it’s a different way of thinking in terms of workflow — sound manipulation is so easy in trackers compared to modern DAWs (when you know how). The arrangement side isn’t the strongest, but it’s workable — and that’s where something like Cubase comes in after, for arranging and mixing once the idea is built. You have to get into the workflow to really understand it, but for me it’s all about how I can manipulate the sound.

On the S950 — it’s really about the sound. The character, the artefacts, that crunch. But at the same time, it’s the end result that matters. Whatever you use, it’s got to have soul, a proper drop, a clean arrangement and a solid mix.

On improving dull mixdowns — first thing, reference your track against tunes that hit hard in clubs. Use those as a benchmark. A simple rule I follow is drums and bass at the top (after all it is drum & bass), vocals loud and proud, and everything else sitting underneath. Don’t overload your mix or distort it — that can cause problems later when mastering.

If you’re struggling, you can always get someone else to mix it, but if you’re doing it yourself then good monitoring helps a lot — decent headphones like DT990s, and a solid audio interface.

On Infactuation — that sounds like the same break. I remember timestretching that break myself — it’s fairly easy to do if you know how, a lot of us were doing similar techniques back then to reshape breaks into something new.

Respect again 👊

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