Within this weeks session, we looked at creating a break beat in the style of a particular artist. I chose the artist I was already researching Veniterian Snare as his style has a lot of orchestral elements that I really enjoy. I also experimented briefly with Ableton’s Max for Live devices, especially for adding light glitching and extra modulation, as these tools are commonly used in breakcore to create unpredictable textures
From researching Venetian Snares’ workflow, I learned that he often slices drum breaks and resamples them repeatedly in Renoise, so I tried to imitate this by heavily cutting individual drum hits in my own track. I started the track by finding the Amen break sample that is popular within the breakcore genre.Then used an abletons sampler to slice up different elements of the sample so I can then use midi to draw out the individual drum hits. Mapping out the drum hits as midi is a very lengthy process as I want to give the tone of chaos using only the amen break so adding many different elements drawn out as midi takes a lot of planning and layering. Once the drum pattern was complete I started to use ableton’s inbuilt effects to help add even more variety to the track. Pitch shifting was an effect I used frequently on the drums to manipulate the snare to add even more chaos and variety to the drums by using automation.
For the orchestral samples within the song I looked through different sample forums as in the past they have been the best places to find sampled sounds and royalty free samples. I came across a moody string sample created by a member of the forum to use as a sample. I then chopped up different chord structures and time stretched them as well as used aggressive repeats to add some fast paced chaos to a very angelic sample. Working in a group helped me refine these ideas, as we shared approaches for slicing breaks and discussed ways to create more chaotic energy through automation.
This sonic aesthetic is a massive contrast of the two main elements to create a really unique sound that gives the music of Veniterian Snare a really strong identity. I also feel like this workflow is something new to me but I have learned a lot about sample manipulation as I have not worked with a lot of sampling before. It can be really beneficial as a producer as creating something new from a sample by manipulation can spark new ideas from simple samples to create a new sound and identity. These skills can be used more broadly into any genre of music as it is a really great way of adding colour and ideas to a track through sample manipulation. The most challenging part was keeping the chaos controlled, but this experimentation helped me understand breakcore’s balance between unpredictability and structure.
References
Butler, M. (2006) Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Available at:https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Unlocking_the_Groove.html?id=opzZzFUgDfEC&redir_esc=y (Accessed: 3rd of December)
Ferrigno, E. (2009) ‘Breakcore: Identity and Interaction on Peer-to-Peer (Whelan),’ Dancecult, 1(1), pp. 152–154. Available at: https://doi.org/10.12801/1947-5403.2009.01.01.15. (Accessed: 3rd of December)
꧁Masquerade Angel꧂ (2025) Moody Strings Sample (Free). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkvanPwGOHQ. (Accessed: 3rd of December)
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