Ska Ska Ska?

[4xEyes]

This has been a frustrating element of music making that I have encountered. I'm looking to create a ska/dancehall upbeat sound with the DS-10, and have been unable to. I have the rhythm on the 2's and 4's, with added delay, walking baseline, and a breakbeat that's not distracting. What the heck am I doing wrong? Can anyone give me tips, patches, or any kind of help with this? This is so frustrating, to the point of wanting to break my DS in half. This is a sound I love. My main influence/sound I'm looking for is the classic "Under Mi Sleng Teng" by Wayne Smith. Thanks for bearing with me...

[Axfinger]

So I just looked up this song and spent about 5 minutes making a pattern on my DS-10 of an approximation of it. I didn't run into much of a challenge but I'm not entirely sure what it is your unsatisfied with in your version. One thing you might try is, after adding delay to the drums to get a slap back effect, you can further the delay effect by doubling notes and messing with volumes. For example, in the song you mentioned, the snare has a very delayed sound to it, so what you might try is putting 4 16th notes from beat 2 to 3, and then cutting the volume of each successive note. This can end up adding length to the delay effect or mimicking a longer delay. Let me know if there's anything specific I could try to help you with.

[4xEyes]

Thanks. I didn't even think to apply delay to the drums! The Main problem I ran into was the upbeat. It's just not sounding proper. I'm at 85 bpm, with delay, and notes on 2 and 4, but it still doesn't sound right. I might need to upload an example to really give you a good impression with what I'm dealing with. Thank you for your help!

[4xEyes]

Ahh! I figured out what was wrong! I got the math wrong, and forgot the step sequencer was in 1/16th notes. I was putting the riddim on the 2's and 4's of the sixteenth notes! All fixed!

[Axfinger]

Oh alright. In order to jam all they could onto a DS screen, I think the creators had trouble making stuff like that very visible. You can all change how many steps are in the pattern on the main screen as well. Glad you figured it out.