Hey guys, Ben here, thanks for checking out my post. I’ve finally gotten around to writing a bit of a review for you guys about what I personally think is the best program to make dubstep (and similar types of music) for beginners and intermediates. My aim is to provide you with a non- fluff comprehensive review of this program, based on my own experience with it over the last 5 or so months.

I’ve been using this program to make dubstep music (along with other types, mostly dubstep though) with great success as I progressed from a total beginner to making dubstep music like a genuine dubstep artist, and I’ll be sharing what I thought was good and bad about this dubstep program based on my own personal experience with it.

If you’d rather skip to the chase, you can check out the program I used here. If not, read on and find out why I think this program is so awesome, and worked so well for me.

(scroll down to skip straight to the Pros/Cons section)

 First of all, a bit of background info. I’ve been an avid listener of many forms of electronic music going on six years now, and I’ve always enjoyed discovering new genres to captivate me even further. Among my favorite genres are dubstep, rap, hip hop, drum n’ bass, techno and house music.

About a year ago I found myself hungering for something more… music was becoming more than just something I would use to pass the time or kick back and relax to. You could say I caught the bug- I wanted to try my hand at producing my own music. So, I went searching for some good programs to make dubstepmusic with, as this was my favorite genre at the time.

A number of my friends had already caught the bug long before me, and before I knew it I was neck deep in professional audio software and equipment that I had no clue how to use, and roughly $1.5k out of pocket. I’d gone out on a limb and bought all this stuff based on their recommendations, without realizing that their recommendations were based on the stuff they used themselves and had been learning how to use for a very long time.

I spent many months trying to figure out how to use all of my equipment confidently enough to start making dubstep music, but time and time again I found myself combing through youtube videos for relevant tutorials for all sorts of things (mostly things that I’d already learnt how to do, and had to revisit because I’d forgotten or didn’t understand it properly). In fact, looking back now I probably spent more time on youtube learning how to make music than I actually spent trying to make music, and the music I did manage to make sounded like absolute garbage. The programs I was using definitely weren’t the best programs to make beats with… for a beginner, anyway.

However, just as my hopes were starting to dwindle, another friend of mine approached me claiming that the beat making software he used was targeted specifically at beginners, and in his words, it was as easy as 1,2,3 to go from sounding like crap to sounding like a real pro with this music making software.

And to my amazement, he wasn’t lying. The moment I tried this program to make dubstep for myself, it was as if a whole new section of my brain had just been unlocked. It was as if there was no longer a barrier stopping the creativity flowing straight from my head out into a tune.

It seriously felt like my friend had just showed me a music translator of some sort, able to translate the complicated language of music into flawless english that I could fully understand and control at will. Get the drift? Well, you should, because this program literally answered all of my problems in an instant, and not only did it answer them, it completely and utterly demolished them.

It’s ease of use, value for money, range of features and step-by-step tutorials far surpassed that of any other dubstep program I’d come across thus far, and I got really,  REALLY excited because I felt like I was finally onto something that was going to get me where I wanted to go.

And I can honestly say, to this day, that this discovery was the one thing that I needed to start me off, and that I wouldn’t be where I am today or have the knowledge and experience that I have today if it weren’t for this program.

Click here to check it out for yourself and see what I’m raving about by the way.

Anyway, went a bit off topic there. So I guess you might be asking by now, what is this dubstep making program, and what makes it so special? Well, basically, here is a complete breakdown of the main pros and cons that I perceived over many months of using this beat making software.

PROS

1. Samples

• They’re high quality (fully mastered 44.1hz wav, studio quality). Whether you’re playing it through your headphones or through a massive speaker system, you’ll be able to hear the difference. A lot of similar dubstep programs either use mp3 samples and export in mp3, use 44.1hz samples and export in mp3, or use mp3 samples and export in 44.1hz wav- whichever way, the result is lower quality sound.

• There are thousands of them included with this music making software, and there is the opportunity to add more of your own or download more from the program’s web page.

•  There are 16 audio tracks available to add samples, so you can have up to 16 layered samples in your track. You also have the ability to change volume or mute each individual track.

•  There are a wide variety of samples to choose from, including a whole bunch of unique voice samples. The sheer diversity of their samples means that this dubstep software is able to be used as a program to make beats in dozens of different electronic genres. Not that its specifically targeted at making dubstep music.. its just that people mistake the name ‘dub turbo’ to mean that this program is only useful for making a dubstep tune, when it’s actually the complete opposite.

•  Over 40 drum kits, with 10 pads each. You also get the ability to adjust the volume of each pad, and assemble your own drum kits using your own 10 sounds.

•  Royalty free- not sure if that’s the best way to put it, but what I mean is that if you were to make a song with these samples and sell it, you wouldn’t be in breach of any copyright agreements- it’s your own original track with your own samples as far as everyone is concerned.

• Auto- quantizing of your recording, meaning that notes you draw in will automatically snap into the right spots without any extra fiddling (in most audio programs quantizing is a real time- consuming pain in the bum, and this music creation software eliminates it entirely).
  

2. User friendly interface

• The ease of use  of the interface is what really sets this program to make dubstep apart from the crowd in terms of what’s defined as beginners music making software and what isn’t.

•  There is no need for additional beat making software or equipment- you can do everything from start to finish using just your computer (mac and pc by the way), a keyboard and a mouse.

• Simple drag and drop, 1 click and keyboard trigger interface. Drag, drop and copy samples horizontally and vertically across layers (very useful for layering up drum tracks and melodies). Easy to use ‘drag-draw-erase’ keyboard shortcuts that are side by side, and ability to use your keyboard to tap in your sounds to the metronome. These 3 features basically allow you to make your music 10x faster than with other music creation software, and with less mucking around.

•  Live recording capabilities using the keyboard.

•  3 fully interactive screens. Screen 1 is the sequencer, where you can draw in bars, adjust volume sliders and arrange your layers to perfection.
• Screen 2 is the drum machine, where you can set your drum kit, adjust your 10 drum pads and either draw in your beat or tap it in with the keyboard in time with the metronome.
• Screen 3 is the keyboard, allowing you to draw in notes over 4 octaves (2 of which can be controlled with the keyboard) and move sounds around or arrange notes with just one click, whilst being able to change your instrument selection at will. A really cool feature with the keyboard that I thought I’d point out is that they also include drum samples that can be drawn in on the keyboard screen. This allows you to create really nice ascending and descending drum rolls and make really nice breakdowns.

3. Tutorials

• If dub turbo isn’t easy enough to get the hang of straight out of the box, they offer a whole series of tutorials dedicated to making sure you get the most out of their program. In fact, they have an entire webpage dedicated just to tutorials. On this page you will find 6 in-depth, step-by-step videos detailing every single thing you could possibly need to know about using the dubstep software and making your own music.

• These videos range from 20 to 60 minutes long. There are also lots of pictures showing basic chord patterns to use on the keyboard, and basic drum patterns for various styles of music, such as hip hop and reggae. They also have a youtube channel that is constantly updated with new videos, and there are currently over 100 videos on there

4. VALUE!

• If you can find me another program that can beat this one in value, I’ll buy you a copy myself out of my own pocket. Seriously, the next program that even comes close to dub turbo is priced at $100 (called Fruity Loops), and it packs very little punch in terms of value and ease of use compared to this program, not to mention all of the other added features it lacks.

• This program can be had for as little as $39, and it is definitely well worth the money in my opinion. To put it in perspective for you, this is how much I spent on programs to make dubstep before I found it- $600. Yep, I spent $600, and what did I get out of it? Sh*t all, because what use is a super duper program to make dubstep if you don’t have a clue how to use it, and it’s going to take you ages to learn?

•  The first dubstep program I bought was Fruity Loops, which as I already said, didn’t even come close, and the learning curve was quite steep. The next dubstep program I bought was on the advice of a friend who also told me I should buy a load of expensive audio equipment too (hence the $1.5k I ended up spending), and that program was Ableton Live. Retailing at an easy $500, this dubstep software has all the bells and whistles you could possibly need, lets you tinker with every single thing you could possibly want to tinker with, is used by HEAPS of the pros- and is an absolute mission impossible of a program to learn how to use properly from scratch. And you know how that story ended up already, so you can see why I chose to use this program to make dubstep music instead! 
• Click here to visit the official dub turbo webpage.

 5. General/ support

• You can access the program online as well as in downloaded form. A really handy feature if you’re on the go a lot or using different computers and find you want to drum out a quick idea before you forget it, or if it’s more convenient for you to make beats online.

• Great online customer support (I’ve never had to use it, but my friend mentioned that it was top notch and they endeavor to help their customers in every way possible).

• A handy 60 day full refund policy if you find that it’s not for you after all.

• Lifetime updates. You will get updates for free for the entire life of the product, which I think is a really great feature as they’re always refining their program (they’ve just released version 2) and release added extras all the time. For example, a few months ago they released a dubstep sample pack to their customers with over 100 samples (for free) and they have just released a whole package of extra sound editing programs that can be used in conjunction with more advanced programs, which I’ve been making full use of (more on that later).

 CONS

1. MARKETING BULLSHIT

• If you go and type ‘dub turbo’ into google looking for an honest opinion, don’t even bother. 99.999% of the time you will end up having trashy, repetitive marketing bullshit shoveled down your throat faster than you can click BACK, even if it looks like an honest site.

• The amount of hype surrounding this dubstep software is spiraling out of control, and the amount of fake ‘review sites’ that are appearing on the internet is spiraling out of control even faster. It feels like you’re walking through a music store with a big sign over your head saying ‘SELL ME EVERYTHING!’ It’s bullshit, plain and simple.

•  The program, as I’ve already outlined, is an absolute masterpiece- however, due to the aforementioned internet sales tactics giving this gem of a program a bad name, it is often scoffed at and labeled as no more than a toy by people who use more established and expensive beat making software such as Fruity Loops and Ableton Live.

• The reality is that this program can do practically everything that they can do just as well, with a hell of a lot less hassle and mucking around, and at less than half the price (actually at over 1/12^th of the price, in the case of Ableton- so there you go)- it is damn good beat making software.

2. No compatibility with more advanced music programs

• As I mentioned before, this program can do practically everything the more advanced music mixing software can do and you can produce the same professional sounding music from this that you could with them after hours of tinkering.

• However, there may come a time when you no longer class yourself as a beginner or an intermediate, and you will probably find that you WANT to spend hours tinkering with your music, trying to make your own custom samples from scratch and using expensive audio equipment to customize every single aspect of your music.

• And that’s absolutely fine, but if you found yourself wanting to crank out a quick tune in Dub turbo in conjunction with this other music creation software, then you wouldn’t be able to do it (you can, of course, export the file from Dub turbo and edit it separately, but that’s hardly as fun as using them together). But where Dubturbo falls short, it makes up for it in other ways- namely, the release of five VST plugins (standalone programs/ synthesizers that allow you to create and edit your own sound samples extensively, great for making a dubstep wobble, etc).

•  If you were to buy these VST plugins separately, it would cost you an arm and a leg (one of the leading dubstep VST plugins is ‘Massive’, retailing at $200), and you get 5 of them for free with the main program.

So, in conclusion, you could spend hundreds of dollars on advanced music mixing software and audio equipment, and months trying to figure out how to use it all like I did, or you could choose to work with a truly great program, achieve virtually instant results, and reach the same outcome in a fraction of the time (with plenty of cash to spare might I add!). There really isn’t a choice is there?

You’d be absolutely bonkers to try and start making your own tunes any other way (hey, I wish I’d read something like this when I was a beginner- consider yourself privileged!). Anyway, I hope this has helped you learn from my mistakes and decide on the best path to take with making your own music. If you choose to heed my advice then I really encourage you to click here and head on over to the Dubturbo website.

I wish you all the best in your beat making endeavors, and I hope my webpage has helped you.

.:Ben:.

P.S. If you’re looking for more advice regarding the making of dubstep music, be sure to check out my other posts.