Mainstream Hardcore
The Dutch millennium sound: a long screaming kick and a roll into every drop.
The pattern
2 bars, sixteenth notes. Loops until you stop it.
Sixteenths at the true tempo, 155, two bars. The hats run the offbeat of every beat and then double onto the a of beats 2 and 4 at a much quieter 58, which is the little stutter this style uses instead of a fill. There is no open hat anywhere, because the kick tail is already ringing across the offbeats and an open hat on top of it just muddies the low mids. Bar two hands the whole of beat 4 to the kick roll, four sixteenths climbing 96, 104, 114, 127, and drops both the beat 4 snare and the last two hats to clear space for it, putting a quiet snare at 68 on the and of 3 instead. That climb is the point. Flatten those velocities and you get a machine gun; keep them and it reads as a hand pushing into the drop. The rising pitch of the kick and the length of its tail are what separate this from gabber, and neither is visible here.
What it is
By 1998 the Rotterdam scene had nearly killed itself off, and what brought it back was a slower, longer, more produced kick. Producers around Masters of Hardcore, Enzyme and the Thunderdome brand dropped from 190 back to 150 and spent the extra time on the sample: three or four layers, a tail running most of a beat, and a distortion chain deep enough that the kick screams rather than thumps. The tracks got proper arrangements, real snares, hi-hats, breakdowns with strings in them. This is the form most people mean by hardcore now, and it has been the centre of the Dutch scene for twenty five years.
What it sounds like
A kick that starts with a hard click and then rises in pitch as it decays, so each hit sounds like it is being pulled upward. A distorted electric snare on 2 and 4 that has been through the same chain as the kick. Hats on the offbeats, dry and short. Between drops there is a breakdown with a piano or a string pad and a spoken vocal, at half the intensity and none of the distortion, which is what makes the drop land. The mix is clipped flat and mono below 200Hz.
Key elements
- The long kickSix hundred to eight hundred milliseconds of distorted tail, which at 155 is most of a beat. It is why this sits slower than gabber: any faster and the tails overlap into noise.
- Rising pitch, not fallingWhere a gabber kick sweeps down, this one drops fast then climbs a few semitones through the tail. That upward drift is the screaming quality.
- The kick rollFour sixteenths on the last beat of a phrase, climbing in velocity, often each one tuned a semitone higher. It is the fill, and there is usually no other fill in the track.
- A real backbeatA distorted electric snare on 2 and 4, which gabber did not have. It gives the bar a shape independent of the kick and makes eight bar phrasing audible.
- The breakdownThirty two bars with no kick at all, built from a piano line, a pad and a vocal. It exists to reset the ear so the kick sounds hard again.
How to get them
- Layer the kickThree parts on three channels: a clicky transient under 15ms, a punch layer around 100Hz, and a long distorted body. Distort only the body, then glue them with a clipper at the end of the chain.
- Pitch the tail upDraw a pitch envelope that falls an octave in 30ms, then rises three to five semitones over the next 500ms. Two semitones is subtle, seven is comic; five is the usual answer.
- Roll with tuningFor the four sixteenth roll, copy the kick four times and pitch each copy up one semitone over the last, with velocities climbing from about 95 to 127. Shorten each copy so they do not stack.
- SnareElectric snare, a short bright reverb of 250ms, then the same overdrive you used on the kick at half the drive. Matching the distortion character is what makes the kit sound like one instrument.
- Sidechain nothingDucking the mix to the kick is a house habit and it makes hardcore sound weak. Carve with EQ instead: everything else high-passed at 200Hz and the kick given the whole bottom.
- Arrange for the roomIntro, sixteen bars of drums, drop, breakdown, bigger drop. Five minutes. The second drop should have one element the first did not, usually a screech, and nothing more.
Reference points
Angerfist, Neophyte, Endymion, Evil Activities, Catscan, Art of Fighters, and Masters of Hardcore, Enzyme and Traxtorm as labels. Reference points for the sound rather than endorsements.
The pattern is a starting point rather than a rule. If you want the theory underneath why any of it works, Battuto measures it.