I come from makeing and listening to drum and bass, so when I make drums its usually a mix of single hits and layers of filtered classic breaks (funk and rock).

So I ask you, how do you go about making breaks for breakbeat. Do u use classic break loops aswell? How?

Or do you prefer single hits only? How do you get the groove going with single hits?

i prefer single hits. maybe use parts of a percussion loop here and there. depends on how the feel the track is coming along. setting a good quantize on the drum track to get the swing going and/or pan and stereo out the percussions usually works

I use some loops that have come out of Future Music (the UK version). Some issues I bought that came with loops and hits, and others my friend gave to me when he worked for a bookstore. If the issue didn't sell, all they had to do was send back the cover, so I've got literally thousands of drum hits to work with. I've also got a sampler, and two sound cards for my Alesis S4, and two drum machines.

Between all of that mess, I mix it up to create my breaks. It's a feel thing really. Sometimes I'm in the mood to program it by hand on a keyboard, other times it's just by programming by step in the Matrix editor of Logic, other times it's on a drum machine, and then if it's not beefy enough, I throw some other loops on top of it or I'll double the kick. Three plug-ins come in handy as well, and those are the Logic compressor, the Audio Damage "Rough Rider" compressor--which is really nasty--and the Bit Crusher in Logic.

Everything! Layered Single Kicks and snares always and loops as well. Anything to get that the drums sounding thick and the snare choppy!
Changing the Transponse on the drums to create variation and certain compression on snares and usually one with a lil reverb to give it a full chizop
Basslines i like to use the oddity combined with frantic (vst used in abelton) Thor Synth in reason 4 and sometime just gritty synths with some subbass to pump it up.
Of course Stabs and edits are always nice to complete while panning different stabs and fx along with some percussion to keep it not sounding busy...27 tracks on the same middle L/R gets to busy.
And my favorite tool to use on anything is for you live users...LiveCut and dblueGlitch. Ill ass glitch plug ins. They randomize so ya gotta render and resample but some nice figidy sounds can be created.

Of course to much to mention but this is my base formula!

Wanna here some of my tracks? Check out www.myspace.com/djdstro & www.Royalonerecords.com

Im digging your tracks Distro, nice one!

I try to avoid using loops unless I'm going for a specific classic feel, ie the old Amen break or Think About It break. Over the years I have found that if I set my kick's peak level to -7db, I'm left with plenty of room to produce all of the other elements of the tune without any peaking or clipping. Should, somewhere along the way, I get some clipping I'll go through the tune and find the issue RATHER THAN adjust the kick. Typically I bus all of my drums to a separate mixer channel, add a touch of distortion for harmonic purposes, and compress them together using a relatively low compression ratio. Then add some reverb to the bus from a send reverb set to a nice drum plate.

Given my style of breaks (a heavily florida influenced stye <-it's where I'm from) I'll grab a handful of fun vocal samples, and edit them to fit the percussion bed I've created as well as to the notation and LFO speeds of my bassline.

For my bassline, I'm a huge fan of the Sylenth1 VST, I've found the diversity of that plug in is quite impressive. I've also been know to use Albino 3, or Massive, it just depends on the sound I'm going for. Typically I'll load up the Sylenth1 first. I like to make full use of as many of the parameters of the plug in as possible such as LFO Rates, Cut off, onboard effects, pitch bends, Oscillators, etc. Where most people might simple add another instance of a plug in, I'll use the same one and automate the crap out of it to allow a few things to take place... 01. a smooth transition between LFO rates, and Oscillators sounds, as well as 02. a smooth and cohesive measure of the effects built in on the plug in between automated states.

When it comes to melodies, I like to write them in accordance with not only the key of my bassline, but the LFO rates as well. I can't say I go for any specific sound with my melodies, I just kind of rely on what ever works for the tune.

I'm also a big fan of atmospheric effects, I'll add more and more of them to fill in the spaces that I feel are left empty between sample hits, basslines, and melodies.

Again, given my time spent in Florida and the Florida style of breaks that I do, I implement lots of change ups and hard cuts as transitions between pieces of a track. It's not uncommon for me to go from a hard driven bassline to a funky disco loop in a matter of 32 beats and a quick cut.

You can have a listen to my music on www.beatport.com have a search for DJ Hero