Screamarts Shares How Using Fewer Sounds Helps Create Better Balance

Deep Sea Dubstep plunges into minimal and haunting dubstep landscapes with 300 depth-focused elements with tight drums, eerie synth loops, submerged FX, and spacey textures ready to breathe life into half-time or atmospheric tracks. This pack is all about tension, negative space, and immersive sound design, giving producers tools to conjure dark aquatic moods. We dove deep with Screamarts on his Deep Sea Dubstep pack and his production world overall!

Our Interview with Screamarts

As an artist renowned in the Drum & Bass scene predominantly, what inspired you to pursue a dubstep pack for your debut on Black Octopus? And how do you think your experience in one world influences your production styles in the other?

Well actually not many people know this but when I first started music production I was predominantly interested in Dubstep music, I was always a fan, dnb just started to speak to me more for my own style after many years or experimenting with music. I do have a couple dubstep releases though so the influence is always there in some ways, like sounds intended for slower tempos appear in my dnb tracks and vice versa.

This pack leans into minimal, atmospheric, dark soundscapes. When working in that aesthetic, how do you keep the sound engaging without over-crowding it?

Well this is always a balancing act in all music, with minimal for me its all about filling the spectrum enough without overwhelming the mix at the same time which is mostly done by leaving room in the sounds while in Neurofunk for example the sound design is quite full, frequency spectrum wise, also a balance between more percussion vs less mid basses etc, Its a fun challenge to overcome.

Sound design is central to the pack’s identity. Which techniques or workflows did you lean on most during production? Do you have any lesser-known tips or tricks you’re comfortable sharing?

Well in this case just my gut feeling with sound design. I have many years of experimentation, especially with Serum, and I just really know where everything is within it and that’s the biggest thing for me - learn the synths inside and out, learn to make everything in it, from drums to bass to pads and after a while you get an understanding of how many sounds are made and can use that in your own experimentation.

How do you think producers can best use subtle atmospheric sounds (FX, ambient loops) to elevate their mixes without cluttering them?

Atmospheric sounds are a broad topic as I guess everything with music production is. Putting a huge reverb on a vocal or a strange foley sound can already create some pretty cool atmospheric textures. How to not clutter a mix depends on the mix itself, a great general rule is if you want a more thinky vibe leave in some of the mids, and then with heaviness if you wanna keep the heavy vibes cut out the mids only leave in the upper harmonics you can still audibly perceive. This then means the atmosphere is just a helper to the vibes so to speak, really depends on the tune and intention though so I always try to ask myself, why am I adding this sound? What is its purpose?

Is there a track you’ve made (or plan to make) where Deep Sea Dubstep was a major influence or foundation, and how did it shape your arrangement?

Yes and no. I’m pretty sure I started some ideas during the process of making the pack because I often get inspired while doing so. I also try to make the sounds as inspiring as possible so I often kinda semi regretted I put those in a pack instead of using the sounds for my own production but that;s the only way I can work, every sound needs to be cool at least to my ears. Theres always still the possibilities to get more unique sounds out of the pack though because there is still room in those to resample which is also one of my favourite ways to get new sounds.

Use the button below to download Deep Sea Substep by Screamarts and be sure to check out the rest of the Black Octopus catalog for more amazing sample packs.