Background
You've probably heard it before in action/fight & car chase scenes. Not to be confused with beat music, bigbeat was an 'electronic dance music'™ scene, largely popularised in Britain/Europe throughout the 90s & early 00s, before dying a commercial death at the hand of Hollywood film directors (see The Matrix; which made it the coolest music ever, yet signalled its commercialization & ultimate demise). Associated artists are heavy hitters; acts like The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, Propellerheads, Junkie XL, FSOL, Paul Oakenfold, Groove Armada, Basement Jaxx & Meat Beat Manifesto, to name but a few, all had unique takes on this genre of music. Countless other artists & styles, past and contemporary, have been influenced or taken inspiration from it, or could even be considered bigbeat, even if not formally acknowledged. If you haven't heard bigbeat, or something inspired by it, you're probably not a real person and should stay plugged into the matrix. It's probably for the best.
Description
The typical sound of bigbeat is heavy breakbeat drums typically upwards of 120bpm (though atypically known to go as low as 100bpm ), distorted basslines, with synths borrowed from Acid-House, Rave or Techno. TB303, moogs, junos, SH-101 & nords are heard a lot, as are many bread and butter sounds of analog and digital hardware/samplers available at the time. Just like 80s & 90s hip-hop that inspired some of the rhythms of bigbeat (bigbeat often sped up hip-hop beats for the pill-munchers), it derived its drums from sampled breaks, and deftly sequenced drum machines, as well as utilizing some of the first commercial sample CDs, typically in the same way dnb producers do to this day (The Prodigy -> Pendulum connection). Also known to use hooky samples & SFX, vocals tended to be chants, emcee, rap or musical parts, rather than sung lyrics, though there are numerous exceptions. As demonstrated by the artists associated with it, one could also class dnb, jungle, idm and various other breakbeat-derived music within the scope of bigbeat; bigbeat is simply a tad slower. Electronic dance music with a larger than life attitude, it can be underground stuff that will pass in the mainstream, & often bridges the gap between electronic dance music and the rock/metal attitude. The brosteppers thought they stumbled across something new there. Sorry, bigbeat beat you to the punch by a couple of decades. Thank you, Master H.
audiosabre's advice
You can leave the apt description at the door. That's just a stereotype, an amalgamation. It basically boils down to massive, HUGE eff off drum grooves, layered with dance or rock rhythms. That applies to most electronic music nowadays, thanks partly to the influence of bigbeat. The only real "rule" was no four to the floor kicks, just breakbeat goodness. But even the bigbeat gods have broken that "rule", hence the inverted commas. Never say never (pssst, it won't help you defeat the automatons), but it's hard to pull off if one is not already proficient in the genre. Can be synths, basslines, electric bass or guitar doing the rhythm work, but generally you can use any aggressive or edgy sounds. I've heard metal, punk and funk guitars in bigbeat; it sounds cool to me. If you don't want yours to sound stale or done to death, you're likely going to have to add something to the fold. Something contemporary, genre bend/blending, or by adding something of your own genius. That's the interesting part. Many synthesis or processing options we have today did not exist when bigbeat was at its height, so there are avenues to explore. That's partly what made Noisia's remix of 'Smack My Bitch Up' interesting, they brought their thing to the table (that & they're awesome). Adding your own ting is what will make your bigbeat sound original and/or fresh.
TL;DR aka Da Rules
Submit something that you consider to be bigbeat or bigbeat-inspired. Projects must contain all stock FL plugins. Stuff included in the installer & online content library are permitted. Record stuff if you like, as long as its loaded into stock generators/effects and zipped up. Track length between 2-5 minutes. 3 submissions per entrant max. Upload the .FLP/.ZIP file & MP3 here before sunset on June 27 2018, where there's a full moon in Sagittarius in the Northern hemisphere. SoundCloud uploads are encouraged. Any adverse effects from making bigbeat; see your doctor immediately.
Concluding that novella, let's hear you drop some bombs.
Looptalk User Contest Archive
Looptalk User Contests - SoundCloud Page