Rawstyle

History and character

Rawstyle is the darkest, most aggressive current of hardstyle: little or no melody, lots of screeches, more distorted and “dirty” kicks, and violent or horror atmospheres. According to Wikipedia it emerged around 2010, drawing on mainstream hardcore, gabber and early hardstyle, in opposition to the euphoric hardstyle that dominated those same years with emotional melodies. Mixgraph places it as the logical extension of the 150 BPM hardstyle baseline, settling between 150 and 160 with more aggressive sound design.

A central name is Ran-D (Randy Wieland, Netherlands), who releases on A2 Records (a Scantraxx sub-label dedicated to the most “raw” hardstyle sounds, since 2008), forms the duo Gunz for Hire with Adaro (2011) with the aim of offering a darker aesthetic at a time when hardstyle was dominated by euphoric sounds, and in 2015 co-founds Roughstate Music; tracks such as “Zombie” (2017) and “Hurricane” (2018, winner of the Q-dance Top 100) and the Qlimax anthem “The Reawakening” (2021) show how raw moved into the center of the scene. Other names often associated: Radical Redemption, Warface, Phuture Noize, Sub Sonik, Rejecta, E-Force, Malice, Unresolved, Act of Rage, Rooler, Sefa (between raw and frenchcore). Labels: Roughstate, Gearbox, Minus Is More, Dirty Workz (in part), Scantraxx (A2).

Rawstyle is played above all on the “hard” stages of Defqon.1, Qlimax, Supremacy and Intents; the typical structure alternates a breakdown (sometimes melodic or narrated) with an “anti-climax”: a melody-free drop made of kicks and screeches. It is sound-design music: its recognizability lies in the kick and the screech, more than in the harmony.

Scales and keys

Rawstyle is minor and dissonant: Phrygian, chromaticism, tritone; melodies (when there are any) in harmonic minor. Examples in F# minor (kick tail on F#1 = 46.25 Hz) and G.

Phrygian

• Formula: 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7. H W W W H W W.
• On F#: F# G A B C# D E.
• Characteristic note: b2 (G): menace, constant tension.
• Chords (Roman numerals relative to natural minor): i F#m, bII G, III A, iv Bm, v° C#°, VI D, vii Em.
• Use: screeches oscillating F#–G, kicks whose tail slides by a half step, bII–i stabs in the anti-climax.
• Common mistakes: holding the half step in the kick tail for many bars creates annoying beating; better as a short glissando.

Locrian and tritone

• Formula: 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7. On F#: F# G A B C D E (b5 = C).
• Chords: i° F#°, bII G, iii Am, iv Bm, bV C, VI D, vii Em.
• Use: screeches jumping by tritone (F#–C), horror moments.

Harmonic minor (breakdown and raw leads)

• Formula: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7. On F#: F# G# A B C# D E#.
• Chords: i F#m, ii° G#°, III+ A+, iv Bm, V C#, VI D, vii° E#°.
• Use: “evil” leads and epic breakdowns before the anti-climax.

Octatonic and chromatic scale

• Half-step/whole-step octatonic on F#: F# G A A# C C# D# E. Use: screeches rising in minor thirds, “mechanical” glissandi.

Natural minor (breakdown)

• Formula: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7. On F#: F# G# A B C# D E. Chords: i F#m, ii° G#°, III A, iv Bm, v C#m, VI D, VII E.
• Use: melodic breakdowns with pads and vocals.

How to choose

• Anti-climax: Phrygian, tritone, chromaticism; almost no harmony.
• Breakdown: Aeolian or harmonic minor.
• Rule: the screech must “talk” to the kick: use the same notes as the tail or deliberately dissonant intervals (b2, b5).

Harmony

• Almost no harmony in the anti-climax: kick tuned to the tonic + dissonant screeches; the “progression” is a note change in the kick tail every 2–4 bars.
• Breakdown: 2–4 minor chords, dark pads, strings, choirs; sometimes a lead melody in harmonic minor.
• Cadences: harmonic V–i at the end of the breakdown, then silence and the kick drop.
• Dissonance: b2, b5, clusters; screeches with continuous pitch bends.
• Harmonic rhythm: slow (1 change every 2–4 bars).

Typical progressions

Rhythm and groove

• Four on the floor at 150–160, rigid grid; the kick fills all the space between the quarter notes.
• Kick patterns more varied than in euphoric: “rolling” eighth-note kicks in the builds, syncopated patterns (kicks on 1, 4, 7, 9, 13, for example) in the anti-climaxes, “three-hit” kicks.
• Half-time breakdowns or breakdowns without kick; drops with impact.
• No swing.

Drums

Convention: 16 sixteenth-note steps; quarter-note beats on 1, 5, 9, 13.

Kick

• Steps 1, 5, 9, 13 as the baseline. Raw variants: additional eighth-note kicks (3, 7, 11, 15) in the builds; syncopated patterns in the anti-climaxes (e.g. 1, 4, 7, 9, 13 or 1, 5, 8, 11, 13).
• Structure: punch (2–6 kHz, 10–20 ms) + distorted crunch (100–600 Hz, heavy distortion) + tuned tail (often with additional distortion and a resonant filter). Raw kicks have more “crunch” and dirtier, shorter tails than euphoric kicks.

Clap and snare

• Steps 5 and 13, often dry or absent in the anti-climax (the kick covers everything).

Hi-hat and percussion

• Open hat on the offbeat (3, 7, 11, 15), ride in sixteenth notes, crash every 8 bars; metallic percussion and impacts.

Dynamics and groove

• Uniform velocities; the groove comes from the kick pattern.

Interaction with screech and vocals

• Screeches in the spaces between the kicks (steps 2–4, 6–8…), with sidechain or volume shaping from the kick; MC vocals and samples over the kicks with distortion.

How it changes by section

• Intro: kick + atmosphere or narration; kick section: kick + screech; breakdown: pads and vocals; build: kick roll, snare roll, riser; anti-climax: kick + screech, no melody; second kick section varied.

Fills and transitions

• Kick roll (eighths → sixteenths → thirty-seconds), reverse kick, a quarter note of silence and kick drop, vocal samples (“raw”, screams).

Sound choice

• Kicks designed from scratch (synthesis + distortion + resampling), screeches from distorted resonant synths.

Typical mistakes

• Untuned kick; too many screeches at once; anti-climax with no variation for 32 bars.

Bass

• The kick is the bass: tail tuned to the tonic, distorted; in raw the tails can change note or slide.
• Occasional reverse bass in “early style” tracks.
• Notes: tonic, b2, b5; tail glissandi.
• Tuning: fundamental F1–A1; main harmonic an octave above.

Harmonic instruments

• Dark pads, strings and choirs in the breakdowns; dissonant stabs; almost nothing in the drop.

Melody and vocals

• Screech: the “lead” of raw: resonant, distorted synths with pitch bend, often rhythmic.
• Raw lead: short melodies in harmonic minor.
• Vocals: MC, samples from horror films, narrations with a low, distorted voice, screams.
• Effects: distortion, large reverbs in the breakdowns, 1/4 delay.

Instruments

• Synthesized and distorted kicks, clap, open hat, ride, crash; screech (resonant synths), pads, strings, choirs; vocals and samples; horror FX.

Drum patterns

Synths and sounds

• Korg MS-20 V — Screech: Resonant high-pass and low-pass filters at maximum with drive, pitch envelope and mod wheel for glissandi: raw screech.
• ARP 2600 V — Screech and FX: Ring modulator and sample & hold: metallic screeches and chaotic FX.
• Mini V — Kick tail: Sine/triangle with a fast pitch envelope (+36 → 0 semitones in 40–80 ms), then heavy external distortion and a filter.
• Synthi V — Horror FX: Pin matrix with cross-modulation: noises and transitions.
• Augmented Strings — Dark strings: Cinematic breakdowns.

Song structure

• Mixgraph suggests 8–16-bar breakdowns and 16–32-bar blends for DJs.

Mixing and mastering

Sonic goal

• Huge, distorted but defined kick, aggressive but controlled screeches, extreme loudness; strong contrast between breakdown and anti-climax.
• References: Ran-D, Radical Redemption, Warface.

Kick

• Layers: punch (high-pass 200 Hz, +3 dB at 4 kHz), crunch (multiple distortion: Fruity Blood Overdrive, Distructor, Saturn; EQ to remove the “boxy” 300–500 Hz), tail (low-pass 2–4 kHz, tuned).
• Kick bus: high-pass 25 Hz, clipper 4–6 dB; mono below 200 Hz; no reverb.

Clap

• High-pass 250 Hz, +3 dB at 3 kHz, compression, short reverb.

Hi-hat and percussion

• High-pass 600 Hz; sidechain from the kick.

Screech

• High-pass 200–300 Hz; dynamic EQ on the resonances (Soothe 2 or dynamic Pro-Q 3) between 1 and 5 kHz; de-esser; distortion; moderate width; volume shaping from the kick 10–15 dB.

Pads, strings, choirs

• High-pass 250 Hz, long hall reverb in the breakdowns.

Vocals and MC

• High-pass 100 Hz, heavy compression, distortion, presence at 3 kHz; reverb and delay in the breakdowns.

FX

• Impacts, risers, horror samples: level below the kick.

Buses and groups

• Kick bus; Screech bus with volume shaping; Music bus; Vocal bus.

Sidechain

• Kick → everything.

Master

• Chain: EQ → glue → clipper → limiter.
• Indicative targets: −4/−3 LUFS integrated for festivals; true peak −0.3 dBTP.

Common mistakes

• Screeches with unbearable fixed resonances; kick that loses its punch from too much distortion; master that distorts on the transients.

Reference tracks for the mix

• Ran-D — Zombie (2017); Ran-D — Hurricane (2018); Ran-D — The Reawakening (2021).

Reference listening

• Ran-D — Living for the Moment (2009)
• Ran-D — Zombie (2017)
• Ran-D — Hurricane (2018)
• Ran-D — The Reawakening (inno Qlimax, 2021)