Blogosphere One

This is a very personal entry, i will tell you why i write this at the end because i feel you need the back story to take anything useful from this blog. However be warned, i’m gonna be extremely blunt here, normally i try to keep my stuff totally clean, however feelings are best understood uncensored, and to understand the lesson, i hope you’ll understand it all, when you are finished reading this.

My summer vacation has been a nightmare, i’ve been lower then i ever thought i would be, i have had thoughts of quitting it all; music, school even contact with near and dear friends of mine, why i’m not totally sure, but i know that something have had a impact on this.

I been out of work for a while, since January to be exact, the rejection letters has pilled up, and when i finally got an interview they decided to get someone with experience, this has of course meant that i have had little money to work with, not anything new to me, i’m used to being broke and it never hurt me to have to cut back on parties and that kind off thing. However there was a new problem this time around, when i lost my job, i was in the middle of building up my studio, this is the first time, my music had been affected by my finances since i was just starting taking it serious with my own studio. It wasn’t that bad to start with, i still had lots of toys to learn, so it may have been a smart time to stop buying.

At the beginner of the vacation i was overjoyed, i had just finished the hardest grade, i was to have at this school, i finally had time to focus on music and finding a job, i was sure it would become a good summer, i had plans of releasing a Mixtape and a EP’en. First bullet came when my partner in rhyme’s whore of an ex, decided that she wouldn’t let us release a song where she was on the chorus, despite we had cleaned up all previous beef, she was mad at the other partner in rhymes, because he wouldn’t cheat on his girl with her, we tried to tell her, that she was crazy if she thought, it would help to threaten us and gave her a finger while we burned our contract, while we had all we needed to release the song, we decided it would be better to demonstrate that we couldn’t be threatened and that we rather would work with professional people, then releasing a track with an amateur, that couldn’t let business be business.

The second bullet came soon after, after 50 job applications during two weeks, and not getting one reply, not even a rejection, i braked, why i don’t know exactly, but i couldn’t take it anymore, i went into a frenzy of feelings, most dominant the lust for destruction of something, i started banging my hands into the wall, i screamed “I don’t want to fight anymore, i want to give up.” My sister heard me and spent the next two hours trying to get me to calm down, she has always been there for me and i’m truly thankful for her, after i calmed down, she gave me a bit of money to pay my phone bill, i don’t really know why i snapped then, like i said, i’m no strange to being broke, but something had changed, i don’t know what, but it had.

I figured i needed to focus on the music for a while, figured it would keep me from freaking out, sadly i still had bills to pay and had to borrow money for them, luckily i had my dad, he agreed to let me work it off, so i just spent a half hours walking the dog, something i always enjoyed. The first coule of days after this went smooth, i felt a bit better and i felt this could become a good summer still. This feeling was however soon replaced with desperation, my two brothers by choice and partners in rhyme had a lot to do and i started feeling isolated, i spend little time awake during the day, i was up most the night in front of my computer, trying to make some music, nothing was there, i spend more time just looking at the sequencer, then doing anything and when i did it sounded like shit, i don’t if it was my mind or it really was shit, but nothing seemed to work for me. Still out of work i spend days searching for work, thinking: “If i just get a job, i get money and can get some gear, that will help.” While these words had some truth, i could use more gear, i’m very limited by my set-up, but that wasn’t my main problem, i was blocked, by what i still don’t know. Finally i quitted, i no longer looked for work except a few half ass attempts where i already was sure i wouldn’t get it. Instead i started dreaming of winning a couple of millions, being able to spend them on gear, or if just somebody would hold a contest where i could win a fantom, a motif, a MPC, it seemed more likely to me then getting a job and save up for it, i was stupid, i know, but like i said i had given up. Same with my music, instead of opening the sequencer, i opened games start playing, i started drinking at times where i had no reason, other then escaping a little bit, i wasn’t getting drunk, just spend some more time, not having to think to much about all my problems, i took other escape routes too, i always had the T.V. on no matter what, i tried to avoid sleeping as much as possible, because i always felt vulnerable  when trying to sleep, mind open for bad thoughts, i spend most nights doing stupid stuff, looking at random youtube videos, reading recipes on stuff, i never would eat. I figured that i could use a girl, but at this time i couldn’t do anything, so it was just another daydream, i thought about contacting an old girlfriend, but thankfully i no longer have her number.

By this time my days start blurring into each other, i started smoking more and more and when i wasn’t smoking, i was either watching T.V. or playing games, my music was totally dead, worst thing was now the other two had time now, but i was dead, couldn’t write a line, couldn’t make a bar of music.

Once again i snapped, this time while smoking one night with my brother by choice Stoke, he asked me about finding a job and i just started crying, for the first time in a long time i started talking about it, i told him everything, from my fear of just laying in the bed, when i finally went to bed, to the worst horror in my life, that i wouldn’t be able to make music anymore, we spend hours talking and when i write this i do it with a tear in my eye, few people can take the amount of problems i have laid on him and still call me a brother. Back to the story, the day after i felt better, not like in the movie where it was all gone, but like i had gained a little bit strength and if i did it right i could get back. I started to refuse playing games, instead i spend my time fighting for that one spark, it was still hard, but i refused to give up. Finally it came, i wrote a track called “It’s Like That” about thinking about my past, this was the first success, since this day i have made a few beats, writing a few lines, got a bit more strength.

I’m still not completely out the hole, i have crawl a bit up and now i can see sunshine, school starts thursday for me, i hope getting a bit of routine will help me the last bit of the way, until then i will trying not to fall back, this have been the worst couple of months in my life, worse then when my first chick was cheating on me, worst then when i turned my back on crime and the friends i had there, it has costed me, while i still got my brothers and my sister, i fear i may have lost a few other good friends, refusing to take my part in the friendship, i hope it will become better once i’m out of this whole. My brother Zitto have called it my great depression, i’m not sure if it was a depression, the exact definition of a depression is beyond my knowledge, however i know i have had the worst summer in my 18 years on the earth and i hope, that this will remain the worst, i’m not sure how to handle another one, for now i just hope to be able to get the last bit out the hole and start repairing the damage.

So why did i share this blog with you, because i think we all been in an artistic block and if we press our self, it may become something worse. While music wasn’t the first problem, i’m sure it was music, that made it all spiral. I don’t think you should quit every time you get blocked, there are many ways to trying to brake the block, recreating other works, remixing older songs, working totally technical until something starts appearing. However when nothing works, when every odds are against you, don’t kid yourself, take a brake from music, but don’t try to hide it, take it as it is and talk to people, if you let it spread, you will fall in the same hole i did. Had i acknowledged the block and addressed it from the start, talked to my brothers, not letting it pile up, not trying to kid myself that it was the gears fault, i may have been out now, instead of on the way, maybe i wouldn’t have lost friends, maybe i haven’t i don’t know course i been isolating myself. This blog have a second purely personal reason to, it’s not the first time i have had problems, and writing it when it started to change have helped me before, however it has always been done on aliases only used that once, this is the first time i did it under a name i stand by and sometimes fall by, i hope you have taking something from this blog, if not what i intended at least something.

I hope to be able to complete a more beat making oriented blog soon, but i’m still not quite ready for it yet, i felt i needed to put this out first.

Until then thank you for reading this and i hope your summer have been better then mine.

Nitten

Before we get really into this blog, i got a confession. This is nowhere near as complete, i would like to make it, however i feel that i’m not able to make it more complete, due to the simple vastness of the subject.

What is chopping?

Chopping is taking a piece of music and taking out bits and pieces out, then laying them down in some way. The main difference is that unlike when you sample instruments, you down sample the notes of the instruments and spread them out on the keyboard. When you chop you take a part of music it may be a loop or you may take different parts and fit them into a pattern. Riffs and Breaks are common sources for chopping. Chopping out drums from break-beats are also common, but in this blog we are focusing on chopping out melodic parts, while essentially anything can be sampled, we will focus on this, else i would need a couple of years to write this, however some of this can be used to sample basslines and drums as well.

Sampling commercial material

This is where it started, this form of sampling started with hip hop and while other genre’s by now have adopt chopping in some degree, it is still essential a hip hop thing. The idea is great in it’s simplicity take a part of a track and chop it into smaller parts or just fit it into a perfect loop, simple as that now add drums and a bass, you just made a beat, just like they did back in the 80’s when it started, no more is needed.

But wait there is a problem “isn’t commercial sampling illegal if you don’t clear it?” Well yes essentially it is, unlike back in the 80’s, when everybody thought Rap wasn’t gonna last, they want you money now, they have seen people get rich this way and want a piece of the pie.

The best way to avoid anybody suing you are to clear your samples, this is however unreasonable expensive, to me the problem is that people don’t realize it is a two-way street, if they didn’t demanded as much as 90 % of your track for clearing it along with a lot of different fees and one-time payment, more people would be ready to clear samples. Unfortunately they have the power to do whatever they want, so i don’t think we are gonna see a change here anytime soon.

While there is protocols like Fair Use and Fair Dealings, none protected you from getting sued no matter how many of the points of these protocols you are following and even if you win, you still have to pay a lawyer, which isn’t cheap.

If you feel secure in calling upon these protocols, i have nothing against it and while many people use uncleared samples everyday and don’t get sue ever, you need to know that the risk is there, you need to make up your mind, do so at your own risk, while i feel that the record companies are the problem here, there is nothing to protect you.

I have made a choice, i don’t sample commercial music, again i have nothing against it, but i feel that there are many other ways to sample, with two big advantages to this type of sample: You can’t get sued and few realize them and it might give you a edge over the sea of beatmakers.

Here are a short list and comments on some of my methods:

• Public Domain Sounds

Go to Wiki Commons and open the music catalog under audio, here you find a lot of different stuff, most of them are classical music, a sample source i often feel is overlook.

• Loops

You can find many free loops, while using them in they’re full form might be static there is another way, chop up that two bar loop and start banging those chop out into a new one, two, four bar loop. This is extremely fun to do especially with good quality loops.

• Prechopped samples

Some sample packs comes with pre-chopped samplers, these are usually the old and over used bread and butter samples, just make sure it’s royalty free for recording, some of these packs are made for DJs to use live at venues with a agreement, that allows use of commercial material (same as cover songs can be played live at these venues, but not be recorded with getting cleared). If it says you can use it in recordings you will have no problems.

• Construction Kits

You knows those loops collected into “songs.” A “song” should at least be split into a drum loop, a bass loop and a melody, the more expensive the more isolated the loops may be, some are split into section like verse, chorus etc, some are not. While these are marketed as remixing tools for DJs, you can chop them up, like you would song, except here you never have to filter out something you want out like the drums or bass, you just don’t use those loops, the main difference between this and chopping up loops are that loops normally one instrument, while construction kits normally aren’t, even if they are you can combine the parts you want into one loop and sample that, this feels more like chopping up a song, then a loop those and will also sound more like it, since they are made to fit each other.

• Making your own samples

A demonstration of making your own sample This is perhaps the most fun thing to do. While it may seem a bit backwards to sample this instead of just recording it, sampling makes it a lot easier to chop up and manipulated it as a whole.

My favorite way to chop

Lets be real, there a probably a million ways to chop up a sample, none more correct then the other, but we all got our favorite way to do things so here is mine:

I start by taking out the part i want. Then i adjust the tempo till it fits into one, two or four bars depending on the size of the sample. Then i hit play and think “hmm where to chop?” Once figured out i open Cubase’s sample editor and start moving around hitpoints, i allways make sure they are close to a 16th or 8th note, makes it easier to fit the sample, without tuning (unless i want to tune it) after i have it where i want it to be i hit create events and dump it into Groove Agent One, set it up (mute groups, filters and level) and lay down a new loop, for breaks and such i may add a shuttering effect or have the sample drop out or something.

Tools

You need a Sampler, a source and a Sample Editor. I use Audacity to chop out the part i want and use Cubase’s built in Sample Editor for the chopping (it was really overhaul in 5,5), i use Groove Agent ONE as the sampler, almost any sampler can be used, as long as you can set the samples to cut each other off (Mute groups or setting polyphony to 1 are common ways to do this). If you got a slow computer or are handling a lot of softsynths in a typical beat hardware might be better then software, however software samples usually gives you more ways to twist up your samples, in the end it’s often more a preference thing.

I feel that the “MPC style” samplers (BPM, Guru and Maschine are software equivalents) are better for chopping, but as i said any sampler can be used, i just feels it’s more logical to chop this way, again a preference thing.

That’s it for now, like the Groove blog, there may be a part 2 for this one as well. I feel i have covered enough to call this blog finished, but like i said it’s nowhere complete, the subject is just to big to complete. I hope i have given you some insight in source’s and ways to sample.

Little trivia

“Rappers Delight” are based on a sample from Chic

Peace out and good summer from Nitten

This is going to be one of the hardest things to write.  There is so much ground to cover, the groove is the biggest part of the beat.

Tools of the groove.

There is many choices when it comes to the groove, and the genre doesn’t limit it. You can go with live drums, drum machines, synths, loops, samplers and probably a million other ways.

First off doing live drums limits you a lot, this may be good, but thinking about the amount of money you need to invest along with learning the art of recording drums, and finding a place to put the drum kit, this is not the way to go, starting out making beats. Once you are established this however can be a good way to add some special flavor to your beats.

Drum Machines is a hardware unit with a number of pads, they are closed. There is no way to add your own drums, or anything else. You might think that the drums in it is enough, but you’ll be surprised how easy they get old.

Synths may have some drums in it and you can program some yourself. I find this a long way to go, programming drums take a lot time, for somebody how are used to programming synths, it’s probably easier, but it got a big drawback, you can only do synth drums, unless it’s a sampler playback synth  you can use the samples in it, but then we are back to the issue with drum machines. Programmed synth drums it’s a nice addition to your arsenal, but not what i would recommend for somebody starting out.

Loops are easy to work with, it’s a good way to add extra drums, but they aren’t flexible enough to be your primary source of drums. However there are many good free loops out there, these can be nice to have and got some nice uses.

Samplers are, in my option, the best places to start. You can get a drum sampler, or a regular sampler. Regular samplers are not necessary less worth then drum samplers, the only real difference is that drum samplers are optimized for drums, some might have less features then a regular sampler. BPM, Battery, GURU and Maschine are some of the more popular drum samplers that got a good reputation among beatmakers. Cubase got GrooveAgent ONE, the other sequencers maybe got similar instruments, but i can’t remember. A good sampler can really help you, it usually get some drums in there, acoustic, electric and synthetic drums, they may allow you to slice and dice loops, these make all those loops worth while.  Getting the right sampler for your rig is critical, do the research, demo it. Hardware and software are both good, it all depends, give it time, this is going to be the centerpiece off your beatmaking rig, so let it take it’s time, play with what you got until you find out what is missing and find the piece that got that.

Your best bet is to get all of them. You probably got a synth that can program some drum hits, loops are easy to find and the sampler can work as a drum machine. The problem with live drums are that many of us don’t have the room, but if you get the chance to use them on a track or two, i would grab it.

The groove

The groove can take many forms, there are many way of doing, not one of them are wrong, but there is a right way for every track. I can’t tell you if you are on the right track, but you’ll know it. However in order to find the right groove, you’ll need to know a bit about how other people have made their grooves, we normally don’t get an idea without associating it with somebody or at least a certain style, sometime you get the idea of mixing the different style. Here i’m gonna talk about the different styles and maybe mention a few of the people who made the styles, but don’t take this is straight facts, i have researched a lot of beats from each style in order to conclude what is common in each style, but i haven’t heard them all, so somethings may be missed.

Boom Bap.

Boom Bap are credited as the original form of hiphop. The idea behind it is simple, kick snare and hihat usually make up the groove. The form of these are simple, the kick snare pattern are usually just a kick snare kick kick snare (kick on 1 snare on 2 kick on 3 and 3,3 and snare 4). The hihat are a bit more loose, often done with no quantize. Don’t think that the simple stuff don’t hit anymore, sometimes simple is better. I am a big fan of boom bap rap, it’s really a lyricist genre, so if you got a track that require more then normal attention to the lyrics it’s a great choice, even with this need it can make great tracks, the simplicity of it grabs you if done right. The kick and snare are usually made by sampling drums of vinyl.

G-Funk

This is the style of Dr. Dre back in the 90’s this is the sound of N.W.A, Cube, Pac, Snoop and a lot of guys have taken it up later on, the name comes from the P-funk style beat and the Gangster lyrics. The drums are normally sampled acoustic funk style drums, the pattern is still a bit simple most of the time and the kick snare kick kick snare is still in use in some cases, hihat is often layer on top of the snare or kick, the snare pattern is often more complex then in Boom bap, the change from verse to hook is normally done with either a snare flam or a small roll leading up to a cymbal. The drums are often more processed in order to keep them clean, vinyl kits are uncommon but is still used. I be honest, i love the g-funk, i think it’s one of the better genres if you are into funky drums, there is still room for the rapper, but the drums are a bit more complex.

Shoalin Style.

This is the style of RZA, anybody that have read my previous blogs knows i’m a big fan of RZA (check the little trivia in the end of each blog). I must admit that RZA is on my number one spot of beat makers. There is no other name for the style, since some people don’t see it as a style in it self, but rather a variation of boom bap rap, i think it deserves it’s own name, so it now have. The most defining characteristic of it is off beat drums, not so much you hear it as off beat, but really close to it, the vinyl kits of boom bap is also a big part of it. Other then that there isn’t much to it, you can go with the classic boom bap pattern or a more complicated one. There are a few methods to create this pattern, you can use the swing on a quantizer or use a groove template, however to get the right feel you at least a bit of non-quantizing in the template, i usually go with between a half and a fourth of the distance between notes, depending on how off i want it to be, a harder way, is to turn quantizing on and just hit out the pattern, if it’s to off or on beat go in at move the notes till you hear something you like.

Dirty South

This is not the lil jon crunck stuff, but the sound of UGK and slim thug. I have not found any certain pattern that can be called a standard, but there are certain drums, heavy percussion patterns and 808s belong here, even though the 808 have been in use in almost all style, this is the first place where it was seen as a pillar of the music. Some dirty south beats build upon gongs and other percussion. Unlike Boom Bap and partly G-funk vinyl kits are very rare in this style of beats. I will admit that this is not a style i like to work in, while i enjoy a lot of dirty south music, i don’t make much of it myself.

Crunck and electronica rap

This is two separate styles but on the groove side they sound pretty much the same to me, lil jon is a big player in the crunck game, Kid Cudi comes to mind as a part of the new kind of electronica rap, while that isn’t a official name of style, i think it’s fitting since it’s a mix of the two genres. I’m not very into this, a few crunck songs are in my collection, but it’s not a lot, so i may have missed a few elements, but here are the basics. Both styles relays a lot on analog synth drums, other then that we are talking claps and the infamous snaps, hats are often electronic messes of sounds and blips and blops are not uncommon here, the pattern are often tight and always on beat. The 808 drums are really the major building stone here and it’s uncommon to hear a 808 free track in these styles, other then that there is not much i can say about these styles.

Making your own style?

Of course if you make boom bap rap, you make boom bap rap, nothing wrong with it. In the end it’s all about what you want to make, however it’s important to note that there are very few rules when it comes to the groove of hiphop, you can do ultra tight beats with the drums totally on point or go shoalin style on them and do a slobby mix, you can chop up drum loops, put g-funk style rolls in the end of dirty south pattern, use 808 in boom bap, or borrow patterns and sounds from other genres, nothing is of limits as long as the rapper can spit to it. I have never been one to stick to a style, i make what i want to make, and while there are some trades running 90 % of my beats, they may not be in the next one i make, i may decide it’s time to make a electronica style beat and leave my boom bap and shoalin style on the shelf for that one, i don’t think so, but if i wake up one day and decide to do it, i’m gonna do it. My point, mix and match take the drums to the place where you want them, don’t think “i need to make a dirty south pattern for this beat”, think “i want to make a dirty south pattern for this beat” even if the rest of it sounds like G-funk, you make the rules, these styles are just guidepoints, that you can follow if you want people to think “ahh G-funk” as soon as the drums come on.

Alright that’s it for this time, it was a hard blog to write and it’s nowhere near a complete guide through the universe of the groove, but it should give you some pointers as to how to go about it if you are new to the groove. I plan on writing a part 2 sometime in the future, but for now this is all i have to say about the groove.

A little trivia

Ok i promise this is going to be the last RZA trivia for a while, but RZA currently uses a MV-8800 and is very happy with it.

Peace out for know

Nitten

Just want to share a few tips, i use when buying gear.

Research in advance

I’m sure, i don’t have to tell you to do some research before buying anything, but many people starts researching when they make up their mind, that they want/need to buy something, this may help avoid impulse buys, but it also means that you need to build up all research in shorter time, since you know you want to buy a workstation, you may just rush research, just read the specs and try your hands at it for a couple of minutes. I’m a regular at the local music store, without buying anything in a long time, that because i’m out researching. I might go because i want to check out some equipment that just was released, or that i  been wondering about buying, just see what they got or sometimes checking out showcases of gear. I audition everything, if i’m researching preamps, i’ll try everything from the low cost ART pre to the Neve, i know i’ll never get unless i win the lottery. Some music stores got a room for doing this, where you just change the piece you are auditioning. Auditioning those highend pres makes you realize the different rather then the small difference between two budget preamps. This also give you a bit of experience on a lot of different gear (preamps in this example). This information can be quite valueble, for example a lot of my musician friends, who don’t really know the gear other then their amp and mics ask me for advice when looking for new mixers, preamps, reverbs and all those not-instruments pieces of gear. In return they might give me a bit of money, or if i need a vocal or guitar to a track they might come through and give me the material i need.

Here is a little checklist of things to keep in mind when researching gear:

• Bring headphones, people not gonna like to hear you rapping when they try to find the right violin for their chamber ensemble.
• Keep a notebook and pencil on you if you hear something stellar or horrible coming out of a piece of gear write it down.
• Ask the staff if you can demo something if it’s not turned on or seems to be put away, they might not love you for it (after all you are asking them to hook it up i.e. work), but they like you for not messing with their stuff on your own.
• When auditioning monitors preamps or mics keep all other parts the same, some stores might have a dedicated room with acoustic treatment and high-end stuff so you really can hear he difference between the pieces you are auditioning.
• Go to showcases, they learn you alot.
• Watch product videos, hear demos, google it for reviews and videos of people using it, if possible download the manual in advance see if it answers any of your questions.
• This probably not necessary to tell you, but if it’s software download the demo and play with it. However some software don’t got demos, here go to the store, they probably got it on a computer where you can get your feet wet, but using a demo version on your system is always  a better way, especially if you think it might have problems on your system.

Help your friends

I set up live shows for a small time cover band, in return i never have to buy a guitar sample pack, or female vocals, all i have to do is call them up and say the word. The principle is simple one hand washes the other. I help them doing stuff, that they can’t do, in return they do things i can’t do, no money involved, a added perk is that they normally play for open bar, which of course means i got open bar to. Another thing is that maybe you are a guitarist invested a small fortune in a superb guitar, amps, pedals and mics just for recording guitars. Now you want to be a singer instead, your friend a singer invested a similar fortune in vocal equipment, but now he wants to be a guitarist. Here it’s easy to see what’s great for you both, swap gear. It’ll be cheaper then both of you buying new gear, and you aren’t gonna get low balled, as many i know have been on ebay and similar services.

Important note: Never cheat your friends, i should have to say this, but i still will, you’ll end up losing a friendship, and people aren’t gonna trust you. If a friend is unhappy with your gear, and you haven’t cheated him, try helping him understand it better. This way you’ll just become better friends, and when he find something he doesn’t need while cleaning up, he might just send it your way as a thank you.

Buy the best, buy once

Simple as it is, buy the piece that suit your needs best, this means if you need to buy Komplete, don’t just buy Kontakt. It doesn’t however means that you should buy Komplete if all you need is Kontakt. If you are just a hobbyist you don’t need that Neve pre, if you are a pro, you aren’t gonna get much out of the ART pre (ok a bit wild example i know).

Exceptions to the rule:

• If you need the gear now, and the piece you really want is out in the distant future, you need to buy some workable piece that can do what you need.
• If you aren’t sure on whether you need it. For example if you don’t if you need the full version of Cubase or if the smaller Studio version is enough, here you can end up losing money either way, if you buy the full version and find that you only need the features of the Studio version, or if you buy Studio and find you need the full version. However it’s safer to buy Studio first, you still take a lose, buy having to buy the upgrade, but it’s less then the extra money down for the full version.
• If you can afford something now, will benefit noticeable from it, and it will compliment another more expensive “better” solutions, when you can afford it.

These exceptions aren’t written in stone, you need to really research and do your homework before going this route.

This is nowhere near a complete guide, just a few tips, that i wanted to share. You are probably familiar with most of them, but i hope, that i have giving you at least a broader perspective on the steps of making good buys.

Little Trivia:

RZA started out on a used SP-1200 with no manual brought at the pawnshop.

I know i promised a blog on Groove, but it is taking a lot of time to write, so i thought, i’ll give you this while you are waiting.

Alright time for another blog, this time i’m gonna talk about the biggest mistake you can make while making a beat. An important thing to note, is that these things may not kill the beat, but they will kill the track, this is aimed at people making beats for a rapper, not for sale. I’m also going to tell you the solutions to these problems. So lets get in to it.

10. To Fast/ To slow

I’m a rapper, been one way before i started making beats. This has happen to me a million times. You find or make a great beat, it’s just the right theme for some lines you have laying, but you just can’t keep up with the 100 bpm the beat got, you get a few lines in and is completely out of breath. You press next and find another beat, same feel so you try it out, but the beat is so slow, that you could spit the whole verse on one line.

Solution: When i make a beat, i know who’s going to rap on it most of time, i know who can follow the beat at high tempo, and who can get really slow on it. However sometimes i never heard the rapper before, and thereby completely in the dark when it comes to what tempo they like to rap in. In these cases i rely on two things, first of all i make the beat in 80-90 bpm, this is pretty standard and most rappers can rap on it, secondly in case the rapper wants to go faster or slower, i make sure, i can change the tempo of the beat. In Cubase this basically means that any audio file is loaded as a musical file, your sequence probably got a function for this too, find it, learn it and you are going to love it. This make it possible to change the tempo a bit, i wouldn’t recommend changing it more then 5 bpm.

9. To Many (or wrong use of)  Scratch, Dubs and Snips.

I admit it, i’m a sucker for these three, but beware these may shift focus from the lyrics. Remember that human beings got limited attention spans, you need to make sure they focus on the right things. Nothing ruins a track like a loud scratch in the middle of the most important line of the verse, or a vocal sample in at the middle of a complex change up in the beat. Remember these got two uses; shifting focus from repeated beats or nonstriking vocals and to add emphasis to things that need to strike.

Solution: I always add these after the vocals is recorded, i cut them in to pieces so they can be moved after the production. My strategy is to add these when something becomes either to nonstriking, or to repeated. Basically if i got 8 bars in the verse, with nothing that strikes, then i start adding dubs and snips, making a striking effect. Remember that if you add a scratch, dub or snip to your striking punchline, then keep it quite, if it gets to loud it shift focus instead. It’s a fine art to add dubs and snips, but once mastered it can be the savior of the track.

8. To loud a beat

This is a simply thing really, theres one rule: The beat may never overshadow the vocal. This isn’t really that hard to do, since in most cases you produce, mix and master the beat with the vocal. However if you make beats for sale, then you run into a real problem, a unmastered unmixed beat, isn’t really gonna sell, unless you are lucky, and recording very hot.

Solution: If you put a beat up for sale, mix and master it, but keep the project file. Simple as that, when somebody contacts you to buy the beat, ask them if they want the premix, premaster or the mastered wave file. This way they can choose.

7. Orchestral drowning the drums

This is a relative thing, you can add a lot orchestral on one beat and never face this problem, and then on the next beat you only add a little bit and find it totally drowning the drum. There are mainly three factors here. First of volume, if the drums are significant lower then the orchestral then of course it’s gonna drown the drums. Second there is frequency, as you can read in tweaks guide, you need to carve a room for each instrument in the frequency spectrum. Third there is the stereo image, if you don’t pan out, everything is going to be on top of each other, making a  huge mess of things.

Solution: Three thing to do, make sure your drums are loud enough and your orchestral is at acceptable level. Not all drums need to be louder then the orchestral, percussion can be quieter or at the same level. This brings me to frequency, if you got two instruments at the same place in the stereo image, you need to cut the frequency spectrum for both, else they mask each other. Last thing orchestral can easily be panned both right and left, so pan them out of the way for the drums. Do all three every time, where to cut the frequency or pan the orchestral to. Well that all depends on the beat.

6. To many, to few or wrong use of change ups

This is a both a double edge sword and a relative problem, some beats can have a lot of change up, with out the listener getting lost, others have them lost a the first change. In general, it’s a good idea to have some change up, so the listener don’t fall asleep. The troubles comes in at the point where the change ups is to abrupt, to big, or just simply out of place. Even while we fight to keep the track fresh, we also need to make sure that the track have a red thread though it, keeping it together as one track.

Solution: This is again relative thing, if the rapper got a lot of change ups in his flow, you might need a lot in the beat, or may have to keep the beat without a change up, so that people don’t get lost in the many change ups. There is no hard and fast rule here, i use to say follow the track here, both ideas may work on the same track, but they will take the track in two different directions. If you follow the rapper, the track can become very complex, and this may result in a too complex beat, if you keep the beat simple, it may have a live feeling or a unfinished feeling. The trick is to make the change up smooth, but notable. A good idea is to have some lead up to the change like, if you change the snare, on a verse or chorus after the break, then have a snare roll with the new snare in the end of the break. When you go from verse to chorus, you may benefit from a small lead up to the crossover, adopting the same idea when doing change ups will in many cases make it more smooth. Sometimes a small and abrupt change up will work better then a large and smooth one. The best advice is really to listen to the beat, and then when you feel yourself bored, throw in a change up, how to make the change up depends on many factors such as place both in beat and section, what instrument you have playing, bars left of the section. For example a change up in the second to last bar of the first verse may be smaller and smoother, then the change up in the last bar of the last verse. Follow the track here, it’s hard to do, but you need to make the right choice, else the track will not seem as one. Study the beat, find the right spots, and experiment till you find the right change up.

5. To Contrasting Instruments

As with most things on the list, this is again relative. While congas and celtic harps  may sound great together in one context, they may not always sound great together, in fact most times, it won’t work. Beats are very free of limits, since they require no live instruments, (unlike a rock band), in this lies the problem, that once you get a sampler, you get a lot of instruments in the factory presets. While some samplers got bigger presets then others, any sampler got more instruments then a classic rock band. Limits is not always bad, sometimes a few limits is just what you need. While sometimes contrast is good, sometimes it’s not a good idea to go to far out. Ethnic instruments of any kind is great fun, but not always fitting.

Solution: First of look at the track as a whole, the lyrics may lead you in a direction, or the other instruments. Sometimes it may work, if you have the caltic harp and congas panned right and left, this can create a good contrast. But a general rule should be stick to the same region, like Asian, Latin or African. But note the word general, this is really hard to say, how you should pick your instrument, only you can really know, but it is a good rule, for when you start out or when you are clueless about what to choose.

4. To many, to few or wrong use of drums.

Drums are perhaps the most important instruments in beats. Therefor it’s crucial to get them right. Again we got thousands of drums, and we need to make every choice correct. Even the smallest triangle hit need to be right on. Again it’s all relative, like most things on this list. The basic ideas is to make the drums feel good, making a good groove. The main drums are the kick and the snare or clap. It’s very important that all other drums fits with these, breaking the groove, just for a second, is going to kill the track. Keep the main body simple, but not boring. While many fall in the trap of adding to many drums shattering the groove, some fall in the other trap, not enough drums, living the groove half baked and unfinished,  the tricks is to find the sweat spot, where it is varies.

Solution: Here you really need to get to work, and keep at it. Sometimes you need to rework the groove many times, deleting hits, adding hits, changing instruments and adding fills and rolls. A good idea is to start with the basic kick snare/clap groove, from there start adding hats, cymbals and percussion. Be discrete and subtle but strong and full of attitude. This is a fine line, and it moves, so keep at it. Keeping the percussion simply and the hats in the main groove. Make sure that nothing mask the groove, and make sure the main parts are pronounced and in the face, leave the subtle parts of the groove to percussion and small hits. You need to think of the groove in to context, first off think of the groove in the section, and secondly think off the overall groove of the beat. While you probably are changing the groove through out the beat, you need to make sure you never brake the groove. Make small lead up to the changes, avoid  making to big changes at once, spread them out and make it smooth. Glitches are good, but to big glitches in the groove can kill the track,  keep big glitches out of the groove. Don’t worry Tweak got a great guide on how to make drum patterns fast, use this as a starting point, if you are lost, but always add a bit of you to it. Sometimes you spend the most time on the smallest little changes in grooves, i have spend maybe half an hour on the main groove, and then i spend 3 to 4 hours perfecting the groove. Of course there is a danger in overworking anything, but the smallest things are hard to make perfect, or well nothing totally perfect, but you need to get very close when we are talking groove. It’s a painstaking process, changing the conga with bongo, the bongo with gongs and the gongs with bright blips. All the while you are getting more and more insane. Take brakes when need, this is the one and only rule, that always fits. If you feel like you have spend to much time, with no reward, consider killing the project. It’s never an easy thing to kill a project, but if you are on week two, without the groove working, well here i would kill it in most cases, but you don’t have too. If you feel like it worth working on the groove for a year, do it, but if you don’t feel it’s worth it, kill it. If you still are a bit unsure on grooves, i will dive deep into this subject in my next blog.

3. Drowned groove

This is a death sin, when you finally get the groove right, you need to keep it clear, i already told you about the orchestra dubs and all that. But there is another killer out there. Effects are one of the quickest way to kill the groove, just a touch to much on any drum, and it’s gone. Another thing, if you got a different reverb on each and every drum, no matter how small, it will kill the groove and the track with it, since it sounds like every drum was recorded in different places, and people loose attention.

Solution: First off use sends and returns for delay, chorus reverb, and anything you want on more then one track. Tweak it till it’s pleasing on everything you got running through it, then start working on the send value of each track, this will keep sounding as one groove, but still allow you to find the right sound one each track. No you don’t have to use the same reverb on every drum, but keep the same on the kick and snare or clap, if you are using reverb on the kick, keep it a low level, just subtle almost unheard, the snare or clap can get a bit more. Percussion and hats may be on a different reverb, depending on how big a part of the groove they are, and never to different. You may also wanna delay certain percussion, all depends on the track at hand. There are no universal solution to this problem. Trial and Error is the name of the game, maybe you can have everything running through different reverbs and delays, never worked for me though. These guidelines are a great place to start, but don’t be afraid to experiment.

2. To weak a beat

This is a hard one, sometimes the beat just don’t work. It just don’t feel right, it’s not that it’s to simple or complex, it’s just not right. It just can’t stand on it’s own.

Solution: First off go through the 8 points above, are any of these the problem, also check for regular problems, like masking, to bass shy or bommy mixes. Assuming none of these are the problem there are a few method that may solve the problem. First there is reworking the beat, this is my personal favorite. What you do is start muting tracks one by one and listen to the beat without them. When you hear the feel of the beat change, unmute the last track you mutes and delete the parts others, then rework them , or replace them with anything, as long it don’t change the feel. Sometimes a simpler pattern on the percussion may do. However most of the time you got maybe 10 out of 30 tracks left, and to get the beat right you may need to rework all 20 tracks you deleted, this is time consuming, but i like it because i want to keep the feel, that i have worked on getting. Another solution is to remix it, first of let me tell you that this is my preferred way of remixing, Tweak explain another one in the guide. Here unlike when reworking, we don’t try to keep the feel or anything, i start at the orchestral first i try to use the same instrument, just changing notes maybe add or remove pitch shift modulation and every other effect on it, if this doesn’t work i call up another instrument. I leave the groove alone when doing this, but you can remix this too. This is just as time consuming as reworking, and to me less rewarding, since you easily lose the feel of the beat, which, at least to me, is the whole idea of making the beat in the first place, but sometimes reworking just doesn’t work. A third approach is to get a strong vocalist, like i said the indicator of a weak beat (without any imminent problems) is that it can stand on it’s own, if the vocalist is really good, s/he may be able to carry the beat. This is normally not advisable, since you still got a weak beat, and as a beatmaker this isn’t good promotion. There are two situations however where i take this method, cyphers and freestyles why? These two situations are build on vocalist skills, therefore having a weak beat, will let the rapper get full attention of the audience, of course there is a limit to how weak the beat can be. Finally you can always kill the project, but only do this as a last resort, when it’s taking more time then it’s worth.

1. To strong a beat

Sometimes it’s the other way around, the beat is great on it’s own, but once a rapper gets on it, s/he can’t keep up with the quality of the beat.

Solution: NEVER weaken the beat, this will just further weaken the track as a whole. Get a better rapper on it rewrite the lyrics. If you rap on it yourself, train your skills as a rapper, mimic successful artists’ flow and technique and learn how they do it, then make your own personal style. Try and shorten the beat, if it’s only two verses and a hook, you can spend more time working on the flow and lyrics of each, then if it’s three verses a hook and a brake. Other then that there is not much to do.

You may be wondering why i put the strong beat as the number one and not the weak. This is because i believe a strong vocalist can carry the beat better, then a strong beat can carry the vocalist. Is the vocalist more important, depends, in many cases i would argue yes, because in many cases the vocalist is focus. However recently i have noticed more and more attention being laid on the beat instead the vocals. If this holds true for your style, i would say that it’s a 50/50 relationship between them. This is however my personal opinion, not a fact.

Also not i have left out a lot of general problems, why? Because Tweaks guide already explained them, better then i ever could, also if i had to include all those general thing, this would be a top 100.

Little trivia

RZA never quantizes his drums, and he is the man behind the score on Kill Bill.

Like i said next blog will be on the groove of the beat, until then peace.

Since this is my first blog, i’m going to introduce myself. Im 18 years old and have been doing hip hop, since i was 13 years old. I started by rapping and expanded to beat making.

I’m not going to write a guide here, there is a great guide from Tweak in his guide. Instead i will take you through me own considerations on making hip hop tracks,  my workflow and some tips, i use myself.

Where to start?

This consideration comes from a ad, i saw once. It said “Don’t know where to start your beat?” At first I just laughed at it, thinking “you start with the kick.” To minutes later it hit me, why do we start with the kick?

I found that i started with the kick, because i had nowhere else to start. Since this hit me, i started with what i got. This may sound simple, yet it isn’t always though. Basically i never start a beat without a idea, this is what i got, when i press new project in Cubase.

This idea can take many forms, it maybe a kick track, a snare, Bassline, or a melody. it may be a line, or lyrics to the whole track. When one of my partners in rhyme asked me to make a beat, this idea was a choir loop, he found on Looperman.

I like this approach, sure you can start with the kick, if the idea is lyrical, but it make it easier to make the track fit. In the case with the loop, i dropped the 4 bar sample, he gave me and then did the kick.

My point; don’t start with the kick, because someone said you should, do it if you want, but not because you “have to”.

Arrangement?

While most hip hop tracks follow the standard pop template, you can really make a track shine by just tweaking the arrangement. My main concern is keeping people listening. While i don’t do a project, if i can’t feel it, i know that not every part of the song is equally strong, there is always parts that stand out, and there is always parts that are less striking, this is good, if everything was striking nothing would stand out, and it will become as monotone as a song with nothing striking.

When writing lyrics, i try to put the three most striking lines in the start, middle and end.

When i arrange the beat, i mostly go intro hook (Chorus) verse  and throw in a brake around the middle, then i end with a verse and then outro.

This is my starting point for every beat, but i rarely end on it, maybe i remove the intro, brake or outro. Sometimes i got no hooks, this is good for freestyles, and any track where you need people to really listen to the lyrics. Remember human beings got limited attention spans, so sometimes you need to keep something simple and nonstriking, so the parts you want to strike strike.

Samples?

When hip hop started, it was based on samples, as you probably already know.

I know a lot of guys is against sampling. First of all, always clear your samples. Second consider how you are going to make beat, loops and one-shot samples is used a lot in hip hop.

A argument i have heard a million times, is that sampling isn’t making the music. While this is partly true, to me, with loops (you still effect the music by choosing them etc.), it don’t hold much water to me, when we talking one-shots or loops sliced in to one-shots, a kick is kick, no matter if it’s a kick one shot on a pad.

I use both loops and one shots, i never use loops for the main drums, to me this is what define the beat. with melody and percussion I  use both loops and self made stuff, from synth and one-shots. I’m also a big fan of recreating parts, for my current project i actually learn part of a Mozart symphony, and recreated it with a soft synth, this is very fun to do a lot fun then get a sample from it.

Tools?

This has made the genre very versatile, last time i went through me CD and LP collections, i found samples of everything from funk and rock guitars, to dance over country and world music, even classical violins. This mean that you are rather unlimited by the genre.

The downside is you need a big sound library and a lot of sounds for when you want to build it up yourself. Software and hardware both got strengths and weaknesses, what you use depend on many things, like wanting to play live, mixing ITB or OTB, Strength of your DAW and millions of other variables. Cubase comes with a lot of useful features, even the Essential version (which i got) comes with enough to make a beat, I will recommend at least Studio since it got Groove-Agent.

Now when you got your feet wet, start considering which way you want to go. Of course it’s a good idea to get a wide selection, but you need to prioritize.

I always been a sucker for ivories, so i got the piano collection ET pretty quickly, i also like the westcoast style so 9 mm Beats ET was also high priority, just bellow the the PC since it’s loops.

Of course sites like looperman got a lot of free loops, and most are good. Looperman is my only free resource for loops, since it’s trustworthy. If you need to expand a bit, this is a great way to expand your sound library.

DIY mix and master or professional?

This is the last consideration, you should do in the production phase, i would not advise you to think about it, before you are at a point, where all you need to do is fine tune the track. I mix myself, i can’t afford to get it professionally mixed, since i don’t make money, i also quite like the fact i can say: “I have made this beat, mixed it, and mastered it”, this is a great pick-up line too. Of course a professional mix and mastering engineer, or just home studios that specialties in it, is giving better results.

If you are releasing something big and commercial, i would advise getting it done professionally.

If you are releasing a small time project, or free, then i would say DIY is the way to go.

Little trivia

I just have to say this:

Hip hop is not a genre of music, it’s a culture. It consists of four elements: Breakdancing, DJing (this included beatmaking), Graffiti and Rap.

Just thought i let you know.