Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
By kingofmelody Wed Oct 15, 2003 8:03 pm
Yoo!! Check this out fellaz.. I’ve been producing hip-hop beats for about 8 months now and have a problem that hopefully you guys can give me some advice.. When everybody listens to my beats, I always get compliments on how good they sound, but by some reason when I bring artists(mainly rappers) to add lyrics they tell me that they feel uncomfortable rhyming on the beat.. It is not a tempo problem, cause my beats range from 88 to 100 bpms. My snares are on the 2’s and 4’s.. I really don’t know what it is.. Is it probably the melodies that I am adding to the beats using MIDI? I don’t know much about music theory, I pretty much play whatever sounds good to me.. Is it probably something related to the musical theory?? By the way, I’m using an MPC2000XL and a couple sound modules to do my beats.. As I said before, the beats themselves are crazy and are usable, but rappers sometimes tell me that something throws them off when they try to their thing.. Does anybody here have an idea?? Thank you in advance for your help and advice!!
User avatar

By beets Wed Oct 15, 2003 8:33 pm
Dont sweat it too much dude. Not everyone is gonna be able to vibe to a certain beat. Some lyricists can adapt to any beat, some cant. But, if they feel that they'd be able to vibe off your ish if it were a bit faster or slower, then by all means (if you feel obligated to) speed up or slow down the BPMs. Just do yo thang man! Just because you make beats and rhymers be givin you suggestions on your beats, when they come around the way to record over your instrumentals, dont be too shy to give them suggestions as well ;) Your bound to find someone that will blow heat over your beats. Jus keep em' goin...good luck...peace

By dknows2 Wed Oct 15, 2003 10:09 pm
I feel you, Bro. I had a rapper tell me it was difficult to write a hook for one of my beats because of the melody in the hook. I have two suggestions. You can either adjust your track to the artist's liking or give just the beat to the artist and then add the finishing touches to it after the artist has written/recorded the vocals. Personally, when I give a beat to an artist I'm primarily concerned with him/her being satisfied with it. I will make adjustments to suit their liking. I think it works better that way. I could take an artistic stance and choose not to change my track especially if I like it the way it is because usually I do but my goal is to get placed on albums and I think it's wise to allow room for flexibility. To some degree, it's paying dues. I hope that helps some.That's my story and I'm sticking to it.