Droopy wrote:I'm gonna answer both questions in this thread but before I do I have to ask you some questions.
I. Why do you wanna bite the Neptunes,Timbaland,DJ Premier,ect? I mean.....just develop your own sound. That would be the logical thing to do. There are hundreds of wannabe producers who think that having the same equipment,they'll be able to produce the same records that these people produce. Some can do this,but they'll never make it into the music business because they'll always be known as Neptune/Timbaland/Premier biters. You can use them as inspiration,but don't copy them!
II. By now you should know the equipment these people use because they use industry standard equipment(along with some cheap stuff)& some vintage equipment that is getting harder to find!!!!! If you listen to enough music you can pick apart all the equipment they use without thought! You really can't call yourself a producer until you can do that!
Now to answer your questions!
1. Premier still uses his E-MU SP-1200 for those drums you keep hearing. That doesn't do you any good if you can't work the sampler like he can! That goes the same way for sampling. You must learn how to look for a sample(it'll jump out at you if you are creative & look hard enough).
2. You have to go to Virginia Beach to get a beat from the Neptunes. In the five years they've been blowing up the industry with their production,they've been using the same old equipment(with a few upgrades). Those synths that you've been hearing is Reason(1.0 but recently 2.0). They never use the samples off those software. If the bass wasn't a reason synth,then they would put a Korg Triton Classic behind it along with other sampled instruments. They've layed off the software synths & electronic drums a little & used regular instruments & percussion because they feel there's an over-saturation of those beats that they produce comming out! They've used the Casio keyboards for that track "Work It Out" by Beyonce Knowles.
3.Timbaland is a different story. He'll usually come to where you at & produce a record from there. His production is sometimes sample-heavy & other times studio session musicians play in his tracks. With his R&B tracks it's usually a comination of the two. His boards are hidden very well because of the effects the engineers use,but having said that he uses new & vintage Roland keyboards. It's common knowledge among underground producers that he uses an Ensoniq ASR-X Pro for his sampling. It just depends,sometimes he'll favor live instruments(not drums)over sampled instruments. If it's acoustic percussion he's using,than it's sampled very well!!!!!!
Even though I told you all of this,that doesn't give you an excuse to go & bite these producers. Use your creative talent & make some beats of your own!!! I'm out this piece!!!! Holla!!!
i thought you can't call yourself a producer until you are able to cipher the keyboards and drum machines sound come from?....... in that case your are not a producer........
primo uses the mpc60II maybe with the s950.............neptunes uses the korg triton classic along with other korg keyboards like the one with the 6 f_ keys under the screen...the one before the trinity came out.....they also have a asr 10 the keyboard version/ timbaland has the asr-10 keyboard version/mo phatt/ triton pro(76key)classic/mpc 3000/and few other rack modules.......
and producers are allowed to switch up without notice to throw you off.....so it is the person more than it is the equipment
