i hate this!

i cant make a beat....i just started....i have a E-mu xBoard 25 midi controller...i cant start with the snare and whatever...i have to start with the strings or instruments....well i have FL5 which doesnt got alot of good instruments (for what im doing).im tryna do rap/r&b/dirty soth beats


help me what else do i need???????

fl studio 5 is plenty enough to make tracks. you need to practice. straight up. if you dont like the original samples that come with fl, which in my opinion really do suck, you need to start expanding your library. records, cds, search the web for free samples, vstis.

if you are having a hard time making tracks, its you, not the program. you could have protools, tritons, mpc's and fantoms, and in the end, you still might make straight garbage(not you personally).

you have to practice practice practice practice and practice. this ish is not easy. it doesnt come natural for most people. i started with fl 5 and have moved on to 6 and 7. ill tell you this, inspiration and creativity does not come from gear or programs.

stay off the forums and stay on fl/mpc/synth whatever you are working with and you will see improvement. there isnt really an easier answer. thats my $.02

i guess i went on a rant huh? hahaha

good luck

thanx....its hard to learn your way aroung FL5....whats the difference between recording with a piano roll and a playlist???confusing!have you used Reason?

well thanx again

recording into the bottom half of the playlist is recording audio. which means that you are recording either hardware/microphones, or the output of a vst. recording in the piano roll is recording midi data. you can see and edit the performance with the mouse by extending, dragging or cutting the notes. im not sure if you are using a cracked version of fl, and i really dont care, but you should check out the fl manual if you have it(bring up the interface you want to learn about, say the piano roll, and hit f1) and see if it makes sense.

again, the piano roll is for recording midi patterns, where the playlist is for arranging each pattern to create your song. the bottom half of the playlist is for recording audio and creating automation clips(which is a whole other aspect that is really cool about fl). im not sure how new you are to music, so im going to throw this out there, not to offend by any means. dont get on the kick where you try something a few times and are ready to move on to the next popular thing(fl, pt, mpc, mv)learn each one to its full extent and then make your decision. everything is about the same, they just have different work flows and abilities, but the big picture is the same. to make music.

i had my mpc for a year and didnt use it cuz i had fl studio. then i got pretty good on fl and wanted to try the mpc and found it was really hard(different). but now i feel i am as proficient on fl as i am on the mpc, which make a pretty powerful combination. i can control fl with the mpc, the mpc with fl, record audio and midi from the mp to fl, record audio and midi from fl to the mp. the possibilities are endless. just learn what you have and move on from there. alright, im ranting again. my bad:)

let me know if you have any more questions>

thanx...fruity loops is getting easier now.....but i dont know why im good at makin crunk beats maybe thats a good thing?lol anyways thanx 4 the help...staying off forums (this one ) is alot of help im getting good and some of my fam think i didnt make the beat because it sounds like it should be on the radio cant help it though....maybe i got talent!

one more question though...you said at 1 time u didnt use the mpc just fl now u do...but what do u use the mpc for exactly?since you have fl....why would you wanna control fl?

mpcfreak wrote:but what do u use the mpc for exactly?since you have fl....why would you wanna control fl?

He would wanna control fl for a hands on feel.. and to use the best of both worlds... use certain features from the mpc that he prefers.. and certain from fl, havin sh!t linked so it works as 1..

I use a rackmount sampler (akai s2000) with fl, i much prefer choppin on the s2000.. but theres alot of other sh!t i do with fl, as well as sequence of course..

As for "controlling"... i use a midi keyboard.. where dude would use his mpc to control and trigger sounds etc, kinda the same in itself.. just slightly diff.

Mpcfreak.. as time goes on u will learn and realize more.. these things will make alot more sense to u.

oh yeah sampling...its probaly easier with the mpc then usin a midi controller tryna make the beat............thanx never really sat down and thought about that...i was gonna stop using fl and get reason with the mpc but E-mus dont work with reason (i think)

Get reason 3.0 and save sometime, I worked on FL for about 4 years and it just cant stand up to the abilities and ease of use you get out of reason imo.

Dj Creepin wrote:Get reason 3.0 and save sometime, I worked on FL for about 4 years and it just cant stand up to the abilities and ease of use you get out of reason imo.

hahahha... u must be joking. Ahhh if only u knew.

Crazy how peeps think things like that..

I could start listing 101 things.. and put this right in diff ways.. but i'll leave it for know untill / unless a next post calls for it

Peace

cozy wrote:I had my mpc for a year and didnt use it cuz i had fl studio. then i got pretty good on fl and wanted to try the mpc and found it was really hard(different). but now i feel i am as proficient on fl as i am on the mpc, which make a pretty powerful combination. i can control fl with the mpc, the mpc with fl, record audio and midi from the mp to fl, record audio and midi from fl to the mp. the possibilities are endless. just learn what you have and move on from there.>

Man this ish here is so tru... I went an ordered the 1000 as soon as it came out because my homie was showing me how to use his 2000xl I took to it pretty quick. But when I got one myself and seen all that you had to go through to just make your drum program... I was like damn this is a maticuless (I know that is so wrong) ass machine. Because if you dont name everything you could come back three days later and not be able to load up anything. I was using Fl and i still like that you dont have to get things right; just like they were in your mind... but close and you can fix that ish in the editor... And once I figured out how to make that mpc bounce (how the mpc timing has a kind of natrual swing to it) with Fl you could tell me nothing, my MPC was collecting dust. But then again you can make wonderful mistakes on the mpc... it takes a while to get your feel on it. I remember (NOTE THIS IS A TIP FOR THE BEGINNERS) when I used to cheat I would change the T.C to what ever I was doing and hold down the note repeat button and i would not have to worry if when it came to playback if my snares hit on time or if my hi hats were straight 1/16ths.

But yeah homie I feel like everyone unless you came from a music background (and i did and it still takes a learning curve it might just be too because I played the bass) that you should have to start with something from your pc (wheather it is acid [I hate it], FL, reason [that joint is still complicated to me], i mean i started on hammerhead) and get the fundamentals on that, before you are ready to really spend money because this is not a cheap life!! you would be surprized of how many times i go to studios and see all this dope ass equip and either they get to playing stuff or i am there just to see another work flow (always a good thing even if they suck they might have an interesting flow) and throw my two cents in because they asked me to be there for that. It sounds nice cause of the equip but the beat itself is wack as hell or it maybe good untill the hook and then you here this sound that goes with nothing in the joint. There is more to life then a 808 kick drum. there is mor to like than the drums period. Know how to pick sounds that go together and even with the wack ass FL sounds you might make a gem. Never let it be the lack of sounds be your excuse. I have maybe easy 15 gbs of just drums and they are all different do i need that many, hell naw. now I could have maybe just two gigs of those and create alot of those drums myself.

my bad I said all that and didnt address afew things:

1) FL by far can out sample anything as far as right now!!!! Yes it can! With exception of maybe the 4000, No not even that If you know how to use FL. I mean you can speed the sample up at the same pitch you can strech the hell out of something before it starts distorting... you can slice and chop and mix up the sample...now you can do all of it non-destructive like someone want on the mp... and just for what i said earlier about MPC mistakes that make a song... you can even chop up the sample than randomize the order to get different ideas on how to flip it... dudes only talk about reason because for some reason it is more accepted then FL and you are actually seeing it in studios now. But really it is all about the fact that you are mimic how you would set up equip... but I am not using equip I am on a computer... I should not have to bus things in and out and yeah i do not care that if you do it in a certain order it does it itself.

Oh and for anyone curious http://www.myspace.com/insparks

Fl has a real dope sequencer.. and it being pattern bassed makes it even better for beats.. i tried reason and found the sequencer wack, and so slow to work with compared to fl.. especially once u know the keyboard shortcuts as well. U can work so well and fast with it u dont have to think about any technical process ur doing and can just keep on the music to the point it doesnt feel like theres anything else in the way of what u are doing with the music

I prefer to chop with my s2000, coz of doing it by ear i find much better.. especially when it comes to charicter of chops.. is the key to makin tiny small chops work dope. I do any drum lowpass filtering in the s2000, mainly with kicks gettin the bottom end to mix with a non processed kick chop and fattern them up..

Then i put my chops into kontakt2 loaded as vst in fl.. work my drums (layer / eq / any hi pass filtering).. then use waves ssl plug ins (another thing reason cant do is load external plug ins)... bounce them down and load back up in kontakt2.. as well as my melody chops, and sequence in fl.. using both fl plug ins.. external ones.. and the kontakt2 ones..

I also audio record vocals and scratch hooks in fl (reason cant record).. and fls real nice how it has the audio window under ur sequencer window and how u can zoom in various ways, makes it real dope to work ur beat around the vocals and keep workflow runnin real nice and fast

InCanasous wrote:dudes only talk about reason because for some reason it is more accepted then FL and you are actually seeing it in studios now. But really it is all about the fact that you are mimic how you would set up equip

Oh and for anyone curious http://www.myspace.com/insparks

Yeah thats a gimick man, silly sellin point.. and crazy how much better features in other things get looked over in replace for it.

Reason isnt close to alot of sequencer / music progs.. def not near close to fl7, another thing is all the reviews seem to be more paid adverts, they are never actual "reviews".. and its classed as "industry standard" which doesnt mean anything.. just coz a certain known name uses something it can be classed as industry standard... example :sm58.

As for fl... quickly peep (even if its only 10 secs or so of each track u'll get the idea...

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemus ... dID=498327 listen to any of them

Def gotta peep
http://www.myspace.com/elaquenthiphop dudes got mad nice beats, one of my fav beat makers

and as well as that soundclick, while im currently postin links i might as well put my myspace

http://www.myspace.com/c0mplexphoneticistproductions

Yeah ok! we change up are page to much to have a distinct style like you appear to have. But yeah we make striaght hip hop head type shit too.

http://www.myspace.com/mentclique

This is our other group member and I think he kind of transisioned his page with ours to more of a comercial sound for right now but less so then ours.[/url]

how did you get your joints to scroll like that I want to be able to have more than four joints up at a time.

InCanasous wrote:how did you get your joints to scroll like that I want to be able to have more than four joints up at a time.

use myspace search and type in bodog entertainment and add him as a friend