Ideas

I started out making some nice hip hop beats that i like and all, but i feel like i want my music to be a little more complex.
Here is one of my first beats when I got my mpc500:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwYrrCJaTwE

but now i've been listening to some of the stuff blockhead and aesop rock produce (im obsessed with aesop right now) and some dj krush, el-p, etc., and i have writers-block for a beatmaker now. anyone know how i can break out of it? i want to keep it hip hop but just reach out further and have some really complex shit. heres an example of the kind of beat i like (you may need to skip ahead to about :50 seconds into it cause the intro is just a voice pretty much): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CauWi02hDJU
(where should i find samples that are this style? the sounds that aesop finds are just crazy)


since i want my beats to stand alone and not be rapped over, i think they should be changing up and stuff but i don't know how to go about doing that.

if anyone has any idea what i'm talking about please give me some pointers

I think u're setting the bar thoo high for urself. Focus on one particular thing u like to improve. Like focus more on the sound and texture of my drums the next 5 beats, after that focus more on getting different type of samples and how to integrate them with each other for example.
Be patient and don't expect to sound like a pro over one night. Then u'll see it's not a real producers block, u just think every project is not good enough (so u leave it for what it is) cause it doesn't sound like aesop, premier, whatever.

So keep on developing, part for part and day by day. Don't think, just make beats and evaluate them over two months. Then u'll see u are making progression

all good advice, thanks

drunkmonkey5556 wrote:since i want my beats to stand alone and not be rapped over, i think they should be changing up and stuff but i don't know how to go about doing that.

if anyone has any idea what i'm talking about please give me some pointers

For me it's all in the layering, so you may need to take multiple samples to create variation within your arrangement. Don't run before you can walk though, but also don't worry about setting your sights too high. Having high musical aspirations has kept most of us going for years.

thanks
how do you find samples from two completely different songs and put them over one another
i know how to do it but how does it sound good?
would i have to mess with the pitch, and then timestretch their tempos to be the same?

It's trial and error most of the time but your ear becomes developed with practice. Don't limit yourself to only sampling from "songs" as there are millions and millions of individual sounds out there recorded in isolation that make it way easier to layer up your tracks. A vinyl purist will tell you to dig until you find the right samples, but I would advise you to download what you need online, and maybe even buy some sample packs just to get you started.

i use a pack i downloaded of single drum hits, so thats what i use for drums.. but i don't like to use pre-sampled loops..

In that case get diggin my friend, cause the one thing you need is sounds, and lots of them!

thats what iv been doing for a week str just practice on my drums layering and tuning them getting a vibe for them,then spend a week a practicing eq and so forth,bit by bit im going to learn everyting........

That's what it's all about...

drunkmonkey5556 wrote:thanks
how do you find samples from two completely different songs and put them over one another
i know how to do it but how does it sound good?
would i have to mess with the pitch, and then timestretch their tempos to be the same?

That's the fun of it all. Finding samples that mesh together so to speak. During this process you'll know what will work and what won't.

Take the advice of training your ears for this stuff.

i suggest to get out of the beat block, listen to some music other than hip hop for a couple of days. i dont really listen to that much hip hop, but i produce it. i listen to a lot of other music that i find inspiring to me. lately the foreign exchange has been in heavy rotation. a lot of the beats on that album are really dope, but some of the songs that really stand out to me are the ones that have funny time signatures, or have very nice arrangements. what that has me doing is trying to figure out the time sig, or attempting similar song structures.

listen to some music, go digging, experiment with different drum patterns (lately ive have been trying to avoid putting the kick on the 1 just to give it a new groove).

also, if you have a sequence that you are stuck on, make a copy of it, delete and replay the samples in a different pattern. do that a couple times and then do a quick arrangement in song mode. it will give you new ideas to work with and you might come up with some surprising results.

good luck

I used to paint (ART) a lot and when i started messing with beats, i took the paint part and applied it to beats. I just start with an idea and improv from what i just painted/made. And the good thing about music compared to painting is if you dont like something its easier to erase/do over.
Another thing I started to do when i lost the creativity with music, is try to copy a song that you like and see how that person put it together, you will learn new techniques too.

PS-Just dont let your friends find out you are copying others.

Yeah man, for me beat creation almost feels like painting too. U have the picture u want to paint in ur head. U try to find the right colours and materials to match the vibe. What will be centered? What will be in the background? That's how I work actually.