Submit your beats to our regular battles - the winner starts the next battle!

Best Flip?

2
25%
5
63%
1
13%
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By Psychedelic Schizophrenic Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:43 pm
Another week gone so it time to get your votes in for this weeks winner

Usual rules as per normal, obviously you all know by now don’t vote for yourself. Vote will run for 2 day, can the winner please send me , PK1 or Saltmcgault
ONE sample/rules on Friday for the next round. As always all feedback and constructive criticism is welcome, so let these guys know what you thought of their tracks etc

FrankTheLyricalTank


Ajax


NearTao


Good luck fellas :smoker:
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By NearTao Wed Feb 10, 2021 11:40 pm
Frank... this is solid really dig the use of the vocals and other short sounds in there!

Ajax... just tickles my ear... just enjoy what you did here, super subtle and quite effective!
By Ajax Thu Feb 11, 2021 1:30 am
I dug both Frank’s and Tao’s beats. That vocal sample at the beginning of Frank’s is amazing... I kinda wish you’d incorporated it later in the track. Seems like it would have made a perfect chorus... the loop/melody was really solid too.

Tao, those mechanical percussion substitutes that you used as a form of warped hi hat (at least that’s what it sounded like) were really solid. I tried to do something similar when I got to the robotic part of mine.

Good stuff, guys. I think I’m edging with Frank, but they were both solid. Cheers.
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By Null Sweat Fri Feb 12, 2021 5:49 am
Frank - Sounds good, it's grooving, but it seems like it needs a little something else. Maybe like Ajax said bring the vocals back... ?

Ajax - Pretty fresh flip on that sample, only complaints are it's pretty low in volume and could use a little more mixing or EQ to bring out those frequencies.

NearTao - Modulation on the hats sound cool. Dig the suspenseful choir. The bass is bugging me though, on 1 bar repeat, it's begging to go somewhere else and it's also competing with your kick in the low end. Maybe sidechaining the bass to the kick could fix it or more compression on the kick.

Nice round, yall. Went with Ajax.
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By NearTao Fri Feb 12, 2021 12:35 pm
Null Sweat wrote:NearTao - Modulation on the hats sound cool. Dig the suspenseful choir. The bass is bugging me though, on 1 bar repeat, it's begging to go somewhere else and it's also competing with your kick in the low end. Maybe sidechaining the bass to the kick could fix it or more compression on the kick.


Yeah... I got to the point of "well it is the end of the day... which is more fun/adds more... modulating FX... or something else"... I knew the Kick/Bass was whack... and that's the problem with starting with a two bar loop and laying down the bass/drums... and then never really going back to them. At least the modulation sounded cool though... so I'll take it :D

Still... a drop... or *anything* probably would've helped enormously.
By Ajax Fri Feb 12, 2021 2:26 pm
Null Sweat wrote:Frank - Sounds good, it's grooving, but it seems like it needs a little something else. Maybe like Ajax said bring the vocals back... ?

Ajax - Pretty fresh flip on that sample, only complaints are it's pretty low in volume and could use a little more mixing or EQ to bring out those frequencies.

NearTao - Modulation on the hats sound cool. Dig the suspenseful choir. The bass is bugging me though, on 1 bar repeat, it's begging to go somewhere else and it's also competing with your kick in the low end. Maybe sidechaining the bass to the kick could fix it or more compression on the kick.

Nice round, yall. Went with Ajax.


Word. Thanks, man. I’m completely awful at mixing and had to mix this on headphones. Just curious, when you mention the volume/EQing, do you mean the entire track, or certain regions? I obviously split up several ways, because of how many amazing loops there were in the sample track.

Either way, appreciate the compliments. Good looking out.
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By Null Sweat Fri Feb 12, 2021 9:46 pm
NearTao wrote:Yeah... I got to the point of "well it is the end of the day... which is more fun/adds more... modulating FX... or something else"... I knew the Kick/Bass was whack... and that's the problem with starting with a two bar loop and laying down the bass/drums... and then never really going back to them. At least the modulation sounded cool though... so I'll take it :D

Still... a drop... or *anything* probably would've helped enormously.


I understand completely. I probably started half of the battles here last year, and only ended up turning in 3 or 4. It says a lot, that you're in here almost every week posting up a beat. Keep grinding, homie.

Ajax wrote:Word. Thanks, man. I’m completely awful at mixing and had to mix this on headphones. Just curious, when you mention the volume/EQing, do you mean the entire track, or certain regions? I obviously split up several ways, because of how many amazing loops there were in the sample track.

Either way, appreciate the compliments. Good looking out.


The entire track could use a boost, just to get it up to competitive levels to where most people are mixing tracks day. I gave it another listen and maxed out the volume on my speakers and it's not to the point that it's quite hurting my ears. When I slap on a limiter on a master track, I try to aim for overall volume at about 80%, you know where it's bumping good, almost a little too loud but it's pushing the speakers hard enough that your can hear even the lowest elements in the track. So, if you had to play it on a different system that didn't have as much gain, it would still be loud enough that you could get that other 20% out of it. This helps out with shitting phone speakers too. Your levels sound good in the mix after I cranked it up. Everything is balanced, you might have a little more room in the mids that you could boost, but that's really up to taste. Nice work, man. Looks like you're gonna get the cake this week. Drop some dope for us. :wink:
By Ajax Fri Feb 12, 2021 10:38 pm
Good stuff. Appreciate that. One area that I need real improvement is on in mixing, so I’ll def keep that in mind.

I will def find something solid... you guys set the bar high in here. Will try not to disappoint. Ha.
By Ajax Fri Feb 12, 2021 11:47 pm
Indeed.

Short answer... the MPC X.

Long answer, with way more info than you want....

I own an MPC X, an MPC 2500, a Micro Korg XL, an ASR-10, an SP-303, and a Numark PT01 Scratch (that I’ve bought at various times over the years, most used). Just bought a Tascam DP-32 that is still in the box and I can’t wait to use, and I ordered the S2400 last year, so hopefully that’ll arrive at some point in 2021.

Until I get my chops down on the Tascam, I’ll continue recording the way I have been — just recording into Adobe Audition in a MacBook Pro. My speakers are Rokit 4s, but I don’t use them much because Covid has my lady working from home round the clock and never going out and they’re just too damn loud to properly use when I’m not home alone.

The 2500, ASR, 303 and Scratch have been gathering dust in a closet for awhile while my apt got renovated. That’s done now, and I just bought a new desk. Once that’s delivered, I’ll hook everything I have up in one big workflow. Or, at least, that’s the plan.

For the last 6 months or so, all I’ve been using is the X and, occasionally, the Korg XL... sampling in from my iPad or iPhone or from MacBook (if I use Neural Mix Pro to play with the sample track). On this particular track, I used the base sample (chopped in some places and then manipulated and also several straight up jacked loops that I’d removed the drums from with Neural Mix), drums from an Apollo Brown drum pack I bought a couple years ago, bass from one of the MPC X internal instruments, and a bunch of those robotic and Transformers sounds from YouTube. Oh, and Ice Cube from It Was a Good Day. :smoker: