Polishing the beat

My question goes like this. I'll get a beat made by chopping a sample into a 4 bar beat pattern. Then ill add some drums, percussion ( cymbals, shakers, random fx ) and a bassline. After that ill try to find a change up pattern and maybe drop out aspects of the track such as the fx, parts of the drums etc... Well after that I am left with a sampled beat that is feels unfinished/unpolished. What else do you guys usually do, or what other possibilities are there? I see tracks made by the professional beat makers such as 9th wonder, pete rock and all them cats. Also some newer cats just don't know their names off hand. It just seems they are putting in more time with their beats. If anyone wants to see any of my beats for an example ill post one up. Anyways hope this can be a beneficial thread to the forums.

Are you making the beat strictly on the MPC? Personally, I use software (+ MIDI controllers) for making beats, I sold my MPC1000 a while ago, but I think what you need to do is render the beat to a wave file (perhaps each track as seperate wave files), and transfer it to your computer and open it in a DAW like Pro Tools or audio editors like Audacity or Adobe Audition. In these programs you can add various effects (reverb, delay, compression, etc.) , filters (EQ), and do some mixing and basic mastering. If you don't know anything about the two last-mentioned, you should find a guide on the net or buy a book on the subject, cus it's impossible to figure out on your own (although it is just the art of doing whatever sounds best I guess).

PS: I use FL Studio as my DAW/sequencer. The effects I use here are third-party freeware VST's like Bootsy NastyHF and NastyLF (brilliant for making your drums slam harder), TAL-Reverb, TAL-Bitcrusher (good for adding a bit of 'dust' to your beat), CamelCrusher (excellent adding punch to your kicks, you can also use it on bass and other low frequency instruments), SoundGoodizer (internal FL Studio plugin that can really make your sample(s) sound better), Electri-Q (my favorite graphical EQ). These are just some ideas for VST plugins you might find useful. Remember you also need a good compressor, EQ, filter, and limiter.

Hope this was helpful (although I'm a software guy speaking to a hardware guy... I think)!

My process is pretty much the same as yours but here's where we differ. After I make my 4 bar sequence, I copy it, making it an 8 bar sequence but I add a variation to the drums in 8th bar... just a simple fill in. Then I copy that to have a 16bar sequence with a different, more complex fill at the end to lead into the hook. After the drums and samples are sequenced I play chords over it to kinda pull the samples together. Add my bass after that and I'm pretty much done. Only thing left to do is add a lil melody and sequence the song as a whole. To do that, I make a bunch of copies of the 16 bar sequence and use the track mute screen. Then sequence in song mode. Check out my Youtube vid, "the making of the rest of my life". Thats pretty much my whole process. The link is in my signature.

im polish, send it to me I'll take care of it

google translator says "śmiech mnie w dupę"

bayken wrote:google translator says "śmiech mnie w dupę"

Did you really mean to say laugh in my ass?

I don't swing that way, just so you know

konc3pt wrote:

bayken wrote:google translator says "śmiech mnie w dupę"

Did you really mean to say laugh in my ass?

I don't swing that way, just so you know

I'm not, google meaning that.
I'cant polish.

Polishing the beat: its all in the mix. Get down EQing your drums, maybe some tasty reverb or compression or whatever on your samples etc.. once you get everything sitting right it should sound a lot more "polished" than raw off the mpc.
I've heard people say on here "oh my stuff always sounds better straight raw 2 tracked off the mpc"
Well thats because they can't mix.
If you don't have any software try reaper - its free and apparently really good

Ben.H wrote:Polishing the beat: its all in the mix. Get down EQing your drums, maybe some tasty reverb or compression or whatever on your samples etc.. once you get everything sitting right it should sound a lot more "polished" than raw off the mpc.
I've heard people say on here "oh my stuff always sounds better straight raw 2 tracked off the mpc"
Well thats because they can't mix.
If you don't have any software try reaper - its free and apparently really good

although I have used sonar for 7 years, cubase off and on I have to agree with this Reaper is fantastic

BUT ITS NOT FREE

low price ---yes
free---------no

good----beats the shit out of bloated boxed bullshit- str8 DAW ,no bs + the best fukin dev team on the planet
cough cough ....akai pay attention

eq your beat comp it,crush it ,whatever ....when you like it its "polished" DO NOT LIMIT IT unless you are done and dont want to add vocals or anything(unless you have a raw copy)