The "Tips and Tricks" thread

a method used by every renowned beat producer probably ....

a sure way to get the creative juices flowing, building beats while your in a zone, and taking your production skills to another level

Get in your studio

get some king size rizlas, a bag of weed, and light carton paper ( i heard business cards work well )

roll up a joint, light it up and inhale

turn on your gear, spin some records, and get to work.

works every time!

p.s. this trick is also good for tracks that you've made already and then going back to listen to them and making adjustments.

DjMastas wrote:

Menco wrote:Also, ears do get tired. Taking a break away from ur studio/lab/bedroom can really revive the process.

VERY TRUE! I say that all the time, Its amazing how bad something can sound in the morning when you were up til 4 in the morning thinking it was the S**T! lol

Always listen to it again with fresh ears.
Also, if like me you have neighbours & so every night your reduced to making a beat in your headphones ALWAYS make sure you give it a listen and re-EQ the track thru loud speakers or monitors, even with the best headphones it NEVER sounds the same thru speakers.

not only is this a tired ears problem, but an "active listening" problem. after working with a song for too long, you lose objectivity...your mind will have an idea of how you want it to sound and will begin to project that on to your samples, etc. regular breaks gives you a chance to clear out your mental RAM and start with a fresh mind that lets you see things how they really are.

i've been lazily sequencing for 2 years. this ones a 3000 trick. i get a piano sample. say two notes. loop it over one bar. use note repeat to alter it to four bars.

I've been re-doing beats for years, but just recently I understood the power of it.

1. Start doing a beat and continue to the point where you cant add any new instruments or samples or whatever. Stop right there. Do not try to finish it! Do not start recording or mixing or anything.

2. Save it. Then write some notes about it, like how you felt when you made it and why it is not complete yet.

3. Continue doing another beat or go to a lunch or what ever.

4. Next time you're starting your MPC or PC or whatever, start reading your notes and find a beat which matches your mood best. You can also try different route and load a beat which matches your mood worst.

5. This is where the magic happens! You hear the beat as it's not yours! If you don't force anything on the 1.point, you kinda start to find out whats wrong and what is working on more objective level. Adding more stuff, changing samples or removing parts comes easier cause are not forced to work with samples you started with. At this point, it's all about the idea instead of "dope samples" or "banging drums".

You can continue writing notes and coming back to the project later, or you can just finish it if you feel like it.

Just recently I made probably 2 of my all time best beats by using this method. If I listen my old beats I realize that I've tried to do a nice beat in only 30-90 minutes. I can hear it from my own stuff, and I think everyone else can hear it to from their own projects too. Using a 2-4 weeks for a beat is totally different than doing it in one night.

I don't mean you shouldn't do the whole beat if you feel like it. This is just a tip you can use, if you lost your idea or you're forcing too much.

olavi3000 wrote:I've been re-doing beats for years, but just recently I understood the power of it.

1. Start doing a beat and continue to the point where you cant add any new instruments or samples or whatever. Stop right there. Do not try to finish it! Do not start recording or mixing or anything.

2. Save it. Then write some notes about it, like how you felt when you made it and why it is not complete yet.

3. Continue doing another beat or go to a lunch or what ever.................................

I don't mean you shouldn't do the whole beat if you feel like it. This is just a tip you can use, if you lost your idea or you're forcing too much.

Good stuff, man. Being a perfectionist has its downsides, especially when you spend hours at a time focusing on minute details. It's like making your favorite food - sometimes you might think you need to add a little more flavor, but once you have all the seasonings in it, it's hard to take it back.

I just found a way to do parallel compresion on the mpc1000. It makes the compressor much more useful. Thought id share it:

fx1: delay, delay level: ZERO
to fx2: yes
fx2: compressor

now sweep the send level and compressors gain to make the mix.

too bad it uses two fx slots tho.

some nice little tricks.... around here

this threads awesome!
im a mpc noob and still learnin the ropes and all these tips im trying one at a time, and there so helpful .
alot of tecniques i would have never thought of.
thanks ya'll

Not sure if this has been said before, but I seen it on the YouTube video on the making of JayZ's Dead Presidents.

Grab a vocal from another hip hop beat, just the 4-8 bars (or chorus), take off the bottom end, and loop it over the beat whilst producing. It will allow you to visualize what the beat will sound like with a dope rapper over it.

I do this a lot with Busta, and Pharoahe Monche. When you're happy, just remove the vocal.

cluster wrote:If you chop, find time to reverse a sample and have reversed chops.. Just adds to the sound... and can also help with filling in gaps of sound...

How do you reverse a sample and reverse a chop?

Tip for playin live: Set a foot switch to trigger an open hi hat.. but set it in reverse. Set the pad with the open hat sample asigned to it to Note Off. So when you take your foot off the switch, hat open.. when you put your foot back down, hat closed. I see alot of people use the NV Slider for it but this way frees up your left hand and would prolly feel more natural to a traditional drummer. Simple and sounds obvious but...

Tip for playin live: I assign a q link fader to control a pad. I set the pad to Note Off. When I slide the fader down I get a reversed reverb like effect. When I push it up I get a drum roll. It sounds good on reversed vocal samples too.. especially with a long attack. It doesnt have much use as far as sequencing but if you record/perform live then its somethin you should play around with. **** around with the parameters. I think the creative use of midi switches in the 2000 is under rated.

olavi3000 wrote:I've been re-doing beats for years, but just recently I understood the power of it.

1. Start doing a beat and continue to the point where you cant add any new instruments or samples or whatever. Stop right there. Do not try to finish it! Do not start recording or mixing or anything.

2. Save it. Then write some notes about it, like how you felt when you made it and why it is not complete yet.

3. Continue doing another beat or go to a lunch or what ever.

4. Next time you're starting your MPC or PC or whatever, start reading your notes and find a beat which matches your mood best. You can also try different route and load a beat which matches your mood worst.

5. This is where the magic happens! You hear the beat as it's not yours! If you don't force anything on the 1.point, you kinda start to find out whats wrong and what is working on more objective level. Adding more stuff, changing samples or removing parts comes easier cause are not forced to work with samples you started with. At this point, it's all about the idea instead of "dope samples" or "banging drums".

You can continue writing notes and coming back to the project later, or you can just finish it if you feel like it.

Just recently I made probably 2 of my all time best beats by using this method. If I listen my old beats I realize that I've tried to do a nice beat in only 30-90 minutes. I can hear it from my own stuff, and I think everyone else can hear it to from their own projects too. Using a 2-4 weeks for a beat is totally different than doing it in one night.

I don't mean you shouldn't do the whole beat if you feel like it. This is just a tip you can use, if you lost your idea or you're forcing too much.

Yo this is a constant demon for me trying to deal with this EXACT problem. Tks for this one Bruh!