Burial's beats

I see this so much, and I've fallen into the loop aswel! When you hear someone sick (possibly better than yourself) you immediately presume it's cause theyre doing something amazing and that nobody else can do it.... It happened to me with Afta-1 I was mesmerized by his work a while back and couldnt figure out how to make his style beats shit was ridiculous, eventually I figured out it wasnt that he was beyond reach, it was that I was putting his stuff on a pedestal and it was in my head that i couldnt do it. Then figured out i have a shit ton of his sounds and was easily able to remake a lot his stuff (regardless he's still so sick and I'm not saying im where he's at by any stretch) it's all in your head, once you realise your own skill you can achieve what they do. (yoda shit word up)

Damn hope someone can get something from this.... i mean i suck at explaining

After a few more listens I'm actually getting quite into some of the tunes. Do you think the loose timing is very purposefully done, or is he just playing badly and then looping it, and by the time the tune is done it sounds nice?
I've tried just throwing down some sloppy loops but I don't think it sounds quite the same. I dunno if the production and the samples and vocals and everything around the beat all help to give it a better flow. Thoughts?

innovine wrote:After a few more listens I'm actually getting quite into some of the tunes. Do you think the loose timing is very purposefully done, or is he just playing badly and then looping it, and by the time the tune is done it sounds nice?
I've tried just throwing down some sloppy loops but I don't think it sounds quite the same. I dunno if the production and the samples and vocals and everything around the beat all help to give it a better flow. Thoughts?

He lays everything by hand (mouse) in Sound Forge. He doesn't play anything, he doesn't even know how to use a MIDI DAW. Once you've introduced looped or sequenced drums and percussion into the equation, it becomes immediately impossible to duplicate what he does at all. He seems to use more predictable timing on musical elements a lot, but the man works totally off feel. He's in the tradition of the old school masters who did so much with the most basic of workflows. Obviously he's ridiculously gifted as well.

There are few people in the current music I respect and enjoy more.

twisted-roots wrote:I see this so much, and I've fallen into the loop aswel! When you hear someone sick (possibly better than yourself) you immediately presume it's cause theyre doing something amazing and that nobody else can do it.... It happened to me with Afta-1 I was mesmerized by his work a while back and couldnt figure out how to make his style beats **** was ridiculous, eventually I figured out it wasnt that he was beyond reach, it was that I was putting his stuff on a pedestal and it was in my head that i couldnt do it. Then figured out i have a **** ton of his sounds and was easily able to remake a lot his stuff (regardless he's still so sick and I'm not saying im where he's at by any stretch) it's all in your head, once you realise your own skill you can achieve what they do. (yoda **** word up)

Damn hope someone can get something from this.... i mean i suck at explaining

Actually, you're clear as a bell man.
And I feel you completely, I had that damn Ray J sample on my HD for 6 years and never would have thought to do what he did on Archangel, after the fact I had what he did in about 11 seconds.
It always good when a inspirational guy of that caliber appears, even if it makes us all feel weak as hell with ours.

Metatron72 wrote:He lays everything by hand (mouse) in Sound Forge. He doesn't play anything, he doesn't even know how to use a MIDI DAW.

I don't believe a word of that. It's just a cunning marketting plan, as is the mysteriousness and shittyness of his computer and his headphones. Who doesn't know how to use a midi daw, every noob on the internet knows how to o that after their first day pissing about with FL.

Metatron72 wrote:but the man works totally off feel. He's in the tradition of the old school masters who did so much with the most basic of workflows. Obviously he's ridiculously gifted as well.

There are few people in the current music I respect and enjoy more.

Sounds like you have quite the thing for him.

innovine wrote:

Metatron72 wrote:He lays everything by hand (mouse) in Sound Forge. He doesn't play anything, he doesn't even know how to use a MIDI DAW.

I don't believe a word of that. It's just a cunning marketting plan, as is the mysteriousness and **** of his computer and his headphones. Who doesn't know how to use a midi daw, every noob on the internet knows how to o that after their first day pissing about with FL.

Metatron72 wrote:but the man works totally off feel. He's in the tradition of the old school masters who did so much with the most basic of workflows. Obviously he's ridiculously gifted as well.

There are few people in the current music I respect and enjoy more.

Sounds like you have quite the thing for him.

And you sound like somebody from this recent era of respecting no one. The point is the guy does his own thing. He chose an audio editor over a DAW so what. You've obviously never sequenced strictly audio by hand off a grid if you don't realize the obviousness of what he's doing.

Sounds like you're a bitchmade punk, I'm in Buffalo,NY. Come through if you feel like talking that ish to my face.

innovine wrote:After a few more listens I'm actually getting quite into some of the tunes. Do you think the loose timing is very purposefully done, or is he just playing badly and then looping it, and by the time the tune is done it sounds nice?
I've tried just throwing down some sloppy loops but I don't think it sounds quite the same. I dunno if the production and the samples and vocals and everything around the beat all help to give it a better flow. Thoughts?

The loose timing is definitely done on purpose. Listen to any old UKG from the 90's, and of course older tunes by El-B and you'll hear how Burials' sound has evolved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy-djtiU5RE&ob=av2n

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5QOSb9aipo

There's a couple of great MJ Cole tunes so you can hear the lighter side of two step.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG8IkVtoNx8

And that's one of El-B's f*cking disgusting remixes of a Brandy tune. SO good.

Regarding the MIDI DAW thing Meta is spot on. Audio is SO easy to work with these days, I do the majority of my tunes like that too. I rarely ever touch MIDI, so I can completely believe that this is a guy throwing tracks together without needing it. Doesn't mean he doesn't understand it, just that he has no use for it. Once things are in the world of audio DAW choice becomes pretty irrelevant for the most part. Why shouldn't he use Soundforge? It's just as capable as anything else, and if I was skint and starting out and found a cheap copy then f*ck it. There's people who've made amazing music on an MPC 60 with 13 seconds of sample time. It's not like Burial is going off on such a massive tangent and saying... er yeh I actually only use a pen and paper to make tunes.

In regards to the his profile it just so happens that this guy wants to put out tunes without having to whore himself about via advertising and what not. He enjoys doing what he does. It's no different to Doom wearing a mask. The fact that people are more excited about who he is or isn't as opposed to his music is exactly why the music industry for the most part is f*cking sh*t, and also why people like Beiber and Drake can dominate an industry with no talent.

Not all artists want to be about an ego, if you don't get that then you probably won't get Burial.

You see Scoob, I've been back here for an hour and up steps an idiot.

Nice elaboration for a fool who doesn't even deserve the knowledge. Spot on as always man.

I wouldn't read into it mate, the dude was just having jokes really. But like I said you either get Burial and his ethos or you don't.

These days everybody has to know everything about everyone immediately or it isn't true. I've always come from listening to genres where people were faceless unless you were old enough to go to the nights, which I really wasn't when they were at their prime. And people were more interested in their beats than their Twitter.

That mystery has always been a part of the music I love so it's really not hard to accept it with a newer artist like Burial. Though lest we forget his first release was in 2005. He's practically old school by today's fickle standards haha.

Like you I am one of the most respectful people on this forum. But I don't take disrespect from some smart ass clown with 60 posts and no disclosed location, simple as that. Pearls before swine in here sometimes.

I hear you man, I came up on white labels, second hand joints where the previous DJ owner steamed the labels off and only about 1 out of 50 joints had a picture cover. Burial gets the fact that that this is the way to make the music itself the focus. The irony is you have people thinking the lack of an visible public image and persona is somehow actually some gimmick.

Respect to anybody willing to reject this idiotic era where a womanly phone argument between Fabolous and Ray J gets a quarter million hits.

No issue to people devoid of that fickleness as you well know Scoob.

Metatron72 wrote:And you sound like somebody from this recent era of respecting no one. The point is the guy does his own thing. He chose an audio editor over a DAW so what. You've obviously never sequenced strictly audio by hand off a grid if you don't realize the obviousness of what he's doing.

Dont be a wanker. I can hear pefectly well what he is doing, my question is regarding the amount of planning and thought being put into it. Scoobylol answered in a far more helpful and mature manner. Now go back to presuming shit about ppl and being all cool cos you're oldskool

I suppose I'm not worthy to appreciate music, is that it?

scoobylol wrote:The loose timing is definitely done on purpose. Listen to any old UKG from the 90's, and of course older tunes by El-B and you'll hear how Burials' sound has evolved.

Cheers man, that's a consise and attitude-free answer to my question. Much appreciated. I'll dig a bit into these el-b tunes and see what's happening there.

No presumptions, you appeared to have directly insulted me. I explained what Burial's technique is in slightly less detail than Scooby and you came back talking shit. You threw out an insult as a reply to accurate information I'm telling you, and you're gonna talk about maturity?

If you can hear what he's doing perfectly well, why was your reply it couldn't possibly be true it is Sound Forge?

If you took me agreeing with Scoob about how DJ culture used to be as some kind of old school boast, you missed the point of me echoing Scoob's take on it.


If you were just joking and I missed the sarcasm because it's just text on the internet, no issue at all man. I wouldn't have thought anything of it had we ever spoke here previously. But we haven't, so you should be able to see how your statement would be seen as disrespectful. Or just get on that Foe Button, although I'd prefer to just squash this.

innovine wrote:

scoobylol wrote:The loose timing is definitely done on purpose. Listen to any old UKG from the 90's, and of course older tunes by El-B and you'll hear how Burials' sound has evolved.

Cheers man, that's a consise and attitude-free answer to my question. Much appreciated. I'll dig a bit into these el-b tunes and see what's happening there.

El-B is a big influence on Burial. Apparently he would try to re-create El-B's style of drums and where he had gaps or problems he'd hide it with white noise/noise. At least I think that's what he said, been ages since I've read this properly:

http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/347/

Loads of great info there. You only have to look at the people he references to know that he's a real head in the know as far as music is concerned. It's really funny reading that interview too because there's so many parts that are applicable to myself. How he just missed the rave/jungle scene but got introduced to it through his older piers... it's like reading my own biography only I can't make tunes like his haha.

innovine wrote:
I suppose I'm not worthy to appreciate music, is that it?

Dude re-read my original post you quoted. I said nothing more than a brief overview of his techniques and I really enjoy his tracks. You replied with denial of the info and a childish implied gay joke.

Where would you possibly get the idea I'm implying you're not worthy to appreciate music? You wouldn't even be on a forum like this if you weren't an appreciator of music, and I respect everybody here for that same reason. I said your reply didn't make sense and was rude, I never said anything that your implying in the least.

Really man, apologies for egging it on, I'd much rather engage in civil discussions with people on here, yourself included. I just don't understand why when we're discussing an artist we both appreciate, your first words to me are a gay joke.