DJ Premier on using the swing function

just thought i would share this convo i had with premo on his radio show in regards to if he used the 'swing function' or not in his productions. i had gotten into this debate on gearslutz and was laughed at for suggesting he did not use it, and being a dude who has done new york boom bap since the 80's myself and never having even heard the word swing until the 00's on the internet, i was curious myself.

DISCLAIMER: this thread is speaking solely on a specific function found on a few well known machines called 'swing', and NOT the semantics surrounding the english word 'swing' as it can be defined in a dictionary

also, i was nervous as fvck for the first time talking to my idol live on the air and i was using a really crappy 70's mic with skype : )

man they were clownin on you

What was your second question?

sirparksalot wrote::lol: man they were clownin on you

i know : ) panch actually went easy on me, i was prepared for some serious roasting. not the first time i've heard him use that line lol

Coz wrote:What was your second question?

when is he going to work with kool keith

lol good isht!

haze3000 wrote:

sirparksalot wrote::lol: man they were clownin on you

i know : ) panch actually went easy on me, i was prepared for some serious roasting. not the first time i've heard him use that line lol

Coz wrote:What was your second question?

when is he going to work with kool keith

Hahahahah !!! I laughed when Panch was on you but good to know Preemo does not swing his beats.

Cool stuff...

I always see the MPC being sold like, "classic swing function" and I had assumed Primo used it on stuff like "Mass Appeal" and Group Home's "Livin Proof" which have that typical heavy swing to them...

Very interesting to hear he doesn't use it! Props...

nah man, he says that he quantizes some notes but everything else in between he plays it in until it sounds right. just playing it in in real time until he gets the perfect take

common technique - many people just quanise certain parts liek just snare or just kick, then play hats or watchever freestyle to give more groove.

would like to get all his inside tips on the S950 - people see the MPC60 in the foreground in D&D pics and forget the S950 is what his sound is coming out of in reality.

SEED78 wrote:would like to get all his inside tips on the S950 - people see the MPC60 in the foreground in D&D pics and forget the S950 is what his sound is coming out of in reality.

"I like the difficulties of the older equipment. I don't sample with the MPC60, I just use it to trigger drums. Instead I sample in the S950 and trigger them from the MPC — everything, also my keyboards, is MIDI'd to the MPC. I can only sample 60 seconds of audio in the 950, and that also has to include kick and snare and other drum sounds, so that limits the sample time I have. This forces me to be creative with samples. If I find a sample that's longer than 60 seconds that I want to loop, the first thing I'm going to want to do is find a way to make it funky with the limited sample time I have available. I'll mentally create the idea in my mind, because the mind makes the machine do what it does. Any machine is useless without my mind making it follow my command. That's how you recognise creativity versus someone who is OK.

"When my ear catches something on a record that I like, I'll send a portion of that record from my Technics record player to the S950. Once the sample is in the 950, I truncate the parts I don't want, program what I do have, and assign it to one of the pads on the MPC. I'll experiment to see if it makes me feel good and if it starts to sound like something I would buy. If it doesn't sound like something I would buy, it's not ready to go. I have to like it — I don't care what anybody else thinks.

"Everything I do is experimentation. Real music is about experimentation. You have to play around until you get a vibe going, and not everybody knows how to do that, unless they have an ear for music. In order to have an ear you have to have a knowledge of music and my knowledge is so great. I know rock music, jazz, country, hip-hop, R&B, soul, punk, New Wave, whatever you want to call it. I appreciate all that music. I could shift gears 24/7, so when it comes to hip-hop I can do this with my eyes closed."

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul07/articles/djpremier.htm

Thinking about his drums (patterns) and his signature Primo ish with samples, his explanation for how he did his drums does make sense, but it is weird to hear him say "never". I wouldn't have been surprised to hear him say he rarely used it, if at all, but kind of ruling it out like it was never a possibility, like it was completely useless, was weird.

I always thought he quantized his drums, with it just set to 1/16 (3) for the kicks.

When I made my first beats, which wasn't too long ago, I started out doing it as he explained; but that was mainly because I didn't know how to use the MPC or how to sequence drums (in general), more so than because I wanted to feel it out.

Lampdog wrote:Maybe he manually nudges beats/ticks in certain spots create that feel that you hear. Heavy step edit users sometimes memorized certain bar/beat/ticks that give a swung feel. It doesn't have to be the actual function.

nah, its from loosely chopping breaks, record a break and chop it without zooming.

I do what your suggesting lamp, i have remembered numbers of notes i know sound good in certain places, for example, nudging the .72's to .80's. even sticking a hat on the .56 instead of .48 is sometimes nice.

u shoulda asked him if he wacks off to his own ass in the mirror for the 2nd question...lol