So confused- how to make a beat?

I've read Beat Making on the MPC 1000 and the JJOSXL Chopping Bible, and I have JJOS2XL 3.39 installed, but I'm totally confused about how to make a good beat on this thing.

I tried sampling some rock songs and I have drum sounds on my MPC, but am I missing something?

Do you guys have bass and keys and other sounds that you lay down over a drum beat? Do you arrange an extended drum beat arrangement by sequence editing and then find samples at the same BPM to play over it?

I'm having trouble understanding how e.g. Memorecks got this going:


I feel like I'm on the brink of composing on the MPC, but it's just not happening for me yet.

EDIT: I remember at the end of the JJOSXL Chopping Bible there was a tutorial, but that kinda just got me a rough idea of how to match a sample to a beat and make fine adjustments- I'm trying to figure out how to come up with an arrangement that gets me to have a 2-3 minute beat I can take into a DAW and mess around with

practice, practice, practice... In all honesty we can give you all the "tricks" we have in our arsenal and yes they will help you but really just keep on practising.

but to answer your questions.

-Yes I have all types of instruments I use with/beside the MPC including keys and bass.

-learn pitch and time warp to match BPMs

memorex is a talented dude, i've watched a couple of his videos in the past. he just chopped up a song and, I think, just used a drum loop. although, from what I remember,when he does use one shot samples he uses no quantize, and usually does 8 bars, and never redoes his drums. once its laid, it stays...

but everyone is going to give you different advice. keep on watching videos on making music with the MPC (MPC porn as I like to call it) and then attempt to mimic the style. don't have to use the same samples just focus on the parts that you think will be useful to your production style...





















and if I haven't said it yet.... practice

EDIT: to this day I'm still confused on how to make a beat

I hear you brother- it's really weird for me because, say, right now I'm trying to sample Citizen Erased by Muse and somehow get that to become a beat.

I stopped using my MPC a while ago because I was getting frustrated since I spent 98% of my time researching tricks and learning how to use it and 2% making music with it.

I really appreciate your heuristic advice man- I also especially appreciate you saying it straight that you're still confused after going through the ropes

It helps me feel like the struggle's worth it

I'll try to keep it rockin- it's a hell of a journey, it def is

Well, in my opinion no videos show the typical use of an MPC.

I think you can divide the basic workflow in three steps :
-recording/ sampling/ finding samples
-making programs
-recording into the sequencer/ playing live

So you can only have fun at the last step and let me say that the first two steps are rather time consuming

You can add an extra step if you want to import your beat in a daw and mix it.

Generally speaking, in a video you only see the "playing" step by someone skilful so that doesn't show the reality for the average use. You will be able to have fun only if you master your MPC and know its limits.

So as suggested before just practice.
PEAce

Just keep on making beats! Little by little, the machine will start following your thoughts and visions better. Doesn't really matter what you do, just bang those pads and have fun! I'd advice against reading / researching too much, it can help but it can also introduce analysis-paralysis. If it helps, you can try to compartmentalize your efforts into two different stages:

1. building up your samplelibrary
2. using your library for making beats

Don't get discouraged - and don't overly compare yourself to others; that way lies madness & frustration..

....2% music....?

mpc is a sampler.....it will always sound like you want it to sound like...
and there are no rules for now....discover....surprise yourself....
there's no easier way to get serious musical results than fooling around with a mpc....

play like a kid with it and let it just come.....or follow a vision.....

if that won't work for you.....you're maybe on the wrong track with music at all and you'd better sell it....

and go for single sounds.....forget 'bout chopping for now......start with a boom....and a tschak.....

hey man. thanks for the interest in my video. i've been making beats for quite a few years now and over time you develop a sensibility for what sounds go good together. you can't just sample any song.. the sound design has to have room for you to mix it in with your own drums. i often might filter out some of the bass so i can make my own basslines as well. if you have more specific question, fire me an email.
cheers

tsutek wrote:Just keep on making beats! Little by little, the machine will start following your thoughts and visions better. Doesn't really matter what you do, just bang those pads and have fun! I'd advice against reading / researching too much, it can help but it can also introduce analysis-paralysis. If it helps, you can try to compartmentalize your efforts into two different stages:

1. building up your samplelibrary
2. using your library for making beats

Don't get discouraged - and don't overly compare yourself to others; that way lies madness & frustration..

What he said!!! I spent time gear lusting, buying _____ equipment to sound like ____. Watching videos etc.....Things didn't make sense to me until I was forced to sit at home (car wrecked and hospital/recovery stint). 3 months with my mpc and my daw. Its like tsutek says, you begin to make the machine do whats in your mind.....

I find chopping "on beat" is helpful. Basically a musical Phrase is about 8 bars long, like the time it takes for the melody to repeat. Sample the whole phrase, it may not loop perfectly, but when it is looped should feel like the original song, not missing a beat or anything. Then Chop this into 16 pieces. Go thru and trim/adjust each chop. They will usually end up fairly equal, and when playing back you'll find yr tapping pads to a steady rhythm. From there, I ALWAYS just rely on trial and error, until I get something I like.

Pretty much EVERYONE layers drums over chops, you can also layer whatever else you like, but then you will prob want/need to know what key the song is. Listen to whats in the chops, if there's a lot of bass u prob do not need to layer more on. The less going on in the original sample, the more room to add stuff with out it sounding cluttered.

When I started, my biggest problem was ending on time, meaning I'd be done playing chops, and there's be time left, or I'd hit the "overdub" part and start (Unintentionally) recording over. I found doing one bar loops at lower speeds helped. I am much better at that now, but it still takes trial and error.

you can try to "copy" other people's work...look up a hip hop song and find the sample they used and try to emulate that same sound until you have a firm understanding of how people have done this...also, i would recommend studying soul/funk/jazz instead of newer stuff like muse, but that's just my opinion...

Just do what kanye west does.

Holy s*** I didn't expect Memorecks himself to reply! I will def be e-mailing you when I get questions; I'm still hitting those brick walls and breaking through.

I've tried old Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, and Marvin Gaye, but while I like their music enough- I can't get myself to pull the right chops from their songs. I'll give it another shot, but because I don't listen to their songs regularly, I have trouble using my imagination with getting my chops- I can do a lot more if I have an imagination for what I'm working with.

I just didn't put enough into it I guess. I gotta work harder.

I just need to ask: do I need to build up a sound library too in the MPC? Like bass sounds, lasers, guitar, stabs, vocal choruses, or orchestral instruments sounds?

I've just been looking at this as getting samples from a song and using drums, but that's mainly b.c a lot of sounds I put on my card in WAV format don't trigger- I think it's because it's not downsampled to 16 bit, but I have no clue how to do that.

DeadSoul wrote:I've just been looking at this as getting samples from a song and using drums, but that's mainly b.c a lot of sounds I put on my card in WAV format don't trigger- I think it's because it's not downsampled to 16 bit, but I have no clue how to do that.

It sounds like you are getting stuck on some basic stuff, specifically, how to get sounds into the MPC. If you're having trouble loading samples, you won't be able to build a nice program/library up.

If I were you at this stage (and we probably all were at some point), I would slow down and take a step back. Focus your research on why some samples you put on the card work and some don't. Then fix that. Trust me, you will learn a lot.

Also, try to avoid getting fixated on problem solving all the time. Take some of the samples you have that do work and play around with em. If you don't know how to slice a sample yet, DO THAT NEXT. If you're not having fun with the instrument, then what's the point?