Discuss the various methods you use in music production, from compressor settings to equipment type.
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By astral_Signal Sat Jan 12, 2013 7:06 am


Any1 wanna have a shot at trying to break down what the process was in building this track? These are the kind of beats I'm aiming for. The drums are bangin, SP1200? Layering? The Johnny Pate sample sounds like a straight loop with a LPF applied for each verse, although it doesn't sound heavily chopped - maybe on the snare/rim hits.
Nobody apart from Buckwild and the D.I.T.C. crew would know what gear was used, but hopefully some of you lads can have a crack at how to make a slammin track like this.
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By damien907 Sat Jan 12, 2013 7:45 am
have no input on how it was made, except helta skelta "let the brains blow" uses the same sample, check that track out.
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By astral_Signal Sat Jan 12, 2013 10:54 am
still prefer the DITC version, even if it came second
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By peterpiper Sat Jan 12, 2013 12:34 pm
To me the main sample sounds kind of "wobbly" kind of timestrech artifacs thats known from MF Doom stuff 303 beats etc. But the 303 came out in 2001 so theres no way they used it for this track.
I also don't know the original. It probably just sound like that. IDK

peace
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By RepRSP Sat Jan 12, 2013 12:43 pm
D&D yo
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By buddy maxwell Sat Jan 12, 2013 3:51 pm
IDK for sure how this track was made, but I had to guess I would say sp1200 and an s950. Find a dope drum break from vinyl, chop each drum on the sp1200.
Find a dope loop, program an unfiltered and a filtered copy of the loop on the s950.
Then find a few accent samples - like the delayed flute swell that comes in at the end of the fourth bar and then every second bar or so at the start of the DITC track - chop and program in the s950 - using a different output so it will play without cutting off the main loop.
(sounds like Les McCann's Layers lp to me, but I could be wrong)
Also - add some jingle bell shakers when programming the hats.

Peter, the og sounds like this:



The snare hits are present in the second and fourth bar of the og - and the original sample is a little bit "wobbly", the rest is probably just a result of youtubes sound compression and/or shitty mp3 bitrate rips.

Record at a nice studio through quality outboard and record to tape. Done!
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By Lampdog Sat Jan 12, 2013 3:57 pm
Yep, that sounds like the recipe I was thinking also.
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By buddy maxwell Sat Jan 12, 2013 6:50 pm
Oh, I also forgot to mention this track would have been sequenced on the sp1200. Also, you can hear the sp1200's decay function being used on the vibaphones/loops at 2:15 to give that vibrato effect during the changeup sequence.
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By Borat Sun Jan 13, 2013 5:47 pm
What buddy maxwell said, especially the bells part which is really important(add some reverb on it). And another thing : put your snare on 16 levels volume and use the note repeat button to have those fading ins snare rolls that Buckwild does a lot!
By JimminySnicket Mon Jan 14, 2013 4:13 pm
Co-sign what others have said...

Though I think a lot of producers try to do this kind of thing and miss some really important overall factors that make the DITC beat so dope...

1. Swing the drums
The drum programming is really nicely swung, it has that "rolling" sort of laidback head-nod feel... even if you have all the other elements correct, if you did some stiff drum programming without that feel, it won't have that groove that is so good for rapping over. This is a matter of practicing drum programming really and recognizing what makes a good groove.

2. Make the beat relatively mono
The beat is mostly mono with not much panned out to the sides, this helps to "tie the sounds together"... I often hear producers going for this sound, but who have panned all the parts out and it always sounds "wrong" because it makes everything sound a bit disjointed. I don't know if you rap, but if the beat is more mono, it's so much easier to rap over, because your vocal is not fighting against this wall of sound, it's a nice central, mono beat to rap over.

3. Degrade the sound to make all the samples "feel" the same
Obviously if you know what machine it came out of that helps, but the main thing with it coming out of an SP or an S950 is that those machines help to tie all the sounds together... that is the main "trick" that is being pulled off.
When you chop stuff and take things from different records, they're all from different studios and rates of recording, etc, etc... the SP or S950 (or other hardware/software that does similar stuff), helps to make all the sounds feel like they were done in the same session, so the beat sounds like one "complete" recording, instead of lots of other recordings mixed up.

And of course an SP or S950 will make the beats rough and gritty, so the whole thing sounds rugged.
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By Truly Mon Jan 14, 2013 4:55 pm
Since it is on the SP-1200, should probably mention the technique of sampling on 45 and pitched all the way up, then copy, slow down, chop/truncate, etc., plus use decay on the drums.

Sampling faster was probably more for time on the sampler, but I would have to assume it added to the sound also.

To add: In this sample and beat, I think the bass in the sample is panned right, with the main groove (more highs and other stuff) panned more left. I don't know how the SP, or the 950, works for sampling, but it would be a good idea to pay attention, in samples similar to this, to make sure you sample the correct side for what sounds you're trying to get. If you sampled the left side of this track, the bass wouldn't be as present. That's probably obvious, but I use to mess myself up all of the time, by not paying attention to that.