By drumat!c
Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:57 am
From the Funk Box To the Final Mix
Pete Rock has long been known as a wily veteran of the E-mu SP-1200 sampler and drum machine (once referred to by Large Professor as having "the raw sound that just brings it home"), and to this day, he relies on that unit, along with an Akai MPC2000XL, to build his signature beats.
"The difference between the two is that the SP sounds fuller," Rock says. "When you sample a kick, it's like two times fatter. The MPC gives you a thinner sound, but you can make it thick. It depends on how you do your shit and if you're using your head and making music."
When pressed on how he gets a "thicker" sound on the MPC, Rock doesn't exactly rush to reveal his secrets. "I mean, I can't tell you all my methods," he quips, "but, usually, I would EQ the sounds before I sample them. I have a little 8-track mixing board that lets me do that."
From there, Rock works with his longtime recording engineer, Jamey Staub. Sometimes, they'll convene at Staub's Empire Vu Studio in Manhattan, although for most of Soul Survivor II, they used several different studios in the city. "Once Pete has a basic beat going, with maybe a variation or two sequenced, he'll start to arrange it into a song," Staub explains. "After that, we take all separate outputs from the SP or the MPC and go to 2-inch tape. For this record, a lot of times, we bounced back from the tape into Pro Tools and then sent the session to the other artists for vocals - you know, a lot of them have their own Pro Tools setup. If Pete liked what came back, we'd use it straight; otherwise, we might shift it around a little bit before going to the final mix."
For pitch shifting and time stretching, the Akai S1000 used to be Rock's unit of choice until he moved up to the S3000 and, eventually, to Eventide Harmonizers. "We do all that now in Pro Tools and Logic Audio," Staub continues. "We'll drop in the rough beat, and if any musical element needs to be stretched or tuned, we can do it all in the computer. I actually haven't upgraded to Logic 6 yet, but I'm hoping once somebody at Emagic reads this, they'll send me an upgrade!" [Laughs.]
A Neve VR console at New York's Manhattan Center Studios (frequented of late by such luminaries as Timbaland and Missy Elliott) provided the key ingredient to the ever-essential thickness of the final mix. Staub breaks it down again: "We'd bring in a Pro Tools session and run that through the Neve to a Studer 1/2-inch tape machine and simultaneously back into Pro Tools. Pete would decide at mastering whether to use the 1/2-inch mix or the Pro Tools mix, depending on what felt right sonically."
Beyond the gear and technology, Rock's true secret weapon - like any hip-hop producer who stakes his rep on the uniqueness of his breaks - is his formidable record collection, which lately is rumored to top some 60,000 slabs of wax. "I've been over to his house, and everywhere you look - every corner, every wall - there's records," Staub says. "His record collection is what he builds from, and once he has an idea, he's a master of the 1200 and the MPC. That's really all he needs."
Pete Rock has long been known as a wily veteran of the E-mu SP-1200 sampler and drum machine (once referred to by Large Professor as having "the raw sound that just brings it home"), and to this day, he relies on that unit, along with an Akai MPC2000XL, to build his signature beats.
"The difference between the two is that the SP sounds fuller," Rock says. "When you sample a kick, it's like two times fatter. The MPC gives you a thinner sound, but you can make it thick. It depends on how you do your shit and if you're using your head and making music."
When pressed on how he gets a "thicker" sound on the MPC, Rock doesn't exactly rush to reveal his secrets. "I mean, I can't tell you all my methods," he quips, "but, usually, I would EQ the sounds before I sample them. I have a little 8-track mixing board that lets me do that."
From there, Rock works with his longtime recording engineer, Jamey Staub. Sometimes, they'll convene at Staub's Empire Vu Studio in Manhattan, although for most of Soul Survivor II, they used several different studios in the city. "Once Pete has a basic beat going, with maybe a variation or two sequenced, he'll start to arrange it into a song," Staub explains. "After that, we take all separate outputs from the SP or the MPC and go to 2-inch tape. For this record, a lot of times, we bounced back from the tape into Pro Tools and then sent the session to the other artists for vocals - you know, a lot of them have their own Pro Tools setup. If Pete liked what came back, we'd use it straight; otherwise, we might shift it around a little bit before going to the final mix."
For pitch shifting and time stretching, the Akai S1000 used to be Rock's unit of choice until he moved up to the S3000 and, eventually, to Eventide Harmonizers. "We do all that now in Pro Tools and Logic Audio," Staub continues. "We'll drop in the rough beat, and if any musical element needs to be stretched or tuned, we can do it all in the computer. I actually haven't upgraded to Logic 6 yet, but I'm hoping once somebody at Emagic reads this, they'll send me an upgrade!" [Laughs.]
A Neve VR console at New York's Manhattan Center Studios (frequented of late by such luminaries as Timbaland and Missy Elliott) provided the key ingredient to the ever-essential thickness of the final mix. Staub breaks it down again: "We'd bring in a Pro Tools session and run that through the Neve to a Studer 1/2-inch tape machine and simultaneously back into Pro Tools. Pete would decide at mastering whether to use the 1/2-inch mix or the Pro Tools mix, depending on what felt right sonically."
Beyond the gear and technology, Rock's true secret weapon - like any hip-hop producer who stakes his rep on the uniqueness of his breaks - is his formidable record collection, which lately is rumored to top some 60,000 slabs of wax. "I've been over to his house, and everywhere you look - every corner, every wall - there's records," Staub says. "His record collection is what he builds from, and once he has an idea, he's a master of the 1200 and the MPC. That's really all he needs."
