By juniorcartel
Sat Apr 03, 2004 11:46 pm
In my experience, new producers jump into production and get less than satisfactory results. Why? Because they set out to do too many tasks. They want to be the artist, producer, rapper, song writer, DJ, programmer, sampler, keyboardist, engineer, manager, and practically the Mayor! The truth is, the more you try to achieve the less you will master! Thus accomplishing nothing! How do I know? This was my problem. I thought a real producer should be able to do all of this. Not true. Dr. Dre has a keyboardist do his keys. All he does is pick the keys he likes, loops them, and programs drums on his MPC 3000 and SP 1200. Not to suggest he has no skills, he has a great ear and vision of were he wan't to take the song. He knows what people want to here. His real skill is looping catchy phrases, and making his drums bang. Put close attention to his snares, listen to the way the crunch. That sound is his signature. That's mastering a skill!
Alchemist associated with The Mobb Deep produced the track Keep it Thoro on the H.N.I.C. Album and with Dilated Peoples produced the song Worse Comes To Worse from the album Expansion Team. He takes samples, chops them into multiple segments 1/4 1/8 16th notes and programs his samples in different chronological orders making his beats sound nothing like the original artist laid down the song but still capturing the original mood in which the artist recorded the song. This is not easy to do on the Ensoniq ASR 10 because you don't see a wave in the editing screen, you only see numbers. So your ear has to be trained to be able to do precision editing. He is a Master at what he does but give him a guitar and he won't know how to hold it! And if he needs a guitar riff, he will have a guitarist do the job! This leads to the point I'm trying to make.
Don't try to wear to many hats! Only master what a producer is expected to do. Applying this new approach has improved my production greatly!
1.Finding drums, manipulating drums, programming drums.
2.sampling, chopin, arranging, sequencing.
3.Playing keys, writing basslines, chords, scales, training your ear.
Keep it basic. You will get further. I believe these 3 elements makes the difference. I only focus on drums, keys, bass lines. These are my 3 elements. It's all about simplicity. I dont care to mix and master, that's the job of the engineer and is another skill in itself. I will learn that later. A producer that is instrument based and doesn't know chords, scales, and doesn't have ear training has no business trying to learn the recording aspects of production. And if that is what you are pursuing, I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone but good luck! But sometimes to take steps forward you need to take steps back and get down to the basics to unlock your full potential. You need to start from the absolute beginning. Alot of Hip Hop producers don't come from musical backgrounds, they come from rapping, DJing or just being a fan of Hip Hop. They start making purchases to get in business and they become very anxious to start making beats thinking their going to blow up! But what people don't understand Hip Hop production is a skill that takes time to develop. It will not happen over night. You have to be very patient. You are in it for the long hall right? Like 50 said, "Get Rich or Die Trying" that's the approach you need to have. No one can stop you. Patience, training, work ethic... Like a soldier in Boot Camp.
I remember, I use to use drums from sound modules and didn't understand why my drum patterns were weak. But it wasn't my patterns. It was my choice of drums. Back then I couldn't distinguish a good snare from a bad snare. A good kick from a bad kick. I thought a good producer will make any drums into a tight drum pattern. I would ask, why does Alchemist's drums sound tight and I can't get anything to sound remotely close. I started to second guess myself and thinking maybe I'm not a good producer or this just isn't my thing. I had to do one of two things, quit or go on a rampage!
I learned your choice of drums makes or beaks your beat. So now I find my drums first. Carefully hand pick them from different sources like 70's and 80's records, Break records, Sample CD's, and 70's Soul and RnB CD's, sample them into the ASR 10 use the effects and trigger my programming on the MPC 2000 XL. Then I write my instruments from the Motif and Roland 5050. This is a lethal combination.
You see, every kick and snare carries a different mood/feel and are capable of performing different on a song. Look at Eminem's song Stan, those drums match that beat perfectly. It was no accident Eminem's camp selected those drums for the that dark beat. But use those drums for Nelly's next club hit and guess what? They won't match. So it is crucial you find the right kick to match your snare to match your instruments/samples. This makes the difference, selecting, equalizing, filtering, tuning, decaying, etc... is crucial to your distinctive sound. If you have whack drum sounds, you will make no more than whack beats!
Big producers today don't like talking about technical things. They just give general information, like where they recorded and who worked on the track. Ever here the saying "The game is to be sold not told" this is what there talking about. No one want's to tell you where they got their snare and what they did to it or where they took that sample from. Because if they do, that information will spread like wild fires and every body will start sounding like them. My goal is not to tell you how to make beats. But to open your eyes to start to figure out this production as I am.
Today I take piano lessons by a kid who is a master. He is someone you would see on stage playing piano in a packed Auditorium with a black suit. Now I am starting to feel like a musician. Research the following: chords, scales, ear training, equalizing snares, filtering kicks, filtering samples by removing bass or adding bass, chopin samples, time stretch, swinging your drums, the list is endless....
Last thing, I use to have a Triton and wasn't impressed with it's sound and tended to use my Roland 1080 more and used the Triton as a midi controller. A very expensive controller I should add. This wasn't practical so I had to take the loss and find a keyboard that had sounds I would like. I found this in the Yamaha Motif ES 6. These sounds are warm and realistic with the right amount of reverb on the presets. So you don't have to spend hours tweaking sounds. I originally bought the Motif for it's keyboards and basslines but when I took it home I discovered and overwhelming of other instruments that sound hypnotizing. I couldn't believe I was getting this sound in my home studio. My production partner and I were in awe!
Bottom line, experiment, practice, and never stop!
malice
Alchemist associated with The Mobb Deep produced the track Keep it Thoro on the H.N.I.C. Album and with Dilated Peoples produced the song Worse Comes To Worse from the album Expansion Team. He takes samples, chops them into multiple segments 1/4 1/8 16th notes and programs his samples in different chronological orders making his beats sound nothing like the original artist laid down the song but still capturing the original mood in which the artist recorded the song. This is not easy to do on the Ensoniq ASR 10 because you don't see a wave in the editing screen, you only see numbers. So your ear has to be trained to be able to do precision editing. He is a Master at what he does but give him a guitar and he won't know how to hold it! And if he needs a guitar riff, he will have a guitarist do the job! This leads to the point I'm trying to make.
Don't try to wear to many hats! Only master what a producer is expected to do. Applying this new approach has improved my production greatly!
1.Finding drums, manipulating drums, programming drums.
2.sampling, chopin, arranging, sequencing.
3.Playing keys, writing basslines, chords, scales, training your ear.
Keep it basic. You will get further. I believe these 3 elements makes the difference. I only focus on drums, keys, bass lines. These are my 3 elements. It's all about simplicity. I dont care to mix and master, that's the job of the engineer and is another skill in itself. I will learn that later. A producer that is instrument based and doesn't know chords, scales, and doesn't have ear training has no business trying to learn the recording aspects of production. And if that is what you are pursuing, I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone but good luck! But sometimes to take steps forward you need to take steps back and get down to the basics to unlock your full potential. You need to start from the absolute beginning. Alot of Hip Hop producers don't come from musical backgrounds, they come from rapping, DJing or just being a fan of Hip Hop. They start making purchases to get in business and they become very anxious to start making beats thinking their going to blow up! But what people don't understand Hip Hop production is a skill that takes time to develop. It will not happen over night. You have to be very patient. You are in it for the long hall right? Like 50 said, "Get Rich or Die Trying" that's the approach you need to have. No one can stop you. Patience, training, work ethic... Like a soldier in Boot Camp.
I remember, I use to use drums from sound modules and didn't understand why my drum patterns were weak. But it wasn't my patterns. It was my choice of drums. Back then I couldn't distinguish a good snare from a bad snare. A good kick from a bad kick. I thought a good producer will make any drums into a tight drum pattern. I would ask, why does Alchemist's drums sound tight and I can't get anything to sound remotely close. I started to second guess myself and thinking maybe I'm not a good producer or this just isn't my thing. I had to do one of two things, quit or go on a rampage!
I learned your choice of drums makes or beaks your beat. So now I find my drums first. Carefully hand pick them from different sources like 70's and 80's records, Break records, Sample CD's, and 70's Soul and RnB CD's, sample them into the ASR 10 use the effects and trigger my programming on the MPC 2000 XL. Then I write my instruments from the Motif and Roland 5050. This is a lethal combination.
You see, every kick and snare carries a different mood/feel and are capable of performing different on a song. Look at Eminem's song Stan, those drums match that beat perfectly. It was no accident Eminem's camp selected those drums for the that dark beat. But use those drums for Nelly's next club hit and guess what? They won't match. So it is crucial you find the right kick to match your snare to match your instruments/samples. This makes the difference, selecting, equalizing, filtering, tuning, decaying, etc... is crucial to your distinctive sound. If you have whack drum sounds, you will make no more than whack beats!
Big producers today don't like talking about technical things. They just give general information, like where they recorded and who worked on the track. Ever here the saying "The game is to be sold not told" this is what there talking about. No one want's to tell you where they got their snare and what they did to it or where they took that sample from. Because if they do, that information will spread like wild fires and every body will start sounding like them. My goal is not to tell you how to make beats. But to open your eyes to start to figure out this production as I am.
Today I take piano lessons by a kid who is a master. He is someone you would see on stage playing piano in a packed Auditorium with a black suit. Now I am starting to feel like a musician. Research the following: chords, scales, ear training, equalizing snares, filtering kicks, filtering samples by removing bass or adding bass, chopin samples, time stretch, swinging your drums, the list is endless....
Last thing, I use to have a Triton and wasn't impressed with it's sound and tended to use my Roland 1080 more and used the Triton as a midi controller. A very expensive controller I should add. This wasn't practical so I had to take the loss and find a keyboard that had sounds I would like. I found this in the Yamaha Motif ES 6. These sounds are warm and realistic with the right amount of reverb on the presets. So you don't have to spend hours tweaking sounds. I originally bought the Motif for it's keyboards and basslines but when I took it home I discovered and overwhelming of other instruments that sound hypnotizing. I couldn't believe I was getting this sound in my home studio. My production partner and I were in awe!
Bottom line, experiment, practice, and never stop!
malice
Last edited by juniorcartel on Sun Apr 04, 2004 5:11 am, edited 2 times in total.
