beat process

probably a dumb question but bare with me I'm new to the this here game. I'm lookin at some different people's beat processes or steps. like drums first, bassline second and maybe putting all drums on one disk and all basslines on another. Also how would you than turn all these steps into a song? be good, heatmakerz.

I start with a simple drum beat, add a melody or bassline, then I go back and forth between the parts and add and remove stuff until it sounds right, then I start working on transitions and new pieces.

Then, all of a sudden, it's a finished track and I mix it down.

It depends on the basic material. somtimes I`m just diggin for some drumsounds and start of with a drumpattern and the i´m searching for a hookline to match the drums... sometimes it`s the hook first and then I`m programming drums to match the hook/chorus etc.
But on both ways, I´m allways finishing a basic construct of the beat with drums/hook/ break etc. and then do some detailed work on the different sequences. After that, I`m recording everything to my MAC an do final treatment on sound and arrangement in Logic Audio....

Peace

If i'm gonna be making a sample based beat i'll find a dope sample i want to flip first, then either loop it up real tight and get it to a tempo I want to work with, or chop it up into pieces.

I then work out a basic drum pattern for the backbone of the beat, then mess around with my chopped sample(s) until I have a pattern i think sounds dope, or if its looped(rarely), I just drop the loop over the drums.

For basslines, I figure out what key the sample is in by playing different keys on my board until i hit a note that matches the (usually) first note of the sample. Then I just play around until I get a nice lil bassline goin. I dont like my basslines too intricate, just something to give the beat a little thump.

When everything is sounding tight, I go back and get busy redoing my drums. I like my drums wild, sonny...

exacly

Thats how alot of peeps do it. really str8 forward

IT'S HOWEVER YOU WANNA DO IT, YOUR THE PRODUCER. SOMETIMES I START WITH A SAMPLE OR MAYBE A PHAT BASSLINE OR SOMETIMES DO MY SNARES FIRST. THE MORE YOU PRACTICE & LEARN THE BETTER YOU'LL GET AT DEVELOPING YOUR OWN STYLE & YOUR OWN SIGNATURE SOUND. DONT BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT. THERE WERE TIMES WHERE I WAS JUST MESSIN AROUND & CREATED SOME ILL SHIT.

If i'm doing a sample based beat, its a lot harder to do the bassline first, cause then you gotta find a sample that is in the same key, or it'll sound horrible. I normally tailor my bassline around the sample, not the other way around. With non-sample based beats its a different story though...

Decepticon3107 wrote:If i'm doing a sample based beat, its a lot harder to do the bassline first, cause then you gotta find a sample that is in the same key, or it'll sound horrible. I normally tailor my bassline around the sample, not the other way around. With non-sample based beats its a different story though...

right on the money. Sometimes my basslines will be 1 note in differant patterns, or maybe 2.....because the sample sounds funny if you add too much. I also stick towards the "sub" basses more than funky ones. But I like funky ones so sometimes you have to search for samples that mix very well, and this takes time

you can **** with analog xs autotune to tune samples. It works most of the time. I screw around and grab a bunch of samples and just all change to the key of c and then just play whatever. I got it at Ruggedbeats.com

But yeah I usally find an ill sample and either slice it or loop it, then build the drumz. Then replay the sample and then and bass and a fill or change up. i like really low synth pads in the back of my ish.

do not use the loop function and just bang out a 100 bar take, review it there will be a nice section in that 100 bar take, edit it to 4, 8 bars, put it in a loop and start your beat from there. also remember you could delete some of the hit and see what you come up with. start a sequence and just start banging not in loop mode and just edit it into a loop.

i get a drum kit together.Then i grab a record.Then i make a basic loop.Then i go back to the drums and make them fit the melody betta.

Sketchman wrote:i get a drum kit together.Then i grab a record.Then i make a basic loop.Then i go back to the drums and make them fit the melody betta.

yeah sometimes this works well too, because depending on the mood of your drum samples, an instrument sample might not do it justice and vice versa......so basically you may have to redo the drums.........or sometimes switch up some drum hits to fit the sample better.

I also never know exactly how im gonna flip the sample until i get a ruff estimate of my drums and the mood of the sample.

BTW thats why i love the mpc with my samples (i own a triton studio too) and i rarely do my samples with my keyboard even though the triton has great effects, but with the mpc its so fast and so easy for the drums, sequencing, sampling ya know? I luv my mpc

I would tell you but I would have to kill you.

cyrus wrote:

Decepticon3107 wrote:If i'm doing a sample based beat, its a lot harder to do the bassline first, cause then you gotta find a sample that is in the same key, or it'll sound horrible. I normally tailor my bassline around the sample, not the other way around. With non-sample based beats its a different story though...

right on the money. Sometimes my basslines will be 1 note in differant patterns, or maybe 2.....because the sample sounds funny if you add too much. I also stick towards the "sub" basses more than funky ones. But I like funky ones so sometimes you have to search for samples that mix very well, and this takes time

i tend to go the total opposite direction. im a big pete rock head, and i think nobody touches his basslines, so i tend to go for a more groove and really let the bass control the track most of the time. i do the same thing with the bassline as you do with the keyboard, but i use my mpc as a keyboard. ill figure out the scale of my beat on the keyboard, then find some bass notes or filter to form some. once you get like 2, you can pitch them to form the other notes in the scale.