This Shyt Sucks....

Sketchman wrote:if you use samples:

Go buy new records..

Agreed.... GET DIGGING! Get ya fingers in them dusty crates and pick up some gems.. ull find an easy to use sample and make an amazing beat in a few mins and ull wanna carry on form there..

.. but dont give up.. shit happens to the best of us...

Dont force things, take a breather, and then come back.

Oh yeah, and save your old beats, even if they are wack. Then you can have some standard by which to judge your new ish. Some times a beat will sound wack because your ears are tired or you you are using wack sounds, not because there is anything really wrong with the beat itself.

I try to force myself to record everything and it helps in those down periods cause I can go back and try to "fix" old beats when the creativity isnt flowing.

Recording a wack beat is better than recording no beat at all... even if 75% of your beats ae wack, that means if you record one beat a day for 100 days you'll be left with 25 beats that are dope. Not bad.

mwalker wrote:never ever throw your material away. that is the worst thing you could do. what does not sound good to you may sound good to someone else. plus, you could alway come back with new techinic that you have learn since you made that beat and dress it up. never ever throw your material away.

I totally agree with this, I've made beats that haven't lasted the test of time but my man InnaSpace (MC) will have a listen and do some real nice sh*t over it and give it a whole new feel.

Never throw them away
(bit off original topic, sorry)

JUST KEEP PRACTICING & EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT SOUNDS & TECHNIQUES, I GUESS WE ALL GO THRU A SLUMP. & I WOULDNT THROW AWAY THOSE SO CALLED WACK BEATS YOU MADE, SOMEONE ELSES TRASH IS SOMEONE ELSES TREASURE.

Get out the room take a walk, breathe the air in, and just listen to your surroundings on the train, in the car, or in the office. Tap out the beat that you get going on your leg, table, chair or with your feet where ever you are at and try not to think too much just feel it. Run back to the lab and start making hits. Your body might be getting tried of being cooped up in the room for times on end. Also hit the club or somewhere sometimes and just listen to the music and think bam shizam how to make something new that opposite to what`s everyone else is playing.

If you go to the mpc with the state of mind your going to make a hot beat, your leading yourself towards disappointment

Just sit down and let your soul flow out, whatever comes comes, I find when Im stuck, I lay down some bad ass drums (Im nice at laying down drums) (Remember it may not be the actually sequence but the sounds that are in the sequence, in this day in age you can get by with simple shit but the hot interesting sounds are what makes up for it, so if you got some wack sounds take that shit and stick it all in the wack folder and get some better sounds or just delete them and get better sounds)

After I lay down that drum track, I just experiment layering sounds till I get the type of feeling I'm going for, I don't force it to be hot or complex or simple, I don't impose my self under a time limit, its just like Im lost in the music

If I know I'm in a slump, I'll work on bettering other things in my music process, like I'll spend a day experimenting with the arrangement or mix of a older song I liked to see if I can better it, or practice my piano/music theory skills, do some of the workbooks I have on Composition and Melody writing, read up about music business, finish off a few articles I haven't fully went thru on Synthesis

Lots of shit you can do you better yourself, and you find yourself using the new acquired knowledge in your music which makes it even better

great post and replies from everyone...im currently in the same position.

MistaMike4u wrote:DAMN that was fast.... i went to reply to bingers remark, came back and it's TWO new ones!

ahh yes good ole crack

when I get frustrated I scratch to a track with a similar bpm- kinda gets your head right for the timing and takes your mind off. Or cut to the drums/melody etc of the sequence thats pissing me off. I've been cuttin for alot longer than I've been making beats so this helps me out

Thanks for the posts guys.... I think i'm slowly comin back on track, yesterday i started choppin some drums and dropped a whack beat, but then after the whack one i made one that was actually kinda tight..... so maybe it's a start of a new day!! Feel free to keep postin though, it's good to see you guy's ideas on the subject

sometimes you just need to relax and search some vinyl.

what ill do is just go through a couple records and just sample what you think would make a good beat, but dont actually make one, just sample. Set up a pgm of tons of samples. Go back the next day and youve got enough material too rip.

ANd it usuallly gets you all excited the next day because there is stuff you havent touched and you know its waiting.


btw if you dont sample, you should do it anyways, even if its your own riffs or something, itll open new doors and enhance your skills and increase your taste for "sound character"

peace

Iceberg-Slim wrote: (Remember it may not be the actually sequence but the sounds that are in the sequence, in this day in age you can get by with simple **** but the hot interesting sounds are what makes up for it, so if you got some wack sounds take that **** and stick it all in the wack folder and get some better sounds or just delete them and get better sounds)

exactly. Just some very interesting drums with the boom boom bip, and an exotic bassline will be a hot track. Simple can equate to very good-as long as your sounds are top notch-shit you cant get out of a keyboard unless you work it with effects, or synthesize very well. focus on the sound and not the arrangement and soon youll find something that inspires you.

If you look back far enough you will find out I went through this same thing. I am not a pro but I do have writers block (producers get that to) from time to time. If you think thats bad wait until you start getting block while mixing down stuff. At this point I will just drop every thing and take a month off. No job no music. Nothing but my wife & kids. We fly a kite, ride a bike, rent movies any thing that has nothing to do with music. The only problem is, I have so much fun I may take a few more weeks off and by the time I am back, I have to relearn my job. When I forget about it I really forget about it. I work in the music feild so I frequently like to take breaks. I stay away from malls in my town because I have yet, to be able to take 50 paces without running in to somebody thats like Ron what up playa, this is so&so. Or my wife running into poeple that is like yo sing on this . Man people just start flowen in the mall all loud. Security be wanting to kick us all out. We are no-bodies but seem to know alot of people. I am rambling I must shut up now.
Peace
Ron

BTW some body was answering another post and said something to the fact that they were like Gay and Coming out the closet. I probably read it wrong I was rushing do to the fact I still have 2 more songs I am mixing down.

Ron wrote:BTW some body was answering another post and said something to the fact that they were like Gay and Coming out the closet. I probably read it wrong I was rushing do to the fact I still have 2 more songs I am mixing down.

Ron what does this have to do with any thing? lol.... I'm not getting it... i hope u didn't take bingers "crack" remark as a serious comment.... did u?

Speaking for myself and maybe some others...you shouldn't try to rush or make yourself make a "hot" track. It'll all come to you when you least expect it or when you hear something that just blows ya mind.