simple and tight or complex and beautiful

when your makin your beats, which do you lean towards most...

im more towards complex beats. they take me a while to finish cause im always tweakin and changin stuff but i was juss curious. cause when i found this site and listened to yall beats i found all different styles, but more on the simple side. Dont get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with more simple styles!!! Its all tight to me!! Im juss curious......................

I think i'm more on the complex thing too man... but i go simple erynow and then... like 1 outta 10 beats....

complex but seems simple to the listener.

DOVESKI wrote:complex but seems simple to the listener.

Yep, same here. I also try to stay away from sampling loops, but sometimes you find one so lovely that it feels like a sin to chop it up...

Decepticon3107 wrote: I also try to stay away from sampling loops, but sometimes you find one so lovely that it feels like a sin to chop it up...

funny thing is i really learned chopping (i think) just in the last month, cause i was finding all these nice loops (not drum loops) but they werent matching the bpm of my drums, so i was like...ok ima copy the sample 4 times so i can manipulate where each piece lands, then i did it, 10 minutes later i was laying it down like Primo or some shit, switching up the order, doing micro chops at the end of samples for ghost layering thats when it all clicked with me, and everything else started falling in place....before i was just chopping for the sake of chopping. **** a time stretch..lol! 1.

aye dove, juss wanted to let you know that juss inspired the SHII outta me to take my black azz home and cutt some shii up! but seriously, thats how things happen. but i feel you about cuttin it to fit right. thats what i did, but i dont know how to chop good at all. i know how to do zones an all that so i can sample something and use it in my beats but as far as chopping and rearranging them, im not good at all good at it. im tryin tho.....

Smoove, check your PM's...

Smoove, im glad to hear that mang, my brown, albeit hairy, azz has been on fire since i figured this shit out...tips that im living by right now...

1. do a dope drum track before attempting chopping, if i got hitting drums looping, im inspired and hear sh!t better.

2. start simple find something that seems like it will already loop, sample 4-5 seconds (DJ skills, i monitor my mpc and tables through my Numark so i can dont waste time sampling something lame)...then just copy the sample 4 times, break em down to 1 second each and then fine tune em. worry about everything else later.

3. when you got something cool record unfinished rough copies (like the one i posted to soundclick) and listen to em in the walkman and take note of what sounds will fill in the gaps between the chops (gunshots, explosions, james brown saying ugh, scratching, sh!t like that).

4. most importantly, if it aint dope in the first place, chopping aint gon help, make sure you got good sample material.

keep us updated. 1.

Decepticon3107 wrote:Smoove, check your PM's...

aight

DOVESKI wrote:Smoove, im glad to hear that mang, my brown, albeit hairy, azz has been on fire since i figured this **** out...tips that im living by right now...

1. do a dope drum track before attempting chopping, if i got hitting drums looping, im inspired and hear sh!t better.

2. start simple find something that seems like it will already loop, sample 4-5 seconds (DJ skills, i monitor my mpc and tables through my Numark so i can dont waste time sampling something lame)...then just copy the sample 4 times, break em down to 1 second each and then fine tune em. worry about everything else later.

3. when you got something cool record unfinished rough copies (like the one i posted to soundclick) and listen to em in the walkman and take note of what sounds will fill in the gaps between the chops (gunshots, explosions, james brown saying ugh, scratching, sh!t like that).

4. most importantly, if it aint dope in the first place, chopping aint gon help, make sure you got good sample material.

keep us updated. 1.

aight, gotchu. thanks dove. you and decept been helpin me a lot with this. thanks for takin time....

but i understand about the sample bein dope in the first place. i was juss tellin decept that i hear loops that sound tight but when i actually do put them to my drums, they sound weak and i end up scrappin the beat and startin over....

ill keep yall posted!

hey what did u mean by ghost layering?

DOVESKI wrote:complex but seems simple to the listener. :wink:

Exactly!

I been tryin to do some ol' complex sh*t... RJD2 and Shadow styled instrumentals... After a while I foudn that I was stressin myself and not lettin the music flow naturally... I was forcing myself to take on something I didn't have the skills to do yet... Now I'm just lettin the msuic flow more naturally and I been choppin sh*t up more and more...

Just last night I made this Funky Primo style banger out of this Country-Rock Guitar Loop...

I'm takin my style back to the basics and buildin my way up... I found this to be the best way to advance my production... Cause now my game is steppin up real quick and everythings just comin together real nice...

It's better than beatin myself up tryin to do some complex sh*t I ain't cpaable of yet....

So to answer your question.... My style right now is simple, but forever changing up.

both, but im not into 64 bar solos ala shadow and never ever use pre-made loops.....the complexity often comes from what you do with it....

prefuse 73 for eample does some quite simple beats but with all manner of madness going on over the top....

greg

I tend to add tiny changes and switchups throughout the entire song, a lot of tiny stuff that you won't even hear if you haven't made the song yourself, otherwise I get bored half-way through the song and abandon it...