Starting Up a Track

what up everybody...? i know y'all checkin the post count, and seeing i'm a newbie and probably pass this thread up. but i've been here reading on everything, soaking up as much as i can. but when ol' boy put a lock on some of the threads to only members, decided i had to register. but anyway...

i'm curious on how y'all work some of your beats. i know, it's basically...to each their own when it comes down to it. but there's usually some type of way some people do it. like find sample, lay drums, mix down, finish. or drums before sample. i'm just curious on some of these details. i know some people just spend countless hours on just sampling their drums before they even start the track. or that could be the beginning of their beat.

my process is getting the sample first. i'll throw a vinyl on the player...listen to it till i find something i like. usually it's a loop. so i try to find at least 2-3 loops. then sample it to the MP. after i get it to loop right, (bpm might be 27 per beat, so i turn it into 3 bars at 81 bpm). slow down or turn up the pitch, lay some drums. call it a day.

now i'm listening to y'alls joint. it seems like im doing it wrong. or maybe not taking it to the next level. i rarely hear any of y'all just taking a loop, drop drums, and ask for a listen. y'all are nothin but chopping shit. and that's maybe what i should do. cause all im doin is listening on the vinyl for that one break in there which i could loop, change the pitch, add some drums....then boom. everyone says it's hot. but i want to know....what else should i be doing. you know?

i got a couple of joints in my signature, (not trying to plug, but to get an idea), and i'm trying to see waht i should be doing. people round the way are loving my joints. then i'm expanding my ears, and hearing yours....and i need to expand. i'm just trying to ask for any kind of way on what i should be doing. what im doing right/wrong. what i should be doing here/there. you know what i mean...? and if anybody can come thru...replying here, IMing me, PMing me......i'd really appreicate it. 2 up y'all.

i would say to chop your loops up and make you own sound out of it, the loops are cool, but it just sounds like a remix of the song you sampled,

take your loop and in your trim screen open up zone and chop it there,

there's a really good tut that decepticon put up on here you should check it out. it's ill you 'll get somthing out of it.

other than that you sound s are pretty good you may need to tight'n up on the mix alittle more. but your on your way
good luck.

aint no concrete method, sample first, drums first, melody, bassline?
it don't matter, every song starts differently, you should try diff.
things, I think if you do every song with the same process, your sh*t
will sound repetitive.

i feel what your asking. Ive felt the same way at times, ya wanted to see how everybody else does it just to make sure your doing it right.

I sample first. Ill have a drum beat loaded up, just so i can cut in my records over a beat, to sort of see if i like what i hear=sometimes you cant judge by a drum beat though. Anyways, Ill sample something, hold off, find something else.....maybe swap a record and find something there. And try to combine elements.

Practice it, eventually if you just sample stuff, and hold back from "finishing" the beat right there and then, or just keep going through 2 or 3 pieces of vinyl, your beats will have more variety. Im actually starting to get to the point where ill catch something, then hear what i want in my head, and find a vinyl i think will hit the spot.

AS far as loops......dont hate on them, but be carefull with them. If all you do is catch an obvious loop, unless its just totally hot, you have to flip it.

HOWEVER, ive caught loops, that no one except me can hear as a loop...ya know? like say a melody is 10 notes long, but you loop the middle 4, and make a good loop.......normally you wouldnt hear the contrast between the beginning and end notes because it wasnt originally meant to loop like that ya know? I do this alot with classical music. but then i try to add another element at the end.

I think the best thing to do is to have a bigger picture of the beat you are gonna make. First start with inspiration, like finding a cool sample. Then figure out where you want to go.....have an idea like, OH. this would be a good part for the end of another type of loop. or this loop would be good cut off here, then ill find a stab to end it, etc. THink about combining sounds, not just looping, or chopping, then rearranging. You have to have like a combination, and juxtapose of sounds, ya know? A GOOD example of what i mean is 50 cent "dOO wop": basically its a classical loop, finished with a funk guitar stab at the end. Where if it was just the classical loop, not cut off by the stab, it would probably be cool, but the funk stab makes it more than just a loop. ya know?

ALSO have a bigger picture like, i found this loop, but if i just loop it for the whole song, everybody will know its just a loop, but, if i loop it for the chorus, and find another subtle loop or something i can let ride for the verse. Or do patterns with loops, so instead of just aloop, do this:

A-A-A-c or A-A-A-b. (A=half a loop, C=the whole loop, or B=differant loop) Ya know? just dont let the loop ride, but break it up, I find tons of loops where i can loop it in 2 spots, but the last one satisfies the loop the best......if you can do this, then you will start to see where you can bring in other samples instead.

Now that i think about it. THink of it as putting together a bike. If youhave all the pieces, its easy, it all fits, and really all you have to do is put it together and it will work. WIth making a beat, you have to find all the pieces that match, then put them together. The best way to start doing this is to just get samples from one vinyl, then quickly move to the next, while you still have the inspiration of a sample you just found, then find something that matches. PRetty soon you will see what records of yours match well, or all you have to do is drop the needle for .02 seconds and you will instantly be able to say "yes or no".

peace hope this helps.

btw.

also wanted to add:

try to decide what types of sounds, are the ones you sample: I.E. you know what a stab is? yeah everybody does, but just like you know how a stab works, and you have a good idea how to use it.....you need to do this with other loops and sounds. YOU need to have a sense of how each part will work together.

what is "sound a" or what is "sound b"? Is sound A a beginning part? an end? Does it sound complete here, or not? if i chop it here, what else will i need to complete a melody? Or "this chord sounds good, but it needs XXX to be good" find that XXX....ya know?

you already know how to do this, just think of your favorite hiphop songs, how they combine sounds. If you listen to the melodies they sort of make sense with the sounds given......what makes sense with the sounds you have? like analyze individual sounds and figure how they fit into your puzzle.again, this is why you need variety before you really begin laying it down.

basslines: what i do is worry about them last. ill get my melody going, then ill find the "key" the melody is in by hitting a bass note, and going up or down on the pads until i hit the note that blends with the melody. Then ill try to find as many as possible. Then i will turn off the melody, then play a bassline to the drums. Most of the time it fits well, sometimes there are the melodies where you have to accent them a certain way for the bass to work.

peace

i used to loop alot but now i find myself choppin everything, i still loop though if its something crazy and its too good to pass up.. do a couple of 4 bar patterns with little variations in em so when i do the track mutes the beat doesnt sound too repetitive, always mess with the filter and pitch and thats basically it. 1

Cyrus just gotta say thats a real good description of making beats with more variety in them! Enjoyed reading all that

JAMES wrote:Cyrus just gotta say thats a real good description of making beats with more variety in them! Enjoyed reading all that

for sure man, always tryin to inspire with my music or my posts. I find that if i really try to answer someones question, then I think about what i am doing more......than just doing it. Sort of like giving myself a test, ya know?

peace

ALSO another thought i had:

I find that if i have several differant chunks of sounds to start with before i begin making my beat, i will be able to incorporate those sounds. If all I have is one loop, then try to chop it, it will just be a rearrange of that loop. BUt if i have 3 differant loops, and chop them, then try to rearrange them, i have the abilitly to make something with several differant elements.

Essentially, the best thing, is to have a "library" of samples. Go through and sample sounds you know will work for a beat. Keep those on layaway....then when you search for other sounds you really want to flip, youll have a bag to pick from to add to the beat.

Sometimes what happens with me is that ill find a cool sound, start working with it, that will lead me to toss on another vinyl, then ill sample something else, it will end up working, and i go on and on. Eventually ill have like 8 differant sounds that all work with the beat..... and several that dont, but are still good sounds. from there i can then see what sounds from the 8 work together, then dwindle it down. Ill end up with a good beat, and sounds i can use for another; because ive worked with the extras already, i know what i can use them for.

besure to never pass up a sample though!!!!! sometimes ill be working with a beat, hit something thats nice, but for somereason not need it....I still sample it, because i know i can use it later on adn i dont loose the idea or inspiration. ya know?

Also i revist records.......If im working with several pieces of vinyl, and i happen to find the sounds i need right away......I try not to abuse it all in one sitting-so my beat isnt just straight looped from one album, and also because ive learned that lots of times you miss sounds, or the inspiration wasnt there for the style of sounds on the record at the moment-but if you revist you can find some good ish. If you are looking for a type of mood, and you search the entire record adn dont find it, you may deem that wax as "crap" even though its not....it just didnt fit the mood.

I have 5 piles/catagories of records......

1.not been listened to
2. used/listen thouroughly and completely exhausted (usually these are shitty ones)
3. used maybe, or "not right for the moment", but very good-look at again
4. do not use any more, already used it
5.good resource: this one usually are classical albums....Because they are open to so much manipulation. These i can revist numerous times, and flip something each and every time. Sometimes i just want a beat with drums, bass, and "pad like" background-i go to the classical. sort of like mobb deep ish.


btw id like to see what other people do to
peace

yeah cyrus kinda covered it. Choppin is cool cause u are actually making ur own sound instead of jackin a loop. also in the future if u are tryin to release music u dont have to clear as much shit as u do if u are choppin instead of loopin. I use loops sometimes, but it really is to what ever the song is and what compliments the song. But cyrus is on point wit finding a "key" of the song. This means that u find the pitch or tone of the song. U must have ur loops or cuts in tune wit ur song. This means that they are all the same tone or pitch. Bass, strings, horns, whatever. Wit the mpcs tuning in programs u can make the sample blend in with the other notes.

A song always consitsts of these elements. the rhythm (drums and percussive noises) melody (the humable part of the song, like the part that is reacurring, usally a sample like strings or guitars or piano) bass (bass) haha

these are in every hip hop song u ever heard. Bass is very inportant cause it cements the melody to the groove, rhthym.

I go through records, I sample drums and short hits into the 60, I sample longer parts into other samplers, then I use those sets in songs. I tend not to dig through my sample library for songs, just build songs around my recent samples.

Then again, I don't use loops too much, just some samples then synths, maybe one loop. So it isn't hard to make things fit.

Maybe I'll change up once I get into sample based productions more.

nice contributions from y'all

thanx

I loop alot also, but I use obscure loops, and sometimes I cut the loop short, if it's four bars I use two bars, like last bar and first bar, leave out middle two bars, things like that, I make loops out of incomplete loops, if that makes any sense to you.... I chop also, but I don't chop into quarter notes or whatever like some people do, I chop into single notes, or chop a certain part of the melody, like if it's a loop that has four notes played in it, I might sample the loop but cut out the last note or the last two notes, or cut out the first and last, etc, if that makes any sense to you also, I just do what sounds right to my ear, I have an interesting taste in what I look for sometimes. My drums, usually I sample a kick and a snare and thats' it, and in the program screen I vary the kick's parameters to anything from 1 pad to four different pads... to keep 2 or 3 or 4 variations of the same kick... by changing the filter, tuning, attack, decay on each one individually.

yo Cyrus, that's coo mang, how you take time to post sh*t. I enjoy
reading yo posts. Keep it up fam.

the way i been doin it is i start with a sound that i like and work from there and its been workin fine for me i just finished a beat that i just stared with a sound and the next thing u know i have a beat that i think and some other peaople think sound tight i be putting it up soon