How do I get my hiphop track to sound better?

[VitaminD]

A midi controller with pads is what I implied, definitely a hip-hop way of working.

I quantized them and made all of them the same velocity.

Boom. There you go, straight quantization makes drums lifeless.

Well at the moment I don't have the money to buy such equipment, all I have is an M-audio Keystation 49e.

Are drum pads necessary?

No, they are not necessary. As a matter of fact, some of us do a much better job with keyboard and mouse than with drum pads. The only caveat is you need to understand rhythm more if doing it this way than you do by simply tapping on drum pads.

[ghettosynth]

...

[3ptguitarist]

Exactly what the man said, you have way too much emphasis on that "melody."

by emphasis do you mean it's too loud?

Well I'm not a huge hiphop/rap fan, I'm a progressive metal fan...haha. But I like some hiphop beats and desire to make some beats. I did however grow up listening to rap, so maybe that's why I like beats? lol

[3ptguitarist]

Hey 3PG,

I worked some with Salaam Remi, Amy Winehouse's last producer, and he didn't use lot of swing in his beats, but he DID leave his velocities alone to leave some life in his programmed stuff. He'd fix anything that went TOO far out, but otherwise, the vibe as played was best. And it was GOOD, especially as the track built up.

Another good trick I learned from watching him work was he quantized in high percentages, but never 100%. That left just a little movement in the beat that sounds less robotic and stiff. Kick and snare were higher percentages, but hats, toms and cymbals were left pretty loose.

As Kim mentioned earlier, keep at it, I know your toolkit just got better with Sonik Synth 2!

And if you haven't chosen your free eSoundz libs yet, Hip Hop Instruments has some great, modern-sounding kits, synth basses and my favorite piano out of the whole IK/SR collection "Clean Piano". And anybody who missed the $29 Sonik Synth 2 sale at IK/eSoundz.com, it's still ON! HURRY!


KVR/eSoundz: Xenobt

Wow, thanks for the tips! I'll have to mess around with the velocities and quantization.

[VitaminD]

No disrespect, but that's got to be the white-est beat that I've ever heard labeled as hip hop.

As if the color of someone's skin determines their ability to understand and/or create rhythm. COME ON.

[VitaminD]

Exactly what the man said, you have way too much emphasis on that "melody."

by emphasis do you mean it's too loud?

Well I'm not a huge hiphop/rap fan, I'm a progressive metal fan...haha. But I like some hiphop beats and desire to make some beats. I did however grow up listening to rap, so maybe that's why I like beats? lol

I think he means the music itself revolves around the percussion and rhythmic side of the 'house'. The melody should flow and compliment the rhythm.

[fugazi81]

Hi there,

a good friend of mine (R.I.P,bro ) gave me some great advice,

"the essence of Hip-Hop is sampling, slicing, swing, scratching & swagga "


First i did all my stuff in midi, no samples, because i was all way like "Sampling isn't making music it's stealing others ideas". A real hardliner.
But Midi, all alone can sound stiff and boring. On the other hand samples can lead you into trouble, esp. if you go the to the "dark side of sampling"
(Amen break )

So beware, don't use to much of your "friend's ol'soul record collection". You can buy some great sample libraries, look for "Royalty-free", but again beware there are alot of dubious sources out there.

The combination of midi and sampled+sliced stuff can lead you to the sound you are looking for. Try to record some midi-lines and than re-sample it, layer it with other midi stuff, "badabing" -> more life in your sound. Re-sample everything again slice it to get "punch" into your sound.

My advice is, get the right tools for your sound, for hip-hop or "beats" in general i would consider something like "GEIST" or "MASCHINE" there are also many other great tools out there some are free (Shortcircuit). Master your tools and your sound will sprout.

Music theory is the way to perfection, but it can also kill your creativity.

Don't forget to have fun, because making music is all about having fun (IMHO)


Asta

[3ptguitarist]

Hi there,

a good friend of mine (R.I.P,bro ) gave me some great advice,

"the essence of Hip-Hop is sampling, slicing, swing, scratching & swagga "


First i did all my stuff in midi, no samples, because i was all way like "Sampling isn't making music it's stealing others ideas". A real hardliner.
But Midi, all alone can sound stiff and boring. On the other hand samples can lead you into trouble, esp. if you go the to the "dark side of sampling"
(Amen break )

So beware, don't use to much of your "friend's ol'soul record collection". You can buy some great sample libraries, look for "Royalty-free", but again beware there are alot of dubious sources out there.

The combination of midi and sampled+sliced stuff can lead you to the sound you are looking for. Try to record some midi-lines and than re-sample it, layer it with other midi stuff, "badabing" -> more life in your sound. Re-sample everything again slice it to get "punch" into your sound.

My advice is, get the right tools for your sound, for hip-hop or "beats" in general i would consider something like "GEIST" or "MASCHINE" there are also many other great tools out there some are free (Shortcircuit). Master your tools and your sound will sprout.

Music theory is the way to perfection, but it can also kill your creativity.

Don't forget to have fun, because making music is all about having fun (IMHO)


Asta

Thanks for the advice. When you say sampled+sliced stuff, what do you mean? Do you mean I should sample a kick drum and snare from a hiphop song and then slice it to make individual samples?

Also what do you mean by resample? Do you mean overdubbing a kick drum with another kick drum?

[Xenobt]

Hey 3PG,

Resampling is a way to make things that sound good, sound worse! In a good way!

Lots of early sampling drum machines, including hip hop legends EMU SP-1200 and the Akai MPC series, allowed you to resample internal sounds at lower bit rates, which rolls off the top end and adds more grit and graininess (plus mucho lo-fi vibe) to whatever you sample.

These samplers and beat boxes were severely RAM challenged, and additional memory was thousands of dollars, so lower bit rates saved space for more and longer samples and gave 80's and 90's hip hop a "sound" that became a standard.

Now most people just use bit-crushers to do the same sonic decimation, so you can layer sounds in your DAW, THEN send it thru the plug on an aux send. The benefit being that you can adjust the blends as you mix.

But to be honest, modern hip hop and R&B is heavily influenced by techno and dance, as they're all club-driven genres. Will i am picked up on it years ago, and it's made the Black Eyed Peas the biggest Urban Contemporary act out there.

I read a great quote somewhere that said if you do what's popular now, you're already a year behind.

I'm thinking BollyHood as the next trend, you heard it here first!

KVR/eSoundz: Xenobt

[3ptguitarist]

Hey 3PG,

Resampling is a way to make things that sound good, sound worse! In a good way!

Lots of early sampling drum machines, including hip hop legends EMU SP-1200 and the Akai MPC series, allowed you to resample internal sounds at lower bit rates, which rolls off the top end and adds more grit and graininess (plus mucho lo-fi vibe) to whatever you sample.

These samplers and beat boxes were severely RAM challenged, and additional memory was thousands of dollars, so lower bit rates saved space for more and longer samples and gave 80's and 90's hip hop a "sound" that became a standard.

Now most people just use bit-crushers to do the same sonic decimation, so you can layer sounds in your DAW, THEN send it thru the plug on an aux send. The benefit being that you can adjust the blends as you mix.

But to be honest, modern hip hop and R&B is heavily influenced by techno and dance, as they're all club-driven genres. Will i am picked up on it years ago, and it's made the Black Eyed Peas the biggest Urban Contemporary act out there.

I read a great quote somewhere that said if you do what's popular now, you're already a year behind.

I'm thinking BollyHood as the next trend, you heard it here first!

KVR/eSoundz: Xenobt

so someday death metal will be the trend?

to resample, I'd take a kick drum and make it sound old and lo-fi, then combine it with the regular kick drum to give it a hiphop sound to it?

[ksandvik]

As others said, the best swing is if you play the keyboard yourself. I cheat a little bit and set the quantization level to 80% in Logic so that it tightens up the worst parts in case I recorded keyboards 4am half in sleep. Anyway, that gives the right amount of human swing.

[Acid Mitch]

Lots of early sampling drum machines, including hip hop legends EMU SP-1200 and the Akai MPC series, allowed you to resample internal sounds at lower bit rates, which rolls off the top end and adds more grit and graininess (plus mucho lo-fi vibe) to whatever you sample.

The early MPC series doesn't allow this.
The MPC60 has a fixed 40khz sample rate and you cant change bits either. It samples at 16 bit and stores the sound in 12 bits.
The MPC3000 is fixed 44.1khz sample rate and 16 bits.
There was no other early MPCs.

[Xenobt]

You are correct, Acid Mitch! I was thinking of the variable 3k-32 khz settings that DID allow more sample time, (at a lower fidelity) instead of bit rate, which was fixed at 12. Thanks for clearing that up!

KVR/eSoundz: Xenobt

[3ptguitarist]

ok I have a new sample of a beat, what do you guys think about this one? Is it better than the first one I posted?

http://soundcloud.com/amarpawar/piano-beat-2

[fugazi81]

Sorry for the delay...

When you say sampled+sliced stuff, what do you mean?

When i play midi vsti - like a piano - i record it direkt to wav or bounce the track i played to wav, now i take this audio file and "slice" it, so i get nice little parts that i can play on my drumpads or midi keyboard, maybe i rearrange it a bit, to get a nice groove, that fits better to the drums. this concept is like the others said well the workflow from the infamous MPC, many DAW's have an similar option to cut audio files... I bounce every melody line this way to get the groove and sound i want...