Beginner beat I made... would really like some feedback
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My advice would be to isolate. Isolate either working specifically on your melodies or particularly on your drum beats. Make sure your drum beats have some type of swing or groove to them, something you can nod your head to, tap your fingers to, tap your foot to. Right now your drums are robotic, they lack any type of groove. The reality is you can add life to any drum pattern you want, you just have to get the timing and bar length to match. your snare sounds like you have the reverb turned to 100, turn it down, you only need enough reverb to achieve the desired sound and effect but youll learn about mixing as you get a lot better with beats, a lot of people mix their sounds as they craft the beats, others wait til the entire thing is done, its your preference.
or you can isolate your melody and make it sound real. like the piano it doesnt really sound fluid as if a person who is playing the piano is playing it. this just has to do with the attack, release, sustain and delay of the notes. This is often tough for me too, but I often just end up playing whatever chords and keys I have out so it is very human rather than robotic.
If it helps then just play with one or the other, like I said just make a good basic drum beat, kick, snare, hat--something that has some type of groove or pattern and once you get that right build a basic beat behind it, a bassline and a melody- you can even save the drum beat and make multiple beats out of it. or you can make a melody and add a basic drum pattern, kick snare and hat to it that fits and practice doing it that way.
Do you have any mixing/mastering/final touches tutorials that would help me with my flaws (flaws which will soon become strengths).
Also, would you recommend working on the melody first or the drums?
Thanks a lot, bro. I've been searching for feedback everywhere, and you're the only one who gave me some thorough advice. I appreciate it a lot.
I prefer working on the drums, getting a groove, something you can nod your end to, or tap your fingers. Once you get dope at making your own drum patterns then you can work on melodies first then simply add drums.
As far as mixing and mastering I wouldn't worry too much about it off the jump, what you will want to be concerned about is attack, delay, release, sustain and basic effects like a basic eq, or reverb. Once you start putting together really good beats then be concerned about final mastering and mixing.
Right now as you are starting off just practice making beats that make sense in the timing and quantanization is on point
I call the drums the wheels and the melody the frame of the car. To me everyone is going to notice the melody but it's the wheels that drive the car.
As far as mixing and mastering I wouldn't worry too much about it off the jump, what you will want to be concerned about is attack, delay, release, sustain and basic effects like a basic eq, or reverb. Once you start putting together really good beats then be concerned about final mastering and mixing.
Right now as you are starting off just practice making beats that make sense in the timing and quantanization is on point
I call the drums the wheels and the melody the frame of the car. To me everyone is going to notice the melody but it's the wheels that drive the car.
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You got some dope tutorials for drum-loops?
I don't. But whether you are using hardware or software (what are you using by the way?) just start with a 4 bar loop using a kick snare and a hat. Once you come up with a basic pattern that loops then tinker with the BPM also intentionally put a note out of timing (although it will happen so naturally you may not need to do it on purpose) but that'll help you develop an ear. When you get an ear you'll immediately be able to hear something and then be like "that's not right" "the snare is off" "too fast" or "too slow"
I'll add more info and such bits at a time, I'm working but if you have any questions feel free to ask if I don't have an answer I'll try to get you references
Using FL Studio 11. Thanks, breh.
Aight dope, so puttin together simple drum patterns will be easy in FL, you have the little drum sequencing window that pops up when you open it that usually consists of a kick, clap, hat and snare. From that point you will just want to put down a simple kick snare (or clap) and hat pattern.
This is the point where your ears come into play because you are going to know what you want to hear and it will change on your mood, you might want: boom boom bap, boom boom bap or: boom boom bap, ba-boom boom bap, or just: boom bap, boom boom bap or: boom bap, boom ba-boom bap really any combination.
I make beats off of an mpc 4000 but when im at work and obviously dont have my equipment, I have my laptop and even my tablet has a couple of beat making programs that use a drum sequencer which is set up the same as the drum sequencer in FL so I can just place a note in the corresponding measure (1/32, 1/16th, 1/8, 1/4) for the sounds and it plays. What's going to differ is that obviously different drums have different textures and resonance simply stating some kicks kick harder, some snares have more of a snap whereas others have a ping, often samples have long tails so a hat might got 'tsssssssss' and some will go 'tsssss' the more you explore your library and sample packages, you are going to have your "go to" drums, like your favorite kick, your favorite snare etc. yours is going to be different from others, it's what sounds good to you. It's how people build sample kits for particular producers and from a producing standpoint what stops you from literally starting from scratch each and everytime you make a beat.
What is different about a signature kick or snare is that typically it is altered within the mix each time its used, so Kanye might have used the same kick drum for Drive Slow and Golddigger but with each respective mix, it is slightly altered. Hopefully some FL users will read this thread and give you a good pointer but layering drums is nearly a necessity. You might have the perfect sounding kick but it doesnt have that umph, or you might have a good snare but it might not snap. As you browse through different snares and kicks, you will notice a snare that is all snap, just a short simple snap, but then you are going to have your longer drawn out snare that doesnt have that snap, you are going to have that kick that is all umph and you are going to have that kick that doesnt have the umph, you can layer those samples and have both of them play at the same time so your drawn out snare now has that snap or your good kick is now going to have that umph. Layering a snare and a clap haven't ever been a bad thing in my experience
I dont know how to layer in FL I know you could simply just grab another kick and give it the same pattern as your first one and they will play at the same time, essentially layering but im sure there is a more comprehensive method (I know reason better than FL and even in that you could trigger 2 or more different samples to play everytime a certain sample is used)Jumping back to the basics, the stock sounds that load (which can probably be altered if you want it to load your favorite kick and snare, etc) might limit your creativity if you aren't imaginative enough. I can use a stock kick and snare and think "If I used a punchier kick, or snappier snare I could have something" or "it would sound dope" this just comes with time.
I hate to give suggestions that I can't fully elaborate on but you aren't going to break anything in FL there is undo plus there is a reset tool (right clicking on parameters such as attack will give you the option to reset it to it's normal setting), and you can always just close and reopen FL and without overriding any samples. Now since I am an MPC user my learning style is more hands on for instance if you click on any of your samples, the channel settings window opens up you have a few knobs that allow you to adjust the attack, delay, sustain and release- (in FL you will also have hold and Delay) I cant achieve the same effect using a mouse to fine tune those settings I have to turn the physical knobs and hear the changes in realtime to see how I am changing the sound like turning a light switch on or off, or better yet using a dimmer. The mpc uses number settings like 0-100 so I can turn it from 100 to 90 or 100 to 75 for precision editing and altering-- I would suggest you play with those settings and get familiar with how they work for quick altering of samples. For instance if I have a hat that goes TSssssssss but want to shorten up to just TSssss I know to alter the decay to shorten it up. (I would suggest using the stock clap and playing with the decay, and the attack feature for an example)
With a lot of this stuff musically you have to experiment and manipulate the settings to understand how it effects the sounds. I can't fully explain in technical terms what a cutoff filter is, but I can explain how it effects sounds and understand when to use it. If you want that sound that sounds like the speaker is underwater so you get the deep bass but you can still hear the melody (if you want) for the muffled submerged sound, I can tell you or better yet show you have to use a filter to achieve that, and it's not really anything I could have learned from a book and I have read lots of books and manuals, on mpc's and other equipment (they are great tools cause they describe what things are such as attack, release, delay and sustain, as well as filters, low frequency oscillators and other stuff) but as you experiment that stuff clicks like :ohh: thats what they mean or "that's what they are talking about"
So dont be afraid to dedicate some time to just exploration like playing with the pitch, the reverb, attack, delay, sustain, release, velocity, filters, time stretching, resampling, even reverse samples (reverse cymbals are very popular)
My bad for throwing a lot of info at you all at once, but you can always re-read and just try stuff piece by piece. My word is not gospel, I know some stuff but I am not an expert by any means, for any critics out there, especially those that use FL if you have better methods, tricks, tips (which Im sure you do) please educate.
Any other questions feel free to ask.
By the way, do you have a midi keyboard? One with knobs and sliders?
Luckily for you FL is in, there are hundreds of tutorials and tons of hours if not days worth of tutorials from everything to basic beat building to mixing and mastering on youtube. It's a very good thing to set aside some time to listen, watch and learn (the tutorials) then practical application (trying some of the shyt you learned) and then exploration. Try not to mix too much of the practical application and the exploration together although as you get more comfortable and proficient you will want to jump and ahead and go from doing "this" to doing "that". If you are for instance working on chords, make that day just about chords. Practice the chords then make a beat or 2 using the chords. Dont practice the chords then spend 2 hours trying to create your own arpeggios because obviously you havent obtained enough experience with chords. Once youve done your homework so to speak, made a few beats using chords, feel free to experiment then (after the homework is done).
I stress the experimenting because that portion should at least be fun, otherwise you can become too serious with your beats (we all have) and get beat block. When you get beat block, at the end of the day you just have to go back to having fun and making the music you want to make. If you can continually have fun as you do it, and continue to learn, you will stay fresh and depending on how much work you put in you can easily look at work 6 months before and something you just made and hear noticable changes as well as understand the processes that were different like "I wasn't quantizing my drums when I made this 6 months ago" or "I made this 2 months ago, I had the high-hats panning from left to right during the chorus/breakdown"
I stress the experimenting because that portion should at least be fun, otherwise you can become too serious with your beats (we all have) and get beat block. When you get beat block, at the end of the day you just have to go back to having fun and making the music you want to make. If you can continually have fun as you do it, and continue to learn, you will stay fresh and depending on how much work you put in you can easily look at work 6 months before and something you just made and hear noticable changes as well as understand the processes that were different like "I wasn't quantizing my drums when I made this 6 months ago" or "I made this 2 months ago, I had the high-hats panning from left to right during the chorus/breakdown"
DJ Mart-Kos
All Star
Wildin dropped some knowledgeI would start watching tutorials by NFXBeats on youtube.
He's the best tutor by far on FL.
I still need to watch a lot of them to though.
Wrote a real long paragraph but went off track a bit so I'll try and summarize:
Basically, be honest with yourself. If you hear something think if you'd like it if your favorite artist put it out. Don't get in the habit of thinking somethings real good just because you make it. If you have good taste you won't have any problems and you'll really progress a lot faster. When you understand when something's not up to par then you will also know when you've got something quality on your hands.
Not saying be super harsh on yourself but don't just hype yourself up because you made a cool melody or something I've done it lots. And before you do anything with it, just let it sit for a few days and listen again with fresh ears. You might come back later and wonder what the hell you were thinking lol
Most importantly though just have fun
Basically, be honest with yourself. If you hear something think if you'd like it if your favorite artist put it out. Don't get in the habit of thinking somethings real good just because you make it. If you have good taste you won't have any problems and you'll really progress a lot faster. When you understand when something's not up to par then you will also know when you've got something quality on your hands.
Not saying be super harsh on yourself but don't just hype yourself up because you made a cool melody or something I've done it lots. And before you do anything with it, just let it sit for a few days and listen again with fresh ears. You might come back later and wonder what the hell you were thinking lol
Most importantly though just have fun
some disagree with me but i'd say the best way to start is to just try to remake a few beats you like. just to figure out techniques and practicing achieving a clear objective. once you can do that you then go on to practicing imitating a style of beat you like. basically emulating your favorite beat maker's formulas. at this point you're not remaking beats anymore but still following someone else's style. this is when you figure out on a very technical level what you find dope about different styles. the third step is to combine small elements of what you liked in each specific style you emulated. what you will notice is that while emulating styles part of it was your own creativity. little sparks of your own unique essence. soak all of the fragments of different styles you liked into your own essence and experiments with new techniques. basically bring innovation (either technical, sonic, melodic, or all of the above). this is you figuring out your own formula and your own style.
basically you go from interpret to artisan to artist.
basically you go from interpret to artisan to artist.