How in the world did Dilla not quantize his beats brehs?

[True Weltch Media]

on mpc's i'd drum at 1/16th quantize but kick up the swing a lil to give it a natural feel..

on maschine i don't always quantize but when i do i use 1/16th triplets and use the swing/grid to get the natural feel...

 

[Da Jungles]

on mpc's i'd drum at 1/16th quantize but kick up the swing a lil to give it a natural feel..

on maschine i don't always quantize but when i do i drink Dos Equis

Fixed

 

[True Weltch Media]

LMAO.. I knew someone would of caught that.

 

[BlackonBlackCrime]

I thought he used to play live drums before producing

 

[illadope]

I turn the quantize off when I use my MPC

 

[Turbulent]

in the last few years i've quantized a lot less. usually i'll quantize when i want it to have a robotic feel (tracks with a more electro vibe or "trap" style beats with fast high hats and snare rolls)


one trick to do it is to record with a slow tempo and then accelerate it when it's done.

it's not really that impressive. quantizing makes you save time but the tradeoff like others have said is that it makes it sound less human. you can however quantize strategically meaning quantize only certain "anchor" notes. i think i read somewhere that either dilla or q-tip (can't remember which one) does that. so say there's four hi-hat hits in a bar they'd quantize only the first and last one or something like that. takes time but if you have decent timing, it's not that hard. drum patterns in boom bap hip hop are relatively simple a lot of the times so it's a matter of soing it until you get it right.

 

[1986]

This is nothing spectacular, but hey, this is hiphop (=laziest, least "trained" musicians in music).

FYI, I quantize my drums all the time

 

[Mr Hate Coffee]

This is nothing spectacular, but hey, this is hiphop (=laziest, least "trained" musicians in music).

FYI, I quantize my drums all the time

Its special in the sense that you're not playing an instrument, you're tapping pads... sometimes one instrument at a time.

It's not as intuitive as playing a drumset. If you use a comp, sometimes you have to accomodate for lag. Like for me, on the same computer, FLStudio is way worse than Reason when it comes to placing my recorded notes. shyts be way off.

 

[Turbulent]

Its special in the sense that you're not playing an instrument, you're tapping pads... sometimes one instrument at a time.

It's not as intuitive as playing a drumset. If you use a comp, sometimes you have to accomodate for lag. Like for me, on the same computer, FLStudio is way worse than Reason when it comes to placing my recorded notes. shyts be way off.

a drumset would require more coordination and control because you can set the pads to a certain volume or velocity. with the drums you basically have to get it right or start over. meaning you have to get the timing and force right all at once.

it's not easy at first but once you're used to it i would guess hitting pads with good timing becomes relatively easy. i mean we're not talking about drum and bass music. and that's not to take anything away from dilla. i think he deserves a lot of credit for different stuff he's brought to hip hop. i just don't think this whole "no quantizing" thing is that big of a deal. it actually reminds me of when people over zealously gave props to Jay cause he doesn't write down his rhymes on paper.


EDIT: by the way, to help with the lag, try shutting down everything else when you record (no internet or browser, no VLC, only the music program)

 

[SnowflakesByTheOZ]

Old thread but yea. I don't quantize either. it takes alot of takes for me though cause sometimes you may come in too early or too late and the pattern doesn't loop properly. I don't like shifting notes I feel like a bytch so I play it over. Guess it's practice as well. Sometimes I may, as someone mentioned earlier, have an anchor element that stays constant, like a snare, and work around that.

 

[The Message]

im not even producer and i always would hear that

i loved how "sloppy" his shyt sounded. it sounded like a live drummer

that was his style. so much so that dangelo and questlove were heavily influenced by it

damn near all of dangelo's tracks after brown sugar have that sloppy drag, off time shyt.

shyt is ill

 

[Take It In Blood]

Wtf is Quantize nikka?

 

[The Minister Of Culture]

quan·tize
ˈkwänˌtīz/

verb

approximate (a continuously varying signal) by one whose amplitude is restricted to a prescribed set of values.

 

[Payroll]

The Goat of the Quintuple Hi Hat groove, I've seen people notate it like this

5
-
4
-
4

....

 

[DJ Mart-Kos]

I feel like certain cats used to overdo the off-beat thing to the point where it wasn't making any sense anymore musically.

Only thing i place off-beat are the hi-hats between every beat. just 1/3 step to the right and you got that swing.