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Zeu$ it takes alot of trial an error to get comfortable filling the beat out. I wish I had one thing I could tell you I do but I don't really. I just know what I WANT it to sound like, and try everything I know til I get it as close as possible.
A few tips,
1. If your instincts tell you it feels empty, walk away from the beat for a day or two, and play it again fresh, and see what your impression is then. If it's still empty there may be a melody or a sound that needs beefin up. Sometimes less is more though.
2. Get a MIDI keyboard and start learning some scales and chords. In that Big Boss beat I just sped up the sample, filtered it and started hitting random chops until I got something that sounded cool. Then I thought to add some bass. So i took that rolling bass sound and started hitting keys random until I figured out what few notes were the correct scale for the key of the sample. Then I was able to play the melodies by restricting myself to that scale, keep in mind I DONT play keyboard. (maybe a lil bit
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3. Do you use an audio interface and monitors? or just your soundcard and headphones/computer speakers? If you have an audio interface one thing I've learned to get my beats fuller/louder is to restrict your interfaces output volume during the creation and mixing. For instance, most things sound 'better' to the human ear if they are louder, but that doesn't mean they are better. So if you create and mix your beat with your interfaces volume all the way up, you may think it's louder (better) than it actually is. Instead make the beat with the interfaces volume at 'unity gain' it means 0 db. Basically set the volume to 12' o clock, or if it's a traditional mixer set it to 0-db. don't turn it up or down. If something in the beat sounds too quiet turn IT up or down.
4. Layer sounds. Everyone know I use a lot of 808's. But what might be more hidden is that almost every track has live drums or a sample breakbeat chopped riding behind it too. I may have 10-15 tracks just dedicated to drums, even more sometimes. Drums on point is goal #1 in hip hop to me. Layer live cymbals with 808 cymbals. Put an 808 kick behind a sampled kick. Throw a 3rd kick that sounds weird over those and see what it sounds like.
5. Frequency spectrum. Every sound takes of space in the frequency spectrum.
http://home.tir.com/~ms/concepts/concepts.html
I look at the spectrum as a cabinet with a bunch of shelve's on it. Now you'll have to properly fill each shelf for the cabinet to be full right? leave a few cans off the bass shelf and its not full, feel me? So you have to start to learn, OK the bassline is dominating from 60hz to 120hz, but the kick has some oomph at 90hz, but the body of the kick is much higher at like 250hz. So how do they share space in the cabinet without taking up space on eachothers shelves? You have to make it fit. In this case you could cut off the bottom end of the kick at 120hz so it doesn't fight with the bass, then maybe boost at 250hz a little so the oomph of the kick comes through without the bass sounding any different. I know this prolly sounds like crazy talk but you'll feel me eventually.
Basically the bass will live on the 60-120hz range ALONE without the kick fighting it and the kick will live from 120hz to 150hz ALONE, if you EQ and filter correctly.
The problem is that's just one example, the next beat might require something completely different, takes a while to train your ear, and if your space isn't acoustically correct you could be compensating for the wrong stuff.
Sounds are real waveforms actually moving through the air. The lower the frequency the longer the waveform. So a bass note could be like 20ft long for instance, where as a hi hat is gonna be like a few inches long.
So imagine a 20 foot bass wave length hitting you wall in a 10-15 ft room, part of that wave is going to bounce off the back wall and go by your ears a second time before the whole wave's even out, this is gonna make the bass sound louder and more muffle to you, when in reality it's not, its your room. So if you didn't know you might turn the bass down thinking it's too loud, but in the next guys sound system or headphones it might sound lacking.
This is also one example though, acoustically treating a room is VERY complicated, and Im not suggesting to outright do it, but a little bit can help. Say a bass trap in the corner, some reflective absorption on the walls behind the monitors.
6. About the nexus and how the presets sound shytty. I found this to be true with all 'critically acclaimed' vsts. A lot of awesome sounds sound shytty individually all alone. You need to play with layering them with multiple other sounds, learning what the knobs do in the vst to tweak and create you own presets, you need to experiment with delays and reverbs on the vst. Then try layering it with sounds from other vsts, even copy and paste a recorded melody real quick to see what it sounds like.
I can't tell you how many sounds didn't sound cool until I started playing them IN the beat, but solo that same sound and it's
I hope this helps, I have to stop rambling at some point, hopefully the advice is not too convoluted.
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