Official beatmakers/producers tips and tricks open question thread

[PUT IN WORK]

when play y'all drums out on drum machines do y'all lay a dound down one at time? for example do you start wit your drum and then lay down your snare...or do ya'll play it out at the same time?

If i really want to get a nice natural groove going I'll play the kick and snare at the same time (different channels of course) for 16 bars. Double the snare and build my drum pattern around. Pro of that is that i have different variation of the kick pattern in one verse, doesn't make the drums pat to repetitive. But most of the time I'll start, kick--->snare--->hats--->double snare.

Question about Sampling...How do you hide the drum beat if your sample already has some drums in it? Do you match the tempo and lay your on top of the existing ones, or alter the sample to hide them?

I clean it by using EQ's (playing with the high- ends) and a filter it to try to drain the drum out without losing natural sound of the sample. I do this when a sample is too bassy too (but lower ends). Also i play with the sample so the snare sample hits right on time with mine.

 

[head shots101]

If i really want to get a nice natural groove going I'll play the kick and snare at the same time (different channels of course) for 16 bars. Double the snare and build my drum pattern around. Pro of that is that i have different variation of the kick pattern in one verse, doesn't make the drums pat to repetitive. But most of the time I'll start, kick--->snare--->hats--->double snare.



I clean it by using EQ's (playing with the high- ends) and a filter it to try to drain the drum out without losing natural sound of the sample. I do this when a sample is too bassy too (but lower ends). Also i play with the sample so the snare sample hits right on time with mine.

u play out your drums for the whole 16 bars? I usually break my joints up by 4s

 

[Deafheaven]

get as many sounds as you can brehs. having gigs of drums/snares/hats and shyt is a godsend when you need to find that perfect sound.

 

[Ian1362]

get as many sounds as you can brehs. having gigs of drums/snares/hats and shyt is a godsend when you need to find that perfect sound.

I browse thru this a lot too:
Drum Break Songs Sampled | WhoSampled

 

[PUT IN WORK]

u play out your drums for the whole 16 bars? I usually break my joints up by 4s

I can recall 2 tracks off the top of my head where i played it 16 straight (back when i was using an mpc). It was mainly boom bap. Now i play the 16, break into 8 or 4 , might erase the kick and snare til it sounds to what i envisioned /

 

[Mowgli]

Does anyone put acapellas to their beats in FL studio or any other software. Is there a way to do this, the easiest way?

 

[KushSkywalker]

Does anyone put acapellas to their beats in FL studio or any other software. Is there a way to do this, the easiest way?

I do in Logic PRo 9. If you know the original tempo and the desired tempo time stretching without any pitch change is pretty easy and amazing comparably with other programs that do the same thing in my experience.

 

[head shots101]

Wtf bros.... Don't matter what I do my drums sound robotic... I turn quantize on and off and fukk around with the swing and velocity... My shyt still sounds robotic smh

 

[Propaganda]

Wtf bros.... Don't matter what I do my drums sound robotic... I turn quantize on and off and fukk around with the swing and velocity... My shyt still sounds robotic smh

the way i look at is, as long as the shyt sounds good with everything else...who cares.

 

[Deafheaven]

brehs whats the best vsts gonna start incorporating more synths in my shyt

 

[Caldlo]

Wtf bros.... Don't matter what I do my drums sound robotic... I turn quantize on and off and fukk around with the swing and velocity... My shyt still sounds robotic smh

In addition to what you mentioned, use ghost notes as well (where the drum is barely audible due to the velocity being tweaked).

https://soundcloud.com/caldlo/myth

Monotone hats will almost always make your drums sound robotic as well, so make sure you pay attention to them when you're laying down patterns. Drop a song where you think your patterns are robotic and i'll let you know what i think as far as potential improvements.

 

[T-K-G]

i use ableton live 8.3

im getting 9 suite from my homeboy whenever i see him in the next week or so tho

 

[Deafheaven]

In addition to what you mentioned, use ghost notes as well (where the drum is barely audible due to the velocity being tweaked).

https://soundcloud.com/caldlo/myth

Monotone hats will almost always make your drums sound robotic as well, so make sure you pay attention to them when you're laying down patterns. Drop a song where you think your patterns are robotic and i'll let you know what i think as far as potential improvements.

ghost notes are those?

 

[Sincere Noble]

brehs whats the best vsts gonna start incorporating more synths in my shyt

It really depends on what your looking for. If you are going for just straight up synths? Then I would look at FM 8, Massive, Zebra, Sylenth, and the Tone 2 products. Especially the Tone 2 products cause they are really easy to navigate, tweak sounds, and come up with something real fresh without too much of the headaches when you're just starting to get into synths.

If you looking for a "Do it all" type of station then I'd fukk with Nexus or Omnisphere. Those two stations seem to be the ones most cats are using these days. I fukks with Nexus, that shyt is a beast, especially with the expansions. I'll probably get Omnisphwere too sometime this year too so I can just have the complete package cause cats always talk about how good thier Pad sounds are.

 

[head shots101]

In addition to what you mentioned, use ghost notes as well (where the drum is barely audible due to the velocity being tweaked).

https://soundcloud.com/caldlo/myth

Monotone hats will almost always make your drums sound robotic as well, so make sure you pay attention to them when you're laying down patterns. Drop a song where you think your patterns are robotic and i'll let you know what i think as far as potential improvements.

I have to wait till I get a new Maschine