I've been making beats since '87. Never chopped a beat in my life until last year when I bought an old MPC 1000 from a pawn shop. I find that the MPC forces you into a certain type of workflow and mindset when making music. I always tried to avoid the perfect quantized 16 beat or 24 beat resolution because everyone started using the MPCs and SP1200s in the late 80's and early 90's so a lot of dude's beats started sounding very similar. I used a 12-second and a 24-sec Gemini sampling mixer and just chained my samples together and matched the tempos when I overdubbed - - played the entire beat live over top of other rhythms for the entire 2-3 minutes. Had to remember the punch-ins and mix style...had to compensate for dead pans and low levels on the board. Damn that was a lot of work to mix down a beat...and it was not just one "chunk" of sequence - I'm talking entire mixtapes of beats with shit fading in and out all over the place!!! I remember writing notebooks of notations that synced to that little 3-numeral tape counter! While cats came through with their rhyme notebooks - I had engineering notes scribbled in notebooks - haha! As for sample edits, the trim edit was tapping the in and out manually, there was no trim/truncate editor or any visual aid - no ADSR - it was all done with 100% audio senses. No 16 levels of chromatic scales for chorus or bassline - If I wanted a bassline I'd have to either learn the part and play it myself and then sample it live from a shitty Yamaha P-Bass and then break up the pieces along the 4 mixer triggers or break out the Casio and low pass it to death with compression and some distortion. The effects were sent out board and lined back into the cassette multi-track recorder - grey Hi-Bias Maxell 90 min of course! My room was littered with patch cables, phono RCA jacks, all types of splitters, amps, rigs, soldering guns, make-shift surround sound speakers, duct tape, broken mics, crates, carpet on the walls to impede resonance and echo and other shit I can't recall. There were no computers, no drum machines with midi samples...just organic analog tape in one damn take! That way I was able to make real-time fills and out-takes without stopping. It was basically a few steps up from my old pause tapes. Sometimes the loops were perfect - sometimes a little off...so that made the drums sound live and not sampled, but it was still hip-hop!! Looking back it was probably a very convoluted and jacked up way of doing it now that we are in the future of music production, but when I listen back to my 25-30 year catalog of music production, it sounds like nothing out there. That was the time when us beat makers who could not afford the big equipment would sweat, cuss, smoke and bleed over a perfect song, spending days cramped up in our labs trying to get all the shit right - no showers, no food, sleep or much human contact - girlfriends pissed off at you cause you are in love with your craft. Nowadays I do appreciate the precision of the MPC and other sequencers though, not discounting any of this incredible equipment, I just used very unconventional methods for beat-making, as I am sure many of you have done the same. I just remember and appreciate the days back when it was work, a labor of love and sometimes drudgery. It's just so easy now. I downloaded an app on my iPhone with everything there, filters, effects, sequencers, drum machine and sample libraries, stereo recording, unlimited tracks, computational perfection in all its splendor...all in the palm of my hand - it was a mind fuck...remembering back when all I had was 4 tracks to squeeze my entire creative musical universe into. Beat making is truly becoming a lost art form. It's no longer ritualistic for many people, it's lost it's true essence and soul - that's why you should never discard your old stuff, the things that helped you grow, LPs, tapes, notebooks of poems, rhymes and crazy doodles, film cameras and old, funky beat up equipment!! Shout out to beat makers everywhere, old and new!
Salvador Ceja Thanks doc! Yeah I'm tellin' u bro - anyone who's for real will feel that passion thru the art form. The reason why it hurts us all a little is because we know it's a time era that's now behind us. It's like the marriage ended and she's gone, but you still hang up 2 fresh towels in the bathroom every Saturday anyway - haha!
+king shaman Yeah, you truely make it seem like an artform as it seems that you had to figure out more and use your initiative more than a beginner producer nowadays. I don't believe beat making is a lost artform though, just more refined and imo advancing.
+king shaman I disagree with your conclusion. Digital approach to beatmaking can be very complex, very rough, very realistic. Micro editing is the key. When I create a drum on ableton or logic or whatever, I put every sample (every single hat snare kick and shit!) manually, slightly off or right on the beat according to my feeling. For the whole track. It takes me way more than a hour to do that, and my drum DOES sound live, even more than what your devices could, or an mpc does. Digital can go as creative as the user can. You can basically reproduce anything, from loops to live with digital edition. And it does require skills, but people are too damn focused on the superficial easiness of digital beatmaking.
did he brag about doing a closed and open hat "at the same time"....despite clearly doing it ad an overdub? lmao this fool is doing overdubs and acting like he's killing a live performance. I can't stand videos full of basic, 101 level technique and the guy acts like he's spitting out deeply held secrets. had he done some chops and recorded the sample with the drums live, maybe he would have justified that arrogance.
Everyone seems to be forgetting that these are beats for people who can actually rap, and not for people who's entire careers started and depended on how good their producers are at not only making beats but making sure the artist sounds good.
Essentially, these beats are for those people who can rap without a beat. That is what makes the simplistic style so appealing, because it allows an MC (a rapper who's lyrical ability transcends rap and transforms into Art [more or less]) to say as much as possible and take full control of the beat, taking the listener where the MC wants them to go.
That doesn’t mean the beat has to be trash. Madvillainy is known for insane lyrics and flows but also incredible beats. Saying a beat is trash but it’s ok cause its made for “lyrics” is dumb. It’s still music at the end of the day and should sound good.
Music with Soul is all i really want and THis has That. Def has that WU feel. What yall aint realizing is that it don't fuckn take much basics so the MC can spit real shit. Good shit Homeboy . I hope he put Cappa on this joint.
Most of us do it the closed Hats & Open Hats the same time. I'm not hating but these are mad simple drum patterns. And don't get me wrong simple is good but a KICK KICK SNARE..KICK KICK SNARE.. Repeat is nothing to brag about.
I knew my man wasn’t going to make it through the entire video and not make a food reference. Shout out to “Lunchables”, the #1 project food aka “Chemical Packs”! Cheers mates!
A drum set is a tool to make drum beats an MPC is a tool to make drum beats. If the MPC allows you to do something a drum set can't then that doesn't make it un realistic. MPCs make realistic things you normally couldn't do with a regular drum set.
Its simple but it hits. Throw an MC on there, and it will sound 1000 times better. Sometimes you have to let the beat breathe to leave rooms for the rhymes.
What if he didn't clear it.should he get sued so a RU-vid producer can make a "hot" beat with it and feel like he actually has some originality and isn't a cookie cutter
That's why I love hardware, because it's me making the beat, not a computer mouse or software that does every little thing for you, but I can't lie, I use fl studio 20 right now too, because I'm waiting to stack up enough money for either the mpc live or something else very similar, which their isn't too many things like it. I cannot wait.
Total respect. And the point he makes with the current clowns.. er. producers is correct. The tracks I hear today.. sheezzz. They have NO organics, no little mistakes, no personality n' shit. That's coz everyone is using the same programs, the same sounds, the same quantization techniques until all the humanity is gone. It's like they are afraid of showing individuality or something!
Been making beats since the summer of 85 baby, and by 88-89 i was chopping beats with a 5 seconds or some shit on a Casio SK-1 before the WU in fact. It just didn't ave the same sample library as the Abbot did in the early 90's. Now on my computer in FL 12 i can do the shit so easy it is kinda boring to be real. During the analog day you had to work to create a banger and you appreciate it more not like today. My drum machines and roland sampler in the early 90's I had to learn how to play program all that shit on my own. You can appreciate that shit more when you work with a joint. I can make a whole beat and haverit finished in a few hours.
IRON SHIEK Keep doin' ya thing... Most sample producers never give too much in a video anyways... Ya don't cast ya pearls b4 swine and dogs... I think that the best part of the video wasn't the beat but... what you were actually sayin'... or rather teachin'... makin' tracks is more so a discipline, akin to martial arts, as opposed to... makin' the best track ever... it's practice, repetition, growth and mastery... and then... once you've done all of that... ya scrap it and then... move on to doin' somethin' different... than... anything that you've ever done b4... I am actually thinkin' bout releasin' my stuff... Good lookin' on the video and the beat.Stay UP!
That is the main difference between these "boring" beats and the modern 808 oversaturated, lightspeed hihat having, "Turn Up" beats. The beat in the video puts almost all control into the hands (or mouth) of the rapper, whereas today's Hype track actually holds the hand of the rapper by restricting and focusing a whole lot less on WHAT is said, and a hell of a lot more on HOW its said (I.E. flow, AutoTune, producer tricks that "T -Up" the vocals, etc.).
thats right that boombap has got to be be original i usually loop my samples but the kick in snare i record in one shot throughout the whole track, props man
Um I'm both a passionate fan of the Wu and the Mobb, who the hell is this guy? Mobb Deep production was mostly handled by Havoc with some gems by the Alchemist and P himself.
@@lawrencegreene6717 description indicates "Wu-Tang/Infamous Mobb/Mobb Deep producer makes a beat and shares some science on how to make your beats sound better." My comment still stands bro. Heck what has this guy produced for the Wu?
What I’m missing is where it said his name? Or are you such a passionate fan that you know by what he looks like that he hasn’t done anything for those groups. I’m guessing you looked up the channel name or something
Is it me or could he have done more with the sample? Maybe I just like melodies more than the average but I feel like the loop he had at the beginning could have been used more,the end product sounded a little repetitive for my taste
*The beat was decent, but goddamn that's the easy way to do it... Try without samples and making something from scratch and more intricate... There's just too many cats nowadays doing it and there's some BANGERS out there now, so my bad for sounding judgemental, but I think my standards have risen. Lol.*
4:33 It can either be layering or using the 'Simult' function, whereby you can use 3 copies of the same snare. So 1 pad triggers 3 copies of the same sound, 1 copy is as original, the other 2 can be panned hard left & right & pitched up/down slightly to thicken the hit out. Verysickbeats on youtube showed that trick - big up.
Sometimes I dream beats from different categories of songs if I was a producer I would make them. All I can do is when I wake up I remind the beat from the dream and try to beatbox it immediately on record to my phone.
fakes talkin about the beat being boring. quit hating. New gen just can't get into the original sound of the true essence of Real hip hop. I'll tear that beat up word is bond. strictly original. peace and love
For everyone bashing this guy please keep in mind he has the mentality of a producer in early 90s. Back then what he is demonstrating seemed intricate and difficult back then. Lol. Cant really blame the guy for that lol
I tottaly agree man about getting the feel of it. You make it understood. While producing. A real personal feeling, towards it, your procedure, heartfelt in body and soul, my goal, felt as well as for it, to and for, towards capability of how to keep a deeper perspective surrounding all about to understand and understanding. Like on another planet. Or plane. On a.... another elevated level and still so much down to earth, absolute in absolite. Almost spiritual-like (what you're really doing making music, heartfelt) touching only the same equipment as you feel from and feel to and thrue. Plant your own original seed with your own prints on the works. Feed to and feed from the harvest of what you saw. It's like you breath with and on to the MPC, inhale and exhale. As you feel with your pumping, bumping heart wich makes the music breath. Smart, clever, hard and crystal-clear it is to recognized by whom progressively started keeping it spiritual and tight. Alive. Not as well until' the MPC spiritual minded arrived. I myself have spent lots of years now on learning this and that with all sorts of equip. With daw's, mixing, mastering as best as I can. Started from scratch with propellerhead's reason 2.5. Used two weeks just figuring out how to record because of the preferences that og wich had to be adjusted from inside the PC to make things work. So on to Cubase sx & so on and so on.... I'm glad for all I know and can/have knowledge about to use and I know people spend 10's and thousands of dollars to get where I'm at, on my skill-level in years of expensive schools. Still I wished and would wish I had just concentrated more on ''less''. With ''less''. Spent time with fewer things to get some understanding about. On the MPC wich I didn't even knew excisted for like eight, nine years or so. A long period. And not so much achieved. Off-course loss of both members of my music-group was not easy but that's another stort. The point of wich of what I'm saying is that I love music but/and it's hip-hop I love more than anything else as far as music go. I spent years of self-production making all the sound in a song myself but had no know-how playing instruments. I say none, well drums I can play some. (I have turn-tables and I can do a pretty solid beat-box). Not like Questlove off-course but never the less. I'm glad cuss' I can mix well and master very well now, today but away from all that I now know that all I ever needed with thought on composing beats and hip-hop in general was an MPC wich I finally bought from overseas, time....way late but not distructively overdue. Should've had myself the MPC from the very start. (No-one sold Mpc's in any store in Norway) (Not of wich I knew anyways). I didn' even know what an MPC was or that such a great thing excisted. First time I ever layed my eyes upon one without even knowing what it really was or was capable of doing and could be used doing as it's uses, as did allready do for all or most of the top hip-hop music-producers in the world back then. Even years way past and still do till' this day, well it was from the cd - cover of perhaps the most complete, full and deff. best polished sounding hip-hop albums of all time, ever made back in the year of 2001. From inside the front of the booklet-cover of the groundbraking comeback album from Dr. Dre with friends (old as new ones) One of the best mixed albums of all time no matter the genre really wich is my opinion. The genius was here to stay and paved way even for a lot of new hip-hop fans wich didn't even used to listen to rap before those days of that release. Anyways back on track again. As I said inside the front of the cd, The album D.R.E. 2001. There were several pages with a collage of pictures from troughout the making of the album. There on one site at the picture Dr.Dre is standing his ground with lots if music-equipment surrounding him. One of those things is an MPC. There I saw it for the very first time in my life without knowing what it's uses were. Gladly, this day I know. MPC forever. Without AKAI's invention of the MPC hip-hop wouldn't have the chance to evolve as it has over years were software were not close to doing anything super-special either. All modern software-drum-maschines today builds on the features of the MPC invention anyways and all hardware newcommers that wants to ball with AKAI all are built in basically the same way with the excact same opertunities or atleast extremely simularities. It all changed for the better. MPC is all you, well atleast all I need and it's so worth it compared to what I started with. When sounding so un-professional and never had guidence at all. Now internet as well as the MPC guids me by itself. The chopping and sampling I never knew how to really do with using software. It was all mysterious and a myth for me how to produce real boom-bap hip-hop beats. But my love for it finally showed me the way. The MPC-ways and the way of the MPC. MPC forever = hip-hop forever. The computer was and still acts more like my enemy. Starting out I will deff. suggest MPC as the best and only friend you will ever need. ( Now I know and it's pretty cheap and works fine using software prg's like (Swedish-developed) Propellerhead's ReCycle in combo with Reason making Reason samplers as an ''MPC'' and ReWire into any other master-daw, but it never gets the same, you'll loose that feel like the Pro-Man here is speaking so loving about. There just isn't any real fullfilling sub for an AKAI MPC hardware maschine. (You get it all, all in one) 1-love 4 MPC. ( Well then Roland MV-4400 is the only one. The one RZA jumped to ). Peace, one love and thanks for all the help from all MPC-giants that's out there supporting and helping out showing others guidance in this day and age (of age). Sincerely thanks from the last henchman/norseman and real Viking, still sailing, still fighting and rowing when I need, once more sincerly yours, hammer in hand one fan from north born to learn more, I'm sure to the core, was told by our actual, factual hardstriving norrøn God - Tor, force to you friend and a hand for my african-american man producing wu-tang, peace out from another eartly man, my person myself, Gisle Andre Haraldsson Ulvøy. :-)
That kick is so well placed, with the right dynamic... super hard to do in such an organic way... that finger control on how he hits the pad is pure mastery.
