I’m starting to regularly put up some free drum breaks and drum samples I’ve collected. I made a new section called Free Breaks. I’m not sure If I’ll do this once a week or more often than that. This break has a decent drum sound and has some piano in it. I suggest tuning it down in your sampler to lengthen it since it is uptempo. All I ask for in return is for some comments on the site and suggestions on how to improve it.
Thanks,
Here’s a good debate, should drum samples be in Stereo or Mono?
Coming from an engineering background, live drums are 99% of the time recorded mono. Yes they may be multitracked (microphones on the top, bottom snare and snare overhead) but these are panned dead center except for paired cymbals and toms. The reason why overhead and room mics are usually tracked in stereo pairs is because of the left to right detail that is being captured. The engineer is trying to give the full stereo perception of the kit. There is no stereo detail when a snare is hit by itself in the middle of the room, but if a drummer is playing a full kit and does a tom roll with cymbal crashes, you hear the stereo detail.
My method for beat making is to keep my single hits mono (snares, kicks, hats) and leave my pre-recorded drum breaks and samples stereo because there is stereo information associated with the mix. Mono hits sound pretty good layered on top of a stereo break, has more focus and the snare seems to stick out in a good way. Mono files also cut down on the size of your sample which is important if you’re limited with RAM in your sampler.
I’m assuming most of us producing Hip Hop is that we mix “In the Box”. The term means that everything is mixed in a software application and is never routed out to a physical mixer. The negative side affect of this is your mix will be “flatter” and not as “big” sounding as a commercially mixed song. The reason for this is dynamic range and unique circuitry that’s inherent in mixers. I’m not saying that if you buy a cheap behringer mixer that your tracks will sound better. But your mix will benefit from a decent mixer (older ones preferably), Some brands to check out are Spirit, Allen & Heath and some of the older Tascam mixers.
Older mixers have better components and some have no digital circuit boards that reduce sound quality (remember less path to go through the better the signal will retain quality). If you have a big home studio budget, check out the Dangerous 2 Bus mixer.
If you have a small budget, once your track is mixed as best it can be in your software application, bring your session to a studio that has a good board and mixdown from there. You’ll notice the tracks will sound more separated, clearer and sonically bigger with better imaging and detail. The reason for this is your audio engine and summing processor in your audio application is limited. In the digital realm your headroom is limited and digital distortion produces harsh sounding artifacts which is different from analog distortion which can be desired and more musical.
Now also keep in mind, you’ll need to route the signal back through to your audio software for the two track master or if you have an external cd recorder or reel to reel would work also.
So next time you have a great track mixed and want to take it to the next level, give this a try.
I think this is pretty amazing, amusing and confusing. Timb consults Kanye on making his kick drums hit harder in the club. These are the questions amateurs like myself wonder about and ask on forums. Judge for yourself.
P.S. Before playing the video, stop the track in the above right navigation or you’ll hear both tracks at the same time.
Stronger Revisited from Kanye West on Vimeo.
The mic was definitly rocked on this one. My man Devon aka Terror Dome torched this track. Has an old school party song vibe to it. You’ll probably notice the sample, Steve Millers Fly Like an Eagle. Most noticeably on Biz Markie’s Nobody Beats the Biz. I had to flip it since I had the vinyl on hand, and I’ve had this idea in my head for a while. Now it’s not the final version yet. I have to do some small edits and fade outs and didn’t have the time over the weekend. The real real real final version will be up tonight.
I got a copy of the new Logic Studio yesterday. Holy Shit! Amazing! Apple thank you! I’ve been using Logic since it’s early days, I think 3.5. Logic is the only audio suite I’ve worked with. The new version of Logic has a re-designed interface which was long overdue. I see workflow improvements all around. There’s new plug-ins and instruments. I’m going to have alot of good experiences with the new version.
Depending on what style of music you’re into it will mainly fall under two categories, full band or solo artist. If you have a band you’ll need more gear, if you’re a solo artist, you have it easy but you’ll need to fund purchases by yourself.
This article is intended for artists who focus on vocals.
The most crucial piece of recording gear in my opinion is your microphone. I think this is the most important link in the signal chain no matter what genre of music you’re in. If you capture a great sound with a bad mic, then the sound suffers and you end up with a bad recording. For vocals, I suggest a condenser mic. Condensers have a wider frequency range and are more suitable for vocals. If you have a decent budget, I would look into an older used Neuman or AKG. I myself have a Rode NT-1 which is an affordable condenser that is considerably decent in comparison to the more expensive mics.
The next critical link is your mic preamp. If you don’t have one, I suggest investing in one. Mic preamps boost your signal and have better quality components than an average mixers mic preamp. One preamp out now, the Universal Audio Solo 110 is an excellent mic preamp for around $700. It’s a single channel tube preamp which warms up your vocal tone. Universal Audio is highly regarded in the audio production realm for quality products. So if you’re an artist that focuses on vocals, I hope these suggestions help in your pursuit of a better recording
Composition
I’d say the first most overlooked element of production is the arrangement/composition. We usually get wrapped up in our samples and drum sounds that we overlook the purpose of those samples is to create a song. Rap is usually simple in it’s structure in regards to the beat. The melody doesn’t change that much, it’s the vocals that define when the parts of the song change. The composition is where the intro, verse, chorus, bridges and outros are broken down and arranged in a sequence and is usually referred to in bars which are counted out like this “1 and 2, 3, 4 2 and 2, 3, 4 3 and 2, 3, 4 4 and 2, 3, 4″. A typical track consists of an intro, verse, chorus, verse2, chorus2, break/bridge, chorus end or outro. This is just a guideline and does not need to be followed. Each part is around 8-16bars.
Arrangement
This is how the instruments or samples fit in the track and at what time they play off each other or not play at all. A track with minimal instruments serves a vocalist the most. Sometimes when we produce, we think about the instrumental more than what the final product is which usually ends up being stripped down a bit to let the vocals stand out. Arrangement is the most creative and important part that complements the composition. When using samples or loops, try to use something that’s 4 bars long at minimum. This makes the track a little less repetitive. As an example (as lame as the example sounds) Something like “Yeah, oh yeah, (repeat) Yeah oh yeah” on loop would get pretty repetitive but something that goes “Yeah, oh, uh, alright uh, oh (repeat) Yeah, oh, uh, alright uh” you get the idea. To get even more creative with it, try chopping the parts up and re-arrange the loop into a new melody. After you have an interesting loop or chopped sample, you’ll want to fill out the track more. The next step more often than not is to add bass. Personally I like using a bass guitar instead of a keyboard but to each his own. A good bass tip which even the most seasoned players know is, always play on the kick drum and not much if any on the snare hit. This gives the sense of the two instruments locking together for a really tight track. If the Bass tone seems to stick out too much or is overwhelming, try using the low pass filter. I like using the filter around the 20 range for a solid sub bass type sound.
The next step in the arrangement process are the accent pieces. These consist of smaller parts or “hits” that provide detail to the track. Accents can be extra cymbal crashes, scratches, other samples or whatever that fills out the track a little more. The last thing I’ll do are the little drop outs of parts. Most commonly used to accent a word or line the MC uses on the track. The drops usually are kicks, or the bass line that’s muted for the length of a word or line that give the part. These are just some of the guidelines I use when producing, I hope I’ve filled you in on something new you didn’t know.
This tip is intended for MPC users, but I guess it can be used for some computer programs also. This is useful only for samples originating from vinyl.
I came across a very simple method of tightening up my drum rhythms using the envelope filter. I noticed when chopping my drums up from vinyl the ambience of the vinyl noise or “air/hiss” in the record was eating away at my high freqeuncies when certain sounds would overlap making my vocals and other tracks harder to sit well in the mix. I noticed this the most when I hit the hi hat and kick at the same time, thats when the buildup of the extra “air” noise is most noticeable.
I started to experiment with the envelope settings decay time (program – sample level – window button). The envelope setting basically fades out the sound from a certain point of the sample you specify. Without cutting the samples decay too short which would give you a stuttered unnatural effect, adjust the decay so the tail end of the kick or snare hit slightly touches the beginning of the next hit. This may seem like a simple concept that some of you already know about, but I was impressed at the result which added to a cleaner drum track that sits better and will not eat all of your high frequency in the mix.
I’ve seen alot of forums and posts about bass sounds. Which software is best, should I get a keyboard? What you need is a bass guitar. Seems obvious right? The fear involved in buying a guitar or bass guitar is that you can’t play and it’s a waste of time to invest learning the instrument. The trick is, you don’t need to learn how to play. If you’re using a sampler all you need to do is play one solid note at a time. It’s a little different for me because I’ve been playing guitar for 13 years now but I do use the same method for hip hop production 90% of the time.
Here’s what you do:
Get a bass guitar. Get something standard, not 5 or 6 string, your regular 4 string bass, preferably a Fender Jazz or Pbass because thats the bass most heard on older records. A direct box/preamp is ideal but not completely neccessary, and for those who don’t know, the direct box/preamp just boosts your signal and usually has some eq features to smooth out the sound. Now, Plug your instrument cable into your bass and your record input, I have an MPC 1000 so I utilize the mono setting going in. Hit Mode+Record, play one note up the scale on each string to the 12th fret. Now you may want to experiment with the length of the notes for a song so the decay isn’t too long, or you can adjust it with the attack decay filters afterwards. Save the file. Now go to trim, slice the sample so each note is it’s own individual “hit”. If you know the names of the notes, it’s a good idea to name them that way.
It’s important that you assign the bass samples to a mute group and make sure it’s set to mono and not poly. If you don’t all the sounds will overlap and will sound like a mess. You also may want to play your bass with the “note-on” function, this allows you to control the timing of the decay better since the pad is responsive to the initial hit release compared to just using the pad as a one shot. Another hint is, after the bass is recorded, transfer to your computer workstation and process with a plugin/eq to customize more.
Now you have a real bass sound that you can bang out on your pads. This significantly improved my bass sound compared the run of the mill software insturments I’ve been using.
