Anybody Interested in Getting into Music Production/Making Beats......

[AGS]

Ask here.

Anything related to music production, engineering, equipment, audio training, music theory, etc etc....

peace

[the Goon]

My friend's a DJ and got an MPC last year. It's pretty sick, he just makes stuff on the side though.

[sword chucks]

How do i learn to lyrically flow better

[AGS]

Originally Posted by the Goon

My friend's a DJ and got an MPC last year. It's pretty sick, he just makes stuff on the side though.

Yes, MPC's are awesome. They can take some time to learn if you don't have any knowledge on it beforehand though, but the pads alone make the thing worth. I personally think they're a bit outdated now, considering the Roland MV-8000 does so much more, but the feel or the MPC is what keeps people buying it.

Originally Posted by sword chucks

How do i learn to lyrically flow better

Just like an instrument, your best bet is to just practice. You should also begin song writing, since it helps alot since you have to deal with new barriers such as bars, rhythm, delivery, and overall swagger. Try purchasing a cheap radio shack mic to begin recording yourself. Most people hate their own voice, well, you should record to the point where you don't hate it so much, and become comfortable with it, and then you'll have an easier time recording all together. Give it time and you'll develop your own style.

[dpbev53]

Originally Posted by sword chucks

How do i learn to lyrically flow better

you either got it or you dont. If your terrible your never gonna sound good. I've always been good and the more i do it the better i get. Listen to good rappers, really listen .

[sword chucks]

also do you have any tips on making a hook for a song

[sword chucks]

Originally Posted by dpbev53

you either got it or you dont. If your terrible your never gonna sound good. I've always been good and the more i do it the better i get. Listen to good rappers, really listen .

of course you can improve at it, lol

[sword chucks]

o yeah, also what exactly is swagger.. is that just your confidence on the track? like how do i tell if im rappin with swagger, or how do i tell if a rapper has swagger or not

[Mrs Grudge]

Originally Posted by sword chucks

How do i learn to lyrically flow better

Sword Chucks this thread isn't even about emceeing.

Originally Posted by sword chucks

o yeah, also what exactly is swagger.. is that just your confidence on the track? like how do i tell if im rappin with swagger, or how do i tell if a rapper has swagger or not

your a lost cause chucks

[AGS]

Originally Posted by sword chucks

also do you have any tips on making a hook for a song

hooks takes practice, just like lyricsim. if ur a great hook writer, and a ****ty rapper, it can go much farther in today's music industry then the other way around tho....ppl dance to watever sounds catchy.

[sword chucks]

Mrs Grudge- eh close enough

AGS- alright how about this swagger thing

[AGS]

Originally Posted by sword chucks

Mrs Grudge- eh close enough

AGS- alright how about this swagger thing

swagger is just like u said...its basically the confidence and flavors you add to the track through delivery. if u rap like a snail and sound like an annoying horn, nobody will listen....but if ur really suave and what not, it can be a big factor in whats good and whats not to the common person

[8 mile]

how the F do i use sony acid xmc to create beats?! i have it but cant figure it out

[AGS]

Originally Posted by 8 mile

how the F do i use sony acid xmc to create beats?! i have it but cant figure it out

Never used the program myself, but it looks a bit cheap from just looking at it. I'm assuming it's just loop based software (meaning you dont actually record anything considering sounds are already given to you)

Hmm, doesn't look like a good investment, and even the price tag of 39.99 looks a bit weary. I would move on to Acid Pro if I were you. You can get it for [free] if you REALLY [look around]. It's also much more professional in terms of quality.

[Sarge Jones]

Sword chucks,

Think of a rap song as a paper you're writing for English. You should know the main point of the song. Think of the verses as paragraphs that back up your main point, the hook. If you just write a song with endless garbage about anything and there is no clear point, then the best hook to come up with is none, or you can go Eminem style and make a completely retarded but funny hook that makes absolutely no sense (listen to the song "Rain Man" on his Encore album to know what I'm talking about).

[TheloniusCrunk]

Originally Posted by AGS

Ask here.

Anything related to music production, engineering, equipment, audio training, music theory, etc etc....

peace

A self proclaimed guru. Where are you beats at playboy? How do we even know if you're good or not.

[MULLAH]

Originally Posted by Mrs Grudge

Sword Chucks this thread isn't even about emceeing.


your a lost cause chucks

lol

[retrohealth]

have you got any advice or know any software to help making drum beats? i sometimes record riffs from my guitar to the computer but always such at making drum tracks/beats...i've been trying to use leafdrums ( http://www.leafdigital.com/software/leafdrums/ ) but its not the easiest thing to use i find ...anyone know easier stuff?

[AGS]

Originally Posted by retrohealth

have you got any advice or know any software to help making drum beats? i sometimes record riffs from my guitar to the computer but always such at making drum tracks/beats...i've been trying to use leafdrums ( http://www.leafdigital.com/software/leafdrums/ ) but its not the easiest thing to use i find ...anyone know easier stuff?

look into battery ...

[John Anthony]

ive been beatmaking/producing for around 3 years now. its my passion for sure. i currently have a laptop running flstudio and adobe audition, a yamaha mixing board, a basic korg midi keyboard, and an m-audio firewire 410. i like my setup, but i sure could use a few hundred thousand more dollars to buy more **** haha

anyone got a soundclick or a myspace with some of their work on it??

[AGS]

Originally Posted by John Anthony

ive been beatmaking/producing for around 3 years now. its my passion for sure. i currently have a laptop running flstudio and adobe audition, a yamaha mixing board, a basic korg midi keyboard, and an m-audio firewire 410. i like my setup, but i sure could use a few hundred thousand more dollars to buy more **** haha

anyone got a soundclick or a myspace with some of their work on it??

for sho...check my site link on my profile info.....all the stuff i ever post is mine...some are remixed, and some are actual artists i worked with...."916 boyz" is the last track i produced with an artist ..

[DanGK]

Im getting into producing.

I started DJ not that while ago and recently got into making songs. I am currently using Cubase with various VSTs and learning the basics.

My brother has a Korg Triton he has been producing for 6+ years now. Wicked nasty too. So I will learn off him also. Wish me luck !

Btw Mostly Im interested in composing Trance. Maybe also so chillout and breaks, whatever my mood tells me

[AGS]

Originally Posted by DanGK

Im getting into producing.

I started DJ not that while ago and recently got into making songs. I am currently using Cubase with various VSTs and learning the basics.

My brother has a Korg Triton he has been producing for 6+ years now. Wicked nasty too. So I will learn off him also. Wish me luck !

Btw Mostly Im interested in composing Trance. Maybe also so chillout and breaks, whatever my mood tells me

There's plenty of free VsT's floating around on the net...you just gotta look hard. Most of the free ones suck in terms of quality though. So just remember, you get what you pay for, and if it's nothing, then it may not be good.

[SupaDJDiesel]

How gaudy are your headphones? Supa uses Sennheiser HD 600's with the 24k gold plated input.

[AGS]

Originally Posted by SupaDJDiesel

How gaudy are your headphones? Supa uses Sennheiser HD 600's with the 24k gold plated input.

I don't use headphones. In my experience, they're basically useless for mixing down a record (unless you get the really expensive ones), so the only use I see out of them is just for listening pleasure, and im not gonna drop $200 just for that. I have my own studio monitors I can listen to music on.

[AKR]

Originally Posted by AGS

I don't use headphones. In my experience, they're basically useless for mixing down a record (unless you get the really expensive ones), so the only use I see out of them is just for listening pleasure, and im not gonna drop $200 just for that. I have my own studio monitors I can listen to music on.

i've been wondering about monitors. seeing as most of the population will never listen to music through crazy-expensive monitor-quality speakers, is there really a point in mixing on them? it doesn't represent what it will actually sound like to the average listener. or does this just help you hear certain things in there better, so you have an easier time figuring out what to mix differently?

i'm just curious to know if this is just an anal retentive creativity thing like many photographers have, where they look at photo-grain or pixels under a magnifying glass, while no one will see the difference with the naked eye. btw, i'll try to remember to rep you for this thread when i get more juice.

[AKR]

Originally Posted by AGS

Ask here.

Anything related to music production, engineering, equipment, audio training, music theory, etc etc....

peace

just curious: do you actually do music full time? do you have another job on the side, or are you making good enough money from this? are you actually producing for people, in the traditional sense of the word? what kind of set up do you have?

i'm planning on getting cubase SX when i'm a little less broke.

oh wow, i just realized this thread is pretty old.

[AGS]

Originally Posted by AKR

i've been wondering about monitors. seeing as most of the population will never listen to music through crazy-expensive monitor-quality speakers, is there really a point in mixing on them? it doesn't represent what it will actually sound like to the average listener. or does this just help you hear certain things in there better, so you have an easier time figuring out what to mix differently?

i'm just curious to know if this is just an anal retentive creativity thing like many photographers have, where they look at photo-grain or pixels under a magnifying glass, while no one will see the difference with the naked eye. btw, i'll try to remember to rep you for this thread when i get more juice.

All great points, and you're not the only one who thinks like that ... in fact, just about everybody I come across asks the same question. "Why do you use such expensive speakers!? .. with that money you spent, you could've bought an entire P.A system!"

Let me just point out that studio monitors are thee most crucial element to producing ANY genre of music. You basically answered the question in your question though. Monitors are MEANT for MIXING ... their purpose isn't for listening pleasure in reality, because if that was the case, I would've just bought one big ass subwoofer to blow my entire room away. The truth is, monitors are meant for CLARITY .. nothing else. Clarity obviously helps a whole lot when dealing within the mixing process. If you're not into making music, then monitors are basically useless and a waste of a lot of precious money to the average listener....you're much better just buying a computer sub system.

The more you invest in monitors, the better quality you'll get, just like anything in life.

Now that we got that point through....well, how does it help with mixing?

Clearer is better. It's important that you get a balanced response. If you're mixing on a sub system where the bass is overriding the entire track, it's going to mess up your entire mixing process, and when you burn your track onto a CD and play it on your radio, you will probably be quite shocked at what you're hearing.

The whole point of having a good mix is so that your music will sound good in ALL systems, and although you probably may never achieve that, it's important to have it fit into as many different areas as possible.

Let's say for example, that your mixing a record on cheap computer speakers, and you can't hear the bass well, so you notch up the Kicks, and bassline to the full volume. While your track MAY sound good on YOUR system, you'll quickly realize as soon as you listen to that same track on another system, let's say a living room stereo for example....that the bass is completely overriding the highs, and mids! That's a big no no in music!

Now let's say you're mixing that same track on professional studio monitors (we'll take mine for sake of argument...which are mackie hr824's) ... you will be able to clearly hear the bass in the mix, and can adjust it accordingly so that way when you burn the cd, it won't sound so cruddy in other systems...

Sorry if im all over the place on my explanation, but thats really the best I can do...i'd do a much better job speaking it, but its hard to translate it into paragraphs for me.

Originally Posted by AKR

just curious: do you actually do music full time? do you have another job on the side, or are you making good enough money from this? are you actually producing for people, in the traditional sense of the word? what kind of set up do you have?

i'm planning on getting cubase SX when i'm a little less broke.

oh wow, i just realized this thread is pretty old.

No, I don't do music full-time. Just a petty exateration I like to use ... but I am fully involved with my music, and the process of creating music. I can't really say I do it full-time, because in that case, i'd be making a living from it, and I don't....and i'm also in school so it creates a shortness of time.

Am I making good money? Sure, at times....music is flucuating job...which is why so many struggle to make it into a career. I can't say i'm rich, but i've made enough in the last 2 years to afford all of the equipment I have now. Money isn't as important as publicty to me though. The entertainment industry is all about connections and networking...which im sure you probably know already

Do I produce? Yes! I started off as a simple 'beatmaker' as they call it, but within the last year especially is when things took off for me and I got into 'producing'...which is basically creating the track from start to finish (music, vocals, mixing, mastering etc). I'm in the 'actual' studio atleast once a week, and usually put in my final words as to how to clean up the song. The artists I work with on the regular are constantly recording, so usually I just go in during the mastering process and say my final input. Sometimes im in there during hte entire process, which usually takes no less than 6 hours....which is ... tiring..

My home setup includes the following

- Cubase SX3 (my main sequencer)
- Korg Triton
- Microkorg
- Yamaha Motif
- 2 Acoustic guitars
- Mackie Hr824's
- Tascam FW 1082 Mixing console
- Soundforge 6.0
- Plenty of VsT's

bunch of other stuff as well, but those are my hardware pieces...i got plenty of software

If you're starting off...i'd STRONGLY suggest Fruityloops....Cubase has a very steep learning curve, but also has alot more room to grow in terms of creativity.


PS...im selling my old Studiophiles BX5 monitors..if ur interested, let me know...


phew im done!!

[AKR]

Originally Posted by AGS

If you're starting off...i'd STRONGLY suggest Fruityloops....Cubase has a very steep learning curve, but also has alot more room to grow in terms of creativity.


PS...im selling my old Studiophiles BX5 monitors..if ur interested, let me know...


phew im done!!

thanks for all of that. your explanation of monitors makes sense. i had a hunch that was the case, but never really saw it specifically stated before.

i don't have money for stuff yet, but i'll keep you in mind for monitors.

as far as starting on fruityloops: yeah, maybe i should, but honestly, i'd rather obsessively read the cubase manual while i wait to have enough money to actually own it. it's incredibly complex looking, but the basic concepts are starting to sink in, and i think i'll be able to handle it...with a few aneurysms. you seem quite knowledgeable and decently successful for 18. good job, and good luck with even bigger success.

[AGS]

Just in case you guys still believe i'm talking out of my ass...here's a quick shot of my room.




Any other questions?