hip hop , r n b break beats /electronic beats

44thservice

it was just my birthday and iv saved up anough money to get a decent sampler ,iv been listening to alot of hip hop and r'n'd and also post dub like james blake etc , i just want to start creating this sort of music and im just wondering what would help me to create the sounds i hear , for example the hi hats being played at diffent tempo's etc
heres some examples and im sorry about the songs if you dont like them but its the only way i can explain the production of the drums is done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBYaBY4k08w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xju-8sbfdwk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XqdW4A5w2M

can this be done on an mpc 1000? and the way the effects are brought in on the different track , like the snare is beeing rolled and pitched shifted ??
i dont know weather im explaining this right sorry

if you can help that would be great ,thanks guys

44thservice

this is also a good guide line

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFc3L4zqOro

rcaz

44thservice wrote: »

...wondering what would help me to create the sounds i hear , for example the hi hats being played at diffent tempo's etc...

Have a read up on some theory! Seems in dubby kinda electronic stuff there are lots of 3-against-4 polyrhythms on the hi hats. That thing in the Lil Wayne song is the last crochet of each bar is in demisemiquavers (that's 3 beats of 1/8 notes and one or 1/32 notes). Music theory's really interesting when you get into it, for me anyway, especially on rhythm.

Have you got a computer you could use for your music? I know you can do all that kind of stuff in Ableton Live, which is what I use. A lot of other people swear by Reason or Logic or Reaper or whatever. There are lots of programs around that you could use to produce full songs like the ones you linked to. MPCs and gear like that were all really popular in hip hop's heyday, but now I think most modern music being made like that is done on computers.

I'd defo recommend having a go of the demo of Ableton Live! Then if you like it you could get a MIDI controller like an APC or MPD or something, and you'll have the same physical interface you wanted.

44thservice

iv tried ableton before and it just confuses me i havent got a clue how to use it honestly!!i have logic 9 and thats pretty simple to use but the likes of assigning things and midi mapping im totally useless , i dont know where to start ,i thinking of doing a course but i honestly do not not have the money for that. i know it would be cheeper to get a akai controller and use it with the soft ware but i dont know my way around it entirely
i wish i could know how to use but i just dont know

44thservice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDyQG-FipUE

i looked at how he tweeks all his sample's here , like each knob is assigned to track like a snare or kick and that know has an effect of it etc but he controls it with the akai but i just dont know how to even start of in the software to do that

rcaz

44thservice wrote: »

iv tried ableton before and it just confuses me i havent got a clue how to use it honestly!!i have logic 9 and thats pretty simple to use but the likes of assigning things and midi mapping im totally useless , i dont know where to start ,i thinking of doing a course but i honestly do not not have the money for that. i know it would be cheeper to get a akai controller and use it with the soft ware but i dont know my way around it entirely
i wish i could know how to use but i just dont know

MIDI mapping in Ableton is pretty straight forward. I had about 3 or 4 months of making boring sounds and rubbish tracks that I never finished before I started really getting a return from Ableton, now I love it. The more I use it, the faster I can get all my ideas down into an arrangement.

No matter what way you choose to go with making your music, there's going to be a learning curve... If you buy a piece of hardware to work with, it'll be just as daunting to learn to use. It's not supposed to be easy, if it was easy it wouldn't be as rewarding or exciting

Malice

El Pr0n wrote: »

No matter what way you choose to go with making your music, there's going to be a learning curve...

This is the bottom line. If you don't have a clue how to use something then you're just going to have to take the time to learn. Read the manual, visit the product-specific forums, open up demo projects and isolate parts of it to see how the individual parts come together to form the whole track.

Last year I purchased Superior Drummer 2.0 and The Metal Foundry because I didn't want to be able to blame the drums for my self-written songs sounding crap . As it turned out I spent most of a weekend getting to grips with it. By the time I was finished tuning drums, putting kits together, tweaking the eq of presets and saving the whole thing step by step I knew my way around the library and was able to put down some drum beats but I doubt I've gotten familiar with even 50% of its capabilities.

Learning stuff takes time but it's worth it in the end.

krd

44thservice, what sampler did you get?

There are actually massive drawbacks with a hardware sampler - but the major plus is it forces you to work within the limitations of the sampler. And you'll find things like if you spin some dial while you do one thing it does something really unexpected.

The little hi-hat runs are sometimes done with an arpeggiator - sometimes it's a trick like hold/looping a hi hat sample and shortening the loop while it's played.

And .... They don't call it Hard ware for nothing. Some of these samplers are a real bitch to use. I think they're perfectly suited to someone with a turntable who can spin stuff to the same time.