Articles

Stop Following and Start Leading: Let's Take Hip Hop Back

The music business is a funny thing; it can make or break careers and it can also influence a whole generation of music lovers. It can also influence the people that make the music, such as beatmakers, producers, rappers, singers, etc. With the powerful influence that the industry possesses, it has transformed how we perceive music nowadays....

Hip Hop Production or CSI Beats?

Way back in the early days of electronic music production, the hardware that was being used resembled fax machines and calculators. The look of a machine was not important to those using them, but the functionality certainly was. Now there are lot more options, but maybe it's too much....

I Make Beats and so Should You

I often hear various terms when it comes to beatmaking. "Boom Bap", "Trap", "Underground", and many more are what a lot of beatmakers refer to when describing what style of beats they produce. As far as I'm concerned, none of those exist. Whether it's Trap or Boom Bap, dope is dope, and wack is wack, period....

4 Ways Any Beatmaker Can End Their Beat

Beatmaking is always evolving. Sure, making a beat can be very simple and quick for some, but that's if you want to continue doing the norm and not challenge yourself to do something new, or possibly change the entire beatmaking game. However, one thing that remains constant with beats is how they're presented. I'm going to show you four ways you can properly end your beat, because the end is just...

5 Tips You Can Use to Improve Your Music Production

With all of the software options available today, it can be difficult to choose which digital audio workstation or plug-in you should use, because the choices seem endless but also complicated. It doesn't have to be hard, so here are some tips on how to improve your production....

This Is Why You Need More Electric Guitar in Your Beats

On a recent episode of Attack of the Beats!, I gave advice to an IllMuzik member about his beat and what needed to be fixed and added or removed. The beat in question was really good but it was missing something, like some sort of lead instrument. So I recommended he add some electric guitar....

5 Ways to Make Beats That Will Sell

For some, making beats is a hobby and for others, it's big business. If you want to make money selling beats, then there are a few things you should consider first. Forget about just making a beat, uploading it somewhere and then spamming social media. That is not beat selling. What you need to do is make beats a certain way, which will in turn help you get sales....

Improve Your Maschine Workflow with These Websites

Ever since Native Instruments released their Maschine MK1 controller (along with the software), music production has changed a lot and for the better. Whereas in the past, if you wanted to control software you had to basically use whatever you could and the results always varied by user. Keyboards, the Akai MPD series, and many other controllers have come and gone, but now it's all about Maschine....

Create, Innovate, and Keep It Real

The term "keeping it real" can have many different meanings. It could mean that you're representing your neighbourhood or that you're making beats that come from the heart. The same can be said for any rappers that are writing lyrics....

Should Rappers Write Their Own Lyrics?

In other genres of music, it's common practice to have a songwriter write for the artist and it's widely accepted, of course. The issue is with Rap music. Rappers are expected to write their own lyrics and if they don't, they get clowned. But is that right? I think so....

Retro Gear: A Look Back At The Alesis ADAT

In January of 1991, Alesis announced at the annual NAMM convention that they were about to release a new product to the recording market, the ADAT. In early 1992, they finally delivered on that promise and released the first model of their digital audio recorder, and it quickly became a huge boost for audio engineers, producers, and beat makers alike....

Retro Gear: A Look Back At The Alesis SR-16

It's always difficult to find some good drum sounds for your productions, and beat makers often look towards vinyl or drum kits for those sounds. However, what's often overlooked is old drum machines because they all have some great sounds that can easily be manipulated to match our sound. The Alesis SR-16 drum machine is one of those pieces of gear that is definitely something that producers shou...

Understanding Studio Monitors 101

The main difference between "Speakers" and "Monitors" is that one tries to provide you with the best possible sound and the other tries to provide the most accurate sound. At a glance, you would think that the best way to find the difference would be in their frequency responses. This is so far from the truth that it's almost amazing. Let me explain....

A Totally Different Way Of Understanding Compression Part 2

Compression is mainly for controlling uncompressed recordings. Most of the music that we use in our genre requires little to no compression at all. In Hip Hop, we do a lot of sampling and most, if not all, of our samples are already compressed. Even most of the drums in the form of kits are already compressed and pre-shaped. With this in mind, very little compression is needed....

A Totally Different Way Of Understanding Compression

In the past we've seen a lot of different articles and videos explaining what compression is and how it works. This will be different. The goal is to show you how to understand what basic compression does. The basic principles are not complicated and it's one of the single most important tools in making a good track, but learning the principles is key in understanding what it is and how it works....

Learn How Beat Juggling Can Help You With Your Music Production

When producing music, it can become quite repetitive given that we're mostly working with loops. Maybe by working this way, we've grown accustomed to doing things over and over and not realizing that it could be hurting our productions, but there's one thing I've always looked at for inspiration - beat juggling....

80 Awesome Beat Making Resources

I have compiled a list of some great resources that any beat maker can use to further their beat making, producing, marketing, and overall music industry presence. The links are a combination of articles from IllMuzik, as well as various other websites that are all related to Hip Hop production....

E-mu SP-1200 - A Look Back

E-mu's SP-1200 sampler/drum machine was THE machine to have back in the day, all throughout the 1980's and 1990's. It gave producers the tools to make very gritty, dirty, legendary hip hop beats, where many have said that it had an "old vinyl" sound, which of course is what hip hop is built upon. It's only fitting that the SP-1200 was a favorite for hip hop producers....

Tascam Porta One - A Look Back

The 4-track was always a popular tool for bedroom producers and home studios since it was small and portable and made recording easy and straightforward. Hip Hop DJ's were also big 4-track users, banging out numerous mixtapes because it gave them more breathing room, throwing samples and snippets into their mixes....

Akai S950 - A Look Back

One of the most popular hardware samplers over the years for hip hop producers was the Akai S950. Essentially an upgraded version of the S900, this sampler became popular amongst hip hop heads, namely for its 12-bit linear sampling capabilities. Most producers would stack this with an E-MU SP1200, giving them the perfect 1-2 punch to deliver some knockout, hard-hitting, rough-as-can-be hip hop tra...