A
ACEBEATZ
Guest
Hi, i'm Tweekz more known as Ace from Ace Beatz,
Today I decided to give advices on how to get that crunk style sound for your beats.
After reading lots of threads asking where to get those sounds, I decided to tell you how to get THAT sound.
1 - First of all, base of crunk music is the drums. Get yourself a good 808 drum kit. you can find this in a synth or a machine, or easily over the internet as wav samples and you will probably find it as a zip of less than 1 meg. I found one in Fruity Loop and many as zip kits. Choose one that sound punchy and clear, without noise or with very low noise level.
If you use a machine or synth like a Motif or a MC-303, your sounds have already been processed, so go on to step 4.
2 - Now, do you plan to masterise your beats yourself, in a studio or to not masterise at all?
If you plan to do : Apply a lil compression on your drum tracks to make them ''alive'' but don't overcompress them cuz you will do on the overall mix at then end.
If you don't plan to or if you don't know wut is it : Open the files you want to use in your mix in an audio editor like Cool Edit or Sound Forge. Choose your biggest bass drum sound and apply a compressor on it (Probably called ''something'' compressor or dynamics). Every audio editor have compressor so if you can't find it, look in the help menu of your software.
Look for a drum preset and apply it. Hear the difference, your drum sample should sound more clear, punchy and loud while givin help to your speakers. Tweak a little with the ratio and the treshold till it sounds like you want it. Apply the effect and save your sample to another name (Like BASS DRUM COMP). Always keep your original sounds. Do the same for every bass drums. After apply the same on other drums too (sanres, hi-hats...) but try with a -4/5 db treshold and a 2:1 ratio. Save all your sounds to get yourself your own '' alive'' sound bank.
If you don't have a drum preset, try to set this treshold around -8/10 db, ratio around 4:1/6:1 a fast attack and a fast release. Do the same as I said above after that.
3 - Choose your leads and bass sound so they look like they're born together. Listen to some dirty south instrumentals. You'll see that they use a few instruments but that they stick well togheter. You can apply compression on them if they sound flat and kinda boring but not too much. BUT you gotta apply some compression on bass to get it more vibin. Try around the same setting you used for your bass drum.
4 - BASS AND BASS DRUMS : two enemies. Don't try to mix a bottom bass with a bottom bass drum, you will lose your time. Choose one of each other bottom than the other upright. It will mix easily. The only way to have both of em bottom is to make em play at different time: Bass drums, bass, bass drums, bass bass for example. And don't tell me you heard it on a commercial mix and it was right. They got 10 000 $ Avalon Compressors in 100 000$ Studios with 40 000$ Monitors each track EQ'd by a 50 $ an hour sound engineer. We got PC's.
5 - KEEP IT SIMPLE!! I'm sure you tried to get your mix as loud as em all the night to finish by sayin: but wut in the hell they do to get it clean like this?? As soon i make one instrument louder i gotta get another one louder. It's becausecrunk beats are simples, they dont use a lotta sounds AT THE SAME TIME. a good beat should not have more than 10 tracks of instruments in all the mix. The less you use, the more they will have space in the mix.
6 - Overall a good mix is simply a simple beat with good melodies, well chosen sounds with a good compression . I prefer to hear a 3 chords beat well played and well composed than a 1 million note orchestra of noizes that will break the head of every mix engineer to get it sound right. After your mix is done right, extract it at full quality and a good 1 hour mastering will make it sound loud as the commercial.
Holla Ace www.acebeatz.com (Check out my website, in construction right now, and soon my page here)
Today I decided to give advices on how to get that crunk style sound for your beats.
After reading lots of threads asking where to get those sounds, I decided to tell you how to get THAT sound.
1 - First of all, base of crunk music is the drums. Get yourself a good 808 drum kit. you can find this in a synth or a machine, or easily over the internet as wav samples and you will probably find it as a zip of less than 1 meg. I found one in Fruity Loop and many as zip kits. Choose one that sound punchy and clear, without noise or with very low noise level.
If you use a machine or synth like a Motif or a MC-303, your sounds have already been processed, so go on to step 4.
2 - Now, do you plan to masterise your beats yourself, in a studio or to not masterise at all?
If you plan to do : Apply a lil compression on your drum tracks to make them ''alive'' but don't overcompress them cuz you will do on the overall mix at then end.
If you don't plan to or if you don't know wut is it : Open the files you want to use in your mix in an audio editor like Cool Edit or Sound Forge. Choose your biggest bass drum sound and apply a compressor on it (Probably called ''something'' compressor or dynamics). Every audio editor have compressor so if you can't find it, look in the help menu of your software.
Look for a drum preset and apply it. Hear the difference, your drum sample should sound more clear, punchy and loud while givin help to your speakers. Tweak a little with the ratio and the treshold till it sounds like you want it. Apply the effect and save your sample to another name (Like BASS DRUM COMP). Always keep your original sounds. Do the same for every bass drums. After apply the same on other drums too (sanres, hi-hats...) but try with a -4/5 db treshold and a 2:1 ratio. Save all your sounds to get yourself your own '' alive'' sound bank.
If you don't have a drum preset, try to set this treshold around -8/10 db, ratio around 4:1/6:1 a fast attack and a fast release. Do the same as I said above after that.
3 - Choose your leads and bass sound so they look like they're born together. Listen to some dirty south instrumentals. You'll see that they use a few instruments but that they stick well togheter. You can apply compression on them if they sound flat and kinda boring but not too much. BUT you gotta apply some compression on bass to get it more vibin. Try around the same setting you used for your bass drum.
4 - BASS AND BASS DRUMS : two enemies. Don't try to mix a bottom bass with a bottom bass drum, you will lose your time. Choose one of each other bottom than the other upright. It will mix easily. The only way to have both of em bottom is to make em play at different time: Bass drums, bass, bass drums, bass bass for example. And don't tell me you heard it on a commercial mix and it was right. They got 10 000 $ Avalon Compressors in 100 000$ Studios with 40 000$ Monitors each track EQ'd by a 50 $ an hour sound engineer. We got PC's.
5 - KEEP IT SIMPLE!! I'm sure you tried to get your mix as loud as em all the night to finish by sayin: but wut in the hell they do to get it clean like this?? As soon i make one instrument louder i gotta get another one louder. It's becausecrunk beats are simples, they dont use a lotta sounds AT THE SAME TIME. a good beat should not have more than 10 tracks of instruments in all the mix. The less you use, the more they will have space in the mix.
6 - Overall a good mix is simply a simple beat with good melodies, well chosen sounds with a good compression . I prefer to hear a 3 chords beat well played and well composed than a 1 million note orchestra of noizes that will break the head of every mix engineer to get it sound right. After your mix is done right, extract it at full quality and a good 1 hour mastering will make it sound loud as the commercial.
Holla Ace www.acebeatz.com (Check out my website, in construction right now, and soon my page here)
