How long did it take you?

[DJ Redrum]

How long did it take before you actually started to feel proud of the beats which you've produced? [Weeks/Months/Years]?

I mean as in the stage where you could put them to the side for a while (few weeks), and when you went back you were still happy with the quality/replay value that they hold?

As some of you know I haven't been producing for to long, though I do have everything which is needed. I've just been putting all of my time into mixing/mastering to really begin to focus more on the production side (which i'm now putting the time in).

I thought it would be good to get some opinions, seeing as the results are different for each of us than the next - due to our own self standards. Who know's, maybe some of you are still not satisfied?

 

[Ominous]

I know I am going to sound silly, but I felt good about my beats starting with the very first one. I will admit that a lot of my early beats were pure ASS, but I loved them and still get hyoe about them when I hear them. Like my first remix, Jin-Speak Chinese, I still love that beat. And it was my very first remix.

Every time I make I beat, I think it is better than the last one.


But I didn't start getting positive feedback from my beats from other people until the 60th beat or so... And that is where I start counting from... so I would say about 4 years.

 

[Low G]

Years... A few months ago I was starting to feel cool with what I was making... Allways room for improvement and that will never end but I'm finally happy with what I've been making lately. It fits me perfectly and now I'm just gonna build off it to get to that "style of your own" everyone talks about. I stopped submitting beats for review because I felt I was on the right track for where I wanted to go and just went in this zone. I wasn't so concerned with what others thought of my stuff anymore and only cared weather it was cool to me. I have hundreds of beat files nobody has heard that is a testament to my journey. I'm at the point where I know that not everybody has what it takes to be one of the greats and I'm cool with reaching the hights of my own abilities knowing that at this time they don't stack up against others. I never did this to become the best but only to be able to love doing it. I have my own group of emcees that I work with now and I'm damn proud of what we are doing and proud of all the time I've spent getting here. I can only imagine how much better I will be 10 years from now.

Peace.

 

[The Arkitekt]

Funny you bring this up, cause it's only bout two or three days ago that I feel proud of my tracks. I started making tracks back in January/Feburary this year, i'm on some new shit now, change my style up a lot this month and I only did like three tracks last week, since the end of last week, I been cranking out bout two or three a day that are actually satisfying to me (expect heat in the showcase lol). Last month I was mostly learning about mixing, doing massive research on all the effects and everything and wasn't really making any tracks, now that I learned as much as I did, my shit sounds so much nicer.

 

[Quality]

I probably started feeling a little pride in my beats after a little over a year, about when I learned how to really sample. I don't mass produce beats, it takes me a little longer to create somethin cause I want it perfect. I usually make 3-4 good beats a month on the average, mainly cause diggin is expensive.

I don't think I can ever be fully satisfied with my beats/tracks though, I always want to take my game to another level.

 

[Shonsteez]

Like Om said, i felt really good about my fist initial beats and really liked what I created, but i knew I needed to grow tremendously still before I felt like I actually made something legitimate. Id say within a years time i started to officially develop my own sound and feel and had a usual expected quality after that point.

At this point ive been at it since 00'....and i still feel like im growing. You really can't put a cap on musical creativity tho because as long as you continue to exercise those skills as well as learn new ones - your always going to evolve your craft.

 

[The Arkitekt]

your always going to evolve your craft.

Yea word. I'm sure in another year i'll be saying the same thing i'm saying now haha

 

[Relic]

I liked em from the get go, back on ye ol synsonic drum machine!
Once we got the sp1200 it was about 2-3 months before they started taking off...

 

[mono]

took me 2-3 years to make them sound official and another 3 so i can say i dont have to hide from nobody. but if i had constantly concentrated on producing like im doing it now and would have had the gear, i could have done it in half the time. theres so much to it, f.e. learning your effects...a proper delay can turn a boring sample into a banger...stuff you simply dont know if nobody tells you

 

[ForestGlenn]

I love and am pround of every single one of my beats. Mainly because I enjoy the process of making music and then when u sit down to hear all that you put into it , u feel good. Its almost like a spiritual thing for me . Im like wow, im blessed just to be able to create something that i love. Thats why I try to get on all the flips in the other "room" , because first i like the challenge, and second I like people to enjoy what ive created. Kinda like when you listen to one of your favorite songs and then you hear the sample, then ur like damn!

 

[LDB]

Took me right under two years. I didn't start feeling like I really had talent producing music until I completely stop'd sampling (because that's how most of us start out) and put together my first composed (from scratch) track. When I drop'd that track at a talent show (I was an Emcee at the time too) and people asked "who did the track" because they though it was dope, I knew then that could do this shit. That let me know that I could possibly find a lane in this game. Now that I'm pretty comfortable sampling and composing I feel I'm on another level. I may not be a musician, so to speak, but from a producing stand point I can get it done and if I have the opportunity to work with real musicians I can get across to them my vision and ideas for the track.

P.S. I gotta add this. If you think your music is good because your "homies" or inner circle are saying it is....don't take much comfort in that. It's not always about what people say that lets you know if you make hot tracks. Speaking from a DJ perspective. I always work one of my songs into a set or two that I drop at the clubs I dj at. I never jump on the mic and say "yo, this my new shit, produced by me, shits hot!". I just drop that shit within my set sit back and watch the people. If there grooving to your shit and they don't have a clue that you did it, guess what? You might actually be doing something. Everything I drop don't make them move, that's when I know I need to get back in the lab!

 

[Cell 2Dee]

took me 2-3 years to make them sound official and another 3 so i can say i dont have to hide from nobody. but if i had constantly concentrated on producing like im doing it now and would have had the gear, i could have done it in half the time. theres so much to it, f.e. learning your effects...a proper delay can turn a boring sample into a banger...stuff you simply dont know if nobody tells you

Any chance you can share that knowledge?

 

[2GooD Productions]

I know I am going to sound silly, but I felt good about my beats starting with the very first one. I will admit that a lot of my early beats were pure ASS, but I loved them and still get hyoe about them when I hear them. Like my first remix, Jin-Speak Chinese, I still love that beat. And it was my very first remix.

Every time I make I beat, I think it is better than the last one.


But I didn't start getting positive feedback from my beats from other people until the 60th beat or so... And that is where I start counting from... so I would say about 4 years.

Thats exactly how it was for me, its only when you go back to older beats listening with better ears that your realise how crap they really were, but at the time to me, they were major acheivements.
I have found that I only keep getting better the more I make beats and make mistakes and learn by listening to others.
If Im honest its only really the last couple years that things have been falling into place for me both sample and composition wise. The more time I take with a track the better it comes out, so I tend to take a lot longer getting the sounds right as I compose rather than try to fix it all at the end. I used to bang out a lot of basic tracks in a day, but now I take hours on a beat and not minutes. I think that is what has improved my music the most. That and understanding(basically) how to find the key/scale of a sample and then elaborate on it.
All in all its taken me over 10 years and Im still learning new things all the time.

 

[sYgMa]

I know I am going to sound silly, but I felt good about my beats starting with the very first one. I will admit that a lot of my early beats were pure ASS, but I loved them and still get hyoe about them when I hear them...

I guess there's a lot of silliness on the board then... Pretty much the same here. I think I was way more creative then I am now... (no rules in my mind cuz I didn't know them at all)

 

[Tim D]

Years...But you always think they're the shit..Its only til you look back on them and realize you actually suckd

 

[ch3ck-ch3ck]

i've always been proud my beats, some of them i didn't like but i was proud that i made them. i really started liking and being proud of them when i moved from Virginia to Maryland and got more space to work with.

 

[CriticalStringz]

Now, I just started, I like how they sound and I get alot of positive feedback for them, Im constantly watching tutorials and reading books like Im studying for a midterm or something but they help. Sometimes it seems like the ones I like less are the ones everyone else likes, it was the same thing when I was mc'ing.

 

[samuelock]

months. i still love my old crap to death, though.

 

[Schizo-Manic]

How long hmmm I don't really have an answer because I feel there is always room for improvement, its like anything else in life never get comfortable I always press the mark with each record I produce. I try to excel or push the envelope like "If I can make a beat like this and its dope" make 100+ in the same vein thats my goal anyone can make a dope track, but I strive for abundance....

 

[Rackoon]

Since I only dish out maybe 4 beats a month...It took me a while to grow as a beatmaker... Arranging/mixing are definitely taking a big chunk of my time...

I would say 3 1/2 years.....but I still have a long way to go...