Its Not Wha You Got But How You Use It

[Formant024]

of course were not all gonna make it to the majors, but im saying any serious artist major or indy is not gonna be recording out of the closet, but in a real studio with equipment that most home beatmakers would not be able to afford. All im saying is it is more important for a beatmaker to have talent in beatmakin than in mixing, why do you think people make a living off being an engineer? (they provide the equipment and the service)

yeah, if you're a songwriter, hiphop is basicaly an electronica based genre, in that there's no difference between a hiphop producer, techno producer or a drum n bass producer. Part of the composition involves knowledge of mixing and dynamics. In general a songwriter is far more dependend on outsourcing when it comes to producing, mixing or mastering. Being a beatcreator isnt the same as being a pianist, guitarist or a drummer, you're the band, you arrange and balance out your backline, choose the instruments in a setting that will fit the mix, after that comes dynamics.

And I'm not telling all you producers to go out and pay to get your beats professionaly mixed, but rather do the best you can with what you got and when you track out beats for an artist make sure you give them a dry and wet version, so if they want to mix it themselves (which most established artist will do) then leave it up to them. On the other hand if you are selling it to unestablished local artist (still recording in the closet.) then it is probable they wont even notice the difference between a home mix and a professional mix. so try you best to mix with what you got, no need to go cop hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment.

I think they'll definitly do understand and hear the difference, if only it would be the "FL sounds crap" criteria to take a common example. The only reason why local unestablished artists or label wont apply for a luxury of outsourcing is... well its a luxury and they dont have the money. People who have the skill and understanding will step up their game at the bottom of the hierarchy. You're taking an example of the fairly rare situation that one gets picked up by accidents and turns rich, let alone if he makes money with it or not. Those examples dont last long in the game opposed to the skilled cats who eventualy can call it their job, not because they're succesfull but because they are credible and can do this for the next 10+ years or so...no a one time "wonder" ( the shit we need to listen to, wondering how the hell it could get in charts in the first place ). Its a kind of mentality that makes the whole hiphop producer credo retarded instead of innovating.

If any producer is going to spend money on equipment let it be on equipment that makes music, not equpiment used to mix it.

2 most important things in your setup dont involve an instrument, the third ( considering you already have a pc ) perhaps... Monitors, interface...a pc is an instrument and if you play piano you would've had that at first before anything. When a pianist turns producer he'll go for the monitors and interface first above anything, but most of us are not pianists...we produce by means of sequencers or recorders and with producing I do mean making music like a pianist wants to play piano.

 

[scandal]

2 most important things in your setup dont involve an instrument, the third ( considering you already have a pc ) perhaps... Monitors, interface...a pc is an instrument and if you play piano you would've had that at first before anything. When a pianist turns producer he'll go for the monitors and interface first above anything, but most of us are not pianists...we produce by means of sequencers or recorders and with producing I do mean making music like a pianist wants to play piano.

I dont agree with u here, when a pianst turns producer I would think he would save his money and get a workstation before anything else (or at least a midi controller and a sound module), becasue an interface and monitors could easily run around the same price as a solid workstation. you could spend all of your money on the best monitors, the best interface, the best PC, and what are you left with? nothing to make music with. If any would be producer gets serious I would think the first thing they would opt for would be better VSTI's or a workstation or a sound module. Having a fast variety of high quailty sounds I think will improve your music and creativity than just having the equipment for a perfect mix of low quality instruments.

The point Im trying to make is a hot beat, is a hot beat. and getting to know your equipment can be the most benefical of all. One person I can point out who demonstrates this is 9th wonder. He uses fruity loops, a program stereotyped by many as a program for rookies, but he makes beats for major releases. see what im getting at.

Lets say you got $100, it doesn't mean you cant make hot beats cause you aint got all the equipment to get that perfect mix, all it means is you gotta work harder to achieve that. a lot of people I know with tons of equipment doesn't even know how to use it all to its fullest potential.

So advice to all my fellow broke producers, learn how to use what u got, and when u got the money upgrade, imagination is the key to the top not the equipment. U either got the talent or not, and if you dont got it work to get it.

The 3 most important things IMO of producing is

1: Imaganation/Creativity/Vision: price= free
2:Skillz/knowlegde to lay down your Imaganation/Creativity/Vision: free/hardwork
3: the instrument(s) to lay it down: free-$1,000,000,000+

therfore i truly believe you dont need $1000's of dollars in equipment to be a good selling producer, all though it doesnt hurt. but being Lucky doesn't hurt your chances either.

 

[Relic]

first of all, this is probably the most common line on beatmaking forums. all the time, people are like ' i use a pirated version of FL, and i make heat' or ' i make beats on my moms haircare products, im so ghetto.'

its true and all, but enough.

another thing, better producers usually do have more equipment. thats because they have usually been in the game long enough and devoted enough serious time and resources to the profession/passtime that they have accumulated MORE than a pirated $100 computer program.

Understand the culture of it. THis music comes from records, drummachines, and turntables. THAT is real hip hop.

Well said.. But I dont hate on anyone doin their thing no matter what your using.

 

[mp3]

Mixing:

Everybody who calls himself a producer needs to know how to mix. Bottom line. Its part of the production process. If you don't then you a beatmaker not a producer. There's other factors that you need to have to call yourself a producer (like being able to get the best out of the artist), but that's my basic opinion. I've seen way too many wack beats get used just because the bass and the claps was bumpin right. And I seen a lot of hot beats get passed over because they weren't bumpin right. Also, if you on a budget, it becomes a double necessity. And it makes you more valuable, because anyone interested in your beats now also has a mix engineer included (at an additional fee of course...). And if you know how to record and mix vocals (and your setup to do it in your lab) you might as well change your name to "gold" because you're gonna be worth your weight in it.

Now let me clarify what I think mixing is. If you put a lowpass on your kickdrum, layer a hipassed kick over it, eq your samples so they sound right, etc., you are mixing. That's what mixing is essentially, its making the parts fit together. IMO its a part of making the beat. Me, I don't separate the parts of the process out. I'm mixing from the moment I start a beat, all the way up until after the vocals get recorded.

Using what you got:

What else you gonna use??? When you get some more cake, address your deficiencies (like more sounds, etc...) but don't get caught up in gearlust, its a big pitfall. Chnaces are, everybody on here has everything that they need to make beats. There may be a missing piece or two, but don't get caught up in upgrading, for example, your JV2080 to a Fantom X.

When you get the dough, buy your software. FL is what? $150??? You'll feel better about yourself. And ain't nobody on here got a $0 setup unless you stole the computer, or you make beats on your mom's email machine.

 

[Formant024]

I dont agree with u here, when a pianst turns producer I would think he would save his money and get a workstation before anything else (or at least a midi controller and a sound module), becasue an interface and monitors could easily run around the same price as a solid workstation.

Perhaps I should be a bit more specific in terms of a pianist, I mean a classical pianist not one who is likely to have bought a motif, but a nice wing instead. A keyboard player however will have much more knowledge into mixing and dynamics than the classical pianist, or a guitarist or a drummer. This because he is less likely to be dependend on other electronic devices which hold common principles you would find in other electronic equipement ( mic'ing and acoustics is mostly the issue here, not mixing or dynamic processing ). You cant say one is more complex but the relation between electronics devices is far more common and boosts the perspective on most issues regarding electronica. Apples, not oranges...Controlled harmonics vs sources, envelopes and interfaces, acoustics vs synthesis, in a way one relates more with another ( one attempts to emulate the other ).

you could spend all of your money on the best monitors, the best interface, the best PC, and what are you left with? nothing to make music with.

By todays standards its safe to call the pc an instrument, a signal processor or both. regardles of what budget was spend, its still plausible to crank the most out of it. Whether that via software or hardware does not change the principles of mixing and signal processing, they differ by specs and character but the approach/theory is the same. So why wouldnt you ? Its like you're saying you dont want skills because you got fire anyway and rather gamble on the chance making 30 beats a day hoping one makes a million...and so do 20 million other peeps with just the pc in the kitchen but at least some of them will even try to crank out the best sound achievable.

If any would be producer gets serious I would think the first thing they would opt for would be better VSTI's or a workstation or a sound module. Having a fast variety of high quailty sounds I think will improve your music and creativity than just having the equipment for a perfect mix of low quality instruments.

There's a difference between a pro and becoming serious but the point here is that knowing how to blend a "better" vsts on a workstation along various hardware already states he really start knowing the deal around amps, consoles, signal paths, eq's, fx and dynamics. Yeah, you can plug it all together and get the "preset" sounding character like beats, nothing signature like, nothing special at all. Now if he had all this hardware you would assume the quality is there, but how would or could you be assured of that without proper nearfields and interfaces with proper converters, you dont or cant be because the hifi speakers you'd be mixing on would "colour" everything and the limit of output would kill your headroom ( which is fucked up for them presetty 808 beats ). You're only delaying the conclusion that you needed that stuff to begin with, and I do mean at the point when you become serious.

The point Im trying to make is a hot beat, is a hot beat. and getting to know your equipment can be the most benefical of all. One person I can point out who demonstrates this is 9th wonder. He uses fruity loops, a program stereotyped by many as a program for rookies, but he makes beats for major releases. see what im getting at.

yeah, but you're still refering to a situation most of us wont encounter and its not realistic, definitly not realistic in regards to the producer skills, you're actualy degrading it cuz what you're implying is being a lamer, one who hopes to score but dont confuse that with catz that consider all those facets of the producer game elimentary. In the most likely situation you stand aside talking in baby language about how you want the track mixed, you'r the fool then, but hey, if you get rich you probably wouldnt care. The only thing you need is just networking, fuck it use magix...

Lets say you got $100, it doesn't mean you cant make hot beats cause you aint got all the equipment to get that perfect mix, all it means is you gotta work harder to achieve that.

Exactly, work harder cq. dedicate time. Or just flip presets, that a lot easier.

a lot of people I know with tons of equipment doesn't even know how to use it all to its fullest potential.

I know, its a shame but some people want it all, i cant blame em but it would be nice to have any idea of what you're buying. Same for the mpc, its dope but not a neccesity to produce hiphop, in fact, its a luxury considering most cats throw their money on budget gear.

therfore i truly believe you dont need $1000's of dollars in equipment to be a good selling producer, all though it doesnt hurt. but being Lucky doesn't hurt your chances either.

no, not when you believe the chances are ... what like 10 mill to nothing of getting picked up...time to smell the coffee

 

[SlickVikNewman]

I know cats that have the whole basement decked out with errrrrrrthang you can imagine and churn out the corniest, mono tone, muffled up azz beats you ever heard. If you got you can make it happen with what you got, if not no matter what you got that azz is going to get exposed

 

[slik da relic]

the problem with some people is, they dont learn what they have extensively, b4 gettin the next piece of equipment. sometimes, its worth maxin out the one piece u have b4 goin to the next step. once u have too many pieces that are new, ur not gonna learn each one to the best that u can. then ur music, or anything in general, suffers.

da relic

 

[mp3]

sometimes you buy something knowing that you're not gonna use every little feature. good example: You digital audio workstation. I guarantee you everybody in here only uses about 20% of its features most of the time.

Its not so much knowing it inside out. Its knowing what you need to know. I never bothered to learn every little function of my MOTIF, just because I know I don't need them, and I'd rather take that time and make a beat. But I damn sure know what I need to know.