obsessiveness over beats

[SHOHEI BABA]

well it takes me at least a week to compose 1 single beat before i like it - i get stuck too much, can't concentrate, I'm too tired from work - ...I just can't seem to get beats done like i want to get them done

any tips on rejuvinating yourself after a hard day? am I being too obsessive? week is way too long? juvenile said mannie fresh takes 45 minutes to make a beat - and his shit is fire - well sometimes it is

comments

 

[HERESY]

take as long as you like.

i have like 9 different versions of WHORE OF BABYLON. serious man. 9 different versions of one song. different guitar riffs in one,a solo in one, a wah guitar in one, a solo and wah in another.......

take as looooooooooong as you like. you figure mannie fresh has been in the game for over 7 years. he also knows his equipment inside and out. that doesnt come over night.


:H:

ps its ready.

 

[SHOHEI BABA]

[email protected]

SEND IT NOW OR I WILL SHOOT MY CAT

 

[HERESY]

^^^^ i think i should send it priority mail. im on a 56 k connection.
what do you think?


:H:

ps how many versions do you want? i have an uncompressed version and 3 compressed versions. i can send em all via mail.

lol@your pissy cat!!!

:H:

hit me on pm if you want me to mail it.

 

[SHOHEI BABA]

fuck no dno't mail it just send it - or better yet set up a myplay account and i can dl it from there

compressed as in mp3? or compressed as in you compressed the final mix? just upload the mp3 to myplay - it takes 10 minutes for an mp3 - stop being stingey with your time

 

[HERESY]

^^^^^ i was gonna package up the break beats also and send em all 3 day mail at my expense.......and you say im stingy with my time????? LMAO.

56k=a SERIOUS gamble.

:H:

itsyour call man

 

[HERESY]

the mix is compressed.


:H:

 

[SHOHEI BABA]

ok i will pm you my addy but if you do send the stuff I guarentee you a cat will arrive at your door in a box 3 days later.

 

[DJ Mark 7]

Personally the best tracks I make, are done in like 30 minutes...It's usually the ones that take me days that I end up scrappin...anyone else like this?

 

[bumpus]

Usually about 45 minutes for the basis of a track. Then the fine tunning takes about 2 hours, although I scatter it over time. Sometimes some of my best I finish after a month or more. At any given time, I have about four or five unfinished beats I'm working on. I found that the better I got on the keys, the faster I worked.

I also sped up my composing speed considerably by making a default template in Cubase for my beats with all the sounds that I tend to use already assigned. I also went through two weeks ago and made myself a bank of 128 patches for Model-E, so I already have my programming done ahead of time.


-=bumpus=-

 

[DeviantJR]

Beats always tend to come along faster if you have all your sounds ready before hand. I tend to do a lot of sample cutting, sound modeling, etc... before I start a beat so that I have a bank full of shit I can turn to if I can't think of my next move in working on the track.

 

[Sick Wid It]

Nothing wrong with having an idea of what sounds you might want to use but.......

I almost never try to get all my sounds together before I start a track. Once I start the creative process, my work takes it's own form and direction. Depending on how creative your mind is and how much musical talent you actually have, it could be real easy to wind up not using little or none of the sounds you thought you were going to. Just get the ideas out, you can always come back later and change some sounds if necessary.

I used to make drum kits specifically for each track before I started actually making the track. I figured out that was a serious waste of time. It's way more productive & effecient to take an entire day where all I do is get drum/percussion sounds together, set them up in kits (usually 76 sounds per kit) and then dump 5 or 6 new kits into my gear. Then you spend your time finding sounds you would use rather so when you go to do a new track, you know you can go straight to those kits and won't have to do much looking to find the right sounds.

Also..... Understand that different people work at different speeds and it's all dependant on the persons creativity, talent and ability to translate ideas into a finished product. (By the way, the biggest joke in the world is the millions of people who swear they would be the next Dr. Dre if they just knew how to play the keyboard...you know, because they have all these ideas for HOT BEATS in their head.... *LAUGH*) Anyways.. If it takes you a week, it takes you a week. If it takes you 30 minutes, it takes you 30 minutes. The only thing I can really suggest is to keep practicing. Most people become more effecient the more they practice.

 

[HERESY]

^^^ thats real chop about the sounds and the drum kits. some cats use pre sets ONLY so tweeking and layering is foreign to them. what i HATE is when i hear a song on the radio or cd and i know EXACTLY where to locate it at on my keyboard.......LOL. i mean pre sets are cool but carve some of the attack or decay out of that 808 kick. run the hi hat through LPF or something and CHANGE the wave forms on the tones.

lately i have been spending time doing exactly what you said. only i use more sounds in each kit but i have less kits. i place all the kicks in one section,hi hats in another,snares in another,etc etc etc. its EZ 2 get to and doesnt take a long time.

im a tweek freak myself so its no way possible i can have a beat finished in 30 minutes. i can have the SKELETON done in 30 mins to an hour but if the song is LAME when i bump it the next day i try to turn it into a positive. if that doesnt work it gets deleted. if i keep i tweek the sounds. if it still sounds good it gets sequenced.

so it has to go through all these tests and trials.

i dont think you should put a time limit on creativity.......(unless you are paying for time...lol)


:H:

 

[Trauma]

Yeah, man it really depends... I'm not that experienced, but in the past when i've done little demo songs, man it takes me forever. I probably spend a week, too, but then again, that's only about 6 hours of time because I don't work on it for long shifts at a time.


The beatles first album was recorded in 1 day. Their last album was about 3 months. On the last album, some songs were 1 take wonders, some took 50 plus mixes.

It's different with everybody, and each song is different too, of course.