jt2218 said:
check out the beats i've made using FL, haven't really messed around with any other program yet, but plan to.
www.myspace.com/silentjeff707
Bro you need to lay off those built-in sounds. There's much better kicks, claps, snares, hi-hats, open-hats,etc.. you can use for percussion and there' a lot of sounds you can find on the net for free. Also many SoundFonts out there. Add a bit of compression FX also, you need to phatten up your shit more, also some reverb, sounds very dry. A touch of reverb on claps or snares is usually enough and gives a nice sense of atmosphere spreading your beat out a bit more. "Empty Space" is the best one IMO, only thing major you should definitely add in is a bassline to help fill it up, sounds very plain. Try a deep sounding bassline, BooBass actually ain't too bad for this, but I usually lower the Mid & Treble knobs all the way down and raise the Bass knob a bit, it'll give a nice sub bass sound on lower octaves around C4 range. Try lowering the level of that pad synth you used also, it distorts on higher notes. Try some VSTi plugins as well, check out kvraudio.com. There's many freeware out there that rock, just off the top of my head check out "MinimogueVA," "Synth1" "4Front Piano Module," "4Front Bass Module," "String Theory," "String Thing 2," "Xhip," "MDA JX10," "SuperWaveP8" & "PolyIblit." There's many more freeware out there that's good. Of course try to get some commercial ones as well.
For FX plugins try these freeware:
Kjaerhus Audio Classic Series (kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-series.php)
posihfopit EQ (kvraudio.com/get/1853.html)
FL Studio actually has some nice built-in FX as well though.
For FX, you best go with commercial stuff though, plugins from companies like PSP Audioware, WAVES, Voxengo, URS, Sonalksis, WaveArts...
I really like this one a lot (kvraudio.com/get/505.html) - It'll definitely phatten up your shit overall if you throw it on the Master channel.