How do Dj's Make their own beats?

Nurse Jon · Post by **Nurse Jon** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:25 pm

Do they make beats from scratch or do they only use samples?

JuanSOLO · Post by **JuanSOLO** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:50 pm

there are a bunch of ways.

My favorites are Ableton Live's DrumRacks and using my APC40 as a step sequencer, or remashing funk breakbeats using Reaktor's Vectory, and sometimes using TwistedTools Vortex for Reaktor.

Lots of piano roll ticking mainly.

Nurse Jon · Post by **Nurse Jon** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:57 pm

For example do you think this song was made with samples? I'm just trying to understand how electronic/house beats are made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmc8AhGskLs

matthews · Post by **matthews** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:02 pm

^^^

no way to tell 100%.

thats the beauty of edm. you can use so many different techniques and combinations.

you could synthesize every sound yourself, or you could sample, or you could use premade loops (lazy).....or a combination of them all.

just start creating.

JuanSOLO · Post by **JuanSOLO** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:05 pm

Some people use synths to create beats. I think it's safe to say most people use drum hit samples.

For example I have Live's DrumRack with 8 samplers in it. A sampler for Kicks, one for Snares, one for Claps, one for Hats, others for sounds, bleeps etc... So my "Kicks" sampler has 128 different kicks in it. I can tick out a beat in the piano roll, and scroll through various drum hits until I like the results.

I think that method is pretty simple and straight forward.

JuanSOLO · Post by **JuanSOLO** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:06 pm

Lately I have been using Operator for Kicks, it just sounds really nice to me.

JuanSOLO · Post by **JuanSOLO** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:16 pm

http://cdn1.ableton.com/download/7be962 ... _racks.mov

http://cdn1.ableton.com/download/104812 ... _beats.mov

Joonas O · Post by **Joonas O** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:23 pm

Well, at first, DJ's don't make music. They play music and mix it together.

But, many DJ's nowadays produce also and make their own music, remixes and bootlegs etc. that they will then play out in their sets together with other artists music.
That's why it goes well in hand, so many that have started as a DJ, will produce too nowadays and guys who have started with producing EDM, have discovered DJ'ing and then wanted to try to DJ, too.

About how to make beats and other sounds, synthezise it yourself or use samples.
You can make every drum sound with synthesizers, if you want to. Many people use only synthezising to make every their sound so they can make exactly a sound they wan't.
You can use Live's synths, vst-plugins or hardware synthesizers to make sounds.
Or you can use samples: there is lots of samples that come with Live, or you can use other samplebanks, chop the loops, sample records, use vst sample players, record real drums, use hardware drum machines / samplers etc.

Try yourself, internet is full of videos and other tutorials on how to make music, every little part of it. Like how to synthezise your own kick, how to chop samples to little cuts, what to do with them etc.

andydes · Post by **andydes** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:24 pm

I use a mixture of synthesised sounds (operator), standard drum kit samples and samples from field recordings. Never got into chopping up loops from records or sample cds/downloads. Don't see that as cheating or anything, but I had a drum machine long before I had anything I could sample with and old habits did hard.

I think it's fair to say that traditionally hip hop and drum and bass producers tended to use sample loops (look up the 'amen break' for d&b), whereas techno and house was more programmed. These days I think anything goes.

dalvare1 · Post by **dalvare1** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:26 pm

JuanSOLO wrote:Lately I have been using Operator for Kicks, it just sounds really nice to me.

thats cool care to share how you approach your kicks with operator?

how many oscillators, shapes, levels, fx, etc... just curious

JuanSOLO · Post by **JuanSOLO** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:28 pm

The 2 808 kicks that come with Ableton's Operator presets are a great place to start.

matthews · Post by **matthews** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:30 pm

operator is a beast for kicks.

this is a really basic example.......but you'll get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IpWSIttXbw

Nurse Jon · Post by **Nurse Jon** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:39 pm

Regardless of synthesized drums, can the other instruments really be made from scratch? That's where it's hard for me to believe that every electro dj (beginners and professionals)can produce those amazing lead chords from scratch. Maybe it's just a mental block of mine. I'm just under the impression that many samples are fused into one to create something awesome lol.

matthews · Post by **matthews** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:41 pm

everything can be synthesized. whether the synthesized sound is better than the original.....well thats up for debate.

hacktheplanet · Post by **hacktheplanet** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:20 pm

Nurse Jon wrote:For example do you think this song was made with samples? I'm just trying to understand how electronic/house beats are made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmc8AhGskLs

The main kick/snare/hat is a loop from a sample pack. I had it a long time ago.

How do Dj's Make their own beats?

How do Dj's Make their own beats?

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