Beat design problems (from beginner)

Electric Trancer · Post by **Electric Trancer** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 9:34 pm

Hello!

I'm beginner and I have problems with making beats

.
My loops doesnt sound as good as loops from sample CDs

.
My kick sounds weak and the whole loop sounds like just a
mixture of sounds. I tried to use EQs and compressors, but
cant get good enough. I would be very glad if you check out
my Live set and tell me about my mistakes (especially if you'll
fix them). Here's the link on my set (with drum samples):

http://s56.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2U7A ... M81HSC1XB0

Its about 1 MB.

My set contains two my own drum patterns and cool loop from
samples CD. My first one is something like breakbeat and the
second one is my attempt to copy sampled loop. I would like
to achive sampled loop coolness.

da dude of halo2 · Post by **da dude of halo2** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 2:07 am

well I may be just a little bet better than a beginner but I shall Do the best I can. I have been a drummer for 6 year's im 14 by the way. So if you play or have played an instriment that you should know that every beat can be a 1/4,1/6, 1/8, 1/16, or 1/32 for the fastist stuff and even fater than that is 1/48. But I will give you an exsample. Lets make a drumbeat.

First we will make Dat= a snare hit , ddat= 2ce hit
Dun= a Bass hit
TiT= Highhat=symbal closed .TTiT= doubel hit.
: = Repeat

Ok here we go: dat dat dat dat dat dat :
dun dun dun dun dun dun ddun :
TTiT TiT TTiT :

Thats JUst an Exsample But I have turned you beat Into an Updated Sample. From Cd's and Some anime music. Dont worry It's not that bad.

P.S. What's With the Microphone things I never got what that was?

Download: http://rapidshare.de/files/18702116/Updated.zip.html

customdigi · Post by **customdigi** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:51 am

Am I the only one who is having trouble deciphering "dat dat dat dat dun dun dun dun"?

Whew.

Matt

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 8:45 pm

Well, you can start by cutting the individual hits from a sampled loop you think sounds good (that has the sounds you want "clean"). Then you already have them compressed, eq-d etc.

Then try to recreate the loop using Impulse.

Once you have got that down, you can start making variations.

The Phat Conductor · Post by **The Phat Conductor** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 9:08 pm

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... ht=nefilim

enjoy!

ILTK · Post by **ILTK** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 9:40 pm

Get the free program called "Stomper Hyperion" and you won't need any sample cds to make great kicks, snares, hihats and lots of other electronic percussion, and you can shape the sound yourself so you don't need to compress some sample and spend time on that, it's a program made specifically for synthesizing drums, it can do lot's of other sounds to if you learn to use it well.

You can get it here, site seems to be down at the moment but you can probably find it on some shareware/freeware sites.
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~zap/stomper.html

Locktopus · Post by **Locktopus** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:01 pm

Hi

Unless you sample the drum beats trying to copy those sounds is going to be pretty tough, but you should be able to get the pattern easy enough.

Just need to listen closely to the original and apply some basic principles. Everything will probably fall on the 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 beat as the guy said below.

I've figured out a rough approximation of the beat you liked, just a matter of playing around I guess.

http://s60.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3MW3 ... VDTMW66WWL

Hope this helps,
Cheers

Dan

Electric Trancer · Post by **Electric Trancer** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 6:09 am

Thank you guys for your help! I'll try to do something when I return to home !

djadonis206 · Post by **djadonis206** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 5:21 pm

Awe man, skip those sample CD's

I'm not sure of the kinds of music you're trying to make so it's hard to say what direction you should go

most music repeats within the bar - personally i make loops at 1.3 (looped) rather than the whole 2.0

then I also sample sample sample from records and whatnot

those can be cut up and recycled

good luck

Adonis

Electric Trancer · Post by **Electric Trancer** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 7:21 pm

i want to produce music in electro/electro freestyle/electrofunk style

I'm not gonna really use loops from samples CDs. I just want to make my own beats with the same quality and coolness.

Thank you all again for advices. I'll try it as early as possible

pulsoc · Post by **pulsoc** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 9:15 pm

Erosion, saturator, and a little reverb until your ears burn out.

Schizophonix · Post by **Schizophonix** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 11:50 am

As MichaelSW said, if you want your beat to "sound like..." don't try to recreate it from scratch using individual hits!! (Or if you do take really good care that you use quality hit samples)

What I (and most breakbeat-dnb producers) would do is take a nice-sounding 4-beat sample off an old record (or a sample CD if you have ethical problems) timestretch it to the preferred tempo, and chop it up into 8 equal parts using an audio editor. Then I would load each bit onto a slot in Impulse (or the sampler of your choice) and use the midi editor to rearrange the sample. I would take extra care that the hi-hat would be at least in 16th notes, if my music was meant to be beat driven and danceable. I would also beef up the bass drum a bit applying some distortion, and also use a second snare sound (probably a snare off the same sample transposed down a bit) to add "ghost hits" that always fall on even 16th notes (2nd, 4th,6th etc). Add a bit of reverb to your main snare, pass the whole mix through a mild compressor and voila! Instant magic.

I don't want to confuse you anymore if you are a newbie, just to say that if you find it hard to program one-shot sampes you should consider doing breakbeat, which is just that: break-beat. The possibilities are endless and the ways of doing it are as many as there are producers...

Hope this helps...

ciw · Post by **ciw** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 2:52 pm

on the topic of sample cds... i steered clear of these for a long time, being slightly worried that if i used them the music would not be my own anymore.

however i have gotten into using the one that comes with live 5.

i am still in control of my beats, in as much as i decide how i want them to work rather than letting them dictate my tune. i place hats/snare in addition to the loops, i chop them (the loops) up, run them through narrow eqs etc. often you can't tell where the original loop came from. but they do give my music that little bit of polished production feel to it, which i haven't yet learned to create another way...

so your mileage may vary but i would recommend giving them a go.

markaugust · Post by **markaugust** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:23 pm

ehhh
start with quantising all of it and then maybe do some-off quantisation later on some hihats and such
I had a look In your midifiles; and they look like my first midifile ever on an atari.
(and that's not good..)
you have this loop there that is thightly warped, do the same with your own beats..
have a look into adamjay's example at the live 5 performance test to know what I am talking about.
Seems to me that you probably were thinking that making beats was gonna be a hell lot easier then this, and now while trying you find out it is not at all..
keep on trying man, we all started out once like you

markaugust · Post by **markaugust** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:50 pm

allright
I'll make it a bit easier on you.
I took 15 minutes on your beat; quantised the notes, put some more in, tuned Impulse, threw away all those pointless effects and put in a send with reverb. and some little effects to get the funk going.
only a compressor on the endmix.
just a quick rework to show you what I was talking about.
download here:
www.markaugust.net/via/2ask.zip
check al what i did and compare it with your old file.
As i looked in your file; as said, it is obvious you are just beginning.
Have patience young jedi, what you want will not happen overnight.
I've been busy making music for 7 years (as said, my fist midifile ever looked like this old one of yours) and I feel I am getting to a good level only just recently.
so to be as fat as sample-cd's is really just experience and skill, if you wanna make the whole beat yourself .
hope this helps!