Dopez Beat Tape!

[Dopez]

Hey guys, I just released my second beat tape this past weekend. Don't ask about the first one because it's rubbish, haha. But yeah, check it out - buy it if you feel necessary - but I just want to see how people like it. Everything was sampled on an MPC2000XL and vinyl. Thanks!

 

http://dopez.bandcamp.com/

 

Here's a selfie of me wearing Jon's super sick shirt. Get at him for one.

 

[Wax On]

Yp Biebs, I've just been having a listen...the chops are cool, but I think your drums could have a load more attention. I think that's part of banging it all through the mpc...I think it'd benefit from being mixed on a DAW.

 

Also considering your cuts are nice, I think it'd sound good if you put some scratched vocal hooks on some of them or whatever

 

Just my 2 cents!

[DJ Rock Well]

I was going to listen to it, but the selfie ^^^^ scarred me too much to take it in right now.

[doppelkorn]

I think you should change your name to something that emphasises your youth.

 

Something like "Young ______"

 

I'm not sure if that's been done before.

 

dopp's review

OMG it's dope-EZ. Who new? Your voice is way lower than I expected. Very sexy. Wait - how old are you again? Anyway the quality sounds pretty good to my raggy ears.

 

At the minute it's some quite nice beats but it'd be good to have a vocal or even cuts over them.

 

Also the sound is quite familiar. I'd like to hear something different - try and find a sound that's a bit more "you". What kind of music do you like that's not "beats"? What inspires you?

[djdiggla]

I really liked it. I thought the drums were nice but kinda flat sounding... I guess the whole thing didn't have a lot of depth of sound but that also doesn't totally bother me. It was a little formulaic I'd say -- the vocals were cool but predictable after a few songs.

 

Angelic was my fav probably.

[Dopez]

Yp Biebs, I've just been having a listen...the chops are cool, but I think your drums could have a load more attention. I think that's part of banging it all through the mpc...I think it'd benefit from being mixed on a DAW.

 

Also considering your cuts are nice, I think it'd sound good if you put some scratched vocal hooks on some of them or whatever

 

Just my 2 cents!

 

Thank you! Unfortunately, my mastering is very poor as I don't use a real DAW. The drums sound much better in examples like this.

 

 

I may go back and re-upload it with louder percussion because I uploaded it at 0 db.

 

I was going to listen to it, but the selfie ^^^^ scarred me too much to take it in right now.

 

 

I think you should change your name to something that emphasises your youth.

 

Something like "Young ______"

 

I'm not sure if that's been done before.

 

dopp's review

OMG it's dope-EZ. Who new? Your voice is way lower than I expected. Very sexy. Wait - how old are you again? Anyway the quality sounds pretty good to my raggy ears.

 

At the minute it's some quite nice beats but it'd be good to have a vocal or even cuts over them.

 

Also the sound is quite familiar. I'd like to hear something different - try and find a sound that's a bit more "you". What kind of music do you like that's not "beats"? What inspires you?

 

19 years currently. Also yeah I've gotten that about the sound. I'm just a sucker for that sampled Madlib sound. Since production's not my forte, I haven't found my proper "sound" as I'm influenced by many producers. If I had to describe a sound that's me, it's cutting a grasshopper breaks volume 1 over a lorn beat. Music that I like that's not "beats?" Honestly I don't know as for me, drums are the most important part of music, I'm much more percussionate than melodic. Like I like the latest trap music to random little indie rock joints just because of the percussion used.

 

I really liked it. I thought the drums were nice but kinda flat sounding... I guess the whole thing didn't have a lot of depth of sound but that also doesn't totally bother me. It was a little formulaic I'd say -- the vocals were cool but predictable after a few songs.

 

Angelic was my fav probably.

 

Thank you, I know it's formulaic because I arrange songs in 16/8/16/8 without much variety. I'm not like a crazy MPC producer like Disko Dave or any other dope dudes, I'm a person of simple tastes. I like solid drums over a cut up sample with a bassline. That's the best way to describe me.

 

Thank you again for your comments, I love to hear criticisms.

[Wax On]

Can you layer sounds on a pad on the 2000XL? I think some engineering would really add something to your beats, it'd make them more expressive IMO, and slicken them up. You know anyone who's into engineering at all? My reason for saying this is that I think the chops make your beats and the drums don't sound so considered, which is something I am very guilty of (I've used the snare from your youtube vid a LOT). There's a lot to be said for the MPC sound, but going beyond that can add a lot too. Guess I'm saying all this because what's there is cool, but could be made better.

 

Anyway, rant over, hope in some way it helps!

[Guest It'sPhilFromThursdays]

Yeah, dude. That's pretty decent, some nice beat on there. Keep it up and you'll be as good at beatzzzz as you are at the zcratching.

 

 

Pungent but well preserved 7 1/2 out of 10

 

 

Also, bold move posting a huge kiddie porn pic in your o.p.

[DJ Rock Well]

Ugghh, tough crowd!

 

 

I do agree though, the drums could do with a bit more slap, crunch, thump, knock, (insert hip hop cliche), etc.

 

Generally a bit of EQ, compression and reverb are the bread and butter basics for drums, but that's not too helpful without a DAW and plugins.

 

As you're probably aware, most producers who pride themselves in their "just records and the MP" production actually track their beats into a DAW or the sounds they put into the MPC have had a lot of processing before they go in - either hardware or software could be used in both cases.

 

But there are some things you can do with just what you've got (excuse me if I'm stating anything obvious you're already doing). Here's a few suggestions...

 

 

1. Simply turn the drums up a bit in the overall mix - if you listen to a lot of old school beats the drums are often surprisingly loud in the mix and I think there's room in your tracks to turn them up a little.

 

2. EQ your drum samples as you are recording them with your dj mixer's EQ. It's a limited and imprecise technique, but used sparingly it still can help. Most old drum breaks in their original form are quite mid-rangey, so a whole break will often benefit from a small bump to the high and low EQ. If your recording in drums for one shot sounds you can be a bit more heavy handed with the EQ - it depends on the drums you start with and what you want from them, but a good starting point is; Kicks = a bit more low, tiny bit extra mid if it sounds right and a bit less high, Snare = kill a little bit of bass and add as much mid and high as sounds good and crisp, Hats = boost the high, cut some mid, cut all bass.

 

3. Layer up your kicks and snares. Either with processed sounds from sound libraries (I'll send you some if you want?), or with individual hits EQed as described above, or just look for natural pairings of say two snares or two kicks that have opposite but complimentary sound spectrums - boomy kick with knocky kick, weighty snare with crisp clap, etc. One other thing to mention is that the MPC you have does naturally give tightly truncated one shot sounds quite a punchy envelope - it doesn't always sound nice when they're out on the their own, but layered under a break it can work well.

 

4. Record drum samples into the MPC as hot as you can without creating farty distortion - you'll be getting a bit of mild analogue saturation and compression just from the machine's circuitry.

 

5. Sample other people's drums they've processed already... I mean straight off your favourite hip hop records or anything else with some good clean drums. I used to think this was a big sin until I saw an interview with Pete Rock where he talked about sampling some of his classic beats off Run DMC and other earlier hip hop tunes. Obviously, you want to take individual hits and make your own patterns with them, mix them up with some other drums, etc... but otherwise yeah, if it's good enough for Pete Rock, it'll do for you!

 

6. You need some reverb. When you can afford it, I'd definitely recommend the EB-16 FX board for your MPC - it's a bit of a random bunch of FX, but it does include a delay and most importantly, some reverbs. It's not exactly hifi, but it's so useful to have a reverb on a send channel in your working enviroment, plus like a lot of the MPC's functions, it's part of it's sound. Alternately, you could buy a cheap secondhand hardware reverb/FX unit - I got an Alesis Nanoverb off eBay for £25. Unless your have the 8 output option and a mixing desk, you won't be able to use it as a live send in the mix but you can still use it on samples being recorded in or by recording sounds back and forth through it into your computer. On a similar note, you record samples into Traktor add FX and them record them back into the MPC.

 

7. If you've got the 8 outputs fitted, make sure you always record at least your drums or whole mix out of the master output on the MPC - the circuitry contains some inherent compression worth utilising.

 

8. Slide you bassline back a bit by adding a few ms delay in the timing correct window - by sliding back the bass you allow a little more space for the drum's attack transients to cut through the mix.

 

 

Hopefully some of that might be useful, if not I suggest you do a deal with the devil and ask if you can be Disko Dave.

 

[djdiggla]

Try resampling your drums or hit me up and I'll burn u a shit load of drum libraries. Just a little 909 thrown in would do wonders IMO.

 

I didn't mean formulaic as in structure, more like just the thought behind it. That's not bad at all either--just seemed predictable like... get squashed sample of someone singing. Chop. Add drums. Arrange. That's not bad but after the third song or so it was kinda like "Ok Kayne, Jr., we get it". Again, I really liked the beats--it was right up my alley--but if you wanted criticism that's the only thing I have.

[Vet]

Def some good crit...Rockwell nailed most of it!

 

My only crit would be until you have a better handle on the 'making/mixing' of your music you should refrain from trying to sell your beat tapes...as I wouldn't shell out $5 for styles and samples I"ve heard before (i.e. the fancy clown sample).

 

Having said that I hope you continue to do more and work on your mixdowns for your tracks...cause as many will attest to...a good beat is only as good as its mixdown!

 

Keep it up!

 

- B

[Dopez]

Can you layer sounds on a pad on the 2000XL? I think some engineering would really add something to your beats, it'd make them more expressive IMO, and slicken them up. You know anyone who's into engineering at all? My reason for saying this is that I think the chops make your beats and the drums don't sound so considered, which is something I am very guilty of (I've used the snare from your youtube vid a LOT). There's a lot to be said for the MPC sound, but going beyond that can add a lot too. Guess I'm saying all this because what's there is cool, but could be made better.

 

Anyway, rant over, hope in some way it helps!

 

Yes you can and no I don't know anyone who's into engineering. Thanks for your comments and suggestions though.

 

Thank you for your comments and especially to you Rockwell, great tips.

[djdiggla]

This is just an idea and I'm by no means a badass when it comes to recording--but I'm gonna assume you don't have the 8-output card since it's pretty pricey and not made anymore so harder to find... What I've been doing is recording each section into Ableton Live then arranging it in there. Plus you can add drums etc, throw on a compressor or whatever. Well Live is expensive tho is what you are probably saying--surely you can get a Light version from someone which will suffice OR find yourself a cracked version if you have a PC. Just a thought and it might be more trouble than it's worth but would give you a way to separate and compress your audio.

[Steve]

I agree with the criticism levelled at it so far. For me this falls within the not so good place to be that's between raw and finely crafted, even though there's some good ideas present.

[Guest broke]

Some really good advice from Rock Well there...

 

I haven't been able to get past the YUNG_SELFIE pic, so I haven't anything useful to add. Not that I know anything about production anyway...

[Dopez]

Again thanks to those who've helped. I think this is the best thread I've ever made.

 

[doppelkorn]

I love how this forum is famously shit for feedback ("yeah dope beat", "sick cuts", "sounds fresh man" etc.) but as soon as some jailbait Bieber-looking cocktease comes along Rockwell whips out his Top MPC Secrets the Pros Don't Want You To Know About!

 

Dopez what I meant was what music, outside of beats do you like. Like could you sample some rock, metal, classical or something other than the kind of soul that's classically used in these kinds of beats?

[Wax On]

The amount of feedback shows that people like enough about what you do to take the time to give you pointers IMO

 

definitely have a play with layering your drum sounds, and mess with the levels of them in proportion to each other to shape the sound.

[djdiggla]

I love how this forum is famously shit for feedback ("yeah dope beat", "sick cuts", "sounds fresh man" etc.) but as soon as some jailbait Bieber-looking cocktease comes along Rockwell whips out his Top MPC Secrets the Pros Don't Want You To Know About!

 

Does be jealous, it's unbecumming.