It’s been one of those weeks so far. Working this track a little too much, usually the case since this is a hobby for me and I’m in no rush to finish it until I get vocals solid. I’ve got a bunch on records I want to sample but have no cartridge for the 1200, trying to setup and book some more time in the studio to have another go at laying vocals down soon. Generally not having enough time to myself at night to really get shit happening. I need to take a week vacation and just get into full effect producing mode.I think I need to get out and see some live acts also, been a while.

Over the last few weeks I invested in some new gear. 10 channel Soundcraft Mixer, ART Tube Compressor and some Yamaha HS50 Monitors along with a new workspace (desk). The mixer alone brought my tracks a new breath of life. Decent mic pre’s and eq’s are important to give you a clearer more defined sound. The compressor really fatten and warms things up also. One thing most producers overlook is the importance of your workspace. I still need some more room for my turntable, but getting a bigger desk to layout things right makes creating that much more easier.

The latest track with it’s working title Inner City Epic (named that cause it reminds me of Marvins track) was done on my new gear. Beat composed on the MPC, bass was done in Logic and run through Guitar Rig (little secret there to get your synth bass to sound like a real bass) and I added some horns from the Miroslav plugin (one of the best orchestral plugins I must say).

I used a slightly different workflow on this track. The MPC is slaved to Logic via midi, but is being run through the 8 outputs into the mixer and the into the compressor finally into the apogee soundcard. Reason I don’t track into Logic, is I like to go stereo in and get my beat’s mix sounding the way I want without using the crappy digital eq’s in Logic. I get all my levels, pans and eq’s from the mixer, then fatten it up running it through the compressor. It really gives the track more definition against the other instruments that are all digital.As far as the monitors go, I couldn’t be happier with the Yamaha’s. There’s really no need to re-check your mix on another system, although you should, I find myself not second guessing when it comes to levels. The detail and accuracy of these little guys is amazing.

I no longer have my vocal booth, so we’re scheduling some time next week to hit the studio and record vocals. I’ll then bring the vocals back and mix the rest of the track.

Well, sometimes life throws crazy shit at you. But I’m back in action, have some new gear to talk about and review and also have some new tunes to put up shortly. Stay tuned….

I think the most sought after goal of any producer/artist is getting their music to sound like a major label release. Most demos don’t come close to sounding radio ready and super polished partly because of the inexperience of the engineer or person mixing/mastering the music. Also, most artists fail to recognize the importance of professionally mastering their music. You can come close to getting that professional sound at home but takes a lot of time and experience crafting it without the use of really top notch gear. Most commercial radio released music is very carved out, meaning there are a lot of frequencies that have been eq’d out or cut. This allows for the music to be very compressed/limited to be perceived as loud when bumpin on the radio.

Here’s a few tips to make your demo’s sound close to radio ready

1. Use eq correctly.  One of the biggest mistakes is when you have a bad sound and try to fix it with eq. If an instrument sounds a little off, try a different one. When in doubt, look to cut frequencies rather than boost. You can do wonders using low cuts and high cuts on beats, especially snares. Eq acts like a chisel to cut away at bad frequencies that cloud up a mix. When an artist is sculpting something from stone, he cuts away, he doesn’t add stone to make his piece of art. Think of eq the same way. Every instrument has it’s own frequency spectrum it lives in, it’s your job to make sure other instruments don’t take up that same frequency

2. Easy on Compression. Another very misused tool. A compressors job is to squash the dynamic range of a signal. Dynamic range is the lowest to highest level in one particular signal. This helps with instruments that are very bass heavy and tend to eat space in your mix. Always look to go easy on the compression ratio at first and use your ears to judge.

3. Balance your levels. Many people mix, but they don’t really MIX. Mixing is more than just being creative and placing sounds from left to right. You need to achieve a good balance of all tracks in relationship to each other. Vocals should always be the loudest track in the mix, but you should be able to clearly pick out each other track in the mix. Eq really plays a big part here also, if the eq on your tracks are off, your levels will never sit right and you will never have a clear mix.

4. Reverb/Space Dimension to your mix. Most Rap music is very dry, which means there is not much reverb treatment on tracks besides vocals and even so, it’s used minimally. One trick to achieve a radio ready sound is to give your mix medium to large room reverb on the master bus of your mix. Make sure to use a very very small wet/dry ratio. I usually use 5-8% and also make sure to reduce the high frequency content which most reverb plugins have setting for. When used properly and sparingly, this glues your mix together giving it a filled out sound.

5. Mastering. Mastering is the very last step in the recording process. This is usually done by a separate engineer and studio then where the music was tracked. A good mastering job will take your mix to another level. It will make it sound consistent on many different speakers and systems and will give a very well rounded balance to all the tracks start to finish. Mastering is also expensive if done in a professional studio which is why alot of unsigned artists skip this step. One plugin that has really helped in making my music stand out is Ozone by the company Izotope. Ozone includes a parametric eq, multiband compressor, reverb, exciter, and stereo widener. When used properly, Ozone can really make a difference on your tracks. Just Blaze has even used it on some of Jay-Z’s Kingdome Come record. Check out the link: http://www.izotope.com/artists/just_blaze.asp

Ok, I’ve been through some creative block and some hard times. I’ll be posting a few more this week. Then I’ll go back into hibernation. The track playing is a Diana Ross Sample with a classic drum break layered with some other drum kit I made. This is a really rough mix, but you get the idea.

It’s been a few days, yeah I know. Been busy with alot of ish. Here’s when I tell you I’ve been working on some music. I’VE BEEN WORKING ON SOME MUSIC. I don’t bang out tracks everyday. I have to be in the right mood. If not, I don’t believe in it or feel it. I’ve been listening to alot of new artists that I never thought I’d like that much considering the commercialism of hip hop. One artist I have’nt been able to stop listening to is Papoose. I have a feeling this dude is gonna break into the mainstream in a firery storm. He credits his influences as Big Daddy Kane and Rakim. You know he’s the real ish if he’s giving those cats as his influences. Stylin on Ya is such a hard track. I listen to it daily now. Even though he’s representing the new school of hip hop, you can tell his roots are in the classics.

So with that being said, I have some new inspiration in my heart. I will finish two tracks this weekend and post them.

Later,

Every video Boon Doc has on YouTube is golden. I can’t believe he’s not fully blown up yet. The most minimal setup produces some of the best sample based hip hop beats. He’s really inspired me when I’ve had creative blocks. I suggest you watch the whole thing.

Oh remember to stop the track in the right nav bar or the sound will clash with the video.

I can’t stress how important layering your drum samples when building your tracks. Some tracks I produce have three kicks, three snares and maybe two hats going on. The reason for this? Some drums lack certain frequencies and can be filled out with other samples that support those lacking freqeuncies. Beat making starts with your drums, so you have to make sure they’re tight before building on top of them.

First make sure not to have all your samples at full volume. There’s a fine balance to mixing them. A good blend of kicks that works well for me is to have an 808 kick on one pad with a low pass filter on it. This gives you a really smooth bottom. Then on another pad I’ll have two kicks, one that has good bottom/midrange balance, and one that has a snappy top end and some air in it. Tweak the volume and eq’s to your taste. Now you might think, why does my kick need high end? This helps it become more pronounced and cut through the mix. You’d be suprised how much this helps your kick sit in the mix.

For snares I’ll do the same thing. I’ll find a few that compliment each other and them mix until they sound right to me. This is a very common technique, but I think few producers fully utilize this. I love breaks to death, but I always have to layer some drums on top to get the track pounding.

Now don’t get crazy with EQ, remember, always look to cut freqeuncies than boost them. You should have a full sounding drum track with each drum being clear and defined, not muddy or muffled.

I know many of you only chop your samples inside your MPC. I’ve done this for a while and I’ve never been completely happy with the results. The samples never seem as clean on the tail end as they do when chopping in Recycle. I’ve started using Recycle more and transferring back and fourth the MPC via the usb connection.

For those of you that have never used Recycle, it’s a stand alone program from Propellerheads (makers of Reason and other great software) that allows you to chop or slice your samples in a way that retains the original pitch while being able to change tempo. This takes some processing power to stretch the sample out while maintaining the quality of the sound. This is where I think the MPC falls short. I’ve taken up tempo drum breaks and slowed them down almost to a half time tempo while retaining a clean sounding loop. Recycle does this by adding a slight amount of reversed delay on the very end of each slice which fills in the gaps that normally would be present when chopping on the MPC. To get the same result in the  MPC, you’d have to chop and then time stretch which takes several times to get it right.

From a workflow point of view, I like getting things done quick to keep the creative process flowing. I don’t like to be hung up on tweaking. There are a lot of other features in Recycle I haven’t even begun to use yet, but for beat making and chopping, this had made my life a lot easier.

Producers are always on the look out to add some new sounds to their drum libraries. Here’s a little project that is pretty easy to do and you can get new and original samples from. This works best if you have a buddy who plays the drums, but even doing this solo with no drumming experience can give decent results.

Find an affordable studio or rehearsal space with a decent sound room and drum kit (in nyc where I live they’re a dime a dozen).  Book a few hours. Bring your laptop if you have one, or have the studio set you up to record on their gear. Experiment with tuning and placement, have your mics on the kick snare and hi hat. Start recording and play each drum one by one at different velocities. Play until you think you have what you need.

There you go. If you have some experience under your belt, you can try different mic’ing techniques, turning some gain up on the mic pre’s and compressing a little to get a grittier sound.

Layer the sound under some of your favorite drum kits to add some flavor, or… let them sit on their own for your own personalized kit.