share your secret weapons!!!

[riPaddo]

So you want to layer sounds from lets say.. A jazz sample? What I do most of the time is listen to the track, but mostly focus on the way the bassline goes.

So let's say you have this wicked sax part and want to layer it with that other wicked piano part. If you listen carefully to both parts and the bassline is the SAME, there could be a high chance that you can layer both parts. Not mentioning EQ-ing and stuff.

Hope you guys didn't knew this one.

[blavatsky]

I don't know about secret, but some stuff that works for me:

-If you have an MPC or MV8k, sequence your SP with it and use the MPC/MV for heavier lifting duties (more polyphony, pitching stuff, Panning.). Let the SP be the drums or one element, then when you track out it's easier to sidechain w/ the separated elements. Also when recording , you can easily realtime tweak the FX on the SP

- Lofi or bitcrush + Reverb + timed delays

- the HPF can sometimes make a better bass sound than LPF

- rather than layering 1 effect on the final mix, resample several pads w/ different effects, then lay a final "master" efffect over all

Few VSTs to mess with in mixdown/mastering mode
-Ferric TDS
-Endorphin Compressor
-Melda Compressor
-Camel Crusher

[nthnglss]

occasionally get the s900 out for 12bit grit.

[skinny.b]

I'll sometimes sample myself doing a kick sound with my mouth and layer it with the actual kick sound, seems to make the kick 'throb'.

Also if i'm stuck for hats I just isolate low and mid on the snare just leaving the high, give it a little reverb and it does the job.

Probably stuff you guys find pretty basic but wanted to contribute, this thread has been proper helpful!

[false tropics]

Super obvious, but super important, is to listen to as much music as posible. Wierd stuff, pop, whatever. Step out of your usual tastes if you can stand it. For example, cdr and cassette only noise releases are not only obscure and probably won't get spotted, but they often yield nice textural samples. Many punk and hardcore songs start with wide open basslines of the main riff. Cheesy pop vocal records often have horn stabs as tight as anything on a Delphonics record.

Although James Brown and David Axelrod records are funky as hell and fun to listen to, you'd be hard pressed to find something on them that hasn't been used a thousand times for rap beats. Meanwhile, there's hot drum breaks on records by Minutemen, The Fall, and Black Flag. I got the main sample for my newest beat from a cd of children's lullabye music, and I doubt anyone will ever notice.

I read an interview with Robert Pollard from Guided By Voices where he said that he usualy only half listens to people when they talk to him, because he's trying to isolate some combination of words out of context that he could use as a lyric or song title. That's kind of what it's like to always be hunting for samples. Even the worst, or hardest to listen to music might end up revealing that one sound that you needed for whatever you're working on. At least that's what I tell my wife when she's like "Why are we listening to this shit?"

[ellaguru]

Super obvious, but super important, is to listen to as much music as posible. Wierd stuff, pop, whatever. Step out of your usual tastes if you can stand it. For example, cdr and cassette only noise releases are not only obscure and probably won't get spotted, but they often yield nice textural samples. Many punk and hardcore songs start with wide open basslines of the main riff. Cheesy pop vocal records often have horn stabs as tight as anything on a Delphonics record.

Although James Brown and David Axelrod records are funky as hell and fun to listen to, you'd be hard pressed to find something on them that hasn't been used a thousand times for rap beats. Meanwhile, there's hot drum breaks on records by Minutemen, The Fall, and Black Flag. I got the main sample for my newest beat from a cd of children's lullabye music, and I doubt anyone will ever notice.

I read an interview with Robert Pollard from Guided By Voices where he said that he usualy only half listens to people when they talk to him, because he's trying to isolate some combination of words out of context that he could use as a lyric or song title. That's kind of what it's like to always be hunting for samples. Even the worst, or hardest to listen to music might end up revealing that one sound that you needed for whatever you're working on. At least that's what I tell my wife when she's like "Why are we listening to this shit?"

great.
plus: "double nickel on the dime" is one of the best record ever made.

[squ!L]

Even the worst, or hardest to listen to music might end up revealing that one sound that you needed for whatever you're working on. At least that's what I tell my wife when she's like "Why are we listening to this shit?"

[adapter pilot]

"plus: "double nickel on the dime" is one of the best record ever made."


Yes! Gave mike watt two nickels and a dime after a Firehose show. He loved the gesture.

[strangev]

Super obvious, but super important, is to listen to as much music as posible. Wierd stuff, pop, whatever. Step out of your usual tastes if you can stand it. For example, cdr and cassette only noise releases are not only obscure and probably won't get spotted, but they often yield nice textural samples. Many punk and hardcore songs start with wide open basslines of the main riff. Cheesy pop vocal records often have horn stabs as tight as anything on a Delphonics record.

Although James Brown and David Axelrod records are funky as hell and fun to listen to, you'd be hard pressed to find something on them that hasn't been used a thousand times for rap beats. Meanwhile, there's hot drum breaks on records by Minutemen, The Fall, and Black Flag. I got the main sample for my newest beat from a cd of children's lullabye music, and I doubt anyone will ever notice.

I read an interview with Robert Pollard from Guided By Voices where he said that he usualy only half listens to people when they talk to him, because he's trying to isolate some combination of words out of context that he could use as a lyric or song title. That's kind of what it's like to always be hunting for samples. Even the worst, or hardest to listen to music might end up revealing that one sound that you needed for whatever you're working on. At least that's what I tell my wife when she's like "Why are we listening to this shit?"

this!! I've made some of my best beats by sampling deep house and eurodance

[Auqs]

A pair of 20$ headphones are my secret weapon.

[ImOnlySleeping]

A pair of 20$ headphones are my secret weapon.

please explain sir xD

[a.D.]

Go completely banana apeshit crazy every 6 months or so,go into exile and pound out a bunch of new music to beat the demons out your head.repeat.

[Dr Van Nostrand]

haha fuck yeah dru, hope all is well with you man

[mrjamjams]

I just give myself a lot of encouragement. Like "you got this" or "best beat ever on three!" Stuff like that.

[bokkenrijder]

Go completely banana apeshit crazy every 6 months or so,go into exile and pound out a bunch of new music to beat the demons out your head.repeat.

Agreed!

Especially if you don't have/make time to make music all day.
I went on a week long solo trip to Greece last October to excorcise my own demons, and I should've done something like that ages ago. The inspiration, ideas, lyrics and epiphanies just came pouring out of my fingers!

So yes, give yourself the occasional break from Life if you're a "hobbyist beatmaker/music head" like me, it gives your music so much more purpose and focus.