so i been like trying to expand the way i make beats... like just get a better sense for what i can do to make my beats better. i know you guys have at least heard one of my songs. gimme some more advice. i know there is a million threads i know i been here for two years. so give someone whos been doing it some advice. and tell computers to stay out of this thread cuz i already know "chop chop chop" and "more swing" oh and his patented technique "tongue punch the headphone port" haha jp. someone help me

I would just say be very careful with your sample selection. In a lot of ways your beat will only be as good as your sample. Also, focusing on your engineering and making everything really sound the way you want it is key. Most of us know the basics, after that it's just refining your skills and your mind.

don't do too much
it's easy to spoil a hip-hop beat with unnecessary turning knobs
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and chop more and add more swing

You can always...



Limiting yourself to a sample you didn't pick will demand full attention from your creative side.

you would say that ok ill get on next battle.

Maybe you should ask your friends/family their favorite songs/movies and try flippin those. Like dedicate an EP to those joints. Sometimes breakin outta the norm will help get your mind right.

use synths!!!

Friends don't let friends use Synths.

Harder you must dig; young one!

If you think of beats as a Hip Hop thing try not to think of it that way anymore. Rather just...BEATS! Try making some material without drums. Getting past the Hip Hop complex is a start to making original material. Sometimes having an idea in advance makes your beat too formulaic.

Starting with a sample you randomly picked out of your record collection is something I usually do...pick the song that nobody wants to sample. Flip the really wack shit you hate even. It can only make you a better and more well rounded Artist.

i was just listening to yr stuff (again) a coupla days ago, drew. i don't think you should change a fing. you have the right balance of lo-fi ridiculousness and skillz.

but if you just wanna push yrself, well then...:
--try playing instruments in there (esp ones you can't play)
--make stuff outta field recordings....buses, metro / subway, buskers, etc.
--choose some arbitrary rules, like rather than four bars of 4/4, make everything with three bars of 4/4, or make every beat have 6 in it (so 1 bar of 4/4 followed by two beats)
--sample ONLY from classical stuff, including yr percussion

you know, just stupid stuff. you can get good results that way.

ever made a four-on-the-floor techno song?

word thanks guys alot i know what im doing just looking for ways to do it. lol if that even makes sense.

use more ass claps as snares..KNAPSACK.

+20

Why dismiss the arguably most versatile instruments on the planet?
Even if you're just using them for making samples. Why restrict yourself to sampling from old records only? There's SO much more.

Sometimes it's also fun to go back to the roots of what kind of music you're doing. For hiphop, that could mean: Roland TR-808 beats, awesome synth basses, funk samples and raps. Then go further from that. Way cool!
Just an example.

layer!!!! find dope sounds for layering, even if its just a crazy texture, but like different pitched horns or stringed instruments, synths, single tones, audience noise, wierd tale ends of long notes, whatever, just outside the main sample for your beat, and use it to build up stuff, or to have subtle changes on a seemingly simple 2 or 4 bar loop, if you listen close to a lot of hip hop there are always like at least like 4 sample sources, definitely always more than just the main sampled song and the drums, you can use sounds more like percussion, or like ambient sound that comes in and out, or as add ons to the melody just keep track of sounds you can use like that and then try em on every beat you make, find out which ones work where, maybe even use certain real unique sounds multiple times in different beats to sort of tie together projects, if it fits of course, but try and find more than just a sample and the right drums for it, this beat makin shit came from mixing skills on tables, its all about findin sounds that mix and work together

do something different. make a metal album using only sticks for sounds, fuck it