Heat and serve. You should have completely finished beats done in about 10-20 minutes. Your microwave results may vary. When you make beats like this you just gotta go with your gut feeling. If your heads not knodding it's time to either cook longer or start over on a fresh one.
jeff - that's ^^ cool mans. all those chops sound like they're sampled from the same track....do you work the same way when yr sample are from a bunch of different sources? you've got a lil bit of a dif style there.
here's that same old vid i post up whenever we talk about building tracks without the sequencer - my apologies to those who have seen it before. the drums (and such) are resampled into a beat on a pad, shit triggered over it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCbDX-eQvWo
on the topic at hand though - i actually like the 404's sequencer. i mean, i wish it had more tracks, but i like building with it. what i do (usually) is make a sequence or two, then trigger samples by hand over them. so you switch back and forth between sequence and pad banks, making yr track.
Thanks for all the responses on here. It seems like there is a lot of ways to do it.
Im curious if Madlib uses resampling to make his tracks or the sequencer. You can hear obvious time stretching on a lot of his tracks, but Im not sure if thats due to stretching to meet the tempo of the sequencer of just for the sound of it.
Dj_just_jeff wrote:Trust me your hands have swing inside them you dont need the sequencer or quantize, it will just piss you off, this way you can be mad creative without the grid holding you back.
This is the best thing I've read in a long time. Let the music flow people!
gawd damn. all praises to the sp ninjas on this site. the sequencer on the 404 has been its/my achilles heel...resampling to sequence onto a single pad sooo much easier...just changed my life.
i like both, but i think im more into quanitized stuff, just because its what i grew up on and what everyone wants, i think alot of the unqanitized stuff i hear has an un natural same sounding rhythm to it ,
Mad respect to anyone making full songs/beats with mutes,changeups,drum pattern changes,etc with resample-but damn I just don't see how you do it. A few weeks ago i made my first resample beat with a simple 2 bar loop & some added horn chops-no extra drums added,and it took FOREVER. maybe its cause I mainly learned to make beats on the sampletrak-and didn't realize you could copy patterns and chain them together like the 404, and sequencing an entire beat was mad time consuming....but I love the sequencer on the 404-but I've also never made a computer beat or used an mpc either. To me the workflow is pretty fast & it seems like w using the sequencer you have way more options and ease in making change ups,deletes,etc. I agree with Crunk on the quantize too,only made a few beats w/o it, and it always ends up with that same old random slightly off time hi hats,a couple snares & kicks hitting to early/late,etc. Seems like evrybodys drums that swear by non-quantize sound the same(usually,I've heard many exceptions)- If you listen to a real drummer, or classic breaks- they still have a smooth fluidity to them just like "old school"(lol) hip hop quantized drums with a swing function. I always use empty air for swing though-I hate the fact these things don't have a swing function. I'm trying to cop another sampletrak,do my drum patterns on there,add the swing function,then feed them into the 404 & chop them into half-1 bar pieces like a break.It's really dope theres sooo many ways to create on these things though-& so many people have found unique ways to do their shit. I don't love roland by any means, but I love my sp.
I've been getting ready for a show and most of the sounds are made and sequenced on my 404. I'll post somethin eventually. What I do is sequence it twice. I record my first sequence out and then rerecord it back in with the bpm on (no resample with this, sucks). And then place my loops in patterns with the quantize on. So what I'm saying is I like the sequencer and have really learned it over the the years. So practice a lot. I have and I still can't always get what I want but I often get something I like.
tedstryka wrote:gawd damn. all praises to the sp ninjas on this site. the sequencer on the 404 has been its/my achilles heel...resampling to sequence onto a single pad sooo much easier...just changed my life.