3 ms·

Question: with pre-made loops it seems fairly easy to make something that sounds decent. Is it okay if it’s really that easy? Could you put a few of these toget

by 0898 5y ago

Question: with pre-made loops it seems fairly easy to make something that sounds decent. Is it okay if it’s really that easy? Could you put a few of these together and release a track? Should it be “hard”? I’m sure most producers have fiendishly complex arrangements. But do some producers basically paint by numbers?

subroutine 5y ago
Here's a taste of how (good) producers can take a given sample and create something completely unique... https://youtu.be/7JUNnmehy8k https://youtu.be/7JUNnmehy8k
akyu 5y ago
Make the best songs you can make with the skill level you have now. Too easy or too hard is irrelevant really. Is the song good? And maybe more importantly, are you having fun? When you ask a musician about what is the best song they ever wrote, it is fairly common for them to say that their best song was the easiest to write.
dvh1990 5y ago
Not sure what "paint by numbers" means in this instance, but making beats is ridiculously easy nowadays. Go listen to the top 10 singles right now. If you have a good ear you'll notice that most of the arrangements are very simple - indeed something many home producers could put together in a couple of hours with just a laptop. But that's just what the genre requires.
Guessnotgauss 5y ago
Today a lot of the hard work is done for you. Many people who produce hip hop or electronic music take advatage of pre made loops and beats, so yes people do actually publish tracks based off of pre made sounds and thats ok. The tricky part then comes into mixing it all together and getting it to sound the way you like it or just different from others. Sometimes simplicity just sounds good. For me mixing and mastering is the hard part, but even that is becoming automated with software like iZotope. Music has almost become like successful No-code, where you can just click everything in without even touching the keyboard. However you need a good understanding of what you want and how its done based on music knowledge to get something complex done. Also you might find transitions a little challenging. Tastes have changed and the bar seems to be set lower, but still the sound has to be interesting or the appeal will be limited. I believe that whatever enables you to make music that YOU like to hear is the important part. Forget the audience and make something that makes you feel, evokes your emotions, or just helps you relax. This is your advantage to be able to create something that is tailored to you. With that said, sometimes its better to put a project aside or listen to it in your car and see how you feel about it then, your opinion may change. Hope this made sense.
EamonnMR 5y ago
If you're using well known loops, people will notice. I hear GarageBand's old loops sometimes to this day! Man, I really have to get around to extracting the ones from 1.0...
junon 5y ago
If an artist uses premade samples (by "samples" here I'm talking about loops, not normal sampling) and do nothing to transform it, it's generally really easy to hear. One, because it's usually quite boring. Two, usually because we've heard the samples a hundred times before and know roughly where they came from, or at least where they've been used before. That being said, most large artists do percussion and whatnot from scratch, perhaps re-using individual sounds but almost always coming up with their own arrangements. A notable artist (group) that used sampling almost exclusively is Prodigy. They're famous for coming up with unique ways to arrange old breakbeat samples and whatnot. I would be surprised if anyone had any issue with it.
- Kye 5y ago
  On the history of breakbeats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJf9Jptq7VY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJf9Jptq7VY It's unfortunate the guy who made the drum pattern so much modern music is built on apparently died broke and unhomed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_C._Coleman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_C._Coleman
  - Grakel 5y ago
    "Homeless" means without a home. "Unhomed" sounds like someone did it to him, and furthermore is not a word.

by 0898 5y ago

subroutine 5y ago

Here's a taste of how (good) producers can take a given sample and create something completely unique... https://youtu.be/7JUNnmehy8k https://youtu.be/7JUNnmehy8k

akyu 5y ago

Make the best songs you can make with the skill level you have now. Too easy or too hard is irrelevant really. Is the song good? And maybe more importantly, are you having fun? When you ask a musician about what is the best song they ever wrote, it is fairly common for them to say that their best song was the easiest to write.

dvh1990 5y ago

Not sure what "paint by numbers" means in this instance, but making beats is ridiculously easy nowadays. Go listen to the top 10 singles right now. If you have a good ear you'll notice that most of the arrangements are very simple - indeed something many home producers could put together in a couple of hours with just a laptop. But that's just what the genre requires.

Guessnotgauss 5y ago

Today a lot of the hard work is done for you. Many people who produce hip hop or electronic music take advatage of pre made loops and beats, so yes people do actually publish tracks based off of pre made sounds and thats ok. The tricky part then comes into mixing it all together and getting it to sound the way you like it or just different from others. Sometimes simplicity just sounds good. For me mixing and mastering is the hard part, but even that is becoming automated with software like iZotope. Music has almost become like successful No-code, where you can just click everything in without even touching the keyboard. However you need a good understanding of what you want and how its done based on music knowledge to get something complex done. Also you might find transitions a little challenging. Tastes have changed and the bar seems to be set lower, but still the sound has to be interesting or the appeal will be limited. I believe that whatever enables you to make music that YOU like to hear is the important part. Forget the audience and make something that makes you feel, evokes your emotions, or just helps you relax. This is your advantage to be able to create something that is tailored to you. With that said, sometimes its better to put a project aside or listen to it in your car and see how you feel about it then, your opinion may change. Hope this made sense.

EamonnMR 5y ago

If you're using well known loops, people will notice. I hear GarageBand's old loops sometimes to this day! Man, I really have to get around to extracting the ones from 1.0...

junon 5y ago

If an artist uses premade samples (by "samples" here I'm talking about loops, not normal sampling) and do nothing to transform it, it's generally really easy to hear. One, because it's usually quite boring. Two, usually because we've heard the samples a hundred times before and know roughly where they came from, or at least where they've been used before. That being said, most large artists do percussion and whatnot from scratch, perhaps re-using individual sounds but almost always coming up with their own arrangements. A notable artist (group) that used sampling almost exclusively is Prodigy. They're famous for coming up with unique ways to arrange old breakbeat samples and whatnot. I would be surprised if anyone had any issue with it.

Kye 5y ago
On the history of breakbeats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJf9Jptq7VY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJf9Jptq7VY It's unfortunate the guy who made the drum pattern so much modern music is built on apparently died broke and unhomed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_C._Coleman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_C._Coleman
- Grakel 5y ago
  "Homeless" means without a home. "Unhomed" sounds like someone did it to him, and furthermore is not a word.