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The Need for Real Music

Apr 26, 2012 by strat - Comments Off on The Need for Real Music

A MESSAGE TO ARTISTS WHO BUY BEATS ONLINE

The video above is an old one and you’ve probably seen it before if you’ve ever visited my site. However I wanted to use it to illustrate a point. This is a pet peeve of mine so forgive me if I get emotional. Here’s the thing: producers/beatmakers need to STOP getting on youtube posting tutorial videos and beat making videos where they are drawing in notes with a mouse. Seriously? I’ve seen so many producers with videos on youtube featuring some kind of beat they’re making in FL Studio (particularly rap beats) and they’re creating chords and melodies with their mouse. STOP IT!

I understand and appreciate that technology has provided software that’s user-friendly and gives more people a chance to make beats and potentially make a living from them by promoting them to artists who buy beats online, or at least have a creative outlet. However, if you’re going to exhibit yourself, supposedly as a professional, then go the extra mile and improve your music skills so that you can really justify putting out a video which is supposed to help or inspire. Don’t get me wrong here. In the privacy of your own home studio feel free to use the mouse all you want to edit those keyboard parts to make them sound more complicated than your playing skills allow for. On video, for the world to see? Please cut that shit out.

IMPROVED PLAYING + IMPROVED BEATS = BETTER CHANCE ARTISTS WILL BUY YOUR BEATS

Artists probably don’t care. When they come to buy beats online, as long as the beat sounds good they don’t wonder if you used a mouse. The issue is not whether you use a mouse, it’s using the mouse on video that gets me. The problems with drawing with a mouse are:

  • There is no natural, human flourish to the keyboard parts
  • Chords sound rigid and robotic

After using a mouse what you would need to do is, if you understand how natural keyboard parts should sound, edit the placement and velocity of the notes so that it sounds more realistic. Try also to use more authentic sounding virtual instruments if you’re trying to emulate piano, guitar etc (another pet peeve for another post).

Let me say again if artists do come to your site and buy beats, and you’re using a mouse, that’s fine as long as the beats sound good. If you’re doing videos however, please take the time out to learn some basic playing skills. Go on Google and search the Circle of Fifths, chord progressions and the formulae for minor and major scales. It really isn’t that hard!

How to Add Hit Making Value to Your Productions

Apr 24, 2012 by strat - Comments Off on How to Add Hit Making Value to Your Productions

Whether you are a rapper, singer, producer or filmaker, you need great quality music for your productions. These days there are plenty options for those of you involved in creative industries. You can buy beats online, license royalty free music, license music from established artists (highly costly) or simply make the music yourself. No matter which method you choose, the music in your productions needs to be of good quality. I get seriously annoyed if I’m watching a movie or TV show and they’re using some painfully generic sounding background music!

In the above video clip I present a new sample pack called Radio UberStarz Vol 1. It features 5 Hip Hop/R&B/Pop construction kits which are perfect for any of the aforementioned uses. Artists who usually buy beats online can use kits like these if they are in the mood (and have the capacity) to be more creative, as these kits give you more flexibility than just using an mp3. Producers can use these loops to add to or inspire their own beats. A producer is NOT necessarily the guy who plays all the instruments in a beat. That guy would be called a composer, musician or simply just beatmaker. A producer is the person with the overall creative vision for a project. He decides what goes where and how it should sound. Loops and samples have long been a big part of a true producer’s arsenal (If you play many instruments or compose your own beats from scratch, that’s great too!).

Take some time out to check out the loops and samples in the kit featured here, and perhaps some of my other kits. They are proven, trusted by other producers and can easily help you add that hit-making sound to your productions

INDUSTRY TALK: Inspiration to Grind Harder – The Forbes Five

Apr 22, 2012 by strat - Comments Off on INDUSTRY TALK: Inspiration to Grind Harder – The Forbes Five

Most if not all music artists get into making records for 2 reasons. Firstly for the love of doing it and secondly for the chance to make a living or even become wealthy from it. These days, especially in Hip Hop, it seems to be more the latter than the former, but that’s a topic for another day. Right now it’s all about The Forbes Five: the top 5 wealthiest artists in Hip Hop.

A few days ago Forbes released their latest list and it looks like this:

  1. Diddy – Net worth $550 million. Dude has his hands in Ciroc, Sean John, Enyce, marketing firm Blue flame, Bad Boy and is about to launch a cable channel. No surprise he’s here
  2. Up next Jay-Z – Net worth $460 million. He investments include Rocawear (which he sold for $204 million in 2007), Roc Nation, the New Jersey Nets, 40/40 Clubs and Carol’s Daughter among others.
  3. Dr. Dre – Net worth $270 million. First of all, HE’S DRE! Secondly Beats Headphones. Nuff said.
  4. Birdman – Net worth $125 million. All you need to know is: YMCMB!
  5. Last but not least 50 Cent – Net worth $110 million. Can you say Vitamin Water, movies, touring, clothing line etc?

Ok so these guys are balling. Only way that helps us is to show it can be done. So this is my message to all indie artists: Seize the day and let your creativity flow. It is so easy to buy beats online for low, low prices, record your next hit, promote and be well on your way to creating the next multi-million dollar movement. Invest in yourself and everyone will take your energy seriously. Nothing great comes without you giving something. These days it takes between $15 and $20 to buy rap beats online. That alone can help your career immensely! Use the money you save to market more effectively. Let’s see who’s gonna be the next hip hop mega mogul!

Don’t Let the Loudness War Ruin Your Music

Apr 19, 2012 by strat - Comments Off on Don’t Let the Loudness War Ruin Your Music

Over the past 20 or so years, artists and producers alike have been trying, sometimes misguidedly, to achieve supreme loudness in their tracks and beats. It’s almost like as time went by and capabilities of dynamics processing (compressors, limiters etc) and mastering got more advanced, everyone began competing to see who could have the loudest pop records on the charts. If a client goes to get a track mastered and realizes that it’s not as loud as the newest Kanye West record, then he or she goes back to the mastering engineer and says, “try again pal, not loud enough”. If you are an artist who buys beats online, whether on Soundclick or otherwise, I’m sure you have heard what I’m talking about.

The video above (props to Streaky Mastering) makes a valid point in that there is a difference between actual loudness and perceived loudness. Usually artists will run to the mastering engineer and have him throw on a brickwall limiter such that all the peaks of the song are slammed at 0db. This causes the mix to lose dynamics and power and the whole song ends up sounding “crushed”. This is not what you want. A song or beat with a good balanced mix and tweaks in the right frequency ranges will invariably sound louder than a song with is totally crushed with a limiter just to achieve loudness comparable to the new Lady Gaga track. At the end of the day you’re buying beats, whether online or from a local beatmaker, because you want to make a top quality song.

Artists, when you’re looking to buy beats online, you should listen for songs with a good mix where the instruments and balanced and the low end has good power. The beats DO NOT need to be exceedingly loud. Here’s why:

  • You buy the beat online and decide to record on it
  • Your voice is added to the overall signal of the song
  • Your voice has to be mixed so that it sits well on the beat and among the instruments
  • Your finished song will most likely go through it’s own mastering process

If the beat is slammed to the maximum, there is no headroom at all for mastering. During the recording process, the engineer may even have to bring the level of the beat down to something more comfortable and that presents an even further challenge when mastering.

My advice: don’t just buy the loudest beats without listening for whether there is headroom left for your vocal or for further mastering. Your career depends on you putting your best foot forward.

MIXTAPE REVIEW: SinCity – Recession Proof

Apr 13, 2012 by strat - Comments Off on MIXTAPE REVIEW: SinCity – Recession Proof

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Reppin’ New England to the fullest is SinCity with the hot new mixtape Recession Proof. This review is going to be short and to the point. This tape is fire from intro to outro. Arson. City serves up a full menu of 20 tracks of classic, east coast flavoured raps over hard, street laced beats. Recession Proof takes me back to the mid 90s in terms of mixtape feel. With DJ. Motion doing the hosting, cutting and scratching I’m reminded of DJ Clue’s Springtime Stick Up classics. Standout tracks include “Rules”, “Straight Cash Freestyle and “Crazy G Mix”.

While listening to the tape I almost forgot I wasn’t listening to a full album. The feel is so refreshing in terms of what Hip Hop has been missing from the mainstream. Reminiscent of classic Mobb Deep and 50 Cent joints, if you’ve ever been a fan of classic, street heavy, East Coast boom bap music, you’re going to feel this one.

Now we turn to the lyrics, flows and wordplay, where City shows and proves. He dominates rap beats with lines like “put the pound to you and make it trend”, “Bruce Banner in the club, a new man” and “I’m just an artist but my shooters keep the  metal drawn”, City keeps those of us who are lyrically minded satisfied (Honorable mention: “I’m John Ritter 2 bitches 3s company”). Clearly SinCity is an MC and not just a rapper.

If I had to find any areas that I could complain about, it would have to come down to the mix quality of certain tracks (but since it’s a mixtape, dirty is actually kinda cool). The beats are mostly industry beats but City rips them like he owned them. Additionally, one or two of the featured artists don’t seem to be quite up to City’s level but at the same they’re not bad either. To any other indie artists reading this, those who usually buy beats online and put out your own EPs and mixtapes, I suggest you download it a take a listen. I’m sure it will inspire you to write some new fire of your own.

Now for the rating: 4.8 out of 5. Didn’t give it a 5 simply because of the minor issues I mentioned above. After such a strong mixtape, I’m anticipating a project from City over some smoking original rap beats (Album maybe? City if you read this let me know!). Only questions remain are: Can City bring an album which can grab today’s mainstream audience in this current industry climate? Does he even need to care about a mainstream audience? If you want to check the tape out for yourself, download it here.

INDUSTRY TALK: For All the WU TANG Heads!!

Apr 10, 2012 by strat - Comments Off on INDUSTRY TALK: For All the WU TANG Heads!!

Simply put, hip hop would not be where it is today if these guys never existed. The Wu Tang Clan came out in the early to mid 90s and not only redefined the sound of hip hop, they redefined the way hip hop artists could deal with record labels. As a young hip hop listener I was totally inspired by and swept up in the Wu Tang experience. It influenced the way I wrote rhymes and made beats. To this day, RZA’s work is a huge part of the foundation of producers today who make beats for artists to buy online or live in the flesh.

The video above had me transfixed for basically the whole performance. The influence of the Clan is clear when pretty much a whole generation, black, white and every colour in between, can sing along verbatim with their records. It took me back to a time when Hip Hop had an infectious energy and listening to new releases took your troubles away. Who hasn’t felt the rush of anticipation when removing the plastic wrap from that new tape or CD (yea I said tape, deal with it!).

Hip Hop of this era simply inspired me to do 2 things: write rhymes and make rap beats. To those of you inspired to write rhymes, whether by the standouts of today like Odd Future, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole or by classic veteran acts like Wu Tang, Blackstar and A Tribe Called Quest, one thing you have going for you now is the ease with which you can buy hot rap beats online, make a solid record and start promoting. Don’t waste your opportunities. Make the veterans like Wu Tang proud by carrying on the legacy of real hip hop correctly.

INDUSTRY TALK: “Beez In the Trap” Nicki Minaj ft 2 Chainz

Apr 08, 2012 by strat - Comments Off on INDUSTRY TALK: “Beez In the Trap” Nicki Minaj ft 2 Chainz

Sigh. I was sitting here wondering what would be the topic of my next blog post and then I came across this track and video from Nicki Minaj ft 2 Chainz called “Beez in the Trap”. Admittedly, when I first saw the title I was actually hoping it was an ode to bee-keepers (LMFAO!) but alas, it’s just Nicki being…well Nicki, or maybe I should say the Nicki she recently morphed into.

Ok so I understand where she’s coming from. The song is more for those who can relate as it celebrates, promotes and sends respect to a whole lot of cities and states in the US, particular those in the South which are associated with the term ‘Trap’. Of course, the feature from the man of the moment 2 Chainz clearly helps the credibility of the song. However, nothing about the song says ‘real’ or ‘original’ to me. I can just imagine Nicki’s management sitting around in the studio deciding that in order for her remain relevant and try to comeback from that horrible mistake (i.e. Stupid Hoe) she HAS to do a trap song, since trap music is king in hip hop right now.

Unfortunately the song’s only saving grace, apart from the street laced flow of 2 Chainz, is the video, and that’s only because Nicki’s body is smoking hot and she’s pretty much half naked through all of it. Oh and did I mention there are a few hints of quasi-lesbian behaviour with similarly hot women? In addition, as a producer I have to comment on the beat. Even though it has trap earmarks all over it, it’s not just a carbon copy of a Lex Luger or Drumma Boy beat. This is a lesson for unsigned acts looking to buy beats online: look for an original sound that still has elements which make it current.

Ok so to sum it up: New Nicki Minaj track; following the ‘trap’ band wagon (face it, she’s no T.I….hell she ain’t even Flocka); Nice beat; decent bars from 2 Chainz; Nicki showing some skin (damn she would get it!!!). Check the video out for yourself as this is just my humble opinion. It still makes for a cool listen if you happen to be in that mood for some trap influenced vibes. If you are an indie artist and this track inspires you (either to do something similar or try to blow it out the water) check me out at my site and listen to some of the beats we have online. You may just find the perfect one to buy.

Why Even Other Producers Want My Beats

Apr 08, 2012 by strat - Comments Off on Why Even Other Producers Want My Beats

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The graphic above is the artwork for one of our top selling loop packs. If we never mentioned it before, one of the major things we do is create and sell royalty free loops and sample packs, which are bought mostly by other producers. Interesting right? So we basically make beats for artists to buy online as well as beats that producers use in their own projects to create beats.

What this says is that our sound is in demand by producers, many of whom artists turn to when they’re  looking to buy beats online. This particular product is now at #23 on the ProducerLoops Top 30 sellers charts. These loops are used in:

  • Major Label placements
  • Advertisements
  • Television shows
  • Movies

Hopefully this gives you a clearer idea of the all-around good quality of our productions and our reputation. As an artist, buying beats from us, at our highly affordable prices, is sort of like cutting out the middleman since we are among the select few who create a lot of the samples, loops and production material that many other beatmakers use.

So don’t just randomly buy beats online, do your research and work with producers with proven musical quality so good that even other producers buy it!

Need to Make a Hit Record? Read This

Apr 03, 2012 by strat - Comments Off on Need to Make a Hit Record? Read This

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CAN’T FIND BEATS ONLINE? MAKE THEM YOURSELF….WITH A LITTLE HELP

Are you a true independent music artist? Do you search online to buy the right beats or even seek out local producers to no avail? If you’re like me then you fancy yourself a true “do-it-yourself-er” when it comes to music. These days, the indie artist is not just an artist. He or she is also the recording engineer/producer/beatmaker/mix engineer/chief cook and bottle washer. It seems as though this is an evolution which came hand in hand with the advent of new and more affordable software and hardware for making music. Additionally, rates at large commercial studios and prices charged by big name producers are usually too hot for the average indie artist.

In steps producers like me. Guys who are familiar with the situation simply because well…we are artists too and we face the same problems. I started making rap beats and learning how to record and mix because I was in a rap group and we need access to those things but could not afford the professionals. Because I am in such a position to empathize, I am able to do two important things:

While the latter may be more suitable for producers, recall that we just established that many indie artists are also the producers of their own material. Thus, loop pack such as the dubstep samples in the player above are perfect for artists as well as dedicated producers. Sometimes this may even be a better option than buying beats online, for the following reasons:

  • The high quality (WAV, ACID, APPLE) loops can be mixed and matched, added to other instruments or manipulated in many ways and therefore are more flexible than just beat in mp3 format.
  • The loops are sold royalty free so it is very similar to leasing a beat
  • The price is very affordable and the value is great because a loop pack will contain 5 or more beat kits.

DON’T JUST BUY BEATS, BUY TOOLS FOR YOUR CREATIVITY

Just to sum it all up, I must say that there is NOTHING wrong with buying beats online. Many artists are simply just vocalists and prefer to keep things simple. However, for those who like to get hands on and show a different level of creativity, loops and sample packs are a viable option. You get a substantial number of royalty free loops in each pack that can be combined and manipulated in countless ways or simply looped up and used as is! Take a listen to the demo above and check out others like it here.

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