Alright! So track 2 has a slim lead over track 6. Its up to @1-2 to bring us home!
2 Likes
I don’t want to keep you all waiting, so a quick vote
- 7
- 6
- 4
7 felt like some of the magic was buried in the mix and not as perceptible/ up front, but I really liked the sounds going on here. Intresting pick on the accapella I thought the sounds presented fit it well. Synth bass was excellent. The funky beat part really sold it for me and is a great example of tying in how the beat got right when that lyric dropped. Would like to hear this with a little more presence on the sample choices showcasing them a bit more, but it did have a kind of buried and spread sonic signature and maybe that was part of the vibe. Whoever made this, you made me smile. What a fun track
6 was smooth and beautiful. Nice balance on the mix, really enjoyed the accapella choice. Might have enjoyed a bit more variation but the distorted vocal parts with the drum switch up/ repeating kicks provided some nice contrast to the main flow. Ace work whoever made this. Really stuck out to me on first run through and held up well on repeated listens, would want to keep coming back to it.
4 had a main loop that was such a great hypnotic choice. Drums felt buried in the mix but it really worked for this track. Accapella was great. Loved the tone on the change up at around 1:38 mark so much. The parts before and after that drifted off a bit much for me but my favorite parts for sure were the intro and outro. Absolutely killed it on those. I am really curious who made this one. It sounds a bit familiar but I’m not sure.
Quick hm to 5 which sounded great and then disappeared, would have liked to hear where the second half of this would have went. Also to how atmospheric dreamy droning sounding track 1 was. Gave us a unique sound on that one
Trying to keep it brief if I can and not go on too much as I have many more thoughts. I enjoyed listening to everyone’s tracks here. But such a big thanks to all who took time to write detailed feedback on every track. Hearing everyone’s takes on things along with the great stuff people make is one of the best parts of this
5 Likes
So looks like we have a tie between @1-2 & @Ooly!
Here’s my spreadsheet if anybody wants to verify my math:
Great job @everyone, I loved listening through this one over and over, the lyrics added so much and made it feel like a real mixtape instead of random beats.
Looking forward to the process breakdowns 
So I guess you guys can decide if you want to co-host the next one or whatever you want to do. Its been an honor hosting the friendliest beat battle on the internet.
“
, 
& havin fun”
9 Likes
So I will kick it off. Full disclosure, I had a track finished and when I heard the same piano sample used alot on other tracks I figured I would put together something as different as possible.
Here it is, I think its better thatn what I submitted:
Anyway both tracks were done on the OT, I just loaded the vocals in an audio track in Ableton, synced up the OT and pushed play then recorded my performance. For the ratchety drum fills I make a scene on the OT that affected the retrigger parameter and voila. The drums were from Questlove, I just turned them into on shots (ifelt like he was saying "here ya go kids, here’s some one shots for ya) and those are staying in my tunes for awhile, shit was fire. On the track I sumbitted I used the outro on “Times a wasting” and pitched it way down. the B part reminded me of Xtal kinda… So yeah to add to the “meta” that song is about Seven the child of Ms Badu & Andre.
9 Likes
Congrats to the deserving winners and everyone else.
You all made a great little remix tape, every track was really nice.
Looking forward to the next one.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for something to sample @aarb420 has posted something lovely for the no rules 2 weekly sample flip
5 Likes
Well done to the winners, well deserved and my 2 favs.
Mine was track 7 and process was
Tracks sampled from Mama’s Gun
Didn’t Cha Know
…. & ON
Booty
Kiss Me On My Neck
Hey Sugah
Beat is a random break from my sample folder
Bass is sequenced from 303 Roland app
Acapella is Pharcyde ‘Ya Mama’
Process was bring multiple album tracks into Ableton and chop out sections/loops. Put them into my sp404 mk2 via its plugin in Ableton which let me work on it while on sofa etc. Slice and chop them into new loops with some pitching and filtering. Back into ableton, add beat and sequence 303 then sync acapella and pitched it down 5 semitones so it fitted the samples better. Some basic mixing, reduced down from over 5 mins and export.
Did it in a day and a half as has limited time
7 Likes
As for my track, all of the melodic stuff came from “Green Eyes” and the drums came from “Booty.” I pitched everything up by about five semitones in Audacity before I recorded it into my Sampletrak at 32 kHz. From there, I pitched everything backed down and chopped it all up.
Once I had it all sketched out I sampled everything I had on the pads to the Digitakt and recreated the sequence. I also added a layer with a little glitch effect by setting the chops to loop and modulating the start point.
Last, I imported the vocals from the Common record and used parameter locks to match the verses up to the beat and programmed some variations in the sequence around them. I got kind of annoyed with the hook because Bilal’s vocals drag behind the beat in a way that works on the original but I don’t think works for mine since the programming is a lot stiffer. That’s part of why I cut it short. But mostly I was tired of the beat. I couldn’t think of a good variation so I just cut it off at the beginning of the second verse.
8 Likes
@malus_mons dang man dope beat on the Mobb Deep remix and those transitions are fresh! On another note, excellent choice on deciding Comic Sans font would be ideal for the excel presentation 
My beat is #4, and I wasn’t expecting to have so many fellow piano lovers this time around 
in all fairness, that is a dope sample to my ears/ to work with and I assume everyone who flipped it themselves agrees. If anything, you guys are welcome at our hangouts if you want to use the same sample 
(@Yabba thank you for the shoutout man 
) Kudos to James Poyser for their execution on the keys all throughout the album.
I had a pretty straightforward only OT production. What I’m doing now is chopping up the acapella as much as necessary (like 3ish pages of slices) to make sure it hits more often with a higher velocity as opposed to having the entire acapella play through and falling victim to those wandering vocals (still get them too, so not 100% there). Doing that alone though (it’s a PIA, obviously/labor of love) dramatically changes the mix and I think my OT likes it better when that route is taken. It also helps correct a lot of time stretch/unwanted decay issues with sample playback (unless it’s desired for the effect/ usually don’t do that as much for my other samples). Honestly, can’t remember which samples I took from Mama’s Gun because I wound up getting the album and then mashing a bunch of sections into a long file. Then I just used the drums/acapella from the shared pool.
Also, here’s another mix I shot over to @malus_mons already, but it uses the same sample mashup from Mama’s gun and some other drums
Thank you for the kind advice on my beat, also to @malus_mons for setting up this fun event, and to @everyone for the inspiringly fresh album/playlist Looking forward to the next one!
7 Likes
This is how #3 came to be. I was listening to my daily discover and ‘money on my brain’ caught my ear. I liked the energy and the flow and thus decided to build something around it. Cut it into parts and then used stem roller to isolate the vocals (and the drums for reference). Listened to all the breakbeats that were posted to find something that would be compatible in terms of rythm, i chose the one posted by @twobears. I used the original drumbeat as a background layer to pitch / stretch the break just right on the sp 404, then deleted it. Chopped up the green eyes piano sample, and played it to match the beat. I then recorded the ‘bassline’ using my peak, using skipback sampling. The vocals parts were placed on pads too, and i placed them on the track playing them in by ear unquantized, like a regular old sample (took a few tries). I liked the contrast between the unapologetic ruthless attitude in the lyrics vs the conscious source material, so decided to emphasize it more by highlighting the most brutal line. For the mix i used some crude eq-ing on the piano and synth and a slight tape effect on the vocals, all sp-native fx. I had a lot of fun with this one!
6 Likes
Nice work on the freestyle, sounds like a live radio session!
1 Like
Papyrus wasn’t an option in Google sheets 
2 Likes
Congrats! Great work all. Looking forward to the next one 
7 Likes
So happy for this one. A big thank you to all for your valuable feedback 
a great way to improve my work.
I was #6. Track made on DT (except bass line and Roots Manuva). I finished the beat in Logic (edits + mixing).
Samples I used (If I remember well…):
Didn’t Cha Know? - drums
Booty - drums
Kiss Me On My Neck - flute/keys at the end
Green eyes - vocals
Penitentiary Philosophy - vocals
I’m not really satisfied by my live recorded bass line, I had to do a lot of editing to get a decent bass line.
For now, I’m not quiet familiar with this forum… if @1-2 is agree to be the next host, I will be glad of this! (I have a few idea if necessary )
9 Likes
My breakdown attempt for track 2:
Bass: short n heavier from &on / longer bass runs from A.D. 2000. A few bass notes from kiss me on my neck and orange moon. A couple of notes were added chopped from the intro of The wells gone dry by The Crusaders to fulfill the missing end of the bass melody on a couple parts
These bass tones were filtered/ isolated from the samples and some other parts were part of full freq chops from Cleva & A.D. 2000, maybe others
Drums from oneshots played and resampled, bits of samples from the album cut up or layered in being baked into some of the chops. Some lower usage of a couple of chopped breaks sprinkled in
Some known and guessed elements from mess of sample usage:
…& On Vocal snippits, piano, brushy sustained snare
A.D.2000: short guitar/vocal hits, ride, electric piano, some wind instrument, more vocal bits and snips
Booty: litte drum break hits, percussion, hi hats, horns, funky wah guitar, snares
My life: short strings from into of track
Orange moon: snare roll, couple of piano notes, vocal ahhh’s
Cleva: full chops w/ bass, electric piano, cymbals, side stick, etc
Kiss me on my neck: drums and percussion, flute, different vocal bits
Generally heavy handed use of pitching, chopping, filtering, and various layering
Thanks for the feedback everyone gave.
appreciate your honesty on this. I struggled with this, went back and forth on shifting it to fit better in certain parts and ended up deciding to leave it out of sync even though it was weird and drifted and wasn’t lined up with the bars properly because I really liked how it landed on a few key parts and sacrificed a lot of tightness throughout the track because of it. I couldn’t find an easy way to chop and align the vocals because there was a lot of overlap between verses so I just went with the weirdness. I wasn’t so happy with some parts and started to clean it up to a tighter version on the last day but didn’t finish that in time so it stayed the rougher version I had already turned in.
Props to those who got the vocal and beat to sit tight. Not being used to working with acapellas, this particular one kind of through me for a loop. It was a little frustrating and super fun at the same time. Here is clip of a different rap on top that sits tighter as an example of what I couldn’t get to and what it might have sounded more like if I had not ended up embracing it being off.
7 Likes
imo the better rappers don’t actually rap completely in sync with the beat, much like jazz soloists. Also I’ve noticed that they often start the vocals on the off beat of the bar before the one. Again just like a someone playing an instrument would for a solo. Most of that musicality has been lost in modern times unfortunately. I felt like your beat and De La Souls vocals worked perfect and both had that happy bouncy vibe that was De La Soul’s signature sound.
4 Likes
Good point for sure, and thanks. Parts sat really close where I would want them and other parts I wish were shifted but moving them “on” would then throw off the the fit of other parts. Without chopping it to pieces and changing the flow It was a compromise so I just went with what felt right and built other parts of the beat around that to play off where the vocals landed. Words hit on different beats than the way it was originally put down but some of that ended up pretty interesting and a better fit in some ways with this particular track
4 Likes
@1-2 dealing with the same on OT, and the only solution I’ve noticed working, so far, which I’m sure is what no one likely wants to hear, is to keep chopping until that correction chop “fills” that gap by getting nudged over somehow. Also, if possible on MPC fine tune all of the slices start/end points (AED for OT, same concept should apply on MPC though, but I’m used to old OS’s that locked in timestretch 
).
I don’t understand exactly what’s taking place technically on each system, but that’s been working for me on a few tracks I’ve made following this challenge. Sometimes, my chops are too short because I cut off the empty space between verses, but when I add more empty space to that specific slice, it results in the acapella slice playing much more appropriately (or vice versa subtract empty space). That beat is seriously incredible, well done man 
1 Like
Next one is up
4 Likes