Elektronauts Hip Hop Beat Battle #4 - Voting and Feedback

First
@Kpucski What a trip! Skeletal rhythm just placed on this beautiful bass and these audio “delicatessen” fluttering around. I love.
Finalists
@PeteSasqwax Beautiful floating rhythm in a superb atmosphere.
@PineappleDave Embroidery on Hiphop Tropical, very playful

I liked a lot of other things @Sleepyhead, @sezare56, @Doug, @rockpapergoat, @TheGhostCat, @LyingDalai, @CCMP

Very pleasant this multitude of ways of seeing, using and doing.
Each time I feel like I would die less stupid.

Thank you once again to the organization.

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:ok_hand:

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Okay folks, shout out to everyone who participated in this beat battle. I respect the effort and work that everyone put into making their track. That being said, here are my selections:

First Place: @drrumble - I liked the beat. I also enjoyed the rap in French (?); I don’t understand a word of it, but it’s nice to hear something different.

Runner Up: @Sleepyhead - Nice beat, melody, and rap here also.

Runner Up: @dheurt - Really cool beat.

Honorable Mentions: @Doug, @CCMP, and @FNKSTRNG

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So that’s everyone. Here’s how I saw it.

  1. @Sleepyhead - I like your style, dude. I like Rakim. I really like this track. And I like the bonus beat, as well. Everything sounds punchy and warm and just everything you want in a track.

Runners up

@sezare56 - So. Damn. Funky. I’m so glad that you put up a video so we can see some of what’s going on with this. Honestly, my only problem with this is now I want an Octatrack.

@PineappleDave - This is wild and great. It’s funny because the flip itself is really straightforward. But the way you use the punch in fx is crazy and sends the whole thing somewhere else.

Special mention:

@FNKSTRNG - This one’s just dope. I like the combination of the kind of stiff drum programming with the breezy jazz samples. Also, congrats again.

I thought all of these were dope. So many styles.

drrumble - I really like how put together your tracks always are. And this track specifically was exactly why I wanted to do this. It was really great to hear this track flipped so well. Wish I could speak French.

rockpapergoat - Like I was saying in the other thread, the intro for this one trips me out. It takes like 3 turns where I thought I knew where you were going each time and then you switched it. And the main jam is funky. I like it a lot.

Dhuert - Everything but the way you programmed your drums reminds me a lot of early 2000s more experimental kind of underground stuff. (I think you would have had to chop up a break to perfectly hit that little niche.) The way the sax comes in is great in particular.

Yabba - There’s so much energy to this one. It gives me a live show kind of vibe. Too many people on stage. People bumping into the turntables. All that. Very cool.

Petesqwax - This just sounds fantastic. I like the looseness of the drums. The sound of the drums themselves. I liked that it’s really simple but just done very very well.

Kpuski - This one felt cinematic. Like it could be for a film. Some of the little bits in there also reminded me of Little Johny from the Hospital era Company Flow.

simonbradford - This one was weird. And very clean and clear on my headphones. And I can’t think of what the way you’ve got that piano in the mix reminds me of. More questions than answers, I’m afraid.

CCMP - Dope. It’s got a retro futuristic thing going almost. Like it was made in the 90s by someone trying to imagine what might be current now. It’s really cool. But it makes me sad that I’m bad at rapping double time.

TheGhostCat - I really like the drum work on this especially. It just locks in the acapella perfectly to the track.

Sherelle - Yo, this is mid 2000s down to the steel drum. It just grooves too. I like it.

LyingDalai - Dope. I really like how the poem fits in with everything especially in the front half. And yeah, you and sezare56 did a number on that Stanley Clarke record.

Eerieacid - This one was another where the flip is pretty straightforward but really well done. I liked how the drum programming matched the flip too. Like the way the kicks and hi-hats would double up kind of sounded like they were a part of the call and response thing going on in the sample.

And now your winners…

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My rule has come to an end. The results.

  1. @drrumble
  2. @rockpapergoat
  3. @CCMP

Congratulations

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Thanks you very much everybody! I was very touched by all your comments. it motivates to go even further!
I will start the next battle today because i think i will be Busy for the next days. Hope to see you all there!
Also, Thanks Doug for ruling this one.

And this is the Second beat i made, with the @new_drugs sample.
I looped a little part for the main sample and add some chops of horns, strings and drums on top. The acapella is the following of the iam song i used for the battle.

14 Likes

Congrats @drrumble !
Really good part 2.

:pl: Thanks. Not really satisfied and felt off topic, but at least I thought there were interesting things as Octatrack demo ! (Only 1 bar pattern, swaping 3 distinctives samples with the crossfader trick, change loop with FILL…)

Call IAM for lessons ! :content:

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This one is dope as well, but you picked the right one and deserved the win!

Congrats! Ready for the next one.

Thanks @Doug for hosting and everyone for the great feedback!

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Again, sparkling drinks and cocktail sausages on the winners and the others.

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Congrats everyone and well done @drrumble, a deserving win

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Congrats @drrumble! :partying_face: Great job everyone else as well! See y’all in the next one.

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Congrat @drrumble !
Geat job of everyone !
Will do reviews when my internet speed will be up…

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congratulations to @drrumble on the win! your stuff is so distinctive and classic sounding.

here’s my B selection that uses @PeteSasqwax’s chaquito song with bahamadia over it. this one went through a few iterations, but i ended up using the other one for the battle.

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Here’s the other beat I did for this.

Also, to get into the workflow of it all, I started these in Koala. I think the Digitakt is really great for chopping samples if you already have an idea how you want to chop them. But I find it easier to use something else to get an idea going. Usually it’s my Zoom Sampletrak. For these it was Koala. From there I just sampled the parts I wanted into the Digitakt and recreated and expanded on the chops. Once that’s done, I usually split things into two or three layers with the filters so that I can bring different frequencies in and out, put too much delay on the high frequencies, etc. Anyway:

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@Doug
Damn, that’s really good!
I can’t lie, I prefer this one to the one you submitted, although I do love that sample so that’s always gonna make me biased towards it.

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Congratulations @drrumble!

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Thanks! And yeah, I was on the fence about which one to go with myself.

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@Doug I’ve got a Sampletrak it’s been packed away and I haven’t touched it for years, does it run ok with midi and digitakt?

I know the midi is very basic on the Trak and the sequencer is as basic as you can get but i love the way it makes a sample sound, I might dig it out if they work well together.

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Yeah, there are some quirks but it’s pretty easy to use. You only have note on and off (ie no velocity). It treats every trigger as gated so you need to specify note length. And a weird one, if you want to control the fx over MIDI, you need to have something sampled into the memory, even if you’re just using it as an fx processor.

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Ah, man, the Zoom ST is the secret sauce machine - I have a lot of time for those. I 100% don’t need one …but I can’t pretend I wouldn’t grab one at the right price

Shouts to you guys who managed to find the time to make 2! I had all on to get 1 done. Reminds me if how much I miss 12" culture and the loss of the bonus beats…

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