Elektronauts Hiphop Beat Battle #8 - Back to 92 edition

The Lounge Mission Briefs
#21

okay, friends. this may be jumping the gun, but here’s my track.

rather than noodle over two or three different versions or tracks over the course of a week, this one came together pretty quickly. the vibe felt right from the first 15 minutes. i was going for that kinda clean, shiny 90s r&b with rap feel, which the sources totally have. there’s some variation, room for the rap verses, vocal chorus sections, a short breakdown-ish bit in the middle. dunno… it felt good to make and made me bop my head a little.

technical details:

  • all done in ableton 10 on my trusty old MacBook air
  • bassline loop from mr. fingers + copious filtering and some effects
  • drums via addictive drums, a combo of sequenced and played in (hats), which are maybe too mechanical, but i don’t mind
  • two main guitar/ambiance chops from chantae moore
  • vocal chops from chantae moore, sliced from multiple parts of the song and smashed together
  • background vocal chops from sade, pitched down, EQed to hell, and with some tape dirt and reverb on them
  • no additional synths or instruments
  • a touch of pumping and filter sweeps in the intro and middle
  • not sure about the mix, but it’s okay for now. my usual bx_masterdesk, ozone 9, and youlean loudness meter (too loud?) are on the master with some eq tweaks and limiting, etc. i might like to re-do the mix a bit later to make it sound less dense. maybe it’s too crowded.

it was a nice change not to fret over multiple tracks this time. sometimes i wonder if i have ADD or something. anyway, here you go. happy chopping, everyone.

24 Likes
#22

Yo everyone quick drop

1: bass, synth
2: main sample, strings
3: drums, vox

No other sources of sound. Used Espi low hiss and Izotope trash and made fully on digitakt then record thru analog heat.

Peace !

23 Likes
#23

Here is my beat. it’s an evolutive one, because i found some good loops and chops on every songs. No external sounds exept the drum kit.
Sorry if it sound not so good, i made it quickly in the little free time i had.
All made in the digitakt.

Very good job @rockpapergoat and @Synu !

20 Likes
#24

SADE! I’m joining this one as well!

4 Likes
#25

Alright, you guys came on the smooth tip, so I went extra gritty and lofi to balance things out. Lol.

Made mostly from the Mr Fingers and Sade tracks, there might be a little bit of the third one in there, I started to lose track. No outside samples, only drums. No outside instruments.

It’s a bit of a tribute to the 1970s Shaw Brothers kung fu films and the golden age of SP beat tapes.

Everything was done with the samples provided, even all the video game sounding effects.

Almost entirely done in the SP404MKII and then recorded to cassette (Portastudio 414MKII). I chopped small, and then spent a bit of time each day for about a week manipulating the samples in the SP, using the effects and resampling method. I did a mixture of resampling and using the sequencer to make the individual parts and then played it in live. A totally nerve racking process.

I was thinking about doing some alternate mixes this week before I turned it in, but it’s about 1am now, and I’ve decided to say f$&@ it. I’m ready to move on.

Anyway, I hope people dig it.

22 Likes
#26

Oh dear, missed this announcement, but I will definitely try to submit a beat!

Going to listen to all the previous submissions later :blush:

4 Likes
#27

I Love the sound of this one… maybe it’s my imagination but I can just hear the cassette sound coming through.

3 Likes
#28

Thanks a lot! Yeah, recording to cassette (and the analog EQ, preamps, etc) surprisingly colors the sound quite a bit. I’m really digging experimenting with it.

1 Like
#29

This is my first battle entry, excited to get in on the fun. All samples are from Sade’s “Feel no pain” with the exception of the kick, snare, shaker and rim shot. No synths. It was hard to get certain sounds in isolation, so I went the route of creating stabs with small waveforms, playing with filter envelopes. Made with the Analog Rytm MK2 + some some granular work on the Digitakt. Vibe: late 80s/ early 90s roller skating rink. Thanks for listening!

11 Likes
#30

The Golden Harvest intro is one of my favorite things! I can’t remember which movie, but one of them had an insane almost glitched out tone, different than most of the others. Gotta figure out which one that was!

Edit: Just discovered this :wink:

3 Likes
#31

Thanks for that. I’m a massive fan of old logo sound design. I actually tried to recreate something in Logic like that Golden Harvest intro from scratch a year or two ago using virtual instrument libraries. I failed miserably, but it was a really cool experiment. I still have that project on my computer I’m sure. Maybe I’ll resurrect it and see what I can do bouncing to tape, applying some new techniques I’ve picked up.

1 Like
#32

Man, I wish I had the time to participate in this, I’ll try to spare some time and get this going.

Great tracks already posted!

2 Likes
#33

You guys are too fast and too good. Very impressed by every contribution again.
Finish mine today hopefully

3 Likes
#34

Hey, anyone know how I might isolate the vocals in the Chante Moore track? I don’t really have much experience doing that sort of thing, and I wondered if y’all had any tips?

#35

Here you go. Not perfect but hopefully usable :slight_smile:

7 Likes
#36

Here is my track.
I used the Sade song as drum and bass basis, chopped it up a little but basically a loop through the whole track. I had a really hard time mixing it, cause I wanted the bass to stick out, but hard to eq it with the drums beneath. Anyway, not really satisfied, but I guess it works somehow.

I used the Chante Moore track multiple times, chopped up and flipped at various pitches.
I added some additional percussion and played some Piano (Pianoteq) over it.
Hope you dig it

22 Likes
#37

Dude, sick! Thank you so much! Did you use a plugin for that or what?

1 Like
#38

92bits. my optional sound is the bass.
ended up sounding like a limewire mp3 from 02 :wink:

17 Likes
#39

Wow, love everything I am hearing! Gonna try to get something going today.

1 Like
#40

No problem. I used musical rebalance in izotope 9. Quick to do, varying results! I quite like some of the artifacts you sometimes get.

Mmmh, that late 90s, early noughties underwater garble flava :ok_hand:

2 Likes