The Big Elektronauts Hip-Hop Thread: production tips, sharing our music, feedback and inspiration

Mine is on it’s way :slight_smile:

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You should have had a sponsored link for the book :joy:

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Just wanted to say that I am really really grateful for all the tips here.

Since I posted this I try to squeeze out a beat everyday and I am really enjoying it.

More than that, I am in a quite a stressful and demanding situation personally at the moment and I feel that the jumpstart you guys gave me has helped me to reconnect to the music I have such a strong spiritual connection with. It feels like therapy.

Also, it has given me “an excuse” to listen to all kinds of music all day long. I find that the listening for samples mentality is a joy in itself and I am creating beats (and lyrics surprisingly) in my head every spare moment I got (not a lot, but still :sunglasses:)

I going to try to record something tomorrow :grinning:

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Ok, here we go!

  • Drums are part sampled from sublime - what I got, layered with a SD and a BD that I got from @drrumble (thanks again!). Some filters applied to it.

  • Melodic parts are sampled from a traditional Japanese song “Sakura Sakura”, pitched down

  • Bass is an internal plugin (I think the bass synth).

  • Vocals sampled from one of Premiers videos (on Das FX - Real Hip-Hop)

I am still working on this, and I am even considering recording some raps over this (I am still writing) Obviously, all feedback is welcome.

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well done! and yeah put a rap on it.
also maybe give some gain to the melodic chops, the mix feels a bit dark

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Good work! Def got the boom bap flavour to the drums.

Cool idea to put a rap on it. Whether it’s you own lyrics or an acappella you should def try it out. It could help give you ideas on when to drop the drums out (whether it’s just a single snare hit dropped as a one off or a bar/half bar/whatever of all the drums etc) to emphasise certain lyrics, and you might find you get into the habit of doing this with beats going forward before you get to adding lyrics. I think it can create a bit of excitement and keep things interesting. A little double timed snare once in a while can also work well too :slight_smile:

This beat is also crying out for a horn sample with a delay fading out like 93 'Til Infinity every once in while :smiley:

Marlow Digs on youtube is worth checking for tips too.

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Thanks mate! I’ve got a very specific idea about some raps i want to record over this. Now I’ve never actually done that and I am quite new to the Force, so I tried to record some bars yesterday and it didn’t come out well yet :joy:

Thanks for the other advice as well, will definitely incorporate that!

Yeah, Marlow Digs is great! Have been watching a lot of his videos lately :slight_smile:

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Very nice job on the drums and overall feel! Very boombappy. As @uNAQ and @looms said: the melodic part can be put a bit louder in the mix, and some ‘sprinkles’, like echoing stuff over the top would be a great addition.

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Glad that u made a good use of those drum samples !
It sound like an old wu tang beat.
I’m agree with the others, maybe you can add Some little chops on the top of that, but you have a solid base.

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“it sounds like an old wu-tang beat”

This literally gave me goosebumps because this was exactly what I was aiming for :slight_smile:

Thanks also for the advice, I am definitely gonna build on this.

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once upon a time these were the only resources required

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Believe me, I tried plenty of times. In fact, I didn’t do much else in high school.

Turned out that strategy didn’t really work for me :joy:

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Ok guys, I wasn’t really sure about this, but I thought what the heck. I wanted to thank you in a special way, so I decided to write a little rap tribute to this thread.

Never actually rapped to a beat before (and don’t plan to make a habit out of it either, you can probably tell why :joy:), never recorded vocals before (I almost never use a DAW at all), I have a bad cold and had only 30 minutes to spare. But I do feel I owe you this much:

Hope you can have a laugh about it :slight_smile:

Ps I will remove this later, cause i am not done with this beat yet and want to do something serious with it as well :sunglasses:

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nice! it’s a love letter.

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Absolutely.

@DimensionsTomorrow, the book is fantastic. Experimenting with it now on my DT. Instant funky drums :sunglasses:

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Just ordered this one! :partying_face:

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Haha. I really should have made an affiliate link. :joy:

I hope you dig it.

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Yeah, I felt really inspired after trying out some patterns from the book. So this is the result of (probably) my last Jamuary session. Have to say, despite the lack of sample slicing like on the force I am much quicker with the DT. I already loved it for all my techno/hardcore stuff, but using it for boombap makes me love it even more:

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Ok guys, I am seriously getting addicted to beat making :slight_smile:

If you don’t mind, I have a couple of more questions. The first one being forum related.

I noticed that there are a few places where people post their jams/tracks. E.g., there is a “Digitakt only” and a “Hip-Hop made with any Elektron” thread. Is there one big thread I am missing? Or might there be a need for an overarching Hip-Hop thread where we can share tips, resources, inspiration etc. (I think the battle threads should definitely remain seperate). I think it would be cool and I think I could easily update this topics title as we already have a great many tips and resources listed here.

Another question is about sample clearing. I was watching this documentary last night and that got me thinking:

How do you guys approach that? In my last two video’s, I’ve obviously used some sampled vocals and I should probably stop doing that (although no one is probably going to care about a bedroom enthusiast who doesn’t have a commercial interest)?

Finally, I made another beat. I think it is ok, but it is still a bit robotic/clean to me. I’ve recorded unquantized, put some swing on it and played with the microtiming to move a lot of stuff off-grid, but do you have any other tips to make it sound less robotic (I think it also has to do with the mixing, the hi-hats sound to ‘sharp’ for example)

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forget about clearing samples, just steal whatever u want, its all for the taking!.. if you ever ever get a record with a major label then start to think about it again

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