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

The Lounge
#61

I was thinking the same thing. I go back and forth between my Digitakt and the Circuit Rhythm and it seems to me that the people that might want to hear that kind of thing probably don’t care which machine I used.

There is something about the specifics of making hip-hop as opposed to other genres on the Elektron boxes that is interesting and worthy of discussion though. So I don’t know.

I’m only worried about the bots. I’m about as small potatoes as a “content creator” can be. I don’t make money off of it. That doesn’t give me permission to use anyone’s music. But it does mean no one cares if I do.

So I’m only worried about the bots catching me and preventing me from uploading something. And generally that’s not going to matter for samples in beats because I tend to chop and pitch samples around.

The one place I shy away from using samples is the place where I think it’s the closest to defensible as a fair use kind of thing. And that’s tutorials. But it’s for the same basic reason. I don’t want it to get caught by a bit that prevents me from uploading it. If that happens on a little beat I make, I don’t really care. But if it’s something like a tutorial where I got out of my comfort zone to put it together, I’d be pretty mad.

So far, I’ve only had one thing that was flagged by a bot. But it was wrong. It flagged a beat I made where I had synthesized each and every sound and didn’t do much as use a preset let alone a sample.

So yeah, I wouldn’t worry about it. I was listening to one of the tapes Marlow Digs had on his youtube. I recognized some of the samples. I doubt he cleared them. I think he’ll be fine.

6 Likes
#62

Thanks both for sharing your takes on sample clearance. I will stop worrying about that for now. Besides vocals, I like to mangle stuff into something unrecognizable anyway :sunglasses:

Exactly., I feel that the Hip-Hop minded group on this forum is quite small and that it would be cool to have a place to share our music regardless of the machine it is made on, and to share other Hip-Hop related inspiration, resources etc.

We could simply continue doing that in this thread for my part, and rename it the “Big Hip-Hop thread” or something so that it is easier to find for others.

Let me share another great thing I found, listened to approx halfway in the car today; https://youtu.be/H8ddsJwz7N4

4 Likes
#63

I’ve been thinking about the sample clearance thing recently. In these times where (I think) anyone can upload stuff to streaming services like Spotify etc there must be tons of people using uncleared samples and not even thinking about copyright, whereas that’s one of (the many) things that has personally stopped me putting my stuff on services like that. Unless people are predominantly using sample packs and services like Splice etc, but as Doug said above with the Marlow Digs example, I feel a lot of people are totally just using what they want.

Maybe the sheer amount of ‘content’ (how I dislike that word these days, ha) means record companies are overwhelmed and it’s only worth them chasing bigger artists where there’s some real financial incentive - but I’m guessing bigger artists probably get their shit cleared these days anyway.

The thing is, and I don’t use it really and don’t fully understand it either, but I think I’ve seen artists that I’ve never heard of and I doubt a lot people have either, racking up a shit ton of plays in the hundreds of thousands and up on Spotify if they get on certain big playlists. So an artist might have say 5 songs on Spotify, one of which has like 736,993,33 plays and the rest in the hundreds/low thousands. I swear I’ve seen this! What if that one successful tune uses uncleared samples? Surely the artist is making some money of it even though maybe its a few quid because of the bullshit model of these streaming platforms. I guess no one still gives a shit :smiley:

I had a few releases on a small label, all of which used recognisable samples to those that know, and the label owner put them on the streaming platforms and to my knowledge there’s been no problem at all. Again, they probably got about 50 listens combined though, ha.

As much as I wouldn’t mind earning a few bob from my music, my main drive for wanting to put stuff on these big services (I use soundcloud but don’t think that really counts) is I get a little kick out of anyone else enjoying what I do, not in an egotistical way but it’s just a nice feeling that some random person out there dug something I put together. And these big players make that more of a possibility. Though also my stuff probably just gets drowned in the sea of content like everyone elses :upside_down_face:

Bit of a ramble post. Sorry. I guess the short answer is uNAQ’s post above and just do it. Mad how fast things have changed though.

I think that’s a good idea :slight_smile:

6 Likes
#64

Have a look on Cookin Soul youtube channel, one of the best rap producers nowadays, he has many videos creating beats from scratch with legendary machines like SP1200 and few others.

5 Likes
#65

i’d like to see a thread or threads to swap production techniques for either specific styles, like this one, or even more general use. maybe these already exist, and i’m too lazy to look. these days, especially, i’m less interested in nerding about new gear and more focused on learning new skills, practicing actually playing keys, and honing production techniques to make my stuff sound better.

maybe this thread could be the general hip hop techniques topic.

for instance, last night while working on some idea, i realized yet again that my sense of rhythm is garbage. or maybe it’s just okay but not good enough to tap out beats that are pleasing to my ears without a little help after laying them down. that coupled with not being able to get the kick sound i was looking for got me down. i closed my laptop and watched a movie instead.

6 Likes
#66

Alright guys, there seems to be enough animo for a general hip-hop topic. I just changed the title of this thread. I will update the starting post as well to reflect this. I will keep working on it for the next week or so. I also have a battle to join though, so it will probably take some time to write a worthy starting post.

4 Likes
#67

this video is my goto as a reminder for just making beats for the love of making beats

8 Likes
#68

Classic vid that. Those beats sound ridiculously fat coming straight off the SP and Grap seems like such a sound guy.

1 Like
#69

I made a beat tape on the old Digitakt. If you’ve been checking my stuff for a while you’ve probably heard some version of these. But I put these all together on one long pattern chain. And that’s where the name comes from. 64 is the maximum number of patterns that can be chained.

18 Likes
#70

:fire: :fire: :fire:

Let’s go Doug!!! Love it man. Props for all your own melodic samples n such. That definitely makes it harder to make.

Can’t wait to hear more from you. :facepunch:

2 Likes
#71

Love it! Especially the beat that starts around 8.20 :heart:

Thanks for sharing this!

2 Likes
#72

A book I’m really looking forward to comes out tomorrow:

Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm eBook : Charnas, Dan, Peretz, Jeff: Amazon.co.uk: Books

6 Likes
#73

Cool thread; following now. Making my first beats on the AR / A4 combo now; mostly drill and trap. Got this beat made on the OT when I had it (miss it lmao):

The sampling process on the rytm is a bit more tedious but I find myself not using the TOM machines (aside from the BT) as much anyways.

6 Likes
#74

Thanks y’all! I really appreciate folks taking the time to listen to my projects

6 Likes
#75

Dope stuff and the fact that you’re finishing a whole tape is admirable already!

1 Like
#76

Great idea on this thread… I think there’s 4 different “hiphop made on the…” type threads which often just turn into people posting stuff without any discussion on production.

I think elektron gear is like a hidden secret within the hiphop community, whereas imo the elektron stuff is way more similar in spirit to the old sp’s/mpc’s than the new mpc’s are.

6 Likes
#77

Yeah, that was indeed my main reason for proposing to make this thread into a Hip-Hop-Hub :sunglasses:

Since the (visible) Hip-Hop minded group of people on this forum is quite small, it makes sense that we have place where we can easily learn with and from each other instead of scattering all over the place.

As to your point about Elektrons, I can’t really compare as I only have had hands-on experience with the Akai force on the MPC side of things.

Regarding Elektron, I feel that the DT and DN for Hip-Hop are quite fun and sound fantastic. What I also love about it is that you they have an experimental quality to them. Meaning that I usually do not go in with a fixed plan/idea but rather play around a bit (e.g, LFO on sample start/sample) and see where that takes me.
If I do go in with a plan though, the lack of sample slicing (or at least a proper zoom-function) feels kind of frustrating from time to
Time (hence I added the Force to my setup just before the start of NGNY)

I have experience with the A4 and OT as well, but did not use them for Hip-Hop when I had them. The latter can probably give you some crazy funky stuff and I saw some awesome performances on it. This one in particular:

The Rytm seems very cool for Hip-Hop as well, especially with the Dual VCO for bass. That is one of the devices I am considering buying as a reward for NGNY in 2023 (but I think I am going for an SP404 and some analog monosynth instread) for that price.

4 Likes
#78

The Octatrack is the one sampler I kind of want right now. I get the impression that most of the weird things I want to try to do on my Digitakt and Circuit Rhythm are things that the Octatrack just does.

But I won’t get to find out any time soon. I guess I’m also doing the no new gear thing too because I have no new gear money.

1 Like
#79

octatrack must be a beast for hiphop. maybe actually an overkill. as these kinds of beats are pretty simple and generally there is not much need for mangling a sample to unrecognizable. there is more emfasis on filters and the inherent character of a sampler, that the octa lacks.
i remember the time where i was made aware of octatrack by jonwayne. he used it extensively to make some banging beatapes with it. i was a fan of his since he made beats with a 404, but production-wise the octabeats were dripping of dopeness

#80

When the pandemic started, I bought an OT mk2 and this book, has been so inspiring for making beats

1 Like