Please Forgive My Ignorance...

Then what is it about a "beat" that would make it a saleable item? I'm referring to the "Selling Beats!" thread in this forum.... :confused:

Is there a market for persussion beats and loops for people who have a facility with words, but not necessarily with rhythm?
 
I have a bunch of patterns available on my Tascam 2488. But up until now I have always worked with flesh-and blood drummers, and it never occurred to me that people could not just program their own percussion. I started as a drummer and always have some kind of rhythm track happening in my head, so I guess it's easy for me to lose sight of the fact that it doesn't come naturally for everybody.
 
Hehe, I know what you mean. I'm a drummer, but I use loops often. My favorites right now are "Bun E. in a Box" and "Mick Fleetwood Total Drumming." But these are rock oriented loops.
 
A beat can be a simple drum track or a complete instrumental. Have you listened to anybody's music who is selling beats? I have seen some people sell drum loops but not as many as you would think. Most sell the whole "beat" as an instrumental, so that a rapper or singer can take it and record his or her vocals over it for a full song. I don't think I've ever heard of this being done in the rock genre (not to say it hasn't), so if that is what you mainly listen to, then I could see where the confusion might come into play.
 
Fieva, yes, I listen primarily to rock-oriented music, and I think the paradigm in that form is that of a band that's capable of performing live most anything that they commit to in the studio. Not 100% true I know, but it's the benchmark, I think.

So a beat can be anything from a percussion track to a fully-produced platform ready for vocals. Very interesting.

It reminds me of an interview I heard last week with two of the members of the three-man songwriting team (Holland-Dozier-Holland) that were responsible for a lot of Motown hits during its heyday in the '60s. Their songs would be targeting a specific group - The Supremes, The Four Tops, The Isley Brothers, etc. The two guys responsible for the music would go from concept to actually having the song tracked in the studio - along with a melody line - before they handed it off to the lyricist. The lyricist wrote the words, and then they would hand the complete package to the singing group. I hadn't been aware that the songs were packaged this way.

Sounds to me like a similar thing with beats, minus the lyrics.

Thanks, MadAudio and Fieva, for the info.
 
No problem Zaphod. I have seen and worked with both types of elements of music so it's easier for me to understand how they can be confused. Most of hip-hop/rap these days are being used with more electronic sounding equipment as using the real deal wouldn't give the sound that the artist would want. Of course, it has been done before (especially with guitars and pianos) and will be done again.

Most rockers I know either use a drum machine a little bit or refuse to use one at all and want to keep everything live and natural. I don't see anything wrong with that, especially since most bands have a specific function i.e. guitarist/back up vocals, lead vocals, drummer, etc. while a rap group would usually be all lyricists who don't play instruments.
 
So then, would a hip-hop/rap artist be inclined to tailor his lyrical timing to a beat, or have a basic rhythm in mind and shop for a beat that fits? (Not sure I'm even asking the question the right way...)
 
That can go both ways. Some lyricists may prefer to have something custom made for them around the song they wrote and the idea they may have (but just lack the know-how to make the instrumental theirselves). Others may hear a instrumental track and decide to write something to it. Usually the artists that look for an already made beat may have a song written and then edit it to fit the beat (if they're good). I have dealt with both types. Usually I make quite a bit more making custom beats than just stuff that I thought up and decided to sell.

I started out as just a rapper. I loved being in the studio, loved working on the songs, but hated the final production of the song. Once I released the CD in 2000, I didn't like it. I mean, the man I got the beats from made them with my direction in the same room, but the way he recorded it was terrible. There was so much air in the songs and some distortion because he didn't hook everything up correctly. So I decided to start learning how to produce my own stuff so that I could have what I wanted done the way I saw it should have been done. I started making instrumentals only so that I could have them when I was ready to lay vocals on top of them. I only started selling because more and more people were asking to buy from me. Some of my tracks I may lease out but would never sell exclusively, others I wound up making with the intention to sell and not to use for myself.
 
Thanks Z, I appreciate it. Take a look at my site to hear some instrumental segments if you haven't already.
 
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