need some help, holla at ya peeple

[echedon]

i am from the caribbean,and i'm interested in producing music,mainly rap , maybe r&B.

right now, i only have fruity loops and as you would expect my beats dont sound near anything you hear on the radio.what do i need to make them sound cleaner?

[Beathoven]

experience & hardware

[gec]

nah...experience and better samples

[echedon]

thanks, maybe somebody could be more specific?
i mean what kind a hardware or where do i get samples?

[Stone B]

I personally don't use samples that much, but I play many instruments. Good samples can come from anywhere, it's how you use them. What kind of samples are you looking for, drum loops, voices, or something to base your whole beat on?
When I do take samples I do like most Hip Hop producers and use Jazz samples, not acid jazz, the older stuff, and also classical music, there's alot to sample from classical. There are also some alternative music groups out of europe who's music has been sampled alot, especially by the beatminers.
What kind of Rap? Some of the more "Pop contemporary" rap producers use samples from those british rock groups that were popular in the 80s, THe police, Scriti politi. They don't take the whole sample, they usually replay some of the melodies or an intro from a song. There are so many ways you can get good samples, so many places. You just gotta listen to a lot of stuff that you normally don't listen to, ask a friend near you. You can also mess with the samples and come up with your own sound.

As far as hardware, how much you lookin to spend?

[Stone B]

One thing that can help your beats sound better is not using factory drum sounds, by factory, I mean the sounds that come with whatever equipment you got. You would do better by sampling your own drum sounds from your favorite CDs, the sounds you like, snares, kicks, and hi hats. If you have filters and effects, you can mess with them and even use those sounds to create new, similar sounding ones.

[SPINSTERWUN]

Here is some added reading for you, my friend.

http://www.studiocovers.com/articles.htm

And a glossary.........

http://www.rane.com/digi-dic.html

peace......

[echedon]

thanks a lot Spinsterwun,good looking out with the sites.

stone b, i just need instruments that dont sound corny.you probably used fruity loops and know what i mean. i'm in to all hip hop, from grimey to that r&b stuff. i aint got much money, but i would appreciate any of your suggestions,right now i dont know jack.
holla back

[Stone B]

I almost did, but my hustle was up at the time and I was able to get something else.

What does Fruity loops actually do? you can make beats with it? Can you sample with it?

The classic Hip Hop instruments remain the usual, MPC2000, SP1200,etc, some of this stuff you might be able to find used and save you some money. I started with the ASR10 keyboard and still use it to this day, I can't afford much nowadays either.

[Beathoven]

echedon: I'm an old fruityloops user I switched to another software a month ago: Reason. I never looked back since. Reason 2.0 is coming out soon so you might want to check it out.

Peace,
Beathoven

[JUSTTIGHT]

WHAT PART OF NC ATR YOU IN? IF YOU ARE ANYWHERE NEAR CHARLOTTE WE CAN DO SOME WORK TOGETHER

[Stone B]

I'm actually in Raleigh, you just missed my sister's boyfriend, he graduated from Johnson C. Smith. I can't travel that much because of my work schedule, especially this year.