I really appreciate the feedback.. After listening to it in the car this morning there are some definite tweaks to do... First priority is to retool the bass eq'ing and compression... I'm going to use a compressor on the bassline, using the kick as a side chain..
Thanks again...
As it changes up and goes into what I call the verse, and where you cut the sample into different partitions.. Thats wher eI think it went wrong, I think it would have worked out better if you just played the piano sample in the background really lightly and then do something different over the top of it for the verse line.
You might have outdone yourself this time. I agree that the sample cut part probably could have been done differently, but I couldn't tell you how. I disagree about adding more for the verse line. A lot of incredible hip hop beats are repetitive like that so that the focus remains on the rapper. And it usually sounds good when a beat has less going on musically during the verse. If there are too many instruments in addition to a vocal, eventually something can't be heard. Either there's a lot of work put in to creating some good instrument line that gets drowned out or there's too much instrumentation to be able to focus on the vocal.
That is an incredible sample though. Repetition isn't necessarily a bad thing. I like the idea of the drumroll because those aren't used often. Kicks sound good, what exactly do you mean by kick layering?
But yeah, I understand the repetitiveness, but the verse change-up I advised that because if someone hears the song over and over, even with hella good vocals, it's going to get annoying.. because there is no change-up's.
I take it you don't listen to gang starr. Or anything produced by the RZA.
You are right about a lot of rappers being pretty iffy these days. Maybe that's the problem, these guy's beats are getting more and more complicated, so the rappers feel like they don't have to try as hard anymore. Everything is hook oriented these days, which is just not the way rap is supposed to be.
The drum roll does sound off in some parts but I think it could be smoothed out to where it fits well. Its a real calm drum roll, works with the piano.
I mean you don't gotta defend yourself, your opinion is just as good as mine or anyone else's.
After listening to it again I like all of the piano chopped parts except at
0:56 and 1:50 where they become like 16th notes. The slower parts fit the mood of the song better.
re-lapse what producers do you like to listen to? It seems like almost all of the producers I like have lots of repetition in their beats and its hard to find ones that are like composing a song while they go, but I always wanted to find rap producers like that. It seems like they'd be pretty inspirational to listen to. A lot of times when I'm making a beat I can produce the hell out of like 8 bars and then after that I can't find anything that also sounds good but flows well with the last bit I made. So I just start looping.
and I see what you mean now about the drumroll, it starts out smooth and then at the end of it, it sounds like the guy dropped one of his sticks.
I like the way those hihats are sounding but I think the snare should be harder in relation to the hihats. Usually that single snare hit is what keeps my head bobbing to any beat.
whatever he ends up doing with it, I hope he keeps working on it cause this has the potential to be incredibly hot. Like scalding.
I just wish that we had something else on this forum to discuss. peritus is like the only person that keeps throwing it down.
edit: holy hell I didnt realize that I type like a freaking valley girl, I used the word 'like' 9 times in that last post
Thanks for the help guys... Yeah.. I would've upped one, but I had other big things happening last night... e.g. My dude got the key to his new studio space and I help him paint...
woohoo!
Check him out:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=247345157
p.s. the walls are now pale green...
Peace!
Nice track, I'm picturing a nice female feature on this. Laid back track. I personally think it needs either another piano, or an accompanying instrument on top of it. Can't wait till I hear the final version.
I hope you don't mean a female rapper... aside from lauryn hill I don't think decent ones of those exist
I'll start throwing it down as soon as I can get something finished, but I just started recording and it takes me like 30 takes before I'm satisfied with a verse. Like I'll get everything perfect but then in the last line I'll say "optipal" instead of "optimal" and then shit my pants for being a retard.
Its hard to say what somebody needs to work on as far as flow goes until I've heard them. My advice is just to listen to beats every day in your car and freestyle whenever you're by yourself. For some reason freestyling is a lot easier when you're alone and it gives you the opportunity to improve quickly. It really helps to have good rhythms in your head for when you go to write actual lyrics. What separates decent rappers from random white boys on the internet is all about style. Saying lines in rhythm to a beat for extended periods of time, regardless of if they make sense or not is how you can develop an ear for that sort of thing. Its really hard to explain it in words. But if you are just starting out with vocals don't get so caught up with trying to make everything make sense, be more worried that the syllables hit correctly.
And the key to improving at freestyling is you have to consciously force yourself not to constantly fall into patterns. When you start out, you're probably going to rhyme the word "rhyme" with "time" constantly. So if that becomes a habit, you have to take note of that, and think, 'next time I accidently say the word "rhyme", I'm going to say "genuine" and if I say the word "time" i'm going to punch myself in the head.' Once you get comfortable with that you can start rhyming 2 syllables at a time and stuff like that. Eventually it starts to come naturally. Oh yea and don't try to rap fast, especially at first, cause it won't sound right.
oh yea and keep a little piece of paper in your pocket. Pretty much all the rhymes I've ever come up with happened when I wasn't trying to write, I was in the gym or eating or somewhere random.