Why your beats suck (and what to do about it)
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- čas přidán 17. 12. 2020
- In this video I talk through a few reasons why you may be feeling down about your beats, and offer some tips to help you improve your overall sound. I hope you find the tips useful and if you have any further suggestions I'd love to hear them in the comments!
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#beatmaking #beatmakingtips - Hudba
“ Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” - Ira Glass
This quote is the realest thing I ever read and helped me with my creative process so much when starting out.
Very good advice yeah. It’s a process. I think the key to becoming a master at things is to enjoy the learning, enjoy the challenge of ‘closing the gap’ like this quote says otherwise you end up frustrated and quit
100% facts. STLNDRMS said something similar. It was along the lines of “make 10,000 beats. All the questions you have will be answered along the way.”
Reminds me of J. Dilla man. His stuff is the most intricate beats i've heard. I think the fact that he just dont care if he made a beat that he doesnt like, he just keeps making em
man this channel deserves x30 the love it's getting, chill man with his sick beats as always
Really appreciate that man! I’m just gonna keep grinding and hope rest of them turn up soon haha
Yeah that DJ Shadow example is a great one.
I often go "okay i got time to make some music" so i look for a melodic sample and maybe a drum break or drum one shots and make a beat with that.
Nothing wrong with that, but i've been meaning to say make whole sessions where i just hunt for samples.
As always, awesome vids! Cool that we now have a face to go with the voice!
Yeah man I’ve never really sat down to just dig. It’s usually ‘I wanna make a beat’ so it’s the full process every time. Should get around to it at some point and just keep them all ready for when inspiration strikes
Always appreciate a mental reset...thanks for perspective my man
Glad to hear it helped you out! Thanks for watching
This is a really great thing to hear. I've been spending a ton of time second guessing anything I do and have virtually done NOTHING. I've never had the idea of using samples, so getting over the "this isn't my work" idea is a necessity.
I do that a lot too man, I've basically had to train myself to hate my work less - its so easy to be overly critical. And yeah using samples is how I make most of my beats so that might be a good thing for you to experiment with! Thanks for watching
I've had that problem for a while not actually liking what I make. these tips will help me thanks!
Good stuff man. It’s difficult that point - very easy to tell yourself your work is no good. That point I said about recording and leaving your beats for a bit really did help me
I recently picked up an SP and thanks to your wealth of vids I was able to pick up really quick. I'm a fast learning anyway and I've been making beats a few years, but this is my first sampler. I'm just really happy I've come to your channel now your in the phase of giving sound advice and philosophy for beat makers that could apply to any creative, with or without an SP. Love it man.
Yo man much love! Glad to hear you’re digging the content. Really happy to hear I’m helping people like yourself get to grips with the SP!
Great video homie, I think all of us can be our worst critic as beat makers and these are very important tips. I might get frustrated at times, but I don't stay there; I move on and come back to it. My Wife told me to make it fun, and not a chore. Dope video!!🙏🏾✊🏾
Exactly man yeah you gotta enjoy it even when it’s tough - enjoy the process and the challenge of it all. It applies to anything really. Cheers for watching again man 🙏
Think this is something that needs to be discussed more. Everyone likes to talk technique but that isn't anything if the source material is bad
Agree yeah like I said you can’t just become good at that over night either. It’s taken me a while to learn what works and what doesn’t for a beat. Still learning too haha. It’s good to remain humble also and have a continued desire to learn and improve
Just copped the volume 1 & 2 Lofi drums bundle cooking up first thing in the morning .
Yo thanks so much for the support!
Thank you for this
np, thanks for watching!
Great vid!
Yo man thanks for watching. Appreciate the comment!
Great advice as always! It reminded me of the struggles I faced when I first started making beats.
IMO one of the biggest problems when you´re starting out is that you often don´t know the difference between what sounds cool and what actually fits the beat. There is a temptation to use elements which sound good in isolation, but don´t work in the context of the actual track you´re making. Like yeah, that snare sounds dope, but when you put it in the song it might sound too full or hit too hard for a mellow lofi beat.
Oh, and learning how to mix. You don´t need to become an expert, invest in a massive mixing desk, or get all those fancy plugins. Just having a good understanding of levels and frequencies, and applying it to your mix, will really help make your music sound more polished and professional.
Solid tips also man yeah, like you say even a basic knowledge of some things like mixing can make a huge difference. Knowing where stuff needs to sit in a mix etc can really tidy up a beat. Thanks for the knowledge!
@@spvidz No, thank you for the knowledge! I always enjoy catching up with your vids, and you´re a great resource on the SP series and beatmaking in general. I wish your channel was around when I was starting out haha
@@VibesAntagonist Yeah man i definitely managed to find a gap in the market, i couldn't believe their wasn't more people creating content about the SP when I picked it up. I used to use the sp forums so much but they died off massively so I started uploading content. Glad to hear you're digging it though man, its great to hear feedback like that!
For beginners: I started making beats when the corona pandemic began, so not that long ago. i listen to my first recordings and always have things to criticize myself on them. Some of my beats are pretty simple, nothing groundbreaking, but I see them as a sketch book, with lots of 1-1.5 minute ideas that I try to make each one more unique than the other, somehow. In short - practice makes perfect.
Definitely a good shout man yeah. I try and see a beat or song as just an idea too - otherwise you could spend your whole life trying to perfect it! Thanks for watching!
You ar the best bro love the Chanel
Yo appreciate it man! Thanks for watching
good advice
Thanks for dropping in again man!
aye man can you do a video on how to chop drum breaks? as well as a video on how to make your chops sound good?
Will do that one at some point yeah. I have already got one about samples which might help. Quite old but may be useful czcams.com/video/_BKlqt5zLis/video.html
yo another helpful idea, maybe do a video on vocal chops. i see a lot of your videos have to do with jazz samples, maybe experiment with some soul or maybe some rock or something
Cool idea man yeah. I’ve never really tried rock for samples, maybe prog but yeah should do more soul stuff really. I do behind the scenes but with the jazz tracks I know they will work 9 times out of 10 that’s why I use them for a lot of my vids whereas I find making soul based beats have a higher fail rate (for me personally)
I love this advice, I understand what you mean with the sort of empty sample thing you are on about, but artists like mujo literally just use a pianoand drums and make it sound full, how tf they do this 😂😂. An example of this is heaven by mujo, I love this song so much.
I hear you with that man. I know exactly what you mean it’s almost like you can visualise those paper thin layers but it all gels. I think it’s the sub and a fat snare that does the work. Could be wrong but they feel like the driving force in those kinds beats! Cheers for watching
hell yeah dj shadow was one of my favorites.thats where im at in ca.
Nice man! He's one of the first beat makers I was introduced to by my sister's boyfriend at the time. I remember him giving me a copied version of Endtroducing and then I just desperately wanted an MPC for years haha
@@spvidz I had the primitive strike cd I got from a friend but I never knew about mpc's until later.Same when I seen those I wanted one.But I wish I knew about them a little earlier.
What recording equipment are you using?!? It sounds great!!!
I just record straight into Ableton through a USB audio interface
Hey man do you prefer kicks like how j dilla eq it or a kick that even a shitty speaker (like a phone) can be heard through
Depends on the sample really, I tend to like a deep thud though
Give yourself room to grow. Develop your ear for the style your making. Alchemist said "did you make the beat or did the beat make you."
Very good advice man, thanks for passing that on!
okay another ask.
i was making beats last night and i was using the resample method. i had a drum break on loop and i was using some micro chops, and after hitting three pads the drum break turned off. i retried multiple times, and that kept happening. would you mind helping me out?
Yup it’s a common issue it’s limited to 4 mono samples and 2 stereo samples. The sp will cut out if you go over that limit so you have to be creative with your beat making to get around it. Resample all your drums to mono for a start that will help!
#4 is a big one. Maybe my ears are just sensitive, but I can’t do marathon beatmaking sessions. I like to take frequent breaks to let my ears rest. It happens so often that I get frustrated with the way a beat is sounding late at night. I keep thinking “it started out so good, what happened??” I’ll sleep on it and check in the morning and it sounds dope again.
Thanks for watching man! Yeah always good to take a break!
Yo man, can you link me to that interview about the record store owner talking about DJ Shadow? Would love to watch it.
I couldn't find the exact interview, I remember seeing it years ago. This is the closest I could find which is still pretty cool. I imagine the part I'm talking about is from the same feature but this is just a different part of it - czcams.com/video/1gpKYnRdf0A/video.html
spvidz thanks man, I went hunting for it as well, I found some pretty cool interviews. Thanks for the link. I love that documentary. Cheers and happy holidays!
Cool
Thanks for dropping in man!
Do you use a lot of sidechain compression in your tacks ? For example kick and bass or sample and kick or are you careful about clipping and leveling it out?
In ableton I will yeah, I’ll sidechain the kick against the sample but I don’t do any when I’m making beats with the SP
@@spvidz Thank you i didnt expect that you would respond to me.😁 I tried the method with "sidechaining" on the SP and the results are not so "pumpy" like on Ableton but i didnt do anything wrong. Is there any way to simulate sidechain on the samples in the SP? If you can do this and have a clue how to do this i would celebrate my a** off if you would do a Video about this. Greetings from germany and Merry X-Mas🥶🎅
Sidechain on the SP is a bit of a myth in my opinion but try some compression and use a heavy kick to try and get that pump!
❤🖤💚
This is such a cool channel man, are you open to collaborations? I'd love to do a collab with you
Appreciate that man. I'm not really up for collabs at this moment in time sorry, its hard enough keeping everything going as it is lol
i always struggle with finding good samples, like I know what type of beat I want to make but i can never find a sample which fits my idea if that makes sense
Know what you mean man yeah, its not easy. I would recommend trying to build a library of samples - like make playlists etc of different genres. Thats helped me a lot but other than that it is just a case of spending time digging and a lot of trial and error. For every beat I make there are usually a couple that didn't work out!
where can i find your most recent beats?
Last tape is on soundcloud. Same username SPVIDZ. I’ve not put much out this year though unfortunately
LMAOO i laughed so hard when I saw the title
😆
The number one reason people's beats suck is because they don't bother to learn music theory. How can you be a music producer when you haven't bothered to learn the music part. Kids now days - all the gear and no idea.
Completely agree if you are making beats/music from scratch. I think with sample based beats you can certainly learn a lot of 'whats correct' by using your ears - maybe that is learning music theory though haha. Thanks for watching man
truth bombs in there, how can I get in touch ?
probably just best on insta - same username spvidz
@@spvidz message sent ;)
Lol he’s talking to y’all. My beats definitely do NOT suck. #Facts
Yo this content sick. Get with me my g.. Contact me on IG if you tryna work my dude @_benfly
Appreciate it man, really dont have much time at the moment but will try and get in touch at some point!
Definitely a video I don't need ;)
Lol 😆