I was going through some of my files and found this little hip hop beat I did about 2 years ago.

It is an original beat, played on the Genesys and recorded using the wave recorder on the Genesys.

Here is the link. http://download.yousendit.com/08D483195E3F4706

Are you asking what we think?

chas

Interesting beat. How much of it is "preset" specific to the Genesys?

Squeak

Took a quick listen......I'd love to hear a finished product using this beat.....what are you doing with it?

Thanx for sharing

All of the sounds are specific to the Genesys. There were no samples or external sounds in this beat.
The string sound I tweaked just a little bit with a quick sound edit. And of course I had reverb chorus and eq on some of the sounds.

Also, I neglected to mention that the bass drum is very low and may not come through on speakers that don’t have subs.

I have had a few people rap and do reggae on this beat (I need to record them).
Fortunately or Unfortunately, I myself don’t (can’t) rap.
If I were to have some one doing something on the beat, I would then mute tracks at certain times (beats/measures) during the song so that everything is not playing all throughout the whole song.

It's a cool beat, and my Mackie HR824's certainly made the room boom with the bass!

But it kind of makes me sad to see how little is needed, in the way of 'music', to make a hiphop song. I know it's an old fogey thing, but I am disappointed the way that this music has developed (or rather, devolved) to the point of minimalism in the music parts. Yes, layer 16 tracks of some girl doing old Aretha Franklin licks on top, and some thug rapping about 'nappy headed ho's', or whatever else they can sing about without getting fired (like poor old Don Imus) or censored by CBS (who profit enormously from gangsta rap artists on their label with FAR worse potty mouths), and you might have a hit.. But it still annoys me that THIS is what has come to rule the charts.

It's not that I don't like the music (at times!), but it gives me so little to actually play!

Yes sad but true. And also the use of traditional instruments be comes less and less. Once you can use a computer and have an imagination then you are on your way to beat making. That is not bad if it makes some people happy. But lets hope that our arrangers do not take that road.

Then I must be the oldest of the old fogeys because, hard as I try, I just can't get my head around it or am able to see any musical value in it. It can't be a race thing since I'm Black (I think it's a musical thing since I'm a musician).

The only Rap/HipHop (not sure what the difference is) song that I've liked was Gangsta Paradise (Coolio??) and that had a lot to do with the background vocals. I'm pretty sure it involved some Stevie Wonder samples as well.

However, as a musician, I can still recognize that there is still "good" and "bad" in every genre', including HipHop. For instance, if that inate rythym ain't there, you can probably forget about "making beats" or producing good hiphop tracks. I suppose Rap is some kind of basic poetic form but the music behind it is purely rythmical (as opposed to strong musical structure and content). However, I am admittedly musically ignorant in this area and am more than willing to be 'educated' in case I'm missing something.

As far as using the Genesis for hiphop, I'd say stick to the Akai MPC's and save the Genesis for Schlager.

chas

You gotta understand something though. Yes, Hip Hop's strength is often in the "simplicity" of the beats. However, just because the beat is "simple" doesn't mean it's simple to write either. That's what's so freakin hard about writing Hip Hop sometimes. The saying "less is more" clearly applies to it, but trying to make a modern catchy beat by the guidelines of "less is more" can get very hard to do.

Creating good Hip Hop can take a great deal of creativity. You need to make a beat that stands out from the rest, you must know how to edit and tweek voices and have a good grasp on sampling. So many people just associate Hip Hop with sampling everything and no real work goes into creating it. That assumption is so far from the truth.

Hip Hop has come a long way over the years. This is a style of music that changes by the day. You could rip out a tight beat at 12 noon today, and by 12 noon the next day that beat is already o'l school I've said this many times on this forum. "Writing CHEESE-HOP is much easier than writing Hip Hop". I did a lot of Hip Hop when my wife and I were just dating in college and both living on campus. It was a lot of work, and wasn't easy. There's a lot more to it than just the beat itself. There are many other factors that play into the completion of the song. If anyone here thinks that Hip Hop is a talentless and easy as pie style of music, I say you're sorely mistaken. There's so much more to it that often does not gets discussed here, such as where to apply the breaks, vocal effects, background vocals and effects that apply to them, re-sampling the beat and slicing it or using auto-chop to get different variations of the same beat,.... the list just goes on........... I've posted a few Hip Hop beats here, but those are just beats. If I was to use those for a complete composition the "beat" itself is a just small fraction of the completed work.

Squeak

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 04-30-2007).]

I hear you, Squeak, and I do believe that putting out quality hiphop does involve all the processes you described plus a goodly amount of talent.....but.....isn't one criteria of "good" music is that it stands the test of time. I mean, 'Funny Valentine' is going to be a great tune 100 years from now as will Beethoven's "5th" as will Joe Cocker's 'You are so Beautiful' as will Monk's 'round midnight' as will Bing Crosby's 'white christmas' as will Lennon's 'Imagine' as will Ravel's 'Bolero'. It may not be your cup of tea but they all have that one thing (longevity) in common. If something is going to be considered dated after such a brief duration, is it any wonder that we question it's (musical) value?

chas



[This message has been edited by cgiles (edited 04-30-2007).]