Hip Hop War Report

Archive for January, 2012

Hip Hop sampling is easy and fun. Hip Hop producers from as far back as the early 1980′s were doing it from their bedrooms with nothing more than a drum machine and a vinyl player. Even today, some 20 years later, A-list Hip Hop producers are still using the same sampling techniques to create chart topping tracks.

What Is A Sample?

A sample is a segment, or portion, of audio taken from a song or instrument. The portion could be a drum break, a vocal, or a 20 second segment from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. Samples are usually taken from vinyl, but can be take from CDs, tapes and other sources of audio.

Sampling

To sample into your computer you will need an audio manipulation tool. If you’re new to audio editing I recommend using Audacity. Audacity is free, and allows you to record and edit audio on your computer. You can record from external audio sources such as vinyl, or load songs from CDs and MP3.

Pete Rock, 9th Wonder and other early Hip Hop producers used the Akai MPC 60, SP1200 or an external sampler such as the S950. The older hardware samplers and drum machines use 12bit audio and produce a dirty sound.

Chopping A Sample

When you’ve found a sample you like you can manipulate it by chopping, or cutting, various parts of the sound and rearranging the parts to create new and interesting sounds. If you record from vinyl you may notice samples will sound raw, and contain background static from the vinyl. This is a good thing as it gives Hip Hop beats their raw, dirty sound.

The majority of Hip Hop producers use this technique.

There’s also an online database called “Who Sampled” that allows you to check what tracks your favorite artist have sampled from, and will provide audio for both the artists track and the track they’ve sampled. Here is Jay-Z’s page: http://www.whosampled.com/artist/Jay-Z/

Sample CDs

Although sampling is fun most people don’t have the time, knowledge or patience to sample their own drums and instruments. Even if you do manage to find a sample, you then have the task of tweaking the sample to make it usable. Instead you could use sample CDs.

Sample CDs are compilations that contain hundreds, or thousands, of ready made, pre-mastered, samples that are ready to use in your tracks. Sample CDs are very popular in Hip Hop and will increase the quality of your productions and allow you to cut your production time in half.

Do you want to make your own hip hop music? If so then you’ll probably want to start off with some great royalty free hip hop beats. By beats I don’t mean just drums, I mean sound effects, guitars, and many other sounds. Of course it will be up to you to put together these different beats in an interesting way. That’s where your creativity comes into play.

You can use hip hop beats for more than just hip hop music. You can use these sorts of samples in all kinds of music if you want to get more experimental. You could use a hip hop beat sample as the basis of a pop song, a rock song, or an electronic techno type song. The possibilities are only as limited as your imagination.

The key is to get a large amount of hip hop beats to use that are completely royalty free. Royalty free means you can use them for any purpose you want (including making a hit record that makes you millions of dollars) and never pay a cent in licensing fees.

The really cool thing these days is that you can actually download 1000s of hip hop beats online instantly. There’s no reason to wait for a CD to come in the mail. There’s no reason to try to find good royalty free hip hop beats at a store. You can get them all online and you can get them at a better price online (and all high quality beats will come with a 100% guarantee.)

Instrumentals rap beats and hip hop music tracks are a key part of any rappers career. After all, you may have the sickest lyrics and smoothest vocals, but without solid beats, you’re dead in the water. Here are some important questions to ask before you buy any rap instrumentals…

Are these instrumentals royalty free? What type of license goes with it?

Before you buy the instrumentals, you need to make sure the person has the right to sell them. There are two rights granted when you purchase beats: non-exclusive, which allows the producer to sell additional copies of the instrumental; and exclusive, where you and only you have rights to use the beat in question. Naturally, non-exclusive tends to be cheaper because the producer can simply resell it as many times as they want. However, the world is a big place, so this may not be an issue.

Are these instrumentals rap related?

You’d be surprise how often producers promote their tracks as rap beats, when really it’s country music (or some other non-related genre). Make sure you can hear at least some of the beats before you buy (unless they have a money back guarantee).

Can I record over and produce these instrumentals? If not, who will help?

This is huge. Even if the music can be downloaded for free, it’s a waste of time if you can’t record over it. Some beat makers double as music producers and may be able to help for an added fee. Barring that, explore the producers section of hip hop forums to see if anyone can help. When it comes to instrumentals, rap beats tend to have a tempo between 90-110 beats per minute (BPM). Make sure you stay in this range, at least initially.

If you want to buy instrumentals rap tracks for sale can be purchased in bulk from sites like Beats365. While it costs over thirty bucks, you are receiving a large number of instrumentals that can be used for all your recording needs. These tracks that are sold in bulk tend to be non-exclusive, though at that price, it’s a bargain to say the least. Make sure you are able to answer all these questions prior to buying instrumentals, rap beats or any music you intend to use commercially.