Why do my beats sound so lame

imustknow

New Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2004
I'm going insane trying to figure out how to make authentic sounding breakbeats for my tunes! Even beats that sound so simple, when i slow em down n listen closely have shuffles n grooves that i can never replicate and i cant even get the sounds right, its soo hard, i must be approaching it all wrong. I use sx and kontakt and i use sampled breaks chopped up and one off hits of my own that ive layered for fattness, but whatever i do they just sound synthetic and unnatural, there must be techniques i have no clue about! Can anyone please, please enlighten me, i have to know how its done before i turn to the :drunk: for comfort!
i'll try and attatch an example clip of the sound i'm going for and what i'm ending up with instead in a bit...
 
Hello there,
I find that when you need to create a simple structure for a tune it REALLY helps to sit back and take a few huge kronik rips. Then kick back and listen to some of your favorite sounds. Start REALLY simple, it's the only way.
Please feel free to hit me up if you have any more questions.
DnG
:builder:
imustknow said:
I'm going insane trying to figure out how to make authentic sounding breakbeats for my tunes! Even beats that sound so simple, when i slow em down n listen closely have shuffles n grooves that i can never replicate and i cant even get the sounds right, its soo hard, i must be approaching it all wrong. I use sx and kontakt and i use sampled breaks chopped up and one off hits of my own that ive layered for fattness, but whatever i do they just sound synthetic and unnatural, there must be techniques i have no clue about! Can anyone please, please enlighten me, i have to know how its done before i turn to the :drunk: for comfort!
i'll try and attatch an example clip of the sound i'm going for and what i'm ending up with instead in a bit...
 
Have you tried compression, eq-ing and I find a bit of reverb on the snare and kik sounds nice. What about ghost snares(snares played at a different velocity, pitch plotted between the main snare hits) might help with your shuffle problem.
 
I eq n compress individual beats and again over the whole break, two arts forms i'm still learning! I always try n shape some beats while i layer them up with the envelope function in sx, plus i analyze the freq's that good snares fill, for referance! Latley i steal groove quantizes from real breaks i like, to try n replicate the swing they have. I'm happy-ish with my kicks n snares i suppose but i can never get the right sounds in the shuffle, ghost snares or whatever, they always sound way off, its well frustrating!
 
HELLO MATE,

I DON'T USE THE SAME SOFTWARE AS YOU, BUT WOULD RECOMMEND CHOPPING YOUR BEAT LOOPS IN 'RECYCLE' IF YOU CAN. IF YOU SLICE/PITCH THEM CAREFULLY YOU'LL BE ABLE TO EXPORT A BREAK THAT STILL SOUNDS ROLLING...

SIMPLE HATS + CRASHES ARE ALSO GOOD FOR LIFTING YOUR BEATS IN THE MIX.

:towelie:
 
imustknow said:
I'm going insane trying to figure out how to make authentic sounding breakbeats for my tunes! Even beats that sound so simple, when i slow em down n listen closely have shuffles n grooves that i can never replicate and i cant even get the sounds right, its soo hard, i must be approaching it all wrong. I use sx and kontakt and i use sampled breaks chopped up and one off hits of my own that ive layered for fattness, but whatever i do they just sound synthetic and unnatural, there must be techniques i have no clue about! Can anyone please, please enlighten me, i have to know how its done before i turn to the :drunk: for comfort!
i'll try and attatch an example clip of the sound i'm going for and what i'm ending up with instead in a bit...
Easy man a technique I've been told & seems to be pretty easy to do is make your sounds as big as possible. What I mean is create the break, snare hit, kick etc, & raise the volume to a strong level that makes it sound full, then as Cee-Jay said use compression on the sound. Be careful with how much you apply as it can get nasty with to much. Then when the compression is added to a nice level for yourself you can start to eq the sound to a really decent level. All abou what sound you wanna go dor just play around till you find something you like.
Hope it helps
 
I use Recycle alot and i can make some phat kick/hat/snares that sound ace down the club through layering/eq/comp/distortion etc but when making a basic 9 hit loop like this

Kick(1) hat(2) snare(3), shuffle(4 sounds, do ga do ga), kick(8) snare(9)

I struggle to make the 4 sounds for the shuffle big time.I usually try to use a hat, soft snare, soft kick, nother hat pitched differently, is this right?
what sounds do you guys use to make up your shuffles???
 
imustknow said:
I use Recycle alot and i can make some phat kick/hat/snares that sound ace down the club through

WHEN YOU USE RECYCLE, TRY NOT TO CUT THE LOOP TOO FINELY SO THAT YOU LEAVE THE SHUFFLES INTACT - THEN YOU'LL BE ABLE TO SEQUENCE THEM AS THEY SHOULD SOUND. HOPE THIS HELPS...

:spliff:
 
well shit. a big part of getting the sound right is confidence and creativity. i mean dont settle for the basic twostep patterns. sequence three consecutive kicks and make the snares roll after that. Sample an explosion, pitch it up 900% and use it along with a 303 with much Q for the rolls. Make the loop and say
'there. just like that.'
 
A drummer freind of mine says the roll/shuffle is just a hat snare, hat snare repeat! Is that right? cos they all sound different to me and when i use my own samples that way, guess what= lame results!
 
logikz said:
well shit. a big part of getting the sound right is confidence and creativity. i mean dont settle for the basic twostep patterns. sequence three consecutive kicks and make the snares roll after that. Sample an explosion, pitch it up 900% and use it along with a 303 with much Q for the rolls. Make the loop and say
'there. just like that.'

ahaha word m8 :)
 
logikz are you from sweden? under your name it says "fattar du ingenting" and that means "dont you understand anything" :).

whats soundfont? :O
 
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