PRODUCERS...Do you exaggerate your instrumentals?

[dacalion]

What I mean is...when making an instrumental for a competition or for shopping on the web. where you only give a sample (per say of 1 min.), or just showcasing a beat, do you stick with the normal formats (i.e. intro, 16 bars, break, 16 bars, chorus, blah, blah, blah...) or do you jazz it up a little by picking out the best parts and including it in your time limit? Vh1 recently had a beat contest in which you had 1 minute to do your thing. I personally find it more exciting to stray away from any normal format especially if you only get 1 minute to show your skills.

When I create an instrumental it's not necessarily in a format thats meant to be spit on. It's more designed to keep your attention throughout the entire beat. If someone wants to spit on it, then I go back to the lab and make it "spit friendly" otherwise I'm doing everything I can to make it as hot and interesting as possible without any lyrics on it. It's a little tricky, it has to make sense no matter what, you can't just throw anything together but I think its boring to listen to the same 16 bars 3 or 4 times during a contest, sample or showcase instrumental.

What do you all think?

-dac-

 

[LDB]

Depends!

I guess it depends on who's attention you're trying to get. I try to gear my intrumentals to MC's so I do the "drama" intro(to draw them in),12-16 bar verse(x3) the 8 bar hook by 2 or 3) (sometimes I start with the hook after the intro, sometimes I don't)

Everybody's in a hurry now a days so I don't know if it's wise to wait for an MC to be interested in the musical track itself before you actually format it for an MC or Vocalist. If your doing say 1 minute snippets, I would at least give them one hook and one verse so they can go over a free style in there head to see if they can flow to it. Making them have to contact you so they can get something actually song formated may get you passed by if the next man has a similarly hot track preformated. Just my opinion.

Thats what was meant by this statement...Maybe it wasn't clear...if you're trying to attrack, appeal or sell your beat/s to rappers then by all means lay it out so it's "spit friendly". I'm referring to things like comps, instrumentals only and showcasing a beat. NOT SOLELY FOR RAPPING PURPOSES ONLY. If I were a rapper then I would know if I'm interested in spitting on the beat within a minute or so. Let me add this...Im not saying thats its wrong or right, Im saying what I do in those situations. To each's own on how it's presented and what its presented for.

-dac-

Depends on what the competition criteria is then. Even still I'd like to think in hip hop you are producing a track with an MC in mind as opposed to putting 55 change ups in a 2 minute beat just because you think that keeps the listeners attention. Speaking from an MC/Producer point of view I don't care for that much. Anytime I listen to a hip hop beat if I can't hear room for an MC I automatically get turned off and if you have to strip away too many elements to make room for the MC the track will suffer IMO.

 

[Ash Holmz]

i agree with lil drama ... in all situations though u need to keep the listeners attention .. a short dramatic intro and get right into it ... if ur intro is long it better be damn good cuz people who listen to beats all day will skip right to the next track if ur intro is drawn out and boring.

 

[LDB]

^^^^ Yea that's real. My intro's are never over 4 bars...anything more is too much IMO! And once again, it depends on who the listener is. If you're submitting something to an A&R I might leave the intro out all together. If it's directly to an MC you can be a little more creative.

 

[dacalion]

-[/quote]It's a little tricky, it has to make sense no matter what, you can't just throw anything together but I think its boring to listen to the same 16 bars 3 or 4 times during a contest, sample or showcase instrumental.

What do you all think?

-dac-[/QUOTE]


Thats what was meant by this statement...Maybe it wasn't clear...if you're trying to attrack, appeal or sell your beat/s to rappers then by all means lay it out so it's "spit friendly". I'm referring to things like comps, instrumentals only and showcasing a beat. NOT SOLELY FOR RAPPING PURPOSES ONLY. If I were a rapper then I would know if I'm interested in spitting on the beat within a minute or so. Let me add this...Im not saying thats its wrong or right, Im saying what I do in those situations. To each's own on how it's presented and what its presented for.

-dac-

 

[Ash Holmz]

^^^ yeah i would add changups .... keep the energy level high ... lots of drops and drum breakdowns too... keep the energy level going.

 

[dacalion]

When I create an instrumental it's not necessarily in a format thats meant to be spit on. It's more designed to keep your attention throughout the entire beat. If someone wants to spit on it, then I go back to the lab and make it "spit friendly" otherwise I'm doing everything I can to make it as hot and interesting as possible without any lyrics on it. It's a little tricky, it has to make sense no matter what, you can't just throw anything together but I think its boring to listen to the same 16 bars 3 or 4 times during a contest, sample or showcase instrumental.

What do you all think?

-dac-

Thats what was meant by this statement...Maybe it wasn't clear...if you're trying to attrack, appeal or sell your beat/s to rappers then by all means lay it out so it's "spit friendly". I'm referring to things like comps, instrumentals only and showcasing a beat. NOT SOLELY FOR RAPPING PURPOSES ONLY. If I were a rapper then I would know if I'm interested in spitting on the beat within a minute or so. Let me add this...Im not saying thats its wrong or right, Im saying what I do in those situations. To each's own on how it's presented and what its presented for.

-dac-

 

[open mind]

What I mean is...when making an instrumental for a competition or for shopping on the web. where you only give a sample (per say of 1 min.), or just showcasing a beat, do you stick with the normal formats (i.e. intro, 16 bars, break, 16 bars, chorus, blah, blah, blah...) or do you jazz it up a little by picking out the best parts and including it in your time limit? Vh1 recently had a beat contest in which you had 1 minute to do your thing. I personally find it more exciting to stray away from any normal format especially if you only get 1 minute to show your skills.

When I create an instrumental it's not necessarily in a format thats meant to be spit on. It's more designed to keep your attention throughout the entire beat. If someone wants to spit on it, then I go back to the lab and make it "spit friendly" otherwise I'm doing everything I can to make it as hot and interesting as possible without any lyrics on it. It's a little tricky, it has to make sense no matter what, you can't just throw anything together but I think its boring to listen to the same 16 bars 3 or 4 times during a contest, sample or showcase instrumental.

What do you all think?

-dac-

it really depends on each track.in general i would say start with the most catchy part of it if u want to present the beat to an A&R.