the HIGHS and LOWS of producing

[Equality 7-2521]

ok fam,

at what point in your producing career were your highest and lowest points and WHY were they so? it could be anything..... maybe you got a record deal, maybe you got your equipment stolen, maybe you had producers block for a month, maybe you make 50 dope beats in a month etc etc... you get my drift.

im kinda at a low point. i dont concider myself an ABSOLUTE bigginner anymore since i know how to use my equipment and i know how to make a beat but im kinda lost with finding my style. i dont want to be confined to one style but i would like to establish my style so i can expand on it. na mean? i want to harness my strenghts and expand on them (whilst cleaning up my weaknesses ofcourse). so at the moment, i have the basic knowledge which i need to make a dope beat and i have the potential to make a dope beat but im just a bit confused as to which method to use. i feel like i dont have a solid structure to my beat making process.

so its not exacly a "low" cos i feel like im on the verge of busting out onto a level which is a higher than im on at the moment but its a motherfuckin frustrating process trying to get there.

as usual, high points will be proceeded by low points. so i expect that when i work this shit out, i will have reached my highest point so far......which will be the bottom of the mountain.

anyway......what were YOUR highest and lowest points in producing???

peace

 

[mercurywaters]

i'm not new to producing. i've been doing it to some extent for almost 10 years. i use most of my beats for myself though. but recently i finished writing 3 albums back to back and my rhyme mind was fried. so i decided to push myself out there more as a producer. so my high point was selling my first beat. which was immediately proceeded by the low point when my digital recorder/mixer broke down. i started getting all these new and fresh ideas and couldn't record them. i'll be getting my baby out the shop this coming week though.

as far as you finding a style. i don't know that you should. at this point and time i have over 90 beats up for sale on my page and very few of them soundalike. i think i can fit with any emcee. i just hear something in a sample or sound and just follow it. the end result is always a surprise but i have so much variety. its great for the creativity.

peace.

 

[Equality 7-2521]

mercury: cangrats on selling beats. i expect that will mos def be a high for me when the time comes. i understand what you say about not finding a style....i agree entirely. none of my beats sound alike.....but i feel like i have to change up my producing and make it less abstract so it is a bit more appealing to MCs...cos selling beats is a goal of mine. maybe once i sell a beat or two i will be a bit more confident to just experiment with all the crazy ideas i have in my head.

 

[Guevara]

january '04 marks my one year of makin beats so i dont really have too much of a history, in between that year i have made a lot of progression though.my high point so far was when i realized that people actually liked my music and my low point was not having a job to buy any records and fiending to work and not having anything to work with.
i feel like i have higher points comin my way, things have been lookin up for me lately.Peace

TELL EM CiTY SENT YA!!!

 

[mercurywaters]

if you got crazy ideas in your head. get them out. try and find emcees that would rock on your type of production. i do my share of spamming on boards that allow it, but i don't get much interest that way. i look through artists sites and showcases and find emcees for a particular beat and try to sell directly to them. i get more interest that way than any other.

 

[Equality 7-2521]

guevera: shit i didnt realise you only been doin this for a year. your fuckin dope for the amount of time you been doin it. shit your dope even if you been doin it for ages.

mercury: thanks for the tip. can you give me a link or two to some of showcases where you have found Mcs to sell beats to? thanks...i doubt id be takin your business any time soon lol.

 

[mercurywaters]

www.rodrigo-ny.com

a bunch of different message boards

ughh.com
boom-bap.com
sphereofhiphop.com

also

www.beatsociety.com

alot of producers have their music posted there. plus they do live shows. i don't know if they'll go to australia, but you can get a little shine there.

also enter beat battles

there is one starting tomorrow i think at www.earbubbles.com

theres one every couple of months at www.beatbattle.com my brother one that competition before.

hope this helps

 

[Guevara]

YEAH iM ONLY iN MY ELEVENTH MoNTH oF THE PRODUCTiON, i LiKE BEAT SoCiETY BUT I oNLY WENT THERE WHEN MY CoMPUTER WASNT BiTCHiN SO i COULD LiSTEN TO BEAR.oNE'S SHiT, iVE NEVER SiGNED UP THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE THERE AND i DoNT WANNA JUST BE ANoTHER NAME oN A SiTE.BUT YEAH i SPEND A LoT oF TiME AT THiS CoMPUTER SO iT FEELS LiKE iTS BEEN LoNGER THAN A YEAR AND iM LEARNiNG SO MUCH FRM OTHER PEOPLE, iM NOT EVEN WORRiED ABoUT TiME LiKE THAT.TO EDiT MY LAST POST i THiNK MY HiGHEST POiN WAS HoNESTLY WHEN i FoUND THiS SiTE, THiS SitE DoES A LOT FoR MY CoNFiDENCE AND MY MUSiCAL KNoWLEDGE.CiTY

 

[luxx]

my highest point was producing my first whole cd, w/ alot of local mcs. a couple months later was my lowest, realizing there is not a big enough market around here to make any real money.

 

[Equality 7-2521]

mercury: cheers mate! have you ever sold a beat to someone from another country over the internet?

guevera: yeah illmuzik is most def a high. its probably up there with getting my mpc.

luxx: spewin you couldnt find a market in your area. what did you end up doing? you sell beats dont you?

 

[bigdmakintrax]

The highs are making tracks, the lows are having been in the game long enuff to realize that it is very hard to break into the fraternity of industry production even by having major connections on the inside it is very hard to punch through to make it onto a major project there is also some luck involved like having a well known artist 1 hear a track you have and 2 have them like it enuff for them to want to hear more and use it, but I feel you Guevarra, when you don't have a job support your habit shopping for vinyl (and new gear) it really hurts LOL I was out for an entire year....all of last year and just got a new gig, now I am building my studio back up.

 

[K.C]

My high was coming across a VERY dope MC right in the same school ground as me, both of us wanna do big things in the underground circuit, good friends and tight music.
With production, when like for a whole month you keep coming up with dope beats/ideas for beats

Lows are when people know your telent, and become jealous that one day you could actually become something, maybe even known. Production wise, when you cant seem to come up with anything good enough for long periods at a time, I've had afew of them

 

[JPeg]

Yo Mr messenger how long u been making beats?

U need to think about what type of sound or vibe ur trying to create/ or look at producers who are making the kind of beats you wanna make than find out what kind of records they are sampling then go digging for a stack of new sample sources.

Than its a case of listening to all the records and collect useable sounds than put things together.

Plus make sure all the drums sounds u use are dope, if it sounds wack by itself dont use it.

Make sure every sound u use in a beat sounds on good by itself as well as in the context of the beat ur making.

While ur making a beat connect up a cd player to the monitors u use for beat making and play some shit u like thro the same speakers u use to make beats so u can do quick A/B comparissons between ur stuff and the pro shit.

This will give u an idea of sound levels mix quality and stylistic and tonal differences between what u make and what u wanna make.

Im in the same situation as u im futrated as hell i feel i have the vision and the potential to make dope shit but it aint comming together as quick as it should and not as easy as i thought, but i feel perseverance and focus will pay off eventually.

 

[mercurywaters]

yo messenger. i actually donated a beat to a crew in the uk named pentalk. i heard their stuff and liked it alot. they heard one of my beats and loved it. it was a beat i didn't like myself. so i gave it to them for free.(which i rarely do) thought maybe it would help my cause.

 

[Equality 7-2521]

jpeg: i been making beats seriously for maybe 6 months now. (made my first "fuck around" beat maybe about 10 months ago)

i want to create all kinds of vibes. i look to rjd2 and dj shadow for inspiration. but ive been listening to premier alot lately cos i know everyone loves his shit and his style is kinda text book.

thanks for the tip about making sure instruments are dope when solo and esp thanks for the tip about the A/B comparrison...i didnt think of that but it will be useful to me cos ive been having this problem where my beats sound right to me through my headphones in my mpc but sound all out of wack when i play it through my stereo.

keep pushing mate.


mercury: jees mate i would have asked for a little but of cash even if i didnt lie my own beat....especially if they loved it. your a nice guy lol

 

[mercurywaters]

the way i see it. i don't have any connects in the uk. now i have a crew of ill emcees in britain that can give me some shine. its a form of promotion.

 

[Equality 7-2521]

so you are stil in contact with them?

 

[mercurywaters]

i actually haven't sent the beat yet. probably do it today. this just happened recently in the past week.

 

[JPeg]

Yo messenger ima tell u dis it might take a bit longer than 6 months i've been working on producing since 99 and im still in a similar situation although ive had several break thru beats that push me to the next level, i still feel i have some time to go until i reach a level where i am happy with what im making

 

[Equality 7-2521]

^^i understand. i am impatient but persistent also. i think they compliment each other as contradictory as it may sound lol.

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