Making Groovy beats

[simon0123]

Hi all,

What is your best advice to make a beat groove ?

I'm working in Ableton mainly and wanted to know if there is some little tools or tips that can really bring efficient groove...

in the same idea of Stimmings' sounds : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lkHXYs4aY , or Rodriguez Jr.

Thanks in advance,

Simon

[Phurniture]

Just search for "groove" and "beats". I'm sure there are more threads.

http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=67750

http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=72728

[simon0123]

oh sorry,

thx for the usefull links

[tHEfAKEsTEVE]

I use to work like:

- Choose the RIGHT Kick
- Add loops, Percussion loops and Top loops
- Try to catch the right bassline
- Add some snare or a piece of drumfills to make things more bumpy as Carlo Lio, The Junkies, Stimming and a lot of producers use to do, and what i use to hear in some Desolat releases.
- Add what the battery pattern is missing (As Open Hatz, Shakerz, Ride and so on..)
(I use to do not let the charleston play while looping cause i think they just don't let you hear what you are missing in the loop)
- Add a Vocal Loop and a Fx synth under it, for automation e things like that.
Then i'll let the cretivity play its rule.
It depends by what i wanna get too. You could add a piano, or a dark synth line, or a guitar.
Anyhow don't make track just for make a track, but to make THE TRACK. There's gonna be something special in it.

Hope to be helpful.

[trak660]

I'm not sure what to make of questions like this. Just experiment with different amounts of swing and see what happens. I would almost guarantee you that's what Rodriguez Jr. and Stimming are doing.

[Barfunkel]

- Add loops, Percussion loops and Top loops
-

I'd say stay away from ready-made loops and learn to make stuff yourself. Unless you particularly want to sound like every other Beatport producer that is.

[AK]

- Add loops, Percussion loops and Top loops
-

I'd say stay away from ready-made loops and learn to make stuff yourself. Unless you particularly want to sound like every other Beatport producer that is.

I'm kinda on the fence with that one, it depends in what capacity they're used. For instance, for someone who's just getting to grips with writing music, it can be useful to string together a few chosen looped samples just to see how the elements are tied together and what makes things work. As a learning process that could be very useful as you really wouldn't need to be asking these questions because you'd kinda figure things out for yourself by just letting things happen. Also, they can actually be a source of inspiration. Like you could throw something together, get a vibe you like but then, attempt to re-create that vibe using all your own source sounds and rhythms.

I wouldn't rule it out completely, not in a beginner stage but you'd also have to be careful you didn't fall into the trap of laziness and start neglecting your own creativity. And that then, is where I despise these loop pack things. There are some who would just jigsaw together a pile of Loopmaster samples ( or whatever ) and bang! call it 'their new track'. For me that's just odd. I question the motives for actually wanting to make music in the first place if that's their modus operandi.

But yeah, I'd encourage someone to 'mess about' with them but only in a learning capacity so as to have broken down elements of a whole composition with which they can get an idea of how things work, but the emphasis should really be on doing things for yourself and learning through experimentation of different techniques.

I wouldn't feel badly about using a loop and I have been writing music for years now. Admittedly, the type of music I wrote before getting into Techno was built around the use of old sampled breakbeats and stuff but for me, that grounding probably helped me understand how to create the kind of rhythms I like to this day. If I were to use a loop now, it tends to fringe on the drum fill side of things. Realistic drum fills are something I just really like but they're notoriously difficult to reproduce in the sequencer with your own sounds. Even finding the right sample to work with can be hard, then also, add to that the difficult way in which you usually have to gate/tune and sometimes resequence and layer the sample to glue/fit it into the track you are doing in order for it not to sound like some random foriegn sample. By that time, I usually feel to myself that I have 'earned' the right to use it.

[tHEfAKEsTEVE]

- Add loops, Percussion loops and Top loops
-

I'd say stay away from ready-made loops and learn to make stuff yourself. Unless you particularly want to sound like every other Beatport producer that is.

First of all i don't think that using loops means to sound like every producer out on beatport..wtf?
I think that using loop nowadays is an art, there are a million think u can do starting with/using a loop.
Not everyone knows how to make a loop sound in a track.
Moreover, anyone of us is searching or have a STYLE, which means that anyone of us have different skills and different ways of doin things..there are a lot of producer that make song with ready made loops and u can clearly understand who made that one. Carlo lio is the example.
Otherwise I THINK that USING OR NOT A LOOP in a project doesn't mean so much..WHAT'S REALLY IMPORTANT IS THE RESULT.