Rap Beat Spot
Make Beats, Download Beats, Get Samples
Subscribe to RSS FeedWhat can you do here? Learn how to produce rap beats. Find rap beat downloads. Get samples for your beats.
Making Beats with Reason 4 & Akai MPD 32
I like this guys approach, he uses the MPD 32 to program his beats in Reason. Notice the way he keeps layering new stuff on top of his loops my manually pounding out the rhythms on the pads.
Finding Cheap Vinyl Records: Where to Look?
A lot of people that produce rap beats like to inject a little “vinyl” flavor into their beats, whether it’s to get an old-school sound, a unique sound or just to mix it up a bit overall.
Personally, I don’t like a lot of the sterile beats out there today that all sound like they came off the same Roland sound module. That’s just not my style. I like old-school beats that are rich with flavor, uniqueness and vinyl samples.
So.. where can you find some cheap vinyl to work with? Sampling new vinyl releases might not be the best idea, since you can run into copyright issues if you were to resell any music.
But, there’s a wealth of old records out there that will keep you off the radar. If you sample from obscure stuff, you’ll not have to run the risk of getting sued by somebody for using their sounds on your beats.
I like to look in the following places for cheap, obscure vinyl records to scratch and take samples from.
Pawn Shops
There is always a thick supply of old vinyl records for cheap at the local pawn shops where I live, I can only assume this carries through to the rest of the world.
Thrift Stores
This is a sleeper – I frequently find old vinyl at thrift stores for less than $.50 per record. Not bad. A lot of times you can talk the person manning the till to give you a whole box of shitty old vinyl records for a few bucks, cause they’ve been sitting there unsold for years.
Record Shops
You’ll pay more money here, but there’s always gonna be a discount section or used section for vinyl if they carry vinyl of any type.
Garage Sales
People will almost give away old records at garage sales, plus this is the best place to work bartering skills to get a better deal.
Your Parents
People who lived through the vinyl era may still have their vinyl collections. Ask them if they have anything you can have. They may not want to give away their prized, favorite albums from their youth, but they may have a bunch of vinyl that they just want to get rid of.
Schools/Libraries
Sometimes, and I really say “sometimes” seriously, schools or libraries hold auctions or sales to move out the old crap so they can make room for the new crap. The old crap sometimes includes gems like VHS tapes, audio tapes, and vinyl records. This is probably more rare now, but if you can find an auction or sale that includes old vinyl, you’ll be able to get it for CHEAP.
Conclusion…
I’m sure there’s many other sources of cheap vinyl out there. Just keep digging around in various small shops and auctions/sales and you might surpise yourself with all the old vinyl you might find. If you have any stories about finding old vinyl, or anything to add, drop a comment below and share it with the world. Yeah!
Tags: beats, old school, vinyl
A simple way to make some raw beats
To me, the best raw beats are from the 19080′s and 90′s when rap artists and producers used a lot of samples (lots of FUNK samples I should say).
Why do I like that era so much? The beats were raw and unique. How can you reproduce those raw sounds without having to sample vinyl? Go out and do some field recordings of local musicians you know.
Do you have a friend that likes to play drums, and who can bang out some good beats? Grab a recorder, digital or otherwise, and go over to your friends place and record 15 minutes worth of drum sounds and beats. All of these sounds will be raw with interesting room acoustics and reverb, and the recording might even sound borderline bad – but that’s what you want!
You can do the same with other instruments as well. Have a friend jam some guitar riffs for you (you can direct them towards different types of styles as well) and record them, then sample from those recordings and mix in the instrument sounds.
It doesn’t take much…
Take those sounds and layer them into your beats. If your beats sounds a little sterile and need some life, adding a few raw and reverberated samples into the mix can go a long way to “dirty” it up a bit and give your beats and tracks a unique feel.
Tags: funk, production, raw