Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Searching For The Ideal Beat Loop

By Julian Walls


Each beat producer out there is searching for one thing, the perfect beat. Of course, no-one wants to find the perfect beat just once, they would like to find the formula for the ideal beat, making something urgent, every time they start up their sequencing software.

Naturally, what the ideal beat looks like changes over a period. Like anything else in music, things don't stand still for very long, if at all. Hence the idea of searching for the perfect beat can be a search that goes on indefinitely, regardless of whether you find you've reached perfection, or neared it, from time to time.

But what makes the perfect beat loop. Is it creativity? Is it the way a vocal fits over it? Is it the way that it subtly develops or changes around a hook? Obviously all of these things are pretty important, if you are trying to find perfection. Any producer who wants to make the ultimate beat must have these things, so as to maximize the chances of hitting perfection.

Obviously, there are ways of making it rather more likely that perfection is hit. For instance, making certain that you are learning your software inside out, trying out any new ideas that come to you and paying attention to other music, both the classics and the new stuff that others are doing.

At the same time, you want to avoid duplicating others, maintain your mixing skills and get the most out of the artists you're employed with. Getting input from vocalists, for example, can make a really positive effect on how your beats work, in truth, sitting on a track.

It is also pretty important to get the balance right, when it comes to self criticism. You don't want to be so imperative that it stops you trying new things; on the other hand, if you're not critical enough, it can be tricky to reach a point of perfection. When you make beats it is totally full of that kind of tightrope walking.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment