Good or Bad thing to make a beat in less than 15 min like Zaytoven?

biggsbeats

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Last week, Zaytoven sat down with Sway to chop it up about his catalog and Atlanta music scene. In a very insightful conversation, Zaytoven made a revelation that some already knew, if you been following Zay’s career, that he typically doesn’t spend more than 15 minutes on a beat. This quote caught traction through the week and I wanted to delve deeper into this topic to highlight the positives and negatives of this technique of making beats and my thoughts whether you as a producer should practice this technique.



Zaytoven’s Skillset



Before we go into detail about the positives and negatives, I think it’s important to highlight Zaytoven’s well-rounded skillset not just as a producer but overall as a musician as part of this piece. The origins of Zay’s skills as a musician started when he was younger when he took part in church with his family. According to Zay’s interview with HotNewHipHop, Zay explained he learned by watching older organists play and further influenced his development as a producer later:

“I’d go home and work my keyboard and try to learn the stuff that they showed me,” he explains. “I’d practice it over and over again, then I’d start playing for groups that go out and sing. I constantly had to learn songs, so that’s what start making me better. When you’re in church, a musician’s job is to set an atmosphere,” he says. “When I’m playing the keys, when I’m making the beats, it’s like I’m trying to create a mood or create some soul or add a feeling to it, when people hear it they like ‘Oh, I feel something about this beat.’ It’s not just a drum. It sound like people put their heart and soul into the beat.

Through this process, learning these skills as a youth, to now as a star producer, it highly benefits his workflow when it comes to making beats in such short amount of time. Not including elements such as sound selection, structure, mixing and etc, it makes it easier for someone like Zay to come up with chords and melodies (which is the main elements important in constructing beats) efficiently based on the feeling or vibe. This is a major difference to majority of today’s producers (not only in hip hop but music in general), where the improvement of technology removes the need to acquire those types of skills to create music, which may some producers somewhat longer to come up with chords or melodies to create a beat.

This development over time, along with what Zay said in around the same time frame in the interview, enables him to work faster and crank out more beats efficiently without sounding repetitive (for the most part).

*Sidenote: I didn’t include drums or bass because, for even intermediate-level producers, it’s pretty simple concept to get if you’re using DAW.

Check the rest of my article here
Zaytoven Says “I Don’t Spend More Than 15 Minutes On A Beat”, A Good or Bad Thing? – Sound Plug
 
Average producing time for me is a few hours.
Making beats is making beats.
Using midi devices or being familiar with your tools=faster output.

Which in turn means, just make stuff because that time can be spent on actual theory, technique, and practice.
 
ya, i remember there was that 12 minute challenge or 15 minutes idk.Professionals (artists, producers, chefs, nd shit) would see how far they can go into a project within 12 or 15 minutes. You'd be impressed how much you can actually get done (with or without a few addys...who knows) ha, I wouldn't say it possible to finish a real project but you can get an impressive amount done.
 
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Average producing time for me is a few hours.
Making beats is making beats.
Using midi devices or being familiar with your tools=faster output.

Which in turn means, just make stuff because that time can be spent on actual theory, technique, and practice.

I think as I pointed in the article, skillset should be highlighted, I should of pointed out tools too. Part of the sound selection process but being a keyboardist and well rounded musician helps speeds it up
 
The problem with zay is that he has the same way of doin things when it comes to producing songs with artists which is why he only really deals with mumble/sucky rappers u should listen to his interview with drinkchamps he sick on the beat but how wants artist to dumb it down on his beats is just stupid
 

Zaytoven is a leader and role model for younger producers to look up to. People need to pay attention to what he does because he has made the ATL music scene great.
 
He has been playing piano for several years now and I'm not talking about midi-keyboard piano playing. Musical knowledge is key. A 15 minute beat from me (playing piano 27 years, guitar 22 years) will sound much different than someone who has been playing on their 25 key midi keyboard for a year. Same way my 15 minute painting (I don't paint) will look much differently than Bob Ross's.

Knowledge is key.
 
He has been playing piano for several years now and I'm not talking about midi-keyboard piano playing. Musical knowledge is key. A 15 minute beat from me (playing piano 27 years, guitar 22 years) will sound much different than someone who has been playing on their 25 key midi keyboard for a year. Same way my 15 minute painting (I don't paint) will look much differently than Bob Ross's.

Knowledge is key.
Why do you think the producers right now who don't have musical backgrounds are dominating such as metro boomin, mike will/ear drummers (p nasty), 808 mafia, sonny digital etc. London had a little run, but let's see if he can switch up his sound. They can't play like zay (minus london) but they have hits. Then you look in the 2000's minus storch or JR rotem you had guys who had DJ backgrounds who really ran rap like Timbaland, Dr. Dre, Jermaine Dupri, Mannie Fresh, DJ Mustard (not considered during this era). Non hip hop DJ Snake, David Guetta, Calvin harris, Mark Ronson.

Why does the producers that are not piano players but come from DJ backgrounds out number the producers who can actually play an instruments?
 
skill sets are nice but don't really matter much. Some people are just intuitive and have listened to great music very early in life and have a great understanding of what sounds good and generally what people like. I picked up a guitar and taught myself how to play and eventually got into the digital production world and started making beats. Without any real music theory training or knowledge, I would just just go off of what I thought sounded good. Come to find out after taking music theory classes I was right in a lot of the things I did. Granted I would only produce in C. But I find that for me producing has become a lot harder after learning music theory. It's not something natural anymore now being so worried about what key it is and scales. But the point is, some people just have the ability to know what sounds good and don't really need formal training.
 
Why do you think the producers right now who don't have musical backgrounds are dominating such as metro boomin, mike will/ear drummers (p nasty), 808 mafia, sonny digital etc. London had a little run, but let's see if he can switch up his sound. They can't play like zay (minus london) but they have hits. Then you look in the 2000's minus storch or JR rotem you had guys who had DJ backgrounds who really ran rap like Timbaland, Dr. Dre, Jermaine Dupri, Mannie Fresh, DJ Mustard (not considered during this era). Non hip hop DJ Snake, David Guetta, Calvin harris, Mark Ronson.

Why does the producers that are not piano players but come from DJ backgrounds out number the producers who can actually play an instruments?

I'm confused with what you're asking, so I'll go point by point.

1. Metro Boomin, 808 Mafia, Sonny Digital are running "what" exactly - the radio? There are plenty of producers out there you didn't name that are killing the radio (and making more money) besides the stock trap producers that everyone names. Mike Will has had the run he has because he is a Producer - not just a Beat Maker.

2. I'm not sure why we're talking about DJs on a "Make a beat in 15 minutes thread", but DJ money is nowhere near where trap producer money is which is why you have people like Mustard and Just Blaze doing more festivals than rap production now. Just Blaze has said in interviews that he made more more doing one festival run than he did his whole career as an in-house Roc-A-Fella producer, so we really can't compare DJing to trap producers.

3. Mannie Fresh and the Neptunes all can play the piano. Jermaine Dupri produced a platinum album by age 18 (Kris Kross), so he's on a whole different level musically knowledge-wise than trap producers. Timbaland and Dre have teams, the same way that Puffy does - and their team are all musicians. Same as Organized Noize. These were the guys killin the 90' and early 2000s.

4. Not sure if producers coming from background DJs really do outnumber all other producers, but there is a a natural progression when you are a DJ. You know what makes people get on the dance floor and you build relationships with not only the local talent, but also with promoters/radio hosts/anyone in the music scene.
 
Without any real music theory training or knowledge, I would just just go off of what I thought sounded good.

...which IMO is why up-and-coming trap producers are struggling. Minimal music knowledge other than copying what they already hear on the radio instead of using their skills to make something new. Why would I buy a beat from a Soundcloud producer that tries to be Sonny Digital when I can just go to Sonny Digital?
 
zaytoven is supa overrated man because of gucci mane. if there was no gucci mane there is no zaytoven. and he is a lair who is lying that the new imposter of gucci is the real gucci mane. it's all bout money. lairs lairs lairs who steal money from the kids . gaytoven and his chaotic, bassy, unusable noise
 
For a platinum producer like zay, i can't say that time really matters or for any producer as well. Making music is making music however you have to do it
 
To me its not about how long it takes its about the final product. Some of my favorite beats in hip hop have been made in 10 minutes. I feel the more you make beats the easier it is to get used to software and make them faster. And zaytovens beats are not that hard to make all you need is a keyboard sound, synth sounds and 808s.
 
I think it depends on her specific you are? He may be getting melodies out every 15 minutes and spends more time during the editing process?
 
I think the 10 minute beat braggers are idiotic. Some of these producers can come up with a hot beat every now and then but if you can produce that in 10 minutes, then what can you make in 2 hours? Sometimes it works though, but for me, a 10 minute beat sounds like a 10 minute beat.
 
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