If your a good or average producer, are your beats always good or ok?

C

caycay

New member
I've been making beats for maybe 2 yrs, but I've been going hard for the last years. Recently I've been making hip hop beats and I feel like I'm on another level. I made 2 beats recently which took around 15 mins each, and I said to myself, phuck it, I'm a beast, and started focusing on r&b. But, I just made a beat and felt like it wasnt on par on where it should be. Is that normal? Also I typically don't spend more than 20 to 30 mins on a beat. I'm not trying to call anybody out, but I hear people say on here they spend a month or weeks on a beat. My question is do people spend days, hours, or a month on beats typically to make a beat good? Or does that mean you need to work on your production skills?
 
Good question I think everyone is different and everyone has a different work flow. A lot of people start from scratch meaning they search for each drum/each sound each time they start a new track...

Some people (like me) start from previous tracks where the drums and sounds are already there and mixed etc so it's not going to take as long. I've personally never spent more than a couple of hours on a track.
 
After coming up with the basic idea for a beat,it's usually pretty easy/fast for me to put down the core elements of the track. But what takes a lot of time is building the arrangement and putting on the extra/finishing touches,till i'm really satisfied with the end result and feel like a beat is 'complete' (if that's even possible).
That's the most time consuming part for me, and probably the reason why i give up on so many of my beats due to frustration of not getting the results i want...
 
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I generally spend more time on an original beat than when im working with a sample. If its a remix even longer.

SOme beats are finished in 10 mins and are super hot. Others take 5+ hours and are super hot.

If youre spending max 15 mins on every beat you do though. Youre probably nor spending enough time in my opinion
 
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yea i dont spend more than 30 minutes - an hour to work on beats.

once you get your workflow and know how to maneuver in your DAW and through your sounds you get quicker
 
I always start from scratch, which means that I prepare my sample; stretch it and what not. Thinking about a drum pattern, sketch it up and then start digging crazy for a fitting snare, layering often lots of em, same goes for kicks... Tend to have 2 different kicks which each contains like 5-10 different kicks to get the sound I desire(more or less depending) same goes with the snare. I aint got no hurry, I want everything to fit together, and really... time doesnt matter as long as the final product is nice and you are satisfied.

You can't really measure the level of skill you've got by completing a track within X hours or minutes... And when you say that you are done with a beat in 15-30 mins, does that include stretching/pitching the sample, finding drums, layer drums, mixing and arranging? If so, I'd very much like to hear the beat lol....
 
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^^^^^^^I mean 15-30 minutes typically, and sometimes it takes an hour to 2 hrs, excluding layering drums, pitch, etc. that is considered mixing to me, but I do do that too in the same time......I'm not using the time as a measuring stick, I'm just saying I can't imagine spending more than like 2 days on a beat....I'm really trying to figure out the level im on, and if your a good producer will your beats consistently always be good?
 
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word i hear you. I've been producing for 4-5 years and consider myself pretty good. Id say about 30% of what i make is wack, 50% good, 20% bangers. I can have streaks for months where everything i make is heat, and then make nothing but shit for the next month. Not at all consistant for me. My "average" beat now is way better than my best beats when i first started though.
 
SoulMath said:
word i hear you. I've been producing for 4-5 years and consider myself pretty good. Id say about 30% of what i make is wack, 50% good, 20% bangers. I can have streaks for months where everything i make is heat, and then make nothing but shit for the next month. Not at all consistant for me. My "average" beat now is way better than my best beats when i first started though.
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Cool man, that's what I was wondering, thanks.
 
everyone has different work rates, i dont usually spend longer than an hour lol id like to hear ya beats though
 
Ive had times where ive laid the foundation of the beat in 5-10 minutes, but it takes hours to make a standalone track and not just a 3 minute looping beat. Thats what I have been struggling with lately. I would like to stay far away from boring my listeners
 
abstracted said:
finished beats, yes
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And it's not finished until it's good, right? Haha!

But really, as for time, depends on your workflow - if you're using all hardware and doing instruments yourself (i.e. live) think about it - If I want the beat to loop every, say, 8-12 seconds, then I should lay drums for 1 or 2 minutes, grab whats good, get the computer to quantize it or whatever, then lay out a bass line, play around, basically jam with myself, then guitar, uke, bongos, breath noises, body beats/slaps, beat box, whatever, it's basically sampling yourself so no digging involved, then you can get an arrangement in 15-20 minutes EASY. but MIXING could take hours.

If you're using pre-loaded kits in Reason/Ableton, and synths or pre-loaded samples, then again, it's just jamming with yourself on loop, so it's easy to bang out a bitching LOOP in 15-30 minutes (maybe 30-45 if you want an intro, hook, break, outro).

If you dig, rip, tweak, and layer [/i]each sample[/i] then I could see it taking days, but most people don't do that unless they're composing a master piece (or trying to, or making something specific for an artist, etc)

Will all your beats be good? Hell no - did you ever sit down at a keyboard (or whatever instrument is easiest for you to goof off on) and play some melody or progression that was HEAT? sure! did you ever (in the same 30 seconds of playing) get 15 seconds of notes that were corny as hell? Definitely. Sometimes we don't realize that the progression or rhythm or melody is whack until it's too late.

But don't look to strangers for approval, look within yourself, and if you think your material is good, then good on you.
 
I spend 10 or 11 hours on a beat. I sample and compose, but I feel that I am always consistently "pretty good". I want to be a dope producer (obviously), but I have to do things that I've never done before... I just don't know what that is. So lately, I've been trying to start a beat off with experimentation, something that's outside of hip hop and work from there. That isn't working either though lol...

I honestly get mixed reviews on my beats, in the Give and Receive feedback section on this forum, people tell me that my music is heat, but when I get critiques from a&r's and established producers, I hear the same things over and over "if you find better sounds you will take your production to the next level" "work on that arrangement" "make sure you have a lot of dope transitions and drops".

This producing thing is a learning experience and it doesn't matter how experienced you are, you can always benefit from learning.

/rant
 
Those that dare to f*ck up usually end up with the interesting stuff as well. Staying within the safe zone rarely gets innovative.
 
Damn 15-30 mins to a beat? U guys are workin hard enuff on your sound selection... Just cuz the sounds with it doesn't mean it should be there... Look for that other sound that will take it to the next level feel me.. If your only puttin sounds that are okay with the original melody you'll never make it.. Take it to the next level and spend time for that better sound.. That's what really took me to another level.. But 30 mins on a beat? U guys must all be just samplin...
 
Well, not all composers are sound designers - I know if I'm making a synth patch (for Reason) it could take me literally 4 hours of work time if it needed it - but that is not writing a song/beat. That is making a sound.

If that's what you mean, SwagProductions, then sure, 30 minutes *can't* be enough. But who designs sounds when they're trying to lay down a beat? That's a terrible interruption for creativity, and a different goal. Maybe you lay out your drums and bass and put the lead line on piano in 15 minutes, then spend 3 hours making the bass sound you want to use and tweak it up, etc, but you don't spend hours and hours and hours actually *composing* a beat, right?

I mean, I could spend a month composing a concerto for a string orchestra, but not a rhythm that loops every 10 seconds, know what I mean?
 
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