Boring beats

S

Sweetzbeatz

New member
I'm a year into this and I feel like I'm not growing. I'm fluent with my hardware(Machine Mike)& still researching DAWs. What makes a beat exciting and or emotionally moving? What element am I lacking?
 
Listen to music with a critical ear though it is increasingly difficult to do in today's microwave music era. Also don't listen to something solely just to take the best or not-so-best parts with intent to sample.

Ask peeps you know what makes a beat exciting and you'll get many different answers. I love Hip Hop so for me drums get me every time, and I don't like instrumentals that consist solely of the 4 to 8 bar loop as without a dope MC most Hip Hop instrumentals can be repetitive.
 
Last edited:
what i found out brings your beats to life is adding some sort of structure and progression to the track. i used to try to emulate what i hear on the radio and whats mainstream but those beats are the same 1 bar loops repeated over and over and over and it sounded really boring by itself. also try coming up with cool transitions
 
Adding some musical phrasing to accentuate any vocals that will possibly be recorded over it in future is what really keeps it interesting.
 
FoulPlay said:
what i found out brings your beats to life is adding some sort of structure and progression to the track. i used to try to emulate what i hear on the radio and whats mainstream but those beats are the same 1 bar loops repeated over and over and over and it sounded really boring by itself. also try coming up with cool transitions
Click to expand...

Thank you?. Do you know of any good articles or blogs that explain the difference between weak transitions and the stronger ones? I've completely picked at the bones of YouTube on this matter. Open for suggestions on reading material. Thank you again though ?
 
Sweetzbeatz said:
Total noob question but musical phrasing?
Click to expand...

all good, it's quite hard for me to explain, lol plus I'm not an expert on music theory either,

the easiest way I can explain it is like a musical sentence. You can have longer sentences and shorter sentences,

similiar to the the way we speak we don't always use the same size sentences.

With music you are letting the instruments do the talking, even with vocals on top the instruments can kinda mound around the vocals to make it very unique as a track.

Phrases can be anything as a group of notes related, drums included, say little stabs combined with motifs, or an extra hihat or percussion part for a number of bars of your choice, as long as it all flows and fits well.

you can google a lot more about the subject and other people that know more and can probably explain it a lot better than I can.
 
Last edited:
OK. I think I get it. Like giving the beat a voice or personality of its own, which compliments but not over power the laid vocals. Yes?. Lol.
 
Sweetzbeatz said:
OK. I think I get it. Like giving the beat a voice or personality of its own, which compliments but not over power the laid vocals. Yes?. Lol.
Click to expand...

With a vocal beat yes I would say that, although it's an element in any type of music.

I think of it like this, you can have your drums, your groove, your chord progression and melodies, the phrasing and arrangement is how it's all put together to tell a musical story.
 
Last edited:
notes, sounds, and construction.... frequencies and structure create emotion... some sounds on their own have a certain way they want to be played :)
 
Sound design and placement of your instrument within the mix added with the processing tools you use (Reverb, Delay, Eq etc) can really set the atmosphere that you are looking for and then using layers of the same sound/instrument can give your track a stronger feel. Progression within your tracks with variation, build-up, and transition also play a huge part to adding a "complete" song. I've learn that just about all my favorite tracks have all of these factors.

Hope that helps
 
Everyone goes through blocks and challenges in life and this is what you are facing.

When I am facing a creative problem I find the worst thing I can do is FORCE myself to be creative. Instead, I suggest you allow it to drop. Just for a few day... then watch the inspiration that comes back.

But you have to allow it to drop.. don't keep searching for inspiration. Drop it. Completely relax and forget about it! It will come on its own.

It's quite amazing. This is how the energy of life moves. You can't sprint forever, you need time to restore energy.

Hope I helped you man and If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

---------
EyeAm.
The Masked Man.
EyeAm. The Masked Man. [Producer / Engineer] – Self Growth
 
That's really good advice. I've spent the last three weeks studying music theory and just playing with chord progressions and drum patterns, and I'm finally generating a more emotional and exciting sound. However, I'm still not where I want to be. Lol. I'm learning that there are many levels to this ?.
Thank you for the tip?
 
When I layer my sounds it creates this kind of weird distortion. It always ends up making the track sound stressed. Any tips to avoid that issue when layering same sounds?
 
Im still learning this myself, the learning will never cease. But to answer your question, an interesting beat to me is, something with alot of creativity, different sounds. Interesting sounds, like water drops or screams. Something along those lines. Add some interesting effects but don't over do it. Arrangement is key as well.
 
What makes a beat exciting or emotionally moving?

It is not one things that makes a song powerful. It is the total product. All in unity with each other.

Yes Chords are very important, yes the drums are important... but they must compliment each other.

So to answer the question.... it is important to have MOVEMENT to make something exciting. To make it emotional.

EMOTION = ENERGY IN MOTION

To create emotion you have to have peaks and valleys, don't make a desert. You want mountains.

You want the intro to move into the verse. The verse slowly picks up then explodes into a mountain (the chorus). You then come back down, relax in the verse again. Then come back with another chorus! BUT ADD SOMETHING TO THIS CHORUS!!

Make this next chorus the peak. Give it another instrument, make the drums hit harder.. do something.

So to sum it up. To add emotion, add movement. Very simple :)

Hope I helped!!

----------

EyeAm.
The Masked Man.
EyeAm. The Masked Man. [Producer / Engineer] – Self Growth
 
Last edited:
The main thing you can do to keep your beat entertaining is making sure theres enough variation. If the listener is just hearing the same loops over and over theyre bound to get bored. You gotta switch it up to make it sound good.
 
your own touch, your own personalization/layering is what creates moving beats
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top