Beats feel empty

[drdrevid]

i've made a couple beats with my motif and its onboard sequencer, and although i like the melody, the beats seem a little too simple. how i get down is, i start off with a simple drum loop like "kick kick snare" and i play it for like a minute. then i record a bassline over it. then i use a piano for the melody, and a little strings over the melody. it turns out really simple sounding, and not like something a professional would make. help me out

anyways, heres a sample of it. i know timing is off (im wasnt using the metranome and was sequencing freestyle)

[Bezo]

I'd add a bassline and maybe another percussive instrument... hi hats, congas... something to drive the beat. But I'd definitely put a bassline on a slow groover like this. It will add to the drama.

And think about layering those strings. Maybe add another type of string patch or layer it with another intrument capable of playing long sustaining notes. But I think the string patch needs some help.

A thicker drum kit might also be in order. With sparse tracks such as this, it's not a bad idea to have each element be heavier. Try layering the kick & snare to get something with more weight.

I'd also add some contrast for a chorus... maybe vary the groove a bit, and go to a new chord or 2.

Lastly, I'd sprinkle a little candy on it. A slow groove like that is begging for some atmospheric effects creeping in every few bars or so.

Lyrics on top of that, and you have a pretty full track, unless this is going to be an instrumental. If it is going to be an instrumental piece, I think it needs to develop more. Take a listen to some DJ Shadow to see how he might develop a slow groove like this.

You have a nice foundation to build on.

[betta_than_u]

tweak that piano.. i dont like the way its sittin. it dont sound 2 good for wat its supposed 2 be doin.


get some better drums.


change out that bass and make a nice bassline 2 match.


all ur ish sound a bit dry? try tweakin em

[dvyce]

i've made a couple beats with my motif and its onboard sequencer, and although i like the melody, the beats seem a little too simple. how i get down is, i start off with a simple drum loop like "kick kick snare" and i play it for like a minute. then i record a bassline over it. then i use a piano for the melody, and a little strings over the melody. it turns out really simple sounding, and not like something a professional would make. help me out

anyways, heres a sample of it. i know timing is off (im wasnt using the metranome and was sequencing freestyle)

I know you are just starting out, so I mean no offense...

You have to expect your stuff to sound "not very good" for a while until you begin to improve.


The sounds, performance, mix and production are all in need of improvement.

This will take practice before you can get the sounds right, get the emotion in your performance, learn how to mix, get familiar with recording and production.


I would recommend that you listen to "professional" songs and analyze the sounds and the treatment of the sounds and what FX are on them and if they are layered and how loud they are and the flow of the drum beat and how the instruments interact with eachother.

Experiment with your sequencer and the FX and processors so you have a better understanding of how your sounds react to them.

Try to emulate what other "professional" songs sound like...

...how loud it this sound?

...does that sound have any reverb on it? if so, how much?

listen to exactly how your song sounds different from other "professional" songs.

A song can be very simple and still sound great... analyze some great simple songs that you know.

[drdrevid]

thanks for the replies, all very helpful

[andychims]

like the last guy said. You can't expect it to sound really full by just throwing a few instruments in a mix. You need to know what types of instruments compliment other instruments, how to build up/break down, use fx, etc. That all comes with time. One thing to keep in mind is that more elements don't necessarily mean better. It can get too busy easily. For a start i'd mess with fx. Stock sounds are rarely exciting. Add some lo-fi, overdrive, phasing, etc. Do some eq'ing on all instruments, each drum. That's the most fun part!

[Dastrn]

high hats would help. in a slow groove like this, you might want to have two closed high hats at eighth beats, and then a half open "hiss" high hat for a quarter, (cutting right before your snare on the third quarter, you know?) then another "hiss" after the snare in the fourth quarter, leading back into your double eight.

throw a bass on top.

switch your piano sound to something with a little more punch, and add a bit of reverb to it.

layer the strings.

sounds cool man. Keep groovin.

[MrHope]

Kick-snare-kick-snare is good for a click track or metronome, but it's not good for a beat. kick-snare-kick-snare counts out like 1-2-3-4. What you need to do is replace the rhythm with something like 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 or 1-e-&-a-2-e-&-a-3-e-&-a-4-e-&-a. Notice that the last one gives you 16 beats. Placing notes on different beats will give you more syncopation. For example, put the kick on 1 & 4 and the snare on 6 & 8. Just experiment basically. Adding other percussion instruments on some of the beats in between will help too.

A good way to learn about beats is to use a program such as Tu2 (Tuareg II) from http://brambos.com and practice programming beats on a visual grid. It will help you learn where to put notes in time.

[Abeja]

This song is begging to be broken down into a mean ass piano solo. Add more percussion to drive the beat, as previously mentioned. High hats are a good start. Some bass rhythm and melodic variation wouldn't hurt either. Effects would help you out too, as it does sound pretty dry. Reverb/delay is a great start for that...Best of luck with your ch00n!

[nativereaktor]

I like the live feel, if that is what you meant to do. You have the talent to produce good music. The truth is when everyone is talking about your sounds and not the actual groove or feel, you are on to something. I would keep the groove you have, and play with each sound. If you can figure out how to just detune another string sound over that one a tiny bit that would sound great, Try adding a filter with a filter envelopes amnt to 1/2 over the piano this will harden it up, a Low Pass Filter or a High Pass Filter will have a diff effect, after the filter to add some attack and hardness, use a bit reduction distortion on the piano, try 12 bit. If you use a LPF then when you EQ take out all the low end of the piano to about 350Hz (use your ears). Distrotion on the snare would be great and will feed right into the sound of the reverb, which would sound better if you gated it (look up gated reverbs), to flow better with the ryhtym. Layer is a general word and there are many ways to do it, I recommend checking out eddie bazil over at samplecraze.com, he has an ebook on how to layer sounds. My favourite is to load up the sound in a wave editor which you can buy, I like peak for Mac and Sound Forge for PC (everyone has there fav) I like to find a kick with an attack (beginning) that hits hard and then the body of a boomier 808 like kick, I cut out the attack of the boomy 808 while leaving empty space infront of it for the attack of the harder punchier kick, I then insert the kick with the hard attack in the space at the exact zero crossing so if fits and then you have a great layered kick. The easy way is to just put one sound on top of the other but it must be in perfect time or you will create a phase like sound. Another layer trick is to do the wave editor trick above with an envelope, instead of cutting out the attack of the boomy kick just increase the attack and lower the decay of the hard kick attack to fit at the attack of the boomy kick. It is really hard to explain through typing, keep up that live feel, it will come in handy for groove, and a lot of producers omit HH's on certain songs to keep the attention on other aspects of the song.