Some of My Best Work Ever!!

Z

Zacobe

Obe1Cannoli
I think my production and mixing skills are gettin' pretty good. Below are three links to what I've been working on in the past couple months. Listen to one of them. Listen to all of them. I know some people don't like it when multiple tracks are listen in on post, but I'm just now deciding to request feedback so no need to make three separate threads about it. If you like the first one you listened to, go to the next. They are all finished and mixed. I would like to know if you think the beats are hot, and if they sound good. Please be honest, my feelings won't be hurt. Thanks.

BEAT 4
https://soundcloud.com/obe1/beat-4-stamp

MIH
https://soundcloud.com/obe1/mih-stamp-1

PHASE6
https://soundcloud.com/obe1/phase6-stamp
 
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BEAT 4
Good mixing. Too repititive especially that high flute sample, you just need to make it dissapear sometimes. Liked the bass sound. Somehow reminded me of "Ain't Nobody" song.
MIH
I'll just pass it, sorry it is just aint' my thing.
PHASE6
Good quality. But again arrangment is a bit poor. It feels empty most of the time, no mid-range instruments like pads or something to make it sound full and solid.
I'm jealous of how clean your tracks sound, I need to step my mixing game up really bad.
 
BM_XT said:
BEAT 4
Good mixing. Too repititive especially that high flute sample, you just need to make it dissapear sometimes. Liked the bass sound. Somehow reminded me of "Ain't Nobody" song.
MIH
I'll just pass it, sorry it is just aint' my thing.
PHASE6
Good quality. But again arrangment is a bit poor. It feels empty most of the time, no mid-range instruments like pads or something to make it sound full and solid.
I'm jealous of how clean your tracks sound, I need to step my mixing game up really bad.
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Thanks for your honest feedback. I felt the same way about Beat 4 until I put a Rick Ross vocal behind it and it completely took my mind away from the repetitivness, hopefully a potential customer will see that opportunity as well.

Phase 6, kind of the same sentiment. I too felt it was missing something at first but I think a good female artist could fill out the gaps, hopefully. One of my biggest producer hang-ups right now is knowing when the beat is done.. I always get to a point where I feel it just needs one more thing but can't find it, and the times when I do feel like I found it, it turns out I've over-produced it. Hopefully I can get a better instinct for that aspect of beat-making.

As far mixing, thanks for the compliment. I spend just as much time learning how to mix as I do learning how to make beats. I've come to realize there is no substitute for hard work and a good monitoring environment. My room is fully treated and my frequency response at the mix position is +/- 5db, which is pretty good for a living room. Those mixes all took at least 10 hours, so it doesn't come easy. Thanks again.
 
Everything you posted is mastered really well and sounds very clean. There's not enough variety/mixups for them to be standalone, but I'm assuming they're not meant to be. How did you learn to mix/master? I've been trying to get a clean sound like that, but I can only do that on certain occasions and I'm far less consistent with it.
 
Hey man, I appreciated the honest feedback you left on my thread: https://www.futureproducers.com/for...ts-beat-contest-entry-feed4feed-100-a-521848/

Would you mind advising as of what exactly in the mix is not "hype" enough? Thanks.

Beat 1 - Mix is clean. Bassline is definitely the best part of this. Drums are on point but the actual drum samples chosen are very stock sounding. Sample loop and drum pattern becomes far too stale. You need to do more than just filter it out for a bit. A change up in drums and moving away from that loop for even 16 bars would make such a difference to this beat. It definitely needs more work.
 
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Good mixing on all your beats. They sound so clean. How long did it take you do learn to mix properly?

MIH is my favourite out of the tracks you posted. You really captured that dance vibe. That bassline is beat 4 is really good. I can't get into phase 6 cos it sounds too repetitive but other than that good work.
 
Beat 4 has a nice vibe, could see like Nas or Rick Ross on that. A change up in it somewhere would be cool too
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I know beat 4 seems really repetitive, but you really gotta try to imagine vocals on it. When I was making it I put Rick Ross vocals over it that sounded perfect, and it never got stale. Actually, think about dead presidents 2.. that is also a 4 bar loop that rarely changes besides filtering out the loop for a bar or so - that is where I got the idea to do the filtering. You might be surprised at how much your mind is taken away from the loops when the vocals are dope.

As far as the mixing, a lot of you are asking how I learned to do it. Time. Lots and lots of time. I went through a bad breakup a couple years ago and kind of became a hermit.. after work if go home and straight to Pro Tools to work on music until bedtime. On the weekends I skipped the bar and worked on music from the time I woke up Saturday morning to bedtime on Sunday. I found a studio that allowed me to intern there, and learned how to use hardware gear. Never asked for a dime, only for studio time when it was available. Watched countless mixing videos, read countless articles, and did tons of experimenting. I stopped working on music for 3 months to learn about acoustic treatment, and made my panels and everything and did room tests until I got my room the best it could be. For each of those mixes you heard, just probably bounced at least 15 versions of it, because each time I did a big chunk of something I would go out to my car to check the bass (my car has a subwoofer).

I could go on and talk about eveything else I did, but that is a basic idea of how I learned to mix well. Time. Each mix easily took at least 10 hours. Im not even going to mention the gear because its not the key factor here. I wanted to quit on every mix as well, telling myself i sucked, but i kept going, and thats how you get better.

None of those songs are mastered, and I think 2 of the 3 don't even have anything on the master buss, I try not affect the whole mixes dynamics at once if I can. You'll notice the tracks are lower in volume than typical masters, because when you try to squeeze as much volume as you can out of a track, you kill it if you don't know what you're doing - let a proper mastering engineer do that. Plus, when people buy your tracks, you will leave enough room to fit the vocals in better and the whole track will sound better for it, and the customer will come back. Alright that's enough of my yammering.
 
zoo said:
Hey man, I appreciated the honest feedback you left on my thread: https://www.futureproducers.com/for...ts-beat-contest-entry-feed4feed-100-a-521848/

Would you mind advising as of what exactly in the mix is not "hype" enough? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I mean the dynamics of the track aren't exciting. Songs that get me hyped up are ones that when the kick and snare come in, they slap me in the face, and are in a good relative balance to the melody and music. Your drums didn't smack me in the face. Now that not to say that all tracks are meant to be aggressively mixed, but a kick and snare don't have be mixed aggressively to get that punch and smack.. Your mix might not even need a ton of sound adjustment, may just be the balance of the rhythm section vs the music. Hard to tell without actually mixing it myself.
 
Zacobe said:
I mean the dynamics of the track aren't exciting. Songs that get me hyped up are ones that when the kick and snare come in, they slap me in the face, and are in a good relative balance to the melody and music. Your drums didn't smack me in the face. Now that not to say that all tracks are meant to be aggressively mixed, but a kick and snare don't have be mixed aggressively to get that punch and smack.. Your mix might not even need a ton of sound adjustment, may just be the balance of the rhythm section vs the music. Hard to tell without actually mixing it myself.
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Alright man I'll see what I can do with that. Appreciate you getting back to me.
 
Hey boss,

I just listened to Beat 4. I like the sample (or did you create that?)! I agree with the previous posts in that it's too repetitive. I understand you were imagining Rick Ross vocals over it, but even then I think some low-pass filtering or effects would be nice...just to shake things up. I think Rick Ross would appreciate that too.

Check me out and let me know what you thinK! https://www.futureproducers.com/for...ack-will-return-feedback-521901/#post49991011
 
thesoulcreates_1 said:
Hey boss,

I just listened to Beat 4. I like the sample (or did you create that?)! I agree with the previous posts in that it's too repetitive. I understand you were imagining Rick Ross vocals over it, but even then I think some low-pass filtering or effects would be nice...just to shake things up. I think Rick Ross would appreciate that too.

Check me out and let me know what you thinK! https://www.futureproducers.com/for...ack-will-return-feedback-521901/#post49991011
Click to expand...

Lol nah I didn't imagine it, I downloaded his a capella and mixed it into the beat. It sounded dope. Maybe I'll post it here so people can see what I'm talking about. I'll check your best a little later when I'm at my computer.
 
You got some ok beats - nothing to blow me away but still sonically nice sounding.

BEAT 4 - my fav of all the beats actually. dope sample (if it is a sample, if not dope melody) and nice work on the standard boom bap drums.

MIH STAMP - being from the UK I hear enough of this cliché dance/edm music that it all sounds the same to me now - if that was what you were aiming for then you did that well.

PHASE6 - had me nodding for a bit but couldn't help but think it was a knock off to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J3vgcE5i2o - albeit a very good knock off.

You obviously know how to make music and mix your songs, so well done for that bro.
 
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MessyBeatz said:
You got some ok beats - nothing to blow me away but still sonically nice sounding.

BEAT 4 - my fav of all the beats actually. dope sample (if it is a sample, if not dope melody) and nice work on the standard boom bap drums.

MIH STAMP - being from the UK I hear enough of this cliché dance/edm music that it all sounds the same to me now - if that was what you were aiming for then you did that well.

PHASE6 - had me nodding for a bit but couldn't help but think it was a knock off to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J3vgcE5i2o - albeit a very good knock off.

You obviously know how to make music and mix your songs, so well done for that bro.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feed. Yeah as soon as I finished the majority of phase6, I realized it sounded exactly like say it right from Nelly furtado, not promiscuous. I guarantee you that is where I was getting the inspiration from subliminally. I actually planned to trash it because I hate making beats that sounded like another especially this close, but my producer friend told me I should still finish it because it sounded good, so I did. Timbo is one of my top 3 fav producers.
 
Quick question.. I do agree with you guys that these beats are pretty repetitive and kinda mainstream, but my main goal is to sell non-exlusive copies of them on my website for $20 each. Do you think they're good enough for someone to pay $20? I mean the quality is better than a lot of leased beats out there, and the concepts aren't any worse than a lot of stuff I hear, just curious what you guys think.
 
that shit your beats don't have. man i am trying to help[ you. i may not be mainstream but i have a great mix. you could learn. peace dude,
 
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