DJ Trigonometry said:
I make riddims too. When I was talking about them I meant by the overall sound of them. That new mainstream dancehall sound. Over 2008 i been drifting away from remixing and started moving over to production. I have one riddim already finished. It's called Additional Death Riddim. Keep an eye out for that one. When i make riddims, the trouble I have is making the melody. If anyone has any tips that can help out that ittl be greatly appreciated. After i get the melody down everyting criss!!!
Here's one thing I had to learn... from way back... find your initial theme and match your production to create that picture. This also means that some riddims are going to be created, unlike the previous ones. Some cats get into an addictive routine of creating tracks in a particular order... but, often you'll find out that... not all riddims or beats need a full blown orchestration or a wide variety of sounds to be complete. Dancehall, Soca, Roots, Dub, Step, etc..., if you really listen to them, are created based on an initial theme.
To me... there are a few key things I had to overcome.
1) I try not to over produce my joints. Just because I don't have an artist immediately at my disposal... I have to leave openings for the artist to create their vision. I have to remind myself that "my role" is mearly 1/3 or 1/4 of the actual song.
2) Having a variety of sounds at my disposal, helps me to be able to project my imagination... to create the scenes or to project my visions. A lot of times... producers run across a creative block, simply because they feel that their sound kits have been exhausted or over used.
3) Who said that you can only use one harmony? What about something different for the intro, bridge, or outro or even remixing your own work?
4) Dispite what anyone might claim... dancehall doesn't have a basic 'one size fits all' drum pattern. Most dancehall riddims are audio interpretations of motions or dances that relates to the theme of the project. (If you need a homework assignment... create a harmony that discribes YOU. Then try creating harmonies that descibe how you work, how you eat, how you drive, how you screw, how or why you pray, etc. Capture yourself with your creations and then you'll find it easier to capture or create highly visual audio interpretations of others.)
5) I can't tell you how you should structure your melody, I can only suggest that "we" should practice and open our individual visions and find the best sounds that help create that picture. I can't front... I've been making hiphop joints since the early 80's and it took to the late 90's for me to feel that my sound kits and drum programming was up to par to represent dancehall respectfully.(That means getting to a point to which my material wasn't a knockoff of current riddims)
The last thing I want... is to follow the sound that is currently out. If you listen to it... a lot of it... is like that late 90's early 2000 hiphop sound... the epic/preset sounds that are the signature sounds of a lot of these popular workstations. Going that route... with my production.... is not for me.
Go hardware as much as possible and do some research to find out what kind of synths, instruments, samplers and effect processors that other great riddim producers use. Sampling old guitar/piano/organ loops from vinyl can give that "magic" sound, because they used different equipment back then. I personally learned the most from listening a lot to reggae.
I just listened to it about 15 times in a row. sound's real nice. I would love to hear it with a vocal track.