8th of April, 2022
I've actually been experimenting with samples for a few years, but up until about a month ago, when I watched Jeen-Yuhs, I hadn't tried to make hip-hop beats using old songs as samples. Although the idea for this project comes from old-school hip-hop beats, I want to focus on sampling in general, not just using samples to make hip-hop beats.
Here are a couple of examples of beats I have made with samples - they aren't finished but I think they are good examples of when I've sampled other songs:
The sample in this song comes from a song by Kendrick Lamar called 'B*tch Don't Kill My Vibe'. I was listening to the song and heard a couple of bits on the outro that I thought I could take and turn into my own beat.
The original song is 134bpm, I slowed it down to 127bpm and by doing that, the samples have been stretched out and as a result the pitch of the samples sounds lower. I cut a few parts out of the outro, rearranged them and added drums to create my own beat.
As well as EQ'ing the sample I have also put an effect called Crystallizer, created by a company called SoundToys, on the sample. Crystallizer is a delay plugin, but with a little twist; you have the option to reverse the output of the effect. As well as this, you can change the pitch of the output, which I have done (I have turned it up 12000 cents to be exact). Instead of applying the effect directly to the sample, I set up the effect on another mixer channel and put a send on the original samples mixer channel and then side-chained them, so I could apply reverb to the output of the Crystallizer and not to the sample - the reverb only affects the sounds that the Crystallizer creates, not the original sample. I also added a lowpass filter to the Crystallizer mixer channel.
The sample in this song comes from a song by Adele called 'He Won't Go'. I decided to sample it as my girlfriend likes the song and she said I should try to.
The original song is 159bpm, I slowed it down to 128bpm and by doing that, the sample has been stretched out and as a result the pitch of the sample sounds lower. I decided that the one sample of the piano at the start was all that I needed from the song for this beat.
It took quite a lot of effects to make this sample sound how it does, although there is one effect that really switched up the whole song; MRhythmizer. MRhythmizer is a time manipulation plugin. I used two different versions of the plugin - one of them was so that the sample stuttered. The first thing I did was EQ the sample, and then I added the first version of MRhythmizer and automated it to create variation in the instrumental.
After this, I added a delay and filter to the sample.
After adding drums, I added my second version of MRhythmizer. There's another use for the MRhythmizer plugin other than making sounds stutter - slowing a sound down to 50% speed. To this day I'm not 100% sure how the plugin actually works, but it basically slows it down to half of the speed of the sound. It can change sounds emphatically by making them dark and moody. Sometimes, when I'm not sure what else to do to a beat, I apply the effect and see how it sounds. In this case; I think it sounds a lot better with the effect so I decided to keep it on the sample.
To improve the quality of the sample; I added 3 more EQ plugins - 2 dynamic equalizers made by the same company that made the MRhythmizer plugin, Melda Productions, and the FabFilter Pro-Q 3, which is a very high quality EQ plugin. The equalisers purpose is to remove unwanted frequencies.
20th of April, 2022
Today I'm going to write a little bit about what I'm going to be rapping about and I will also explain the process of how I made an instrumental a few days ago.
I live in a small and very boring town called Melksham, I don't really do anything out of the ordinary and have quite a normal life - so when I hear a lot of famous rappers rapping about things like crazy things that have happened to them, spending a bottomless pit of money and drugs and women and anything else controversial, I often think that I don't have a lot to write about. On one hand that is true, on the other hand, and this is something I need to keep reminding myself, everyone has something to talk about no matter how boring their life is. For the past couple of months I've been trying to write lyrics to my beats - it's not going terribly, but I know I need to keep practising. A lot of the time I write about how I've never really had any money and never really experienced anything, like going abroad. Another thing I like to write about is that I'm not messing about - I'm really trying to be the best in the whole rap scene, which of course will take a lot of work but is far from impossible. At the moment, my lyrics aren't the best but I think that they will get a lot better as I experience more things in life.
I was looking for songs to sample the other day, 3 days ago to be exact, and found a song called 'Inori' by Taeko Ohnuki, from 1983. I found out that the singer, Taeko Ohnuki, is Japanese, and the song is from an album called 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas', containing various artists and released by a label called 'Yen Records' so I believe the song is a Japanese Christmas song. As soon as I heard it, I knew that the vocals at the start of the song would be perfect to sample.
I heard the first part and instantly downloaded it and loaded it up in FL Studio. I skimmed across the rest of the song to see if there were any other parts I wanted to use, but couldn't find anything of use.
The tempo of the song is 150bpm - I decided to slow it down to 128bpm, which of course lowered the pitch of the sample. The first thing I did to the sample in terms of effects was EQ'ing it. I used 2 types of equalisers; the FabFilter Pro-Q 3 and a dynamic equaliser, created by Melda Productions. I used the first one to take away some of the lower frequencies from the sample and give a tiny boost to the high end, I used the second one to remove even more of the low end. The third and fourth effect I used was a filter plugin, called MFilter, once again created by Melda Productions. Within the plugin, there's 3 different settings; 'Moving', 'Static' and 'Following the input'. The first filter I used was a static one and I used it as a lowpass filter. The second one was a moving filter, which automates a lowpass and highpass filter at the same time. You can also edit the time of which type of filter is being automated. It only creates a subtle different, but I like the small difference that it adds.
Now I have manipulated the sample to how I want it to sound; it's time to add drums. Most of the time when I pattern drums into an instrumental, I have a slight idea of what I want to do, but I just messed around with sounds for this one. I ended up with a punchy kick, like most of my songs, a filtered snare and basic closed hi-hat, snare and 808 which are mostly used in trap music. At this point, I just had to arrange the patterns into a song - I did this by listening to the song, without pausing, and duplicating what I thought sounded the most natural and fitting.
The song is not finished, as I believe I can add a few more subtle things to make it sound more full, but here is the most recent version I exported:
25th of May, 2022
For the past month I haven't updated this evaluation log at all, which is honestly down to me being lazy and not wanting to do writing, but as there are only a couple days left before the deadline I've realised I need to update it.
I've been doing the same as usual; making beats and writing rhymes, but I've also made a big decision regarding this project which is to not put vocals on the beats. I have 2 reasons for this: I don't really like the lyrics I've written for this project anymore, which is the main reason, and the second reason is that I don't feel I have enough time to change them to my liking and record, mix and master them - at least not to the standard that I crave; the absolute best.
Although I'm not putting any lyrics on the project, I would like to share a verse from the EP. The verse is from a song I call 'Rags To Riches', which would've been the intro to the EP and the verse would've been the first verse on the whole project. It's also the first verse I wrote when I started planning this project. The reason I would like to share it is because I think it would've been a good starting point for the project and it has a good message in it; which is that I need to step out of my comfort zone and actually try to push start my rap career instead of just thinking about it. I'm actually talking to myself in the verse, telling myself that I need to push forward and step out of my comfort zone otherwise I won't get what I want out of life.
There's no longer time to turn back
You ain't getting any younger, listen now, Jack
What's the best way to earn yourself a gold plaque?
Got a ton of cold beats, why the f*ck don't you rap?
I know you want a big house in the 'Hills
And a regular day to cost you a mil'
6 years in the game and the flame you became's going out, but you're not in doubt so what is the deal?
I keep telling you
You ain't never gonna get where you're heading to
When you don't think, too busy getting loose
It's a dangerous path that you've fell into
I can see that you're trying to get back to business
Picked up a mic with a flow that's vicious
Ain't gonna happen if you ain't ambitious
That's the only way you'll go from rags to riches
The beat I was going to use is a hip-hop beat, which samples a funk / soul song released in 1970 song called 'The Facade' by Melba Moore, from an album called 'I Got Love'.
I'm not sure what the tempo of the song is but the beat I've made plays at 110bpm. Unfortunately I can't describe the exact way I made the beat as I can't remember the order of what I did, but I'll try to document as much as I remember.
The first thing I did was search for samples. It didn't take long to find this beauty and I knew straight away how I could sample it and how I could use it to be a good intro to a project. I loaded it into FL Studio and got to work. To me; the intro sounds a bit like when royalty enters a room - that's why I decided to use it for an intro; I'm comparing my EP starting to play to the royalty walking into a room, because it's intended to turn heads (well, ears) and captivate the listener. I kept the intro quite similar to the original song, except part of it is slower, part of it is faster and I repeated a section of the sample a couple of times. I've also added a crash sound which appears in the intro 5 times, but I think it would be a better idea change it to a recording of myself hitting a cymbal from college so it sounds more natural.
After sorting out the intro, it was time to work on the first verse - once again; I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the sample, moreover I had a clear vision for what the drums would sound like too. I sped up the sample to fit the tempo of the beat and I didn't really have to do much else except EQing the sample and also trying to take the white noise out of it. I couldn't find a way to EQ it out without affecting the rest of the sample so I searched for a plugin that could do the job on Google - I found a plugin called 'Denoiser' and since then I've used it on every sample with white noise, it almost completely removes it. I sampled another part of the song for the hook, 2:13 to 2:32. I did the same thing with that sample as the first verse - EQ and stretching it to fit the beat. I stuttered the last part of the hook so it could easily flow into the second verse, which was very similar to the first one except I pitched the sample down a bit for 8 bars.
While I was looking for drum sounds to use, I found a loop of bongos which accompanied the sample so, so well. It was actually one of the first sounds I listened to from my massive collection of drum sounds. I decided to put it into the beat and stretch it so it fitted perfectly.
I programmed 3 bass patterns for each of the 3 samples with a really bad quality bass guitar sound found in one of my many drum kits. After a while I couldn't bare the sound of it - I needed something that sounded more natural; luckily I'm in a course with a few bass guitar players. Sonnet was conveniently in the same room as me when I realised I need a new bass sound so I turned round him and asked if he'd be able to record the exact same bass pattern and he kindly said yes. I apologised multiple times because I know I can be annoying due to being a perfectionist, but he didn't mind. although he did suggest maybe adding a little bit more to the bassline, but I wanted it to be a very simple bassline so I said no.
This is the most up to date version of the beat in it's entirety, it includes all of the sounds listed above.
During the time I haven't updated this page, I have also thought of an idea for a name for my beat-tape and a cover. I found some of my baby pictures the other day and one of the pictures is me wearing a beret while holding a brush and wooden paint palette, and one of the first thoughts that came to my head was naming the beat-tape 'Dorsett's School Of Sampling' and using the picture as the cover. As I won't be releasing this project anywhere I also thought that I could use this idea for when I finally release an album / mixtape, but maybe choosing a different picture (because I look so cool in a lot of my baby pictures) and different title.