Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
OT: The music you make vs the music you want to make
Curious if anyone else has this issue. I’m wanting to get in on hip-hop production. I’d like to make music for a living and that seems to be the easiest way to get your foot in the door nowadays. But every time I sit down, I ended up starting something that sounds more like an EDM song.
Don’t get me wrong, I can force myself to push out some hip-hop beats. But when I try to just sit down and get something started organically, I end up creating EDM.
I like EDM and it’s fun to produce, but that’s not really the kind of music you can just sit in a studio and produce and make that your job. EDM producers also end up traveling and playing shows, something I don’t want.
Anyone have a similar problem?
Comments
Become a songwriter for EDM and sell your songs.
If you have to force yourself to produce
the music then it comes across in the music.
You can still produce EDM dance tracks
without having to go and perform live.
Get a good vocalist or get some vocal samples.
Produce what makes you happy and get others involved.
Saying that if you really like hip-hop then do it.
Nothing stopping you except yourself.
Listening to Producer Grind Podcast (hiphop oriented, also highly recommended to listen to though regardless of genre imho) they are often lamenting that so much of making a living keeps them from being able to simply sit in the studio/ at home and produce. It seems like 90% of them are in their 20s and running all over the world (well pre-covid, heh/sob) or have to spend a massive chunk of their day doing marketing/scheming/networking etc as opposed to just being cozy producing.
Here is an interesting chat. Listened to it a while ago but I recall he was an EDM centric dude who got into beats etc
Making music for money can be more difficult than the music you naturally express, at least for me. Set some goals to get started, like create 5 :30 tracks in one or different moods, as if you’re being directed by a client. Cover a tune to get an idea of what works. Create a new track in the style of something you want to emulate.
With the amount of sample packs available in the world, it might be a hard nut to crack. Not saying it’s not achievable, however, the market seems to be saturated with everyone and their grandma making hip hop beats.
Get on Fiverr and see if you can sell EDM and/or hip hop beats. Make a website as well for access and present a professional image. Include some free beats or links to SC etc to show your work.
Good luck, mofo
Thanks for the info and resources. Definitely appreciate it.
And yeah I definitely know it’s an uphill battle. Travel is the biggest thing I don’t want to bother with. I don’t want to be one of those people who’s always on the road and never home to be with family and friends. I don’t mind having to put in time doing podcasts and social networking shit though. So much easier than what I do currently.
If you end up in IDM style, then you might think in an IDM-way. It might start with drums and bass, but i could be fruitfull to approach it in another way. Start with a melody, a vocal, a cut-up piece of random “shit”, listen to jazz, klezmer or whatever and try to filter out “the catch”. Start organic and slowly add in abstraction.
Its possible but you need to network and meet people. I made music for an advertising firm as a part time job 2016-2018 and in the beginning it is 98% sweat and 2% profit. Thru that i picked up independent contracts with gallery shows for visual artists doing sound design and some avant-garde vocalists, opera, etc.
I met the right people doing lighting and vj’ing for dance music festivals in Australia.
Anyway, you wont be making the music you want to make. Youll make the music your clients want and thats how you make money. To make a living? Itll take years to get to that point, but youll need to please your clients.
I have some friends/associates who mainly make soundtracks for games/tv/film and for the most part they feel like service providers (color by numbers creative) but every now and then one in twenty, maybe ten projects, (if they are lucky) the stars align and their personal interests are relevant in a project so they double down and give it their all. The best seems to be when they google their name and it is their passion project that rises to the top (interviews, rose petals etc) but for the most part the credits list is stuff they wouldn’t have listened to if they weren’t paid to have made it.
Is this about music or a career change?
🤔
Both.
Yeah I’ve actually started reaching out on Reddit to see if I can get some experience with video game music and sound design.
The best motivation for getting out of your comfort zone is: Getting Paid.
If it’s your job to make hip-hop, do your job properly and get paid.
Make EDM on your days off.
I'm the same way. I enjoy making Dance Music (EDM, Dubstep, Trance, Bass House, etc), but when I play out, I play the piano at a very sweet in-house gig at Bistro on the Glen 10 minutes from my home. I don't like to travel a lot outside of special gigs with my band of course.
I think the best way to approach producing Hip-Hop beats is to start doing it for fun at first. Allow yourself to make mistakes, to get critique, and to improve. Then when you're decent at it, then market yourself and get that money.
That said, another way to make money is to offer remixing services on Fiverr. To be honest, I'm considering doing this. Cheers mate.
Yah and in time the things you learn from getting paid can maybe be applied selectively to what you enjoy in your days off if by then you still have the energy.
Oh, btw if you are on the younger end of the spectrum a great book to read / audiobook is the ‘The 50th Law’ where Robert Greene and 50 Cent talk about this sort of stuff. Eh, even if you are on the older end it’s a good listen.
I try to make suit & tie rap that's cleaner than a bar of soap. Never happens though; it's always just filth.
Your conundrum reminds me of a quote actually.
It’s notable cause his output leans heavy into IDM and acid-tech. But he still manages to take disparate influences and merge them into banging hip-hop tracks. In another interview he was saying that his hip-hop tracks generally begin with samples opposed to synthesized sounds. Perhaps you could try a workflow like this, and start with some samples in BM3 or sEGments, and ensure they've got a hard hip-hop beat driving them. Then you can ornament it in any style you prefer. Turn the adaptable nature of hip-hop to your advantage!
edit: you may find it fruitful to study this album (The Almighty, instrumental), as the producer is a prolific electronic music and rock artist. So there are a lot of synths and tones here that are typically associated with EDM - but given a hip-hop treatment.
Hi there
Here is my 2 cents
If you want to get in on hip-hop production (or any other genre, direction), you can start by listening to tons of that genre, in this case from the early New York days of Hip-Hop to now. Check out the key albums, then diverge to lesser know stuff from the periods you’re listening to.Listen both from a listeners perspective and at times more analytical of the production values. Iirc there is this music internet radio show Wefunk radio that played a lot of several hours show with funk/soul and a lot of hiphop, some well known, some more indie. They have a huge amount of shows available to download.
Once you’ve bathed in hip-hop for some time, you will have digged and integrated what you liked about it : if you along the way start to get into producing hip hop, and what you liked transpires and motivates you without forcing to do more hip-hop, and you’re now almost naturally in the zone, than you’re good for this purpose
If otoh you still are drawn to EDM, then, producing hip-hop might not be your thing.
Now it is especially tough to hang with people inside in tight spaces like home studios safely, but getting to know performers of the genre you’re wanting to do is vital : not only can they give you pointers, but you could start banging out a few tracks with rappers, and see where that gets you.
Perhaps you will end up mixing some EDM into hip-hop, which might turn out fine.
Another ingredient is : compose and finish, compose and finish, rinse and repeat : do not overthink, spend half a day composing and the other half mixing, no matter where you end up : at night, bounce and that’s that, the day after a new page. If you’re able to create a few dozen tracks in a few months, perhaps even by inspiring or copying from hip-hop instrumentals you like, you will get proficiency in the genre, and this will also help getting a feel of how hip-hop tracks get constructed, which might over time become as familiar as your inkling towards EDM.
And lastly, if your tracks end up not being pure hip hop, but sound great, do not per se try to conform to a genre : believe in your own voice and be humble about it
Hope this helps
Good luck with your endeavours
N
are you using samples or synths?
are you using swing and setting your kicks snares and hats off beat both hitting early and later randomly?
i used to make hiphop but switched to ambient as i enjoy it a lot more and got sick of the restrictions if hiphop, every beat is the same lol kick kick snare, some hats lol there are plenty of hh artists who break the mold like madlib or doom but they are sample wizards, but almost every hh beat is the same and got boring to create for me... but i suggest just using drum loops and focusing on the sampling / chopping first. once you get your technique down then start chopping drums instead of loops... kinda helps to focus on one area at a time imo