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Written By: 504MusicMan aka CashStill

Reppin New Orleans, La.

1. Where to place a bridge in a Hip Hop track?

2. What is a song typical structure?
3. What is compression?
4. Compressors & Limiters, When To Use Them?
5. Mixing Frequency
6. Eq Tip
7. Key Frequencies For Instruments
8. Recording Without Distortion (Checking Input Levels)
9. How To Make A Just Blaze Breakdown On A MPC 1000 or 2000XL?
10.Latency Explained (Delay In Hearing Sounds When Using External Keyboard with
Computer or Software
11. 11. How Do You Reduce Latency?
12.Making Drumz sound punchy!
13.Using The Right Samples
14.Where to add Change Ups in my Beatz?

15.Does sampling make me less of a producer?

16.What is Digital Audio?
17.What are SoundFonts?
18.What is the best to produce Hip Hop n R&B Music, Software or Hardware?
19.How to remove vocals from a song to make an accapella?
20.Which model AKAI MPC Beat Machine should I buy?
22.Which Is better Fruity Loops or Reason 3.0?
23.Which software package is the best for chopping up samples and making drum kitz?
24.Where can I have my music heard on the web for free?
25.How to create pgm on the computer and load into the AKAI MPC 2000XL?
26.What is MIDI?
27.What is the best equipment to start out producing with a limited amount of cash?
28.How much should I sell my beatz for?
29.Setting Beat Making Goals?
30.How do I start my own Record Label?

1. Where to place a bridge in a Hip Hop track?

Answer:
My advice to you is to put it either right after the second verse for more effectiveness
or right after the third verse and then two hooks and have the song fade.
Depending on the feel of the song you can go with either 4 or 8. try 4 and freestyle to
it and see if you think it's incomplete, if so go for 8. 4 or 8 Bars that is :-)
Another Method I use a lot of bridges in my hip hop productions and after the 2nd
chrs fits well because with hip hop cats know the hook is usually gonna drop afer the
sixteen bars, so that keeps the continuity...
Then after the second chrs most tracks just feel like they need a change to refresh the
track and it allows for you to go crazy and show off your production skills!!

2. What is a song typical structure?

Answer:
A Typical Song may have this time proven structure:
Intro (4-8 bars) A (8 bars) B (8 Bars) A (8 Bars) B (8 Bars) C (break) 2-16 bars A (8
Bars) B (8 Bars) C (ending)

3. What is compression?
Answer:

Compressors help even out the dynamic ranges of different instruments. Lowering the
Highs and Turning up the Lows. THRESHOLD - is the point where the compressor
begins to recognize the signal. Once the compressor recognizes the signal it begins to act
i a way that is determined by adjustments of the attack time, release time, and ratio
controls.
A THRESHOLD is the entrance point where the signal enters to be compress. ATTACK
TIME - is the amount of time it takes the compressor to turn a signal down once its pass
the THRESHOLD. If the ATTACK time is too fast, the compressor can turn down the
transients.
Causing a instrument to lose life and clarity. RELEASE TIME - is the time that it takes
for the compressor to let go, or turn the signal back up once it is out of the threshold.
RATIO - is simply a comparision between what goes through the threshold and the
output of the compressor.
GAIN REDUCTION - refers to the amount the compresssor has turned down a signal
once it crosses the threshold. The only difference between a Compressor & Limiter is
where you set the RATIO control. Limiters are used to record a sound source that might
suddenly blast out but is usually fairly constant. BASS GUITAR that plays normaly on
the verse but ThUMP or SLAP on the hook is an example.

4. Compressors & Limiters, When To Use Them?

Answer:
Compressors & Limiters are normally used "during" the recording process to adjust
signals. Compressing on Mixdown can result in more apparent noise on a track.

5. Mixing Frequency
Answer:
Mixing Frequency Changes 1. Equalization 2. Filtering 3. Distortation / Fuzz 4. Noise
Reduction

6. Eq Tip
Answer:
When producing Hip Hop n R&B Musaic it is best to adopt the subtractive EQ
approach to mixing.
Meaning you cut instead of boost. If there's too little highs, remove some mids or bass
to shape it. This does two things - minimizes phase-related artifacts, and more
importantly, reduces unnecessary signal level that will eat into your mixer's headroom
since cutting will reduce the amount of frequency a waveform will take up.

7. Key Frequencies For Instruments

Answer:
Kick drum
0db +3 eq at 50 Hz, +1 db at 3khz, -3db at 275 hz. No FX except maybe subtle
ambience. You will tweak the kick again, this is just to get you going.
Snare
-2 db eq to taste in the frequencies above 4khz. Add reverb if the song calls for it.
Do the best you can to keep it out of the way of the vocal, even if you have to pan it
a few degrees.
Lead Vocal
0db use a low cut filter to eliminate rumble and plosive pops around 100-200 hz.
Carefully enhance the delicate high end around 15khz to add air and sheen and don't
overdo it! This is the trickiest adjustment and may often spell hit or dud. Perfectly
center the vocal and pan it not with pan controls, but with very subtle left/right hi
freq eq's. Put on the cans (headphones) and make sure its in the absolute center of
your forehead.. Every word must be intelligible. Add reverb and delays but don't let
it get smeared.
Cymbals
-25 db Avoid letting these get in the way of the vocals. Pan them to 2 o'clock and
remember their main function is to add the glue to a track to hold the music
together--they do not have to be loud or present
Synth pads
-20 db Do these in stereo and hard pan left and right with generous effects if
needed. However, keep them in the back. Pads indeed are beautiful additions to a
song but don't let them overshadow any of the main elements of the song.
Bass
-10 db Always front and center. If you use FX restrict yourself to chorusing or a light
flange--no reverb.
Rhythm guitar
-15 db pan off center eq: use a low cut filter to get rid of any bass and add a mid
range eq for a slight narrow boost, but make sure it is not competing with the
vocalist's sweet spot.
Percussion
-20db put these elements off center unless they are essential to to basic beat. EQ in
a tasteful way if necessary.
** Watch the meters when you play the whole mix through the board. You should
have peaks at +3db. If what you have is more notch down every fader in 1 db
increments until you get there.

Mono Check:
Always check you mix in Mono and look for sudden drop outs or instruments that
disappear. That's phase cancellation at work, and it happens with stereo tracks and
effects.
No faders above 0db rule:
When getting a mix started follow this religiously. If you find your vocal doesn't
sound good unless its at +5db then move everything down 5 db. Conserve
headroom. You don't want your mix compromised by that awful crackle at the peak
of your song.

8. Recording Without Distortion (Checking Input Levels)

Answer:
When you record digitally, its very important to set the input level correctly, meaning
right on point!.
Above all, you don't want the signal to be too loud, as this will cause clipping, digital
distortion.
Digital distortion is also know as recording your music TOO HOT. Meaning too loud.
Clipping typically occurs when a too loud analog signal is converted to digital in the
hardwares A/D converters. If you are using Cubase SX clipping might also happen when
the signal from the input bus is written to a file on your hard disk. (This would only
happen if you made the signal louder in the input bus (by raising the bus level, adding
effects or EQ, etc.)
1. Locate your stereo input bus to the left in the mixer.
2. Right click somewhere in the mixer window to bring up the Mixer context menu.
3. Select the VU-Meter Settings submenu and make sure "Input VU" is activated.
4. Play the audio source that you want to record and check the level meter for the input
bus. (The signal should be loud as possible without exceeding 0db the Clipping indicator
shouldn't light up)
5. Adjust the output level of your audio source so that the meters go as high as possible
without going up to 0.0db Now you have made sure there's no clipping in the audio
hardware.
6. Bring up the Mixer context menu again and select "Post Fader VU" from the VU
Meter Settings submenu. (This is the normal metering mode which shows levels after the
channel faders)
7. If you now play back the audio source you can check the output level of the input bus the signal that is to be recorded on your hard disk. (If we would have made adjustments

in the input bus there may have been clipping. If this happens, simply lower the input bus
fader, reset the indicators and try again)

9. How To Make A Just Blaze Breakdown On A MPC 1000 or 2000XL?

Answer:
When you play the metronome on the MPC you get 4 clicks to a bar. 16th time would =
16th notes. there are 4 of these in one of the MPC clicks. When you are doing 1/16 that is
one tick out of 16 (one click on the MPC=4 of these). 4 clicks = 4/4 time, if you think of
16th=16 beats 4 to one of the mpcs clicks so like this mpc 4/4= 1 2 3 4 mpc 16th time =
1---2---3---4--- = 16 clicks where - is a click. Hes makin it so that your are play just 1 or
4 clicks in this time instead of 4 in 4/4 time. You can do crazy drum rolls like this.
Very interesting. Make a simple loop (k,s,h) following his instructions and you will hear
an ill breakdown. Explained A Little Further You have to develop timing. Count to the
click, 1-2-3-4 = 1 bar 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4 = 4 bars Quarter Notes. You kinda
always want to start on the 1 and end on a 4. Whether 2 bars or 16 bars. there is also 8th
note timing 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and = 1 bar 8th notes 1-e-and-a-2-e-and-a-3-e-and-a-4e-and-a = 1 bar 16th notes the numbers represent the clicks on the mpc, 1 2 3 4 or quarter
notes. The 8th notes are usally the time that the hats follow, the MPC only plays quarter
notes on the metronome (clicks). The kick and snare might be in quarter notes. Your
sample might play in 16th notes. Just count along all the time and nod your head or tap
your feet to the beat. It just takes time to get good timing. Just allways tie it up at the 4
and start on the downbeat (the 1).

10. Latency Explained (Delay In Hearing Sounds When Using External Keyboard)
Answer:
Latency is based on the fact that in a computer, audio has to be "buffered" (stored) in
small chunks during various steps of the recording and play back process.
The more and larger the chunk, the higher the latency. High latency is most troublesome
when playing VST instruments and when monitoring through the computer. Make sure
that the transfer mode for the Hard Drive is DMA Busmaster.
You can check this setting under Windows Device Manager and looking for properties of
the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers primary and secondary channels. DMA is enabled by
default but may be turned off by the system should hardware problems occur! ASIO
Drivers run more effeciently than MME or Direct X drivers and normally produce shorter
latency times.
Make sure you Multitracking Software settings for Audio drivers is set to ASIO and not
one of the above. Normally the lower the buffer size the less latency.

11. How Do You Reduce Latency?

Answer:
Having a ASIO driver is the most important piece of the equation to determine wheter are
not you will even have a chance at reducing latency!
If you have a Sound Card without a ASIO driver, look at possibly upgrading!
But if the answer is yes and you do own a ASIO driver Sound Card, you still must have
your software configured to use this driver.
Most times you have to make the setting changes manually.
Like in Cubase SX you have to go to the Devices section and make sure its not using the
"Direct X" driver instead of the ASIO.
So make sure 1st you own a Sound Card with a ASIO driver.
2nd Make sure its the Latest / Greatest driver from the Sound Card Manfuc.
3rd Make sure the Buffer settings are all set properly.
4th Run Win XP in "Classic Mode" to free up a lot of Resources
5th Look at coppin a utility like "Free Ram XP Pro 1.40" to manage
and stay on top of maxmizing the amount of free ram you have avail.
while doing your music production
NOTE: Please make sure you have the most RAM installed on your machine as possible
if your going to use it for Hip Hop n R&B Music Production. 256 mb of RAM isnt quite
enough these days to run the memory intense applications on the market today!

12.Making Drumz sound punchy!

Answer:
Making your drums punchy the first thing is compression. if you don't think your drums
are punchy enough then the chances are you are not compressing them right. you may be
overcompressing (bear in mind that many of the samples that you use may be compressed
already) or you might not be compressing enough. as a rough guide, i go for about 10db
of compression, ratio of about 7:1, attack time between 0.15 (for snares) and 0.45 (for
kicks) and a very quick release time. the compressor i use is waves C1.
If you don't really understand compression that it is a good idea to read up on it. the
sound on sound site has got some good articles as i recall. the next thing that can help to
punch up your drums is a bit of overdrive/distortion. don't go overboard with this, but
mess around with some light distortion and it will do a hell of a lot for your kick drums
especially. predatohm is my tool of choice... last thing of course is EQ. for the 'snap' in
the snare i usually boost around 2k and for the body of the snare i usually boost a little
around 250-300hz (too much of this and you've got a whole lot of mud though...).
For the kick i make sure that it is layered between the sub bass and the main bass - i
usually end up boosting it at around 100hz and cutting it below 80 and at around 400 (or
wherever my main bassline is hanging out). i also tend to give it a little push up at 2k or
so to bring out the high end of the kick to give it some definition. hi-hats: loud hi-hats
help to make your tune stand out and definitely do a lot in terms of perceived loudness.
try a touch of overdrive... ok, hope that's useful.

13.Using The Right Samples

Answer:
Spend the time to get lots of the ?right? samples and sounds together BEFORE you load
up your sequencer and start piecing a new track together. If you start with only a few
sounds you hit ?writers block? pretty early on when you try and make something sound
interesting with just a few basic sounds, then you have to break your concentration even
further and go sample hunting again. If you start with a large list of samples to pick from
you can just flick through them until you find sounds that work and any samples you
don?t make use of just use on the next track you do. Making sure you chose the right
samples is also very important as you will probably struggle to make a drab sample sound

great by applying lots of EQ and plugings (unless you make music that involves a lot of
distortion). Ideally, the sounds you chose should require no EQ and only enough
compression and limitation to make them sit well in the track, but although this concept
might work well in other styles of music it will make most breakbeat and D&B producers
fall off their chair laughing. If you know exactly how you want a sample to sound then
you could EQ and process the sample file before you put it in your sampler, but keep a
backup of the original file in case you need to undo the changes you made. In any case
the less plugins and EQ you use, the cooler your CPU will stay!

14.Where to add Change Ups in my Beatz?

Answer:
To keep your tune from becoming repetitive, try changing the drums just a little. If
youve got a main kit layered with a couple of breaks, try replacing (or just dropping out)
one of the breaks after 16 bars and adding, say, some ride cymbals or tambourines or
some open hi-hats (2-step stylee!!).
Changes like this will maintain the general flow of the track but just make things a bit
more interesting. Listen to Bad Company?s drums for examples of this

15.Does sampling make me less of a producer?

Answer:
One of Dr. Dre most famous songs was a loop "Ain't But A G Thang" Nothing wrong
with a lil sampling diggin n crates is really a foundation for Hip Hop so it could never
mean you a lesser producer for doing so.
If anything, you can say your more pure to the artform & culture of hip hop by sampling
Now there is 1 thing about sampling There is the lazy / non creative way = Puff Daddy &
then there is the more complex / = DJ Premier, Alchemist, creative way of sampling You
decide which route your going to take

16.What is Digital Audio?

Answer:
Digital Audio is a term which can be used to describe a wide range of topics, including:
The audio generated/played back by your computer. The method of recording audio from
an analog source to your hard drive or sampler. The audio stored on a CD. How Does It
Work? Similar to a scanner which breaks down an image into thousands of tiny dots
called pixels, a digital recording breaks down the audio waveform into thousands of tiny
samples.
When you listen to a CD, you are hearing the playback of 44,100 (44.1 kHz) samples per
second! Using your computer and your SoundBlaster sound card, you can record your
own digital audio at levels of up to 96,000 (96 kHz) samples per second - that's more than
twice the quality of a compact disc!
What is sample rate and how does it affect quality? Sample rate refers to the number of
samples per second as mentioned above. This is often displayed as kiloHertz or kHz. The
higher the number of samples per second, the greater the sound reproduction will be.
Why Should I Care About The Sample Rate Of My Sound Blaster sound card? Imagine
riding a train across a beautiful countryside. Not imagine if you could only open your
eyes once every five seconds.
What kind of image of the world would you have? How could you accurate describe the
scenery if you only have limited information? The same rings true for the sample rate
used during recording. At lower sampling rates, the audio will sound fuzzy due to a lack
of samples required to represent the sound accurately. What Does A Sampler Do? A
professional digital sampler records audio and places the desired audio on a keymap to be
used as an instrument sound.
Any sound can be recorded via microphone and be used as an instrument on a digital
sampler. An example of digital sampling can be found in the film "Ferris Bueller's Day
Off." The title character, Ferris, uses a sampler to fake his cough, just by pressing a key!
(We don't recommend trying this at home!)
The road to digital audio is littered with the many ways in which audio can be stored.
Whether it's saved as a Real Audio file or a Windows Media file, you can bet that you'll
run across the following file types at one time in your life.
We've compiled a small list to help you sort through the madness of file type extensions.
Extension File Type aa Audible Audio File aac FAAC File aif Audio File aifc Audio File
aiff Audio File ape Monkey's Audio File asf Windows Media File asx Windows Media
Playlist au Audio File avi Video File dat Video CD File jmx MusicEx File lks Learnkey's

Real CBT File lqt Liquid Audio File m1v MPEG Video File m3u MP3 Playlist mid MIDI
File midi MIDI File mov Quicktime Video File mp+ MPEGPlus File Mp2 MPEG Audio
File mp3 MPEG Audio File mpa MPEG Audio File mpe MPEG Video File mpeg MPEG
Video File mpg MPEG Video File mpv MPEG Video File ogg Ogg Vorbis File pls MP3
Playlist ra Real Audio File ram Real Media File rm Real Media File rmi MIDI File rmid
MIDI File rmm Real Media File rmx Real Media File sdp Scalable Multicast File smi
SMIL Document File smil SMIL Document File snd Audio File (Mac) swf Shockwave
File tac TAC File voc Voice File wav Audio File (Windows) wax Windows Media
Playlist wm Windows Media File wma Windows Media File wmv Windows Media File

17.What are SoundFonts?

Answer:

Basically SoundFonts are the "physical" files inside that are in Hardware sound module
like the Proteus 2000.
You can now purchase Sound Fonts and use with programs such as Fruity Loops and
Reason.
The sound quality of Sound Fonts are pretty much identical to the Hardware counterparts.
SoundFonts can come in many different flavas , there is the Mo Phatt Sound Font,
Planet Phatt Sound Font, Orbit Sound Font, Proteus 2000 Sound Font, and Triton Sound
Font.
Think of it like this, its like owning all these hardware Sound Modules for like a couple
of bucks. (Some Soundfonts start as low as $14.95)
(Matter fact, a lot you can find online 4 free, if you do yo research right)
Here is a starting point for gathering you some sounds http://www.sf2midi.com

18.What is the best to produce Hip Hop n R&B Music, Software or Hardware?
Answer:
This is a real difficult question to answer because it really boils down to the indivdual.

The best thing I can tell you on this topic is to go online and check various Hip Hop
Music Websites and get different people opinions.
And believe me you will get plenty of em on this topic.
In my particular case, I started out using Hardware and quickly found a lot of limitations
that prevented me from shaping my music into what I really wanted it to sound like.
I found that using Fruity Loops & Reason 3.0 with my hardware has allowed be to do a
lot of unconventional things with my music other producers cant even imagine!
Now you dont think Iam going to tell you everything about the in and outs / pros / cons
of all the above.
Some things your just going to have to learn on your own!
Try going to a local music store and do comparisions on various products to get grasp as
to which direction you should be going with your production.
NOTE: If you are interested in producing music with software be sure to Read our article
on the site in regards to Fruity Loops vs. Reason 3.0

19.How to remove vocals from a song to make an accapella?

Answer:

Sorry man, it just cant be done. Once a song is Mix Down thats a wrap! You can not
separate the Vocals from the Beat! Its impossible. If you software making this clai
your probably about to get ripped off!