So, clearly, Diplo has had in hands in everything lately. Aside from producing obscure as well as mainstream artists’ albums and beats, he’s also been releasing his own fun grooves, and “Set it Off,” is a good example.
It’s a new one, and it’s a straight-up fun moombah track. The video is interesting, too. Aside from keeping with the time-honored music video tradition of showing as much human flesh as possible in under 4 minutes, its also rather tripped out and bizarre to think of a pole extending into space. Yes, it’s sexual, but it’s also fairly clever and simple, I would say… And simple is not a bad word; in fact, anytime you can mix sexuality with a simple-yet-clever idea (and then mix it with modern-edged electronic music) you’ve got something. This is not the last we’ll be hearing from Diplo… (and by the way, this one isn’t JUST Diplo, it’s also featuring Lazerdisk Party Sex!)
The more I hear of Diplo, the more I’m fascinated by what he’s doing.
This is a documentary that took place in a golden time in our culture’s history. That’s right: THE LATE 80s…
Why am I so frustrated? Scroll below the video to hear a vicious rant about the 80s. You’ll understand ;)
Sampling was still not technically off-limits, and artist such as the Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Coldcut, and Public Enemy were sampling, during a time period that is now considered the ‘Golden Age’ of hip hop.
But, whether you like what they said in the documentary or not, and though the debate still… ‘technically’ goes on today (though to a much more minor extent) what happened around this time period REALLY DID affect how people would make music. I say do what you want, and if you get sued, you must be making waves, right? Then, pay the fee, if it’s worth it, or just replace the sample with a different one, or whatever, and move on. That’s just my opinion, though. I’m not telling you that this route is the one you “should” be taking…
But, I wanted to highlight this documentary because I feel like sampling needs to come back into fashion.
You might say, “Oh, Will, what the fuck? Isn’t it still big?”
To which I will respond, “First of all, don’t curse at me… and second of all, no, I don’t think it’s as big as it once was.”
Underground artists sample a lot more than big name artists, though… But usually, when someone puts their own take on someone else’s track, it’s a “remix” of that track, and not a whole new song based on a three second sample. Boring! Fucking SUPER-BORING! Why not just sample something, and then cover it up, if you’re so afraid of getting sued?
There are actually different ways to do it. You typically won’t have to pay as much if you’re expecting to sell far fewer copies of your music, if you are indeed trying to clear the sample. Obviously, every song is different, and to really understand how much you’ll have to pay, you have to look up a specific song for yourself.
But all I’m saying is, artists should sample more. Why not? It’s fun as hell, and it goes along with the folk-paradigm that involves the ancient tradition of borrowing music and reinterpreting it, as opposed to the copyright-paradigm (or copyright-era) of the last century, where every song is supposed to be an island unto itself, as far as taking influence directly from other prerecorded songs.
I would even go so far as to say that sampling not only stays in tune with the ‘borrowing’ aspect of the world music tradition of the last ten thousand years, but that it’s actually just an updated form of it, as recording equipment has become a lot cheaper and accessible. Not a radical opinion. Sampling is natural. It’s an organic step in our evolution of technology and culture.
So, without further ado, here’s the documentary…
Also, watch for the really awful sampling endeavor involving Janet Jackson ruining a Sly & The Family tune. Once you realize she’s sampling him, you might just cringe. I did.
It isn’t frustrating ONLY because the documentary ends on a “sampling should be payed for, it’s just logical,” note.. but mainly because I can’t stand almost any of the people in this video, with the exception of some of the musicians. My goodness, the clothes were awful. I could honestly write a 300 page book (and cite tons of examples) and how ugly people looked in 1988. Seriously, what was the deal with that time period? What was the aesthetic they were going for? I know when grunge music hit, people ‘stopped trying’ as hard to look good, but.. honestly, I don’t think they were really trying that hard in the first place, in the five or ten year period before grunge. I mean, come on. Look at some of the folks in this documentary. You’re telling me people had to ‘stop trying’ just to look better than they did in 1988? Oh my damn, what an awful time period in fashion history. Ok, that’s enough ranting from me. Enjoy this documentary..
So, this might seem like it’s coming out of leftfield (or EAST field.. get it? India’s in the east? Get it?) Sigh. Terrible jokes. Anyway – I found this today, and thought I would share it…
David Starfield is a talented musician based out of LA, and he been releasing, among other things, electronic bass’d up mixes of popular Indian music. He’s recently released Bollyhood Bass Remixes Vol. 2 (Six Degrees Records) and it sounds like he’s been really involving himself in this sound for awhile. Besides the two Bollyhood Bass’ albums, he also put out Bombay Beats, which is also a fun set of tunes!
For the Bollyhood series, Starfire created some really modern/ancient sounds come together. It’s a great recording.
Next, the album was remixed by many popular producers who signed up to take Dave’s beats and sounds to new heights! For the first remix compilation of Starfire’s Bollyhood Breaks, Starfire’s tracks get the rinse with popular producers such as iLL.Gates, Sub Swaram, An-Ten-Nae, and Mochipet! If you’re a fan of bass-heavy beats and glitch hop / edm techniques, fused with classical Indian instruments and drums, you’re going to want to check out this series… To be honest, I find it really exciting to listen to some of this stuff.
This isn’t goa trance you’ll find in a beach hut by the oceans on the west side of India; this is fast, bassy, Hindi breakbeat soup, and boy-oh-boy is it delicious! (Ah, two bad jokes in one article. One hundred apologies…)
Here’s one from his new Bollywood Bass Remixes Vol. 2 release, this one called, ‘Load’ (Love and Light Remix)…
I feel I simply MUST point out, he had a new release come out just a couple months ago, the Jumpin Off EP, and so check that out, too!
So, this was just released today. It’s a new video from Kill the Noise, and I have to say… it’s fucking crazy! I especially love the boombox-gun, and the dubstep army they amassed for this production! It’s like a small rave-movie, and I’m loving it!
You really should check this out, if you’re a fan of electronic music, zombie movies, crazy post-apocalyptic 30mm 70s films, or just colorful scenes and fun explosions…
Trap music is on fire lately, so naturally everyone wants to make it.
Elements of Trap Music:
1. Roland TR808 kicks, hats, toms and snares
Kicks are made to sustain for a long time typically to emphasize sub bass tails. 808 Toms are probably the most common element used for “fills” (maybe every 4 bars or so, depending on energy of the tune and what else in it).
Typically the snare is an 808 snare with an equalizer boost around 200hz and highpassed somewhere in the 50-120hz range (depending on the bass of course!)
You can obtain these from any 808 sample pack on the net, use an actual TR808 or Nepheton by D16 Software which emulates a TR808 in a VST (I happen to use Nepheton myself).
2. Drip effects
Sampled or synthesized water droplet sounds are very common.
3. Chants
Made popular in recent history by Crunk artists like Lil’ Jon and the Eastside Boyz. Sounds a bit like old native american chants (think of the classic Ho-Ya Ho-Ya Ho-Ya Ho-Ya war / drum circle chant used in a lot of movies). But in crunk, it’s “Hey!…Hey!…Hey!…Hey!”, or “Grr” “Uh-huh” or any other type of repetitive short vocal hit. You can cut these from rap acapellas a lot of the time.
4. Leads, other basses etc
This is the best part about trapstyle – the rest is pretty much up to you! A lot of artists will put moombahton leads hits and elements to fill the lead line, or some will play something dubsteppy to give it a melody, or even electro or swing elements go well in here. Another alternative that is fairly common is to do literally NOTHING in this place, instead putting in a raw lead vocal acapella or emphasizing variations of the standard elements of trap in the beat. It really is up to you… And I think this is what motivates a lot of artists like myself to make this type of music. You are left with a lot to your imagination as to what goes in (at this point in time, anyway!)
I attached a sample pack of loops made in Nepheton (a TR808 emulator VST). Feel free to cut out the individual drums or use the loops in your own compositions, however you see fit.
Have fun with em, I reserve no rights except to ask that if you redistribute the raw loop files let everyone know they came from angryrancor and bassadelic.com. Otherwise go ahead and use them in your own free or for sale music – you can give a mention to me and bassadelic on your tunes if you want, but it isn’t required.
Here are a few trap tunes I’ve made:
Again, in case ya missed it, here’s the free sample pack for ya!
So my homie Simteks just came out with a new package for edm producers, and it’s dope! He’s selling it for only a few bucks, and you’re definitely going to want to check it out… here’s a preview:
Here’s the write-up, in Simtek’s own words….
This sample pack contains:
185 x 32 bit .wav files
185 x 24 bit .aif files
7 x sampler instruments
FORMATS
Ableton Live, Kontakt, EXS24
A sample pack containing 185 high quality files of seven different kicks, multisampled and covering bass notes down from C2. There are at least two octaves worth of samples for seven different styles of kick, all inspired by the classic Roland TR-808 boom. These samples have been meticulously synthesized and processed, and are recorded with plenty of headroom so you can gel them in whatever mix you would like to put them in. Each different kick features different tail lengths, harmonics and dynamic behavior so you can pick just the right kick for your track. There are also seven sampler instruments premapped for Live, Kontakt, and Logic users out there, for easy plug and play usage.
Why not just get an 808 sample and pitch it, you ask?
Depending on the quality of the sample, pitching an 808 sample can sound pretty terrible. Some are low bitrate, and do not transpose well, some have tape distortion or some other analog effect applied and when pitched sound off. Sometimes, you just want a short tail, and pitching samples up results in an unuseably short kick; while pitching them down results in distortion and a longer tail that you desire. This pack contains one sample for EVERY note at least two octaves below C2, so sample stretching is no longer necessary.
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Thanks for the awesome samples, Simteks! They’re dope as hell, and I’m starting to see more people download them and talk ’em up :)
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