Hip Hop production equipment/sounds

[J Blazin]

any recommendations on what souds modules or equipment the pro's use? I know about MPC, Mo phat.

[trampbaby]

dont use a mo phat or any pre fabricated "hip hop" keyboard...an MPC a stack of dusty records or the CD reissues (the most importand)and a roland sound module for your basics..guitars, pianos,strings etc.. add a SE-1 or an ATC-1 for synth and deep bass tones, a kurzweil 2500-2600 for expansion and thats all you need to move like the big boys, I mean timbaland uses a asr10 ( i dont know why) and pete rock still uses a sp1200 and a 950 (go figure) but for r&b production you CAN NOT BEAT roland for your basics and an mpc...DONT let anyone tell you about tritons ,motifs and all the other thin sounding fad peices..add those as fillers after you have a core set up...virtually EVERYONE in R&B uses a MPC a roland 1080/2080/3080/5080/5050 etc..and a Studio Electronics SE-1 (most people dont even know what it is.) look it up and good luck doin" the damn thing

[Cool John]

i use the roland 3080, mpc2000xl, and a korg karma.

like trampbaby said, roland sound modules are the bomb, along with an mpc.

as for tritons, motifs, and other thin sounding fad pieces as he said -- this is true to an extent. nowadays a lot of people trying to make it big in rap assume that since dre and the neptunes use the triton, if they get one, then they can immediately make platinum hits as soon as they press "POWER".....most people do not know how to use the triton to the fullest. they need to LAYER the sounds and not just throw 3 pre set tunes together and call it a beat.

but if you really know what youre doing, you + a triton/motif, will be a very dangerous combination

[lacasanostra1]

use whatever you can afford and make the best of it. I use a triton rack, motif, xv5080, audity2000, proteus 2000, alesis qsr, ensoniq asr-x, mpc 60, sp1200 and reason 2.5 (as of yesterday) not to mention my technics sl 1200's......there are so many free sounds online you can download and so many resources......just do the best with what you ve got...learn how to use your units right.......if youve got talent you'll do good and maybe make it big someday

[mpcpro]

Get a MPC 2000 a Korg Triton Classic and Pro Tools LE (digi001) and get to make'n heat! One more thing, do not look at what everyone else is doing. Just get the above gear, build your own sounds from scratch and create your own style. Good Luck

[myles]

I agree that the Korgs can sound a bit thin at times, but I definitely wouldn’t discourage anyone from using them. I have a couple of Korg synths and they sound great when you run the right effects across them. But even dry, they don’t sound "bad" by any means. The Neptune’s tracks have been sounding very "Korg-ish." I use the Mo' Phatt on 75 percent of my Hip Hop and R&B. I think it should be a staple in any studio cranking out urban music... Along with the Proteus 2000 and most of the expansion cards. The drums/perc are completely original (and hard hitting.) The strings and guitars aren’t always realistic, but they are always useful. To me, they are the best back-up modules to have. R. Kelly's been all over the E-mu modules for a while. As far as Roland goes, the XV's are pretty hot right now (I love mine.) I've been using them on just about everything lately. Roland's stock patches are the best, and rarely NEED to be tweaked. I use the MPC to sequence with, but I wouldn’t see the need to have an MPC and a TRITON alone. That’s a waste for the most part. Honestly tho, with a little creativity, you really cant go wrong with any gear you decide to pick up. You can make some serious tracks with all the pieces mentioned in this board.
Good luck man.

/////////////////////
oooops... that wasnt meant as a knock on mpcpro.
just my opinion... It looked kinda harsh reading it again.

[Busy]

I use mo' phatt mostly for durm samples and some sounds are ok too. A word about ars10 for you trampbaby, for being over 10years old is still great a piece. You can load 1024 at once, it has great filters and envelopes and you can sample and resample sound with effects and even many sampler today can't offer that. Sequncer has a nice groove but you got to get used to it. timbaland and wu tang are using it and maybe secret weapon of many.

I think Roland is great and it is/was fundamental for hiphop and r&b. I used and know people they used JD800/JD990 with mpc/sp12 and did great tracks and I kept it until today. I also worked with EX5 and I like it a lot maybe some ppl should consider this over motif I know it has some problems but works good when put with other gear and its also less money. Studio Electronics SE1 is prety much a must or at least makes a lot of production easier and one of these S950/MPC60/SP1200 should be irreplaceable if you want that 12bit dirty sound.

The sound of hiphop changed over the years with new equipment and different styles and today we got tritons and motifs. If you think you heard and can do everything if you got these, that can be dangerous. Anymore I do everything + recording in my laptop with 160firewire hardrive full of samples you can make phat songs and people laugh when they see this but result(creativity) counts. I ask me, am I going to be jobless soon? Anyway what ever comes...

Don't belive the hype

[myles]

I hate to sound like a co-signer, but I agree with Busy 100% about the EX. I made the same recommendation a few times -- not that my opinion is anything special... But the EX series never really got it's full 15 minutes. They ARE cheaper alternatives to the MOTIF, but they would make for a good investment regardless. Its not always about the newest whizz-bang board, ya know. You can really get some nice sounds from them... Especially after you've played with one for a little while. Vintage Synth gave it 5 stars ...definitely something to check out.

Vintage Synth EX5 Review

[shibster]

Don't use any keyboard manufactured acoustic sounds, otherwise you'll sound like that swissbeatz garbage ****. Buy sample libraries for 1/100th of the price, because you can pick and choose each instrument you like, and the good ones don't come on the keyboards already. The keyboards you should be using are synths. Dre uses a minimoog voyager and an mpc 3000 (and a dude named melman ace, his favorite production tool the co-producer).

Here's a list of some hiphop producers and equipment.
(the list doesn't mention all the computer software used to change the sounds around, and the scores of audio engineers perfecting the sound)

ASR-10
------------
Blockhead
Myself
Cryptic One
Aesop Rock
Omega One
RZA (all wu albums from '93-'96)
Large Professor (whether he still does, I don't know)
Stoupe
INS
Timbaland (with a triton)
The R (K-Otix)
Alchemist
Apathy
Jean Grae
Bink (did **** with Jay-Z)
DJ Mekalek
Akrobatik
Mr. Lif

MPC 2000 or 3000 or 60
------------
Celph Titled
Kanye West
DJ Statik
Just Blaze
Megahertz
Lord Finesse
Mr Jason
Detention
Hi Tek
Mighty Mi
DJ Spinna
Outkast
Evidence
Fred Ones (Sonic Sum)
8th Wunduh
J Zone
Mr Len
DJ Shadow
Jay Dee
Pete Rock
Evil Dee
Mr Walt
Baby Paul
Primo
Pharohe Monch
K Def

SP-1200
--------------
Madlib
Pharohe Monch
Easy Mo Bee
Showbiz
E-Swift
Pete Rock
DJ Muggs
Dr. Dre (he said he still uses it)
Evil Dee
Mr Walt
Black Sheep

MPC 60
--------------
Primo
Pharohe
K Def

and El-P uses an Ensoniq EPS-16+

[mpcpro]

No harm done Myles. The MPC was the first sampler I had ever bought so I have become very good at using it for its strengths which are being able to quickly build drum kits and making window shaking bass hits. The Triton is great at many things but building sample based, fast loading hard hitting drums is not one of them. Do'nt get me wrong the triton has some good drums, but it is faster for the way I work to have custom made drum kits on a dedicated machine designed to do such.

[shibster]

Originally posted by mpcpro
No harm done Myles. The MPC was the first sampler I had ever bought so I have become very good at using it for its strengths which are being able to quickly build drum kits and making window shaking bass hits. The Triton is great at many things but building sample based, fast loading hard hitting drums is not one of them. Do'nt get me wrong the triton has some good drums, but it is faster for the way I work to have custom made drum kits on a dedicated machine designed to do such.

the triton is a gigantic waste of space and money.

[Ted]

Care to elaborate?

-Ted

[shibster]

Originally posted by Ted
Care to elaborate?

-Ted

Well, all of the samples on it are trash. Which immediatly takes a chunk out of the value. Second, it's sequencing and queuing is subpar, especially in the drum department. Buy a $2 keyboard and use midi with a VST or sample rack.

[myles]

Originally posted by mpcpro
No harm done Myles. The MPC was the first sampler I had ever bought so I have become very good at using it for its strengths which are being able to quickly build drum kits and making window shaking bass hits. The Triton is great at many things but building sample based, fast loading hard hitting drums is not one of them. Do'nt get me wrong the triton has some good drums, but it is faster for the way I work to have custom made drum kits on a dedicated machine designed to do such.

Oh okay... I didn't think about it that way. The MPC was my first serious peice of gear too. I mainly use the it for sequencing and CD drum libraries though. So you modify the drum patches from the Triton to create your drum tracks??? A lot of times if im going for a little extra dirt, I will create a drum loop or a short guitar part, sample it in the MPC, reduce the sample rate and mix it back in with the original part. That gets me a grittier texture but its still stronger than a raw 16bit sample. Honestly, Im too lazy for all that extensive patch creation stuff. I wish I wasn't though. Outside of your standard ADSR functions and a little resonance here and there, I rarely stray too far from the preloaded factory patches/kits. If I can't find a use for the patch/drum sample the way it is, it doesn't get used.
It's definitely an advantage to have a knack for that stuff tho

[mpcpro]

Originally posted by shibster
Well, all of the samples on it are trash. Which immediatly takes a chunk out of the value. Second, it's sequencing and queuing is subpar, especially in the drum department. Buy a $2 keyboard and use midi with a VST or sample rack.

You sound like someone with just a drop of gear envy my friend. I did'nt think we where here to trash talk peoples personal choice of tools. What ever works for you great, but the Triton is used by many people who are very happy with it and love the sounds. If you are only into using presets and never program your own patches than a $3,500 keyboard may not be the right choice for you as it will require a bit of knowlege as to how osc, filters and LFO's work if you want to do more than just scratch the surface of the synth