In this article we are going to be discussing quite a few questions regarding Hip-Hop (and other urban musical genres) drum samples. You will often see these types of questions in online music production forums and beat making forums. There is very rarely a ‘good’ answer on these forums however and it is pretty much impossible to get unbiased opinion on any of the subjects, especially with e-rep so prevalent in online communities these days. You might think it but the music production and beat making forums are definitely not exempt from this online observation. Let’s begin our questions.

Should I Pay for Sounds?
Certainly not! Of course you can, if you want to, buy a variety of drum sounds both online and offline in places such as guitar centres and music shops but if you don’t have all the money in the world to spend on professional drum sounds then that isn’t a problem. Many of the world’s leading Hip-Hop producers have done perfectly fine without stocking up on every single company’s drum samples.

If you have a decent knowledge of audio compression and some other filtering and processing techniques then you can more than likely manage to develop your very own small set of drum samples that you can use over and over again and will come in useful all the time. There is only one problem with doing this and that is that if you are not careful then you will end up with a collection of hip-hop samples that all sound alike. This is because all of your samples are coming from one source and you will need to take care to make sure they don’t all sound alike, otherwise your recordings could sound a little stale.

Is it possible to use Dance Sounds for Gangster Rap?
Of course it is, all you need to be aware of is the arrangements. With a gangster rap loop, a gangster rap loop is exactly what you get, regardless of samples. A dance loop is just that also and so long as you keep the pattern right then you can use just about any samples you like.

Simply by doing a Google search for ‘Free Loops’ you will manage to find some great MIDI files available for private use. Also you should listen to some of your favourite artists and analyse the samples they are using and the way they are arranged and layered. If you apple what you learn from this to your own work then there is really no way you can fail.

Some drum samples seem louder than others, Why?
The reason for this is simple. These days there seems to be what I like to call a ‘Loudness War’ in music. More than ever it seems that drums are the make or break element, even in non-mainstream songs. This means that for the companies selling these drum samples, simply turning up the volume using compression on their samples could mean a much higher volume of sales. Exactly how much better they fare I’m not sure, but for the companies that are selling well treated drum samples that haven’t had the volume tampered with are losing out, just for doing the right thing. Most companies believe that noise influences sales; this is why you will find TV ad’s to be louder than the actual programme.

Most music producers have one particular piece of software that they find to perform the best and will always work with. This preference differs greatly depending on each individual and the fact of the matter is that as long as you are using a piece of software you feel comfortable with, it doesn’t really matter if anyone else finds it to be the best. The piece of software that has the best features and the best interface is always open to debate is when it comes down to it, it is just a matter of opinion. The best way to decide is to simply try each of the different pieces of software but we understand that might be a time consuming task. In this article we will try and fill you in on what we think are the best pieces of software out there based on 2 components, the sequencer and the sound editor.

The Sequencer:

The sequencer will be one of the main and most important parts of the program that you will use, no matter which program you choose to buy. The sequencer is the part of the software that you will use to create your own beats and lay your track onto. Two of the most popular programs out there that are used mainly by hip-hop producers are Reason and Fruity Loops. Fruity Loops comes in 3 different versions and the features vary slightly depending on which version you choose, but so does the price also. We recommend that you have at least the Fruity Edition as the Fruity Loops Express Edition cannot be used as a standalone sequencer and will require other software in order to use it. In our opinion Fruity Loops offers the best value for money being only $149 whereas Reason is $499. Obviously Reason gives you the better sequencer but if you’re looking for value for money or are on a tight budget then Fruity Loops is the way to go.

The Sound Editor:

The function of a sound editor is to edit wave files, which is very useful in sample based production. Sample based production is basically where you would chop up a variety of records and then make an entirely new song out of it. Some of the best and most popular sound editors available at the moment are Adobe Audition, Propellerhead’s Recycle, and Sony’s Sound Forge. As with the sequencer there isn’t technically one of the programmes which is the best, it is all down to your preference. Personally, we think that Adobe Audition is one of the best we have used so far and retails at $349. There is also a sound editor in Fruity Loops Producer Edition if you are working on a tight budget.