does an 'easy' beat mean its not good?

[John Locke]

yeah, some ppl on here confusing "simple" and "easy", not the same things at all. sometimes making something real stripped and minimal, with all the hits (and spaces) in the right place can b the hardest thing of all

anyway, its all good

[dj acto]

MAKE BEATS FOR YOURSELF!! Seriously they sound better if you really like them

[spanmalaise]

Even though these beats sound easy or simple they are oftne not. The skill tends to lie in other areas such as making the drums punch real hard, or seeing the biger picture.

If it was easy we'd all be like Timbaland getting paid thousands for a "simple" track

I dislike being hostile about music, it's not constructive at all; just to clarify though, the reason why we're not all Timbaland churning out (or perhaps plagiarising) "easy" beats is because he was in the right place, at the right time, with the right image and made the right choices; it's not all about the music unfortunately.

Having said that, I just make tracks that I nod my head too and totally feel, and if it makes me happy the rest isn't important

[raise cain]

sometimes less is more!!

And many times less is less.

[monk]

Less is more for sure / Doesn't matter as long as it sounds good.

[ikeaboy]

sometimes less is more!!

And many times less is less.

And sometimes more is more but more can be less sometimes, more or less.

[cryptic]

sometimes less is more!!

[__________]

simple is good as long as its well produced. loefah for example.

dj premier's beats are hardly rocket science, but he makes them really well, therefore everybody wants to work with him.

[bjackman]

listen to Noisia tunes

http://www.myspace.com/denoisia

they are some ridiculously talented producers. while some of their beats are madly intense and complicated you sometimes just get the completely boiled down

kick snare kick-snare

and somehow noisia make it sound beautiful without hihats or anything. [/url]

[raise cain]

sometimes less is more!!

And many times less is less.

And sometimes more is more but more can be less sometimes, more or less.

It can, yes, but when more is more and more means total exhilaration-take-me-to-another-dimension, more is more FTW!

[cixxxj]

heaps of my all-time favorite tracks are relatively simple...

the other day I was listening to an interview with Troy Allen (drummer for Fela Kuti, co-inventor of the afrobeat sound). about the development of afrobeat, he told the story that when they were starting out, someone said to him 'you want to be successful and make money from music? you just use the kiss method - 'keep it simple stupid'. after taking this idea to heart, the bands new material was breakthrough and became hugely successful.

I have a tendency to make things over-complicated when I produce, but I'm aware of the problem, and trying to simplify my tracks these days.

dont get any simpler I love ur polyrhythms!

[r]

a complicated beat is hard to make, but an easy listening functional groove is much harder to make.

if you wanna keep things simple then make everything really functional so it won't feel 'empty' or 'static'. Think about dynamics in instruments etc.

[holik]

heaps of my all-time favorite tracks are relatively simple...

the other day I was listening to an interview with Troy Allen (drummer for Fela Kuti, co-inventor of the afrobeat sound). about the development of afrobeat, he told the story that when they were starting out, someone said to him 'you want to be successful and make money from music? you just use the kiss method - 'keep it simple stupid'. after taking this idea to heart, the bands new material was breakthrough and became hugely successful.

I have a tendency to make things over-complicated when I produce, but I'm aware of the problem, and trying to simplify my tracks these days.

dont get any simpler I love ur polyrhythms!

tony allen, not troy. the inventor not co-inventor.(fela kuti joined tony allen&the africa 70, tony was the effective bandleader all the time. and no, that is not a put down on the huge influence and inventiveness that fela had.)

otherwise no complaints about the post.


for me hiphop in general (like dancehall, jungle and dubstep) has always been system music. you just got to hear it banging or it misses half of it´s whole damn thing. and in that situation simple is good. in fact simple is always better, if you get it to work. you can´t hide shit. at all. every sound needs to be just right, layering must be top notch(like some of the prince paul stuff). okay, for me hiphop is and always will be sample driven while dubstep is more electronic, but the same aplies.

[fixation]

a complicated beat is hard to make, but an easy listening functional groove is much harder to make.

if you wanna keep things simple then make everything really functional so it won't feel 'empty' or 'static'. Think about dynamics in instruments etc.

this x1000, ive been trying and its very, very hard to do

[konrad]

Someone said my Mum was easy. I don't think that's good thing although the person in question seemed to be fairly appreciative of his statement.

[Dodger Man]

I think the most important thing in a beat is drive. You need a solid rhythm to keep the tune moving, theres nothing worse than an out of time beat.

Also get some offbeat hits in there!

[boyd]

The important thing is the finished product as a whole, and how the beat fits in with whatever else is going on. Some tracks work because they've got intricate drum patterns that other producers can think 'hmm yes that's clever', and others work with deadly simple ones. I agree with people saying simple is not the same as easy though.

A lot of the dancefloor-killa 'jump-up' tunes at the moment seem to have very stipped down, simple drum patterns. Chase and Status' new dubstep bits don't even use hats, they're just big, fat, simple kick/snare patterns. Obviously the effects/layering/reverb etc helps to make it sound good. But it's mainly the synth line that then does it. Same deal for the where's my money remix, simple, 'easy', beat that on it's own would be slow, yet with the bass (or whatever you call that noise) it sends a dancefloor crazy.