Beat This! - January 27-28, 2021
- Thread starter Fade
- Start date
- Status
Hearing it through the Grapevine.
Well done @ errbody who attempted this. It probably took a fair few people out of their comfort zones or at least made them feel some element of challenge to it.
This is just a little review of the theme itself and may serve to offer some insight/advice to those who struggled.
Tempo
Obviously the 117 bpm was an immediate challenge as it isn't the most "hip-hop friendly" bpm to work with. Respect to Fade for choosing an acapella at that bpm.
This was gonna really put people's technical, creative, and musical abilities to the test.
Timestretching that down to BoomidyBappedy tempos would be a bit too slow, speeding it up to TrippitiTrappity tempos may be too fast. Especially if you were going to honor the theme and try to make an actual Hip-Hop remix! (Hence why many copped out and went for the House/EDM route).
Timing (LISTEN)
This is one element I really expected to throw people off - and looking at a lot of the common responses in the thread it looks like it is indeed where people strugged.
Personally I listen to the original and feel for the timing so i can line the feel up right on my beat. (Or so i know how to play with it.)
Marvin was coming in on a lot of 'and' beats. So 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
It wasn't just straight forward coming in on or just before the bar, some parts starting on the 3 beat and plenty starting on 'and' beats.
This was a fairly time consuming part for me personally replaying his verse of the og and counting 1234 but i needed to know where he was landing so i could keep the feel whilst altering the vibe.
It sounds like a lot of people struggled with this element quite a bit.
But there is interesting ways this sometimes works quite well, but it was also quite obvious in the parts it didnt.
Key
Fade didn't provide this info, being already kind enough to provide the bpm (i think the bpm was a key thing to state, more of a point to it).
I'm not too certain what actual key the acapella was in as i didn't bother to check... in fact I'm fairly certain I was playing in a different but similar key which shared a lot of same notes, i think it gave the song a slightly 'modal' feel. There was only one point for me which stood out too much which led me to doing the blasphemous thing of hitting marvin with a semitone of melodyne ö.
But i still think there were a few offkey notes i couldn't bother to change but they were only very brief words.
I noticed that after timing, pitch was the next mentioned issue... i suspect that the song potentially had modulation or borrowed chords in it? Or something that caught peoole out. Maybe not. But i knew it'd be something to potentially watch outfor.
My Approach
I decided to westcoast it up so had to see if i could get Marvin down to a 95bpm.
I basically did a mix of chopping and stretching - I chopped out each word individually and aligned them to the equivalent 8th notes on my beat, this helped give the vocal a slightly new feel marching/bouncing with my west coast beat. I occasionally timsstretched words if they felt too short, choppy, or needed the expression (there was only one set of words i really struggled with).
In fact, i had a harder time with the Snoop vocal which was already the right tempo... in the original he falls slightly before some snares and the track seems to have late snares at some points.
Fading
I always like when Fade drops these kind of themes, they actually require you to think a bit more and use a mix of your skills from technical to musical to creative. They're trickier themes but completely doable. And it calls on people to bring out the best in themselves let go of habit and grow, others it exposes weakness or causes to shy away.
Personally I would have loved to have seen more actually try to make a HipHop response to this, completely doable and maybe doing yourselves a disservice by taking the easier route. But still, props for entering.
Stay ill.
Well done @ errbody who attempted this. It probably took a fair few people out of their comfort zones or at least made them feel some element of challenge to it.
This is just a little review of the theme itself and may serve to offer some insight/advice to those who struggled.
Tempo
Obviously the 117 bpm was an immediate challenge as it isn't the most "hip-hop friendly" bpm to work with. Respect to Fade for choosing an acapella at that bpm.
This was gonna really put people's technical, creative, and musical abilities to the test.
Timestretching that down to BoomidyBappedy tempos would be a bit too slow, speeding it up to TrippitiTrappity tempos may be too fast. Especially if you were going to honor the theme and try to make an actual Hip-Hop remix! (Hence why many copped out and went for the House/EDM route).
Timing (LISTEN)
This is one element I really expected to throw people off - and looking at a lot of the common responses in the thread it looks like it is indeed where people strugged.
Personally I listen to the original and feel for the timing so i can line the feel up right on my beat. (Or so i know how to play with it.)
Marvin was coming in on a lot of 'and' beats. So 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
It wasn't just straight forward coming in on or just before the bar, some parts starting on the 3 beat and plenty starting on 'and' beats.
This was a fairly time consuming part for me personally replaying his verse of the og and counting 1234 but i needed to know where he was landing so i could keep the feel whilst altering the vibe.
It sounds like a lot of people struggled with this element quite a bit.
But there is interesting ways this sometimes works quite well, but it was also quite obvious in the parts it didnt.
Key
Fade didn't provide this info, being already kind enough to provide the bpm (i think the bpm was a key thing to state, more of a point to it).
I'm not too certain what actual key the acapella was in as i didn't bother to check... in fact I'm fairly certain I was playing in a different but similar key which shared a lot of same notes, i think it gave the song a slightly 'modal' feel. There was only one point for me which stood out too much which led me to doing the blasphemous thing of hitting marvin with a semitone of melodyne ö.
But i still think there were a few offkey notes i couldn't bother to change but they were only very brief words.
I noticed that after timing, pitch was the next mentioned issue... i suspect that the song potentially had modulation or borrowed chords in it? Or something that caught peoole out. Maybe not. But i knew it'd be something to potentially watch outfor.
My Approach
I decided to westcoast it up so had to see if i could get Marvin down to a 95bpm.
I basically did a mix of chopping and stretching - I chopped out each word individually and aligned them to the equivalent 8th notes on my beat, this helped give the vocal a slightly new feel marching/bouncing with my west coast beat. I occasionally timsstretched words if they felt too short, choppy, or needed the expression (there was only one set of words i really struggled with).
In fact, i had a harder time with the Snoop vocal which was already the right tempo... in the original he falls slightly before some snares and the track seems to have late snares at some points.
Fading
I always like when Fade drops these kind of themes, they actually require you to think a bit more and use a mix of your skills from technical to musical to creative. They're trickier themes but completely doable. And it calls on people to bring out the best in themselves let go of habit and grow, others it exposes weakness or causes to shy away.
Personally I would have loved to have seen more actually try to make a HipHop response to this, completely doable and maybe doing yourselves a disservice by taking the easier route. But still, props for entering.
Stay ill.
JenkX Beats
Member
Battle Points: 1
Preciate it. The tempo was alittle high so i kind of stretched the bar count so it made it alittle awkward. I wish I would of actually stuck to the parameters of a "remix" but It was a struggle and I didnt want to not enter so A Grapevine beat had to do. Appreciate the feedback.
JenkX Beats
Member
Battle Points: 1
By the way I think your track was dope. I just didn't like the marvin cover on top. It fit. But it didnt fit to my ears. The verse on the end was banging. Which shows how dope the beat actually was but in the thought of the competition I had to vote for who pulled it off..
I appreciate you.
Yeah there was aspects i did/didn't like about the Marvin verse myself. It fit but felt a bit slow or emptyish for me. But i also liked the new feel i gave to it. Loved how it all overall worked with the snoop verse too.
I really liked the initial section of your beat dope af.
Wtaf, I never said any of that
I'm not reading any of your responses and wasting my energy from your negativity.
The fact that you take the time to be so negative is the dumbest thing I've ever sen anyone do online towards a community. You behaviors are just puny.
Your ILL logical mentality is 2bad for good people who pursue whats tru, but perfect for all of the fools that make beats on here with nothing good to do.
I don't need to waste my time with someone who became a queer with Fade to win. Your never gonna win with your attitude in reality because it's just sin.
The fact that you take the time to be so negative is the dumbest thing I've ever sen anyone do online towards a community. You behaviors are just puny.
Your ILL logical mentality is 2bad for good people who pursue whats tru, but perfect for all of the fools that make beats on here with nothing good to do.
I don't need to waste my time with someone who became a queer with Fade to win. Your never gonna win with your attitude in reality because it's just sin.
Are you OK, do you need to lay down or something? Did somebody hurt your fragile feelings? LMFAO.
Wow, what a douche canoe.
Fade
The Beat Strangler
Administrator
illest o.g.
Dude wtf? What's going on with you?
I'm not reading ANY of your response because your acting like a tru idiot thinking you can run this place professionally. Your just doing it pathetically. This is just so funny to me that your all upset. Screw you foo
Winning is great, but I always consider finishing the the top 5 a “win,” at least for me, so be proud of that!
Also finally had a chance to listen to all the beats... I think pretty much every runner-up used alot more technical skills... like @Eze.K that remix may have been a edm-ish, but its was incredible! and the way @Iron Keys chopped and stretched different parts of the vocal... I think the only reason I was able to pull off winning this one was the vibe I was able to create...
I kept the tempo the same as the original, and the key of the acapella was the same as the original... But by moving the placement of the snares, and using the relative minor (Gm) of the key of the original song (Bb major), i was able to change the vibe without forcing it too much... the majority of the vocal i kept intact (with so fx), and only chopped in a few places. The beat itself is literally 2 instruments and drums
Your the worst person I have ever met onine with an ego that just whines towards anyone who you cant see in their lines. Now your just gonna be on here acting like your gonna get famous but this is all you get. Your mentality to reality is just SHIT
I knew when I made mine that some slick smooth remix would win it. And you proved me right.Winning is great, but I always consider finishing the the top 5 a “win,” at least for me, so be proud of that!
Also finally had a chance to listen to all the beats... I think pretty much every runner-up used alot more technical skills... like @Eze.K that remix may have been a edm-ish, but its was incredible! and the way @Iron Keys chopped and stretched different parts of the vocal... I think the only reason I was able to pull off winning this one was the vibe I was able to create...
I kept the tempo the same as the original, and the key of the acapella was the same as the original... But by moving the placement of the snares, and using the relative minor (Gm) of the key of the original song (Bb major), i was able to change the vibe without forcing it too much... the majority of the vocal i kept intact (with so fx), and only chopped in a few places. The beat itself is literally 2 instruments and drums
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