Chat am I cooking?

[deft aspen]

What do we think? good bones on it? All feedback is welcome.

[young wigeon]

You got a little while still but keep learning. Composition needs improvement

[little estuary]

needs more layers

[proud ore]

i thought it was gonna be some goofy ahh beat when i saw the name but its good

i liked the piano part

[lapis barn]

i like the hat pattern, and the overall bounce that you went for. i think you forgot to tick the "cut itself” box on your 808's because they seem to bleed into each other. i'd also play with the snare, seems underwhelming in the mix to me. you could try layering other sounds on top of it or maybe changing your selection of snare. good bones on it i'd say.

[deft aspen]

Thank you, what parts do you mean? Too simple of a melody? Kicks need more variance? I’ve considered these and def gonna change up the drums some more.

And I know it needs more than that as well there’s a lot of stuff I haven’t learned yet 🫡

[deft aspen]

Is there another type of synth or sound that immediately comes to mind for you?

[deft aspen]

Thank you! Yes I see what you’re saying. Maybe I should pull down the hats just a tad too and make that snare stronger as you said. Also I do have a strong droning bassline throughout so maybe that’s part of the 808 thing? The actual 808s I used with the kicks are pretty small so maybe it’s more of the way they blend with the bassline? The two quick successive kicks only have an 808 layered on the second one. You’re prob right though as I didn’t know about cutoff box. Just learned something new so again thank you!

[little estuary]

Something that has low ends

You can just go through presets and one shots till you find one

Sound selection is the most cruicial part

[lapis barn]

no problem! i’d also be careful having several different components inhabit the same area of your mix. you’re having a bassline run though out and putting 808s on top of it and those two, both being bass (low end) synths, fight each other in the low frequencies, which make them clash.

[ornate warren]

needs ride(s) and brass hits/light brass melody for a good rap game. nice works so far.

[acoustic onyx]

the 808s sound a bit off key imo, maybe its the 808 you chose? idk
and the drums could've been chosen better

[idle root]

The 808 is off key so you should try to set the time to 0 in the 808 settings and go to piano roll and try to find the right note by ear, also you should pitch up the beat bc that would help if the right note for the 808 is too low, so it can stand out more.
Other things to say has already been said by other people, but remember, once you get used to FL just practice new things and you'll get better a lot faster

[deft aspen]

Do you mean try pitching up everything or just the drums?

I’m def still quite a noob, sorry if this should be obvious lol

[idle root]

Pitching up every melody part, the drums shouldn't need to be pitched up, but obviously there's not a rule for every beat so it's smth you'll learn by practice

[deft aspen]

I feel I’ll have problems with the bassline how it is, should I try raising that too?

[idle root]

Yeah that too

[deft aspen]

So I did not pitch up but I dropped the constant bassline entirely, changed the 808s, and made some other changes throughout. How am I doing? Worked really hard tryna improve this ngl. Another listen would mean the world my dude. 🙏

had to repost because I had muted my lead on accident lmao

[deft aspen]

I went with some strings but how'd I do?? And rides means like open hats or something else?

Still learning to fill the space properly with different frequencies but I feel like I’m starting to get it

[fallow bison]

i think the track could use some eq cleanup (removing unnecessary frequencies, for example, taking off the lows on the snare. This will help the track sound alot cleaner) nice beat btw

[deft aspen]

Thank you! I thought it was coming along pretty nice but I’m biased cuz it’s my beat 😂 yeah I will work on the mix. Believe it or not I already did some eq on the wailing pad and the bell lead. I’m pretty green though

[fallow bison]

we're all biased when it comes to our own creation, the more we listen to the unmixed version the more we treat it as the "correct" one (simply because its more familiar). Hopefully you can avoid this trap as you continue your beat making!!

[deft aspen]

Will keep that in mind! Gotta get in the habit of mixing as I go

[ornate warren]

aww it feels a bit goofy ahh beat at the string. like detuned and not matching the beat.

if you can tune it finely or cents-wise maybe idk

[deft aspen]

Yeah I didn’t spend that much time on that part yet I just was looking for something to fill that space but you right lol

[fervent obsidian]

👽 okay

[elder perch]

change that 808 tbh

the sound

the notes are good

[deft aspen]

Yeah I ended up just taking it out. I tried a bunch of melodies, tried pads, nothing really sits right with the rest that I can figure out

[inner mauve]

niceee

[deft aspen]

I’ve improved it since that last version but I’m gonna wait to post it again til I’ve got it made from intro to outro

Those strings were goofy tbh I took em out 😂

Thank you 🙏

[deft aspen]

@inner mauve @elder perch @ornate warren @fallow bison @idle root @lapis barn @little estuary @proud ore @young wigeon @acoustic onyx This is the last time I'm gonna update on this beat. Please tell me this is an improvement but if its not be brutal. I'm exhausted with this one as a beginner because I cant figure much else to put in that doesnt clash. tried a lot of vocal pads, whispers, reversed stuff for the intro but nothing sounded right. low end synth addition I also couldnt figure out cuz my 808s and bassline are kind of highish notes and I didnt wanna put it lower than those.. if yall can spare some more feedback Im gonna soak it up and move on to something fresh 🙏

[ornate warren]

hey sounds alright gives me jetset radio rokkaku heights vibes and chasing poison jam there. 😄

[fallow bison]

Hey! Sounds alot nicer than previous versions.
You shouldn't worry much about not being able to choose sounds that doesn't clash because better sound selection comes naturally with experience, so don't rush it! With that said, i have some tips you could use as you continue making beats:
1. Scale highlighting: You can find this in the little arrow on the top left in the piano roll > select view > scale highlighting > select the scale you like (remember to right click on your mouse! left clicking would yank you out of the setting). This will give you an easier time producing, you won't have to worry about out of tune notes anymore.
2. Short cuts: Select a sound in the channel rack (the little rectangle next to it) and press Ctrl + L. This will instantly route the sound to the nearest available mixing slot. You don't have to open the mixer, check the nearest available number, and route the sound manually anymore.

• F2 is also another great shortcut! Select a sound and press it, it'll instantly open up the naming and coloring setting for that sound.
  3. Finally, a few things to keep in mind!
• Avoid production tips hunting, it'll keep you trapped in a vicious cycle of find tip > feel good > find more tips without actually using them and repeat.
• Years from now on, looking back at your old tracks can be surprisingly comforting and gives you motivation to keep making things! The tracks you make now is quite literally fuel for your future self.
• Lastly, take great care of your gear. If your respect your gear, your gear will respect you. Our brains look at our environmental cues to figure out our identity, if you take great care of your gear, your brain will think "oh im a serious producer" which leads to you making beats with similar focus to a pro which then leads you to actually making better beats because you care about the details. In short, fake it till you make it! (Yes this is legit)
  Have fun making beatsss!

[deft aspen]

Thank you so much for the thorough reply! Screenshotted this and will be referring to it for a bit till I remember those shortcuts by heart. I highly appreciate the time you took for this 🙏

[ripe kraken]

this just needs more instruments. feels a bit empty

[summer quarry]

This is pretty good imo, especially if you haven't done alot of beats in this genre. I like the hh structure.

Now as other people said before, the 808 is not that great, and I feel like the whole beat is drowned in a wet effect, I think you could try to fix that.
I'd also say it lacks basic instruments, like a simple piano, harp, flute, anything that fits well in your idea really, but that's really not mandatory (nothing is btw).
And I'd also suggest adding a texture layer with an octave above your lead to generally put in places where the beat starts to get repetitive, as the name says, this adds extra texture and makes the beat more breathable

If you're kind of lost on sound selecting and overall just stuck without any ideas, I'd really suggest you go ahead and listen to your playlist again, but instead of just vibing to the flow analyse every bit of element in the instrumental; the structure, how that beatmaker layered his beat, listen to the drums's sound and listen how one is complementary to the other (if you already listen to the genre you're composing then its even better). Personally, what I do is I find beatmakers that I love listening to and I try finding if they ever post their work on internet, where I could fetch their drum kits to expand my inventory (yes some are free), and check how they structured their beat in depth (If they shared a recording of their FL studio and not just an audio file). This step really helped me improve, but remember that at the end of the day you're the artist and nothing you'll do has to be perfect. Add your flower to your work and have fun learning and producing ♥️

[vernal dirge]

@summer quarry It sounds like you're looking for a place to share your music.

@summer quarry It sounds like you're looking for a place to share your music.

[deft aspen]

Thank you for all the super in depth advice! Yes I haven’t done many beats yet at all actually.

I def am aware of the emptiness issue but yeah I just was having a hard time finding things that fit but I know they’re out there. The wet thing I’m not sure of as I’m still a noob but I will check my knobs on my synths and see what’s up.

Btw I’ve got a couple comments on those 808s. Should they be more drawn out 808s? Less punchy or? I just wanted something bouncy and I thought they sounded okay but clearly I may have made a misstep lol

[summer quarry]

The 808 seems poorly mixed, try finding one that's less punchy, as your beat is already low paced and imo adding a punchy 808 will not fit very well

[deft aspen]

Much appreciated. Honestly this one was a great learning experience but it’s pretty much in the bin. Gonna apply these tips going forward!

Should have my first attempt at drift posted up in the next couple days

[summer quarry]

All good haha, even I am not that experienced and I have yet to learn from better beatmakers. My first beat was ''all in'' melody and it had horrible drums, sound selection and well, extremely horrid mixing and mastering overall but I slowly made more and more projects that began little by little getting better than the one before. I'd love to hear your next piece to check out your progression for sure. I'll also have mine out in a couple of minutes if everything's going well

[deft aspen]

I’ll be checking it out without a doubt. I’m here to stay! We’re all here to get better and because we love music after all. I’m hyped because I love drift and been eager to try my amateur hand at it lol