Beat Slicing Demo

I've been trying to make my beats "glitchy-er" and could use some suggestions.

This is by no means a finished song, just practice. Any criticisms or hints on how to make it sound better would be greatly appreciated.

I love this. :D

thats sweet. how did you make it? we could use people like you in the "how to make aphex beats" thread! (or you could just tell me the secrets in a PM and we will keep this between you and me heh heh) ;)

  On 8/16/2009 at 10:28 AM, MAXIMUS MISCHIEF said:

thats sweet. how did you make it? we could use people like you in the "how to make aphex beats" thread! (or you could just tell me the secrets in a PM and we will keep this between you and me heh heh) ;)

Thanks for the high compliments Maximus, but really, I'm just beginning to dip my feet into this sort of thing, so I didn't really expect to be asked for advice when I feel that that's what I need. xD

Anyways, despite what the title suggests, that's actually a Violin lowered to the pitch range of a cello, with a little vocal work turned down into a groaning, uneasy bass. The beat itself is a mix between some of my home made/recorded elements, and some tweaked samples from some drum heavy fusion I like to listen to when I'm painting (mostly the kicks.) As far as manipulation, it's all about setting a norm, changing it quickly, revisiting it, and then putting it a new element where it feels out of place to see what it's really capable of. When I was delving into music theory a few years ago this was one of the standards of classical music that really felt as though it was carried over into this sort of thing. "Theme, and Variation" has been a concept in music for about as far back as you'd care to go, so it makes sense that it still hasn't gone out of fashion. The tough part is that, while every time Richard lays out a new album or EP it feels fresh; it can be incredibly frustrating trying to pick apart a theme you've just thrown together so that it remains interesting and appealing as you grind it through some variations until it doesn't even seem to fit together coherently any more.

Simply adding more elements is possible, but at least with this track, I wanted to define the pieces of the beat, and then run with those. Looking at this demo now, I can see that before I can call it a finished song, it really needs a more solid theme. At this point, it's only one giant variation, which is nice the first few times you hear it, but if it doesn't hook you in with a solid catch then it'll probably end up being "that one track I liked when I first downloaded the album, but now I usually skip it when it comes up on shuffle."

I hope that kind of helps. I'm really new to beat-slicing and snare rushes and such, so please let me know if I'm just over thinking this, or if I'm completely missing what the big boys like Aphex, Plaid and Prefuse are really doing.

Peace, and thanks for listening.