In this article, two of us, Eric and Jose, decided to work together to show what is possible when people collaborate. When people work together in anything, it can create something that would not have happened if someone worked on it alone. The same can be said with music. There have been so many songs where there have been two or more producers working together. Even using a loop that someone sent you, is a form of collaboration. For this beat, we both made different chord progressions that we used for each other's beats.
When I got my chord progression from Eric, it was a type of chord that I usually don't use. Whenever I make a chord, it's usually pretty simple, that way I have an easier time making a bass line. It was a bit challenging to make the bass line but I was still able to. I first started by raising the pitch a couple semitones. I then took the chords and reversed them. Whenever I reverse a sound, it sounds like there is a pulse. I then began putting the drums in the following order: the clap, the rimshot, the kick, the snare, the hi hats, and lastly, some percussion. I decided to make the drums sound like hip hop, because it's the easiest for me. When it was time to make the 808s (the bass) I ran into a few challenges but I ended up finding a good bass line. This chord progression to me feels like its changing moods. Once I felt that I had a good bass line, I also added a sub bass, which is a long bass. I then added a pluck/synth and made a very simple melody, just to add some variety. Because it gets repetitive after a while, it is always good to change a couple things or to change what is playing at a certain part of the beat. Sometimes I would take out the hi hats, or switch from the clap to the rimshot. I always changed things so it would not get repetitive. Then I put risers in the beginning and added some effects. I added some reverb to the rimshot, some chorus to the chords, and many other effects. The last thing I did was put a full drum loop that I removed the highs and lows from, and put it at the very end. While I was listening to the finished result, I still wasn’t fully satisfied, so I did something that I learned a while ago. Change the pitch of the entire beat. I pitched it down one semitone, and that’s when I decided I was done! I’ve worked with other people before, and it’s always fun working with other people, since everyone has a different style in how they do things. It can be a mystery when you work with someone new, but that’s what makes things interesting.
Jose sent me a r&b type of chord progression he made and I used the sample to create a beat. There are some elements that I want to share while making the song. When I first got the sample, I had to figure out the chord progression to stack more instruments and bassline for the beat. The steps I used to figure out the chord progression is listening to the bass notes first, then the top notes ,then figuring out the notes in the middle. I have made a synthesizer with a plugin called Serum with a saw wave mixed with a sine wave to make the track more dynamic. "Greetings" After that, I made a drum rhythm using hiphop type drum samples, fills, and percussions. Then I layered some basslines using the 808 bass. For mixing, some reverb and eq automation was used to make the intro interesting, also a lot of panning on the hi hats. The fills used in the track are “one time events” that make the track more interesting. To avoid sounding robotic, I moved the kicks and hi hats just a bit off grid so it can give a human feeling to the song. Collaborating with another artist can give results that are unexpected and fascinating because artists have different tastes on chord progressions and sample choice.
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