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ThatвЂ™s when I started to hit that comfort level.'Д¬ole:В I had switched to Reason because the thing that always bugged me with the ASR was I couldnвЂ™t play anything. If you listen to Lights Please, you can hear this vocal sample thatвЂ™s on every snare with just keys on top thereвЂ™s really four or five elements to that beat and thatвЂ™s when I hit that level of confidence to not overdo things. I had a drum loop, a kick drum, a melody, a sample, and a snare. I didnвЂ™t have to try as hard I trusted my instincts, and I didnвЂ™t have to add 100 drum sounds or samples on top of each other. But when I really found a groove as a producer was around the time I did вЂњLights PleaseвЂќ. I liked the emotional and moody beats, too. When do you think you started to establish enough confidence to flip your initial style?Д¬ole:В 'I would always have both aggressive and mellow, deep stuff. Even now, to this day, if IвЂ™m doing a beat with a dirty drum loop, it will have a really hard, loud kick on top that really snaps.' IвЂ™d loop these super old breakbeats that were as dirty as I could find and then IвЂ™d put hard drums on top.

When I was doing battle stuff, I wanted the drums disgusting sounding. I only wanted the beats to rap on, so I didnвЂ™t learn the ASR inside out.'Дid your style of battle rap at the time influence the way you made beats?Д¬ole:В 'Not in terms of levels, but in terms of the dirtiness. IвЂ™m sure there were other tricks, but IвЂ™m not the type to read the manual. ItвЂ™s analogue, so you could play around to get it close to peaking, but you had to get it just right to not distort while still high on that meter. Working with those first tools, what was a trick you found to thicken things up to make those drum hits stand out in a way that was yours?Д¬ole:В 'You had to adjust the input level of the ASR. The best samplers: standalone hardware instruments for live performance or studio productionДў0 hardware samplers that changed music production forever Now in 25 seconds I can scroll through my folders and cook up a drum pattern, some rhythms that inspire me, and then I can add a sample or play something on top or get someone to play on top.' It was way more fun I didnвЂ™t need a sample loop or something from someone else for inspiration now. The first ones were from this company EastWest, and suddenly I had all these one-off hits I could go through till I found the sounds I liked. 'I was only 15 but I had mentors that were in their early 20s, and one of them made all his beats on an MPC and he burned me a copy of his drum CDs. But then I watched a Pete Rock interview and he was like, 'I always start with drums first.' At first, I couldnвЂ™t imagine it, but it stuck with me, so one day I did start drums first and it changed the whole trajectory of me as a producer. It was always music first, and I got better and better at putting drums to samples I chopped or looped. And when I finally found something that excited me, IвЂ™d sample it and then put drums around it. When you first started on the ASR-X Pro, did you approach beats by establishing a tone or pattern first?Д¬ole:В 'At first I would only make a beat when I found a sample I got excited about, so I was going through my momвЂ™s CD piles, from Dire Straits and Steely Dan to Bob Marley and Marvin Gaye. the red machine with just the drum pads.' After that, I started trying things on the ASR-X Pro. I just sat there trying to imagine how he made it. On AaliyahвЂ™s third album, the song More Than a Woman was so next-level to me. I couldnвЂ™t even fathom it, where you would get started, but I was interested.

J COLE NEIGHBORS KEYS HOW TO

'But the first time I got interested in how to make something was listening to Timbaland productions, trying to figure out how he did those things. PuffвЂ™s crew was sampling all these older songs that my mom would recognize, or my stepfather would call out, so I got into the credits to find out who produced the songs. Walk us through the first time you heard a song and started to think about how it was produced.Д¬ole:В 'I think the first time I started paying attention to production was around 1997: the year BiggieвЂ™s second album and Puff Daddy & the FamilyвЂ™s albumВ No Way OutВ came out.

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