"Live From the Writer's Bench - Why Exactly Do Heads Still Like Jay Z Aga..."
Every week, after we get finished recording an episode of The Writer's Bench we always end up talking for at least another 30 minutes. Sometimes it's what we were talking about for that episode or sometimes it trails off into a little bit of everything. Since we weren't able to record a show this past week, I dug in the vaults to pull out these outtakes of us chopping it up about is Jay Z hip hop's Elvis and why exactly do hip hop heads still like dude. I mean, it's obvious he's never making another Reasonable Doubt so why exactly do cats still dig dude?
And then we dive into is technology to blame for the sound of hip hop? I know there are a lot of studios cats on the boards, so the question is since pro tools came around and tape went out the window has that REALLY changed the sound of hip hop and R&B?
Double 0 DJ/Producer/Artist Producer in Kidz In The Hall ------------------------------------------- twitter: @godouble0 IG: @godouble0 www.thinklikearapper.com
>Getting scientific with it was wrong.. > >The metronome on MPC is exactly the same... the difference was >the MPC had artificial swing you could add to it.. > >but if you quantize at 100% it's gonna be 100% > >You can do the same exact thing on every DAW...
Ehhhh... maybe more than two things. First MIDI prior to DAW's (ie including MPC's) was imprecise. So if you quantize 100% on one machine it wasn't the same 100% on other machines. This is why when you sync'd machines you had to choose which clock was the master. And speaking of clocks, they were a big part of the imprecision, because MIDI is just the protocol. The clock is still the clock. In electronics clocks are made with crystals that create high frequency oscillations. They all have tolerances which means that they all differ. These slight variations between machines gave them different times. Some (maybe even most) times imperceptiable for a cursory listen but it was there.
The DAW changed that kinda mainly with the clocking. But even more the tendency to produce to the grid. There was no visiual grid with sample level specificity at that time and you were less inclined to think about the subtle offsets of clocking. Today find a tutorial on whatever and the first thing you learn is how to line things up tothe grid. With that as the starting point it's going to have an affect on the sound, period.
Bob Katz even went on to replicate my study with precise measuring and present it at AES to declare that mastering for itunes killed he loudness wars :
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