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>When I was a kid, I went to studios where Ndugu Chancelor,
>Kevin Toney, and George Duke would be creating music. I even
>remember thinking, "what are they doing? They're just
>laughing, randomly playing instruments and there's no song"
>but after a few minutes, one would play something and 1-2
>other members would say "Keep doing that!" and one of them
>would play along with it until somebody said "keep that riff
>going there" and I'd really see the song become created from
>"scratch."
I'm gonna assume that whatever Ndugu and George Duke came up with after jamming was a lot more intricate/developed/progressive than 99% of Dre's beats, so I'm glad you mentioned this part here:
>Now with Dre being a Rap producer, I'm sure it is a LOT
>different, at least the result of it, because you say "that
>song only had a bassline, three or four drum sounds, strings,
>and a piano" which sound like something anybody could come up
>with on their own.
Precisely my point. Just like heads on this board used to shit on guys like Madlib because he "just looped some shit up" or said "I don't give a fuck if he sampled a Nigerian prog record from 71....DOES IT GO IN THE CLUB????".....I personally don't give a fuck if Dre employed Mike Elizondo, Scott Storch, and DJ Quik if the song sounds as boring as 75% of his beats have for the last 10 years.
>But Dre's approach to it is like the old
>school producers, where it's not even about "let me make this
>melody myself." Each song is different, so they're all created
>different.
Too bad all he seemed to come up with was a plodding bassline, piano riffs, and sparse drum sounds for the last half of the 2000's. Oh, don't forget the string stabs.
>producers who use samples
>are for sure not creating the entire song we hear from
>scratch...so I'd only compare it to producers who's
>compositions are all 100% created by them...and most of them
>are FAR from Dre's level of quality.
I'm sure they are, but who exactly makes "beats" like this? I'm honestly not aware of any other producers who make beats with a band.
>So it's much different from Dre just doing a simple drum
>pattern, then Scott hearing it, playing a piano on top...then
>Mike coming to add a bassline....when they're in there just
>vibing together, the entire creation procses is different.
>
>And as far as "creating the fucking HANDCLAPS"...drum sounds
>can literally take hours to mix, just to make sure it's
>perfect. They might go through the same 3, 4, 15 effects or
>processes, 5 and 10 different times, until they say "THAT'S
>IT!!!!" It's even where one person is actually controlling the
>mouse/machine, and the others are just there to listen and say
>"naw.....lower the 2nd highs a lil more...ok, now try the
>delay again...damn, go back to the reverb....expand the size
>of the room" I mean it's just a million things I've seen on
>that side of things, so I get it.
Does Dre need five other dudes in the studio for this process as well? I thought HIS ears were the ones that were responsible for the "Dr. Dre Sound." I know that mixing drums is critical and can take hours, but I thought THAT was his specialty, if anything.
>With that....In da club is probably still the biggest Rap song
>since the 90's...and some of the biggest of the biggest songs
>in the 90's came from Dre...so I feel all the extra input he
>receives has to be worth it.
He's an all-time great, and I'm basically being a hater in this thread......but fuck it, I'll say it - Dilla didn't need all this extra "help" to make his beats sound massive. I guess that's why I've typed multiple paragraphs shitting on Dre's last 10 years. The end product has typically been ho-hum and Dre's *name* is the only reason someone would attempt to call that "Imagine" beat a "classic." Bowls
http://twitter.com/Bowls615
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