The Storm (Original Hip Hop Instrumental)

[Shea]

Dropped (probably more than enough) feedback here: http://www.rapbattles.com/forum/show...476/index.html and here: http://www.rapbattles.com/forum/show...259/index.html

So... since I haven't posted in these forums before I suppose I should introduce myself shortly. I'm a freelance composer doing audio for video games and stuff, and as such have a lot experience in many different genres, reaching from purely orchestral (which you might consider my main genre, if there is any), to orchestral rock, jazz, techno, arabic, rock, industrial, industrial rock, dance, electronic and what all there is, and on top of that have about 10 years of experience as a (hobbyist) rapper. Nonetheless I haven't really worked on anything Hip Hop related in at least half a year.

Anyhoos, today (or was it yesterday? not sure.. been up for about 50 hours now lol) my best friend requested a Hip Hop Beat by me, saying "you know what I like" as the only guideline. Coincidently my East West Stormdrums copy arrived today (yesterday?) as well. That plus the fact that I hadn't worked on anything Hip Hop in quite some time and was really looking forward to it and having a lot of fun, added up to a well of overflowing inspiration. And the result is "The Storm"!


Link to listen to the song --> http://soundcloud.com/nyaanyaa/the-storm

Due to my friend holding exclusive rights to use the song downloads are disabled on the site. I'm sure you understand.

[H.A.S. - D.4.L.]

phat drum line, good break down but if you added a hat to the whole mix to pick it up it would give a rapper a steady rhythm to work with. right now like you said this is SICK sound track . Youre great at arranging. I'd like to hear your non-hip-hop shit, ill check your site more later, how did you get into free lancing? ive wanted to do that forever. stay up my man.

[Jayrbeatz]

Yea its pretty dope, I kinah think it wuz overly compressed tho, and also I think it needs a hi hat, your a great composer tho keep it up, please return the favor when you get the chance http://rapbattles.com/forum/showthre...677/index.html

[Shea]

Thanks for your input guys! I'll keep all suggestions in mind when rebuilding the piece around my friend's lyrics. Of course, I'll return the favor once I got some time to properly analyze your piece. ^^

"how did you get into free lancing? ive wanted to do that forever."

With a lot of patience, business know-how, and some good luck. If you seriously think about pursueing a career as a freelance composer I highly suggest getting a book on the subject. I recommend "The Complete Guide to Game Audio - 2nd Edition" by Aaron Marks. 454 pages that will teach you everything there is to know about getting started, and offers tons of valuable information about the business side of the job.

[RobbieAnthem]

not feeling this not my genre of music u should put a baseline on it tho and get some harder drums on it

[Shea]

Thanks mate, appreciate your input! Sorry to hear that you didn't like my piece. Hopefully next time I'll be able to compose something you like more.

[DJ Breeze]

I think it could have used a hi hat rhythm and a bass guitar. I could tell that it wasn't really a hip hop beat. But that's what's great about hip hop, you can incorporate all those different flavors that you used and come up with something no one's done before. I could really tell you're an orchestral composer because that flavor was very strong and because of that, it had a really unique sound. The chords from the strings sounded really cool and using what sounds to me like a cello playing on the C/G strings (I can't tell for sure because it doesn't really sound live) instead of a bass guitar gave it a really cool flavor. The drums in the beginning also sounded really cool, but the snare sounded to constand and should have been kept on 2 and 4 and the bass on 1 and the "and" of 2 and 3 and that snare rhythm would have sounded cool over a open hi-hat. I also like how you switched things up and it was always changing. It gave it more of an orchestral flavor than a hip-hop sound, and I really like that. Keep it up, I'd like to see more hip-hop stuff from you.

[Shea]

Great analysis, thanks for the feed man! It's actually ten cellos (i.e an entire section) playing on the G# and the E strings (the piece is written in G#-Minor), but nonetheless a close guess I suppose.

[DJ Breeze]

As far as I know there's no G# or E strings on a cello. And I'm a cellist. But then again, not professionally. Ad your welcome. I'd appreciate some feed on my piece as well. And The celli sounded so in sync it just sounded like one as apposed to a section, but now that I think about it, it kind of does sound like a section.

[Shea]

Oh, really? Learned something new I guess. Well, nonetheless, those are the notes the cellos are playing. I don't really know how the strings are tuned on a cello to be honest, just know for a fact that they can play those notes (since otherwise my VSTi wouldn't have made a sound). Perhaps what you were getting at was that the cellos played those notes on the C/G strings, and I confused that with them actually playing the C/G notes. Again, I've no idea how a cellist would go about playing those notes, I just know for a fact that it's possible lol. Thanks again for your comments, though.

I'll give your song a listen after work and drop you some feedback then. I'm just on break right now so don't really have the time yet.

[DJ Breeze]

Alright. And I was referring to the strings it was on. Celli can play those notes, as I have in the past. The strings are tuned to C2, G3, D3 and A3 so G# would just be G and a half first position and E would be 1st position on the D string. Not to complicated.

[schizmatic]

Get some new synths and strings, also the drums are very bland and don't make an impact at all. You have potential, never give up, when I started out my songs were embarrassing.
I don't know what else to say, keep trying.

Return the feed nucca.

[AussieRep]

nice i like it