Good morning/afternoon/evening my dear Steemers (is that how we're called? or Steemiters?...)
My name's Edmund, and I'm a UK Based, 19 year old, producer. I do think that nowadays Producers are underated, and most of the credit (and money) are given to rappers/singers... But I'm not here to discuss that.
When I look back at the old music I used to produce, I both cringe and get excited. It's like looking at a photo of myself as a kid, and realising I was both an ugly and cute baby (which baby isn't ugly but cute lol) because I see a lot of mistakes, errors or just specificities I could've done better today, but at the same time, some of those beats were slightly erased from my memories, and refreshing those sometimes surprises me in the best of ways.
Any ways, I thought about this post, and I want to give you guys the best quality stuff, so I'll make this one quite quick, and if I get some good feedback, I'll make a second one for my second beat tape, with a more "in detail" look.
Of course, you can expect the second part of this post soon, with the second half of my tape.
Of course, music is art, it's subjective. Even if I call something "hip-hop", at least one of the 7Billions of us will find a way to refute it, so let's not get hasty over any boxing, classification or subjectivity of taste, and just enjoy what Art is supposed to be: "a pleasure for the brain".
But enough time wasted, here's the real deal.
1- 10% Whatevs:
I'm an avid Hip-hop and trap fan, but trap is too repetitive, so I enjoy mixing stuff in. You'll be able to notice some very trap drums (Snare, Kick and Hi Hat are all short, metallic, near aggressive), while I used the piano and trippy violin to settle a different vibe. Of course, the bass isn't as entertaining as I which, but I produced that only 2 years into producing, so can't be too picky
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2- 20% Magestic:
Before you start, yes, I know Magestic is actually written Majestic. When I produced it, this "holy" voice that resonates in the back, with the Hi Hat/Snare combo gave me this very magical feeling. The kind of feeling I'd get when I enter a really special building, with a mix of great architecture and maybe religiousness as this hits people's souls. Of course, I enjoy the trippiness of the random pauses, glitches, and the subtle piano in the background that just elevates the mood
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3- 30% Saxitar:
This one is one of the rare songs where I mixed my Guitar skills and production. I also found this very "Ghostly" Violin that just comes, hits you in the back and leaves, replaced by a quite atypical chop of a guitar. I also used my guitar to play the bass, as I didn't have good Bass/Sub plugins at the time. Of course, you'll find again some near Trap drum-kit, with really mechanical sounds. I really enjoyed the contrast of the machine-like drums and the very human Guitar/bass
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4- 40% Do or Not
If you don't dig the very extroverted intro of the track, just wait, you'll get hit by a mix of a Jazzy trumpet and a very electronic Lead. I like the game of "Q&A" between instruments, like the trumpet coming back to reply to the Lead. I gotta say, the bass was one of the best I'd done at the time, even though the beat might be the one I got bored of the fastest... the sound for the lead was poorly chosen now that I realise... but it's been a year since then, and you'll get the chance to see the improvement in my next posts!
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5- 50% Peyote
Sampling is one of the Producer Duties, and this is one of the first track where I actually played around with loops like never before. So all sax/trumpets, voices (more like muffled shouts), distorted piano-ish (can't really call it a piano, but it's the main sound all around the track) are samples. I just added a drum pattern, calm piano with reverb, and other subtle details. Of course, even the samples are retouched, chopped, thus hard to notice sometimes.
There are 5 other tracks of the playlists/beat tape, and 2 newer one I've released since then, so I'll be slowly but surely posting about those for you guys.
Of course, you don't have to wait for me to post about it, just check them out here if you're digging my vibe: https://soundcloud.com/far-from-utopia
Finally, you guys know the Steemit drill better than I do (yes, I'm even talking to you, the guy that joined 3 days ago), so I hope I can count on your support people!
Have a great day, and best of luck in any activities you'll be throwing yourselves in!
Edit: Second Post: https://steemit.com/music/@reddutopia/redd-utopia-my-first-beat-tape-trip-hop-or-jazz-or-glitch-part-2