hip hop engineering recomendations?

[roman]

I don't own pro tools yet. But will soon. I love the sound of the dirty soulful vinyl sampling producers like Marley marl, premier, pete rock etc. What do I need to get and use to get a fat drum sound like these guys. I already have 12 bit S950's and sample from vinyl. What's next a tube compressor? An empirical labs distressor/fatso. Basically I'm after recommendations on what equipment to get for my home studio for this purpose and a few engineering tips.
Peace.
[img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[georgia]

we work with a LOT of hip hop / rap artists and companies...

They use just about everything. We've set up Digital performer, Protools TDM, protools LE, SSL consoles, Neves... alllll sorts of outboard gear...

I've physically seen them record on crap mics and $5000.00 mics, 16 bit 44.1 and 24 bith 96khz. 24 track 2" fostex 8 tracks...

The ONE thing i have seen in common with all these companies and artists.... the good ones use a LOT of analog instruments to record beats... Fender Rhodes, Wurtlizers, Acoustic guitars, live instruments added to the sampled beats and created beats...

The last Hip/Hop album i recorded personally used ALL live musicians and acoustic instruments to create the "beats".. then we "distressed" them to the exace level we wanted. go figure


cheers

georgia

[roman]

So if I knew very little about what tools are good for different things, are you recommending empirical labs for an analogue sound? Is it better than equivalent TDM plugs? How would you describe the sounds it's capable of. Personally I know you can engineer quite good hip hop just with native plugs. If I want an old sound it's a matter of sampling vinyl and eqing it right. I am keen to hear what equipment or processors are very common good for bob power, eddie sancho, try hightower type mixes. Can pro tools alone suffice. I realise it's extremely subjective and gear doesn't produce good hip hop the ears do. But I do recommend 12 bit samplers.
If you listen to D&D mixes like gangstarr the vocals are processed to sound subtley distorted (stressed) How would they do that?
Peace. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[adam_w1]

You can also get some good results from using the D-fi plugin, downsampling to 12 or even 8 bit for even more "moldiness" !

You can downsample even more, but then speakers start blowing up & s**t ! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[M2E]

I do a lot of Hip Hop/R&B and before that was dedicated to Hip Hop.
Pete Rock use's a SP12(EMU) as well as a lot of New York Hip Hop Producers.
Dr. Dre use's a Mpc-3000(Akai) as well as 70% of other hip hop producers, including myself.
As far as keyboards. Of coarse it would be great to have a 1975 Fender Rhodes or other vintage gear but the keyboards of today are just the same. JV-1080 has a 60 & 70's card of those keyboards of yesteryear. And they sound geat!!!!! Like the original.
As far as computer programs. It's an open field. You can use Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, whatever feels great to you. and your pocket book of course.
Pete Rock use's live bass as well as Dr. Dre.
But you can also use a bass module called the SE-1(by Studio Electronics)it's like butter baby.
Well anyway I hope this helps you.

M2E

[audiaudio]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by M2E:
Dr. Dre use's a Mpc-3000(Akai) as well as 70% of other hip hop producers, including myself.
M2E<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

M2E,

What sample CDs do you and Dre use for the MPC-3000?

[M2E]

All kinds...A real good one is Drumcrazy. It's hard to find. But you can get it on CD and Record. Go to Guitar Center and check out the sample CD's there. As far as Dre-I don't know what he use's.

Hope this helps
M2E

[emilano]

I've been in a number of sessions with Pete Rock as an assistant engineer. He didn't use no live bass or the emu when I was there. Live turntables and an akai all the way. Oh, and lots of dope.

[PBerolz]

hip hop engineering tips?
Wear a bulletproof vest, and don't ever turn the bass down during a playback.

[ejsongs]

i agree with the above wear a bulletproof vest and get paid in advance. On a serious note there are some plug in that are really cool:

So far the drawmer dynamics compressor seems to be the best one for making the drums hit hard. A lot of people like channel strip as well. Another thing you might try is running some of the drums through amp farm or sans amp plug ins. It can be cool.

At the end of the day it is all about vibe and there are no rules. Most people that i work with in LA use some form of mpc. Ali Muhamed used to use studio vision but now uses the sequencer on the digi 01. Making it sound dirty starts with having "dirty " sounding samples to start with.