Click here to go right to the Beat Meet:

The Beat Meet is a friendly competition between producers. They all must use a sample kit provided by this site. The kit will usually contain a fair amount of drum sounds, a bassline, and 2 sample loops. All contestants are given about a week to filter, combine, sequence, and flip the samples however they wish.

Click Here to Read More about the Beat Meet

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbhaeBRb7NA

Another great feature that both Sonar and Cubase have had for a while is block-based recording. However, it looks like Reason’s implementation is setting a new standard in ease of use. This not only allows you to make a song based on stems/loops/etc. like beat, chorus, bridge, intro, interlude, etc., but it also lets you edit the original stems and affect the song in real-time. You can also edit the stems in song mode, which leaves the others unaffected, but allows you to create variations very easily:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OPlD4N11vM

Finally, a very interesting looking module called Kong, which is a 16-pad drum module. The video explains it in simple terms. 16 pads. One sound per pad. Then goes on to show that the source(s) of each pad can include the new Dr.OctoRex Sampler, new built-in drum synths, or just about anything else you want to route into it. Take into account the new live sampling feature that exists in Reason, and this could enhance anyone’s setup that already has a drum-pad controller.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBdy0aTW5YI

Click here to go right to the Beat Meet:

The Beat Meet is a friendly competition between producers. They all must use a sample kit provided by this site. The kit will usually contain a fair amount of drum sounds, a bassline, and 2 sample loops. All contestants are given about a week to filter, combine, sequence, and flip the samples however they wish.

Click Here to Read More about the Beat Meet

Ever dreamed of turning on the radio and hearing the legendary Busta Rhymes rap ridiculously fast over one of your beats? We’re talking warp speed fast. So damn fast, you have no idea what the hell he’s even talking about…

Well now’s your chance to send Busta your original instrumentals for consideration on upcoming albums.

Link foundvia [King of All Beats] p.s. for anyone that likes keeping on top of these types of posts, be sure to check out the King of All Beats blog.

While it may not be much better than just going to ebay and searching directly, in due time this seems like a service that could prove to be very useful to all the crate-diggers and dustmites out there.  I also decided to test the site out, and see how well it did for finding a semi-rare album:

Can – Tago Mago

After searching just “Can” on the main page, their “Tago Mago” album was actually the fourth result, after “Confrontation by Bob Marley and the Wailers” (not sure where “can” was found in that), “Things Can Only Get Better by D:Ream,” and “Soon Over Babaluma by Can.”

Unfortunately, at this point the site begins to fall apart a bit.  All but two of the links listed for this album are broken (I’m guessing because they are using forward-slashes in the link titles and addresses).  Anyways, once clicking on a valid link, a few more details for the album are displayed along with the ebay and amazon links, followed by a link that says “You might like the list: Killer Krautrock.”  Why yes, I do believe I might like Killer Krautrock…

So aside from being a fairly new service, despite the current issues with the site, and ignoring the simple features – this new service seems like it could end up being an invaluable tool for vinyl addicts all over the place.  I’ll be keeping an eye on it, and look forward to perhaps even integrating some of their features (or even their actual site) into HipHopProduction’s crate digging tool – SampleDig.  Stay tuned!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdPXijm1CEA

Just a reminder:

Chi-King, a featured artist on HipHopProduction.com, has just dropped a new album, and you can support the cause by getting his new CD, “The Big Heist” featuring Fredro Starr, G-Dep, Stack A Doller, 100MAD, Marcus Elias and more.

You basically drag different symbols onto a person’s (polo) shirt, and they begin to beatbox a certain instrument or melody.  Once you drag a symbol onto one of the beatboxers, a new one will appear next to it, ready for another sound.

Check it out at incredibox.fr

you can hear more from the beatbox artist, The Incredible Polo via his myspace page.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8Nxz351E5I

If you aren’t already aware of Chi-King, one of our featured artists, take some time to check out his page.

At the age of 15 he got his first gig and since has been spreading like a wild fire. He debut on Prodigal Sunns (Sunz of Mans) solo album The Return of the Prodigal Sunn. He also guest stared in Prodigal Sunns television series The Grindz .Heavy on his grind and talented in all aspects of entertainment he handled stage production and road management for actor/comedian sound genius Michael Winslow. With the help of Prodigal Sunn and 12 O’clock (Brooklyn Zu General) Chi King has been on many Wu-Tang mix tapes, albums, CD’s and Podcasts. He also landed himself in an upcoming feature film The Fan-Addict staring Sticky Fingers from the legendary rap group Onyx… He has toured with various artists from Cuban Lynx, Rampage and Ra Digga (Flip Mode Squad), Killa Preist, Prodigal Sunn, 60 Second Assassin (Sunz of Man), Warheadz, Redman & Method Man, GZA, KRS-One and many others.

Now that all three parts of the J-Dilla Documentary by Stussy have been released, take some time to check them out.  This three-part series covers J-Dilla’s life in Los Angeles.  Check the links under the video for links to all three parts.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLVtAZQixOA

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

It sounds like he’s fed up with waiting on emcees for their lyrics, and decided to lash by leaking an early cut off his new mixtape.  Most producers out there should be able to relate.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzqHJ_Qytz4

Links to the mp3 here on mediafire and usershare

And just to squeeze in one more Parks & Recreation production reference, here is the Parks & Recreation Screen Test featuring Questlove and RZA (and Aziz Ansari)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtEPkgweWLw