Back with a fresh episode for the Independence Day (U.S.A.) weekend! The show features new music from REFLECTION ETERNAL, RHYMEFEST, LADY DAISEY, FRESH VETZ, ETERNIA & MoSS, DRAKE, RAH DIGGA, AUDIO KNOX, MONSTALUNG, MARCO POLO & KALAE ALL DAY. Classics by MASTA ACE INCORPORATED and PETE ROCK & C.L. Smooth round out the show.
Rising on the indie scene, Brooklyn, New York rapper C.CRAZED calls in to chop it up about his upcoming project THA LOYALTY 2. C.Crazed first appeared on THEZROHOUR back in 2004 as a part of my Indie Showcase podcast. Check out "Tha Loyalty 2" First Official Street Single below. It features, C.Crazed, Sos Pachino, Hollywood, & Redemption On The French Rappers Jil Aston Produced Record "Foreign Exchange" Be On The Look Out For The Jil Aston/C.Crazed collab "Foreign Exchange Part 1"-
THE B-SIDE- Masta Ace Incorporated
RESILIENCE- Fresh Vetz
WHO I BE- Diamond District (Marco Polo RMX)
THE BBQ (RMX)- Eternia & Moss feat. Tiye Phoenix & Jean Grae
BALLAD OF THE BLACK GOLD- Reflection Eternal
ONE THING- Freeway & Jake One feat. Raekwon
HOLLOW BONES FREESTYLE- Safari
FANCY- Drake feat. T.I. & Swizz Beatz
SAY WASSUP- RHYMEFEST feat. Phonte
SEARCHING (RMX)- Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
4 A.M.- Lady Daisey
SO I- C.Crazed
INTERVIEW WITH C.CRAZED
THE TRIP- C.CRAZED
ANY MAN- Eternia & MoSS
THIS AINT NO LITTLE KID RAP- Rah Digga
ON LOCK- Audio Knox
FRESH LIKE DOUGIE- Monstalung
THE INTRODUCTION- Mitch L. Hennessey
KEEPONPUSHIN (THISISIT)-Kalae All Day
SIX ZRO's own SAFARI drops a new freestyle over a classic Wu-Tang instrumental. Hit him up and tell him what you think! Safari's debut mixtape, "WILD LIFE: WHO LEFT THE GATE OPEN??" is right around the corner. Stay tuned..
Brooklyn Bodega, producers of the 6th Annual Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival (BHF) announced today that legendary producers DJ Premier and Pete Rock will be joining The Large Professor for a special DJ set at BHF '10 Show and Prove Super Bowl. The event will be held at Brooklyn Bowl, 61 Wythe Avenue on Monday, July 5th.
Description: Previously only done in Japan, for the first time ever, fans in the United States have the opportunity to see three of the greatest producers in Hip-Hop rocking the same stage. Brooklyn Bodega and YUME Music have partnered up to showcase this "Unforgettable Set" as the headlining act of its Show & Prove Superbowl where six aspiring Hip-Hop artists compete for two slots that open the stage at the Main Day of the Festival, Saturday, July 10th.
Show & Prove Superbowl Finalists are: Kalae All Day, St. Joe Louis, Poetic Republic, The Crowd, Mikeflo and Ashy L. Bowz.
Kalae All Day is a definite favorite and of course I am also rooting for Randy Mason and his group THE CROWD. Both have been featured here on this site and podcast.
EVOLVE Mutations 1 and 2 are both kontakt player instruments that bring the creative and experimental sounds that Heavyocity are known for, into the studios and bedrooms of musicians of all kinds. Not only does it follow the same basic categorical layout of EVOLVE (Rhymthmic suites, percussive kits, stings and transitions, tonality and fx) it also picks up right where EVOLVE left off. It’s not a replacement for, it’s definitely an addition to EVOLVE, yet stands on it’s own.
The bundle is made up of version 1 and version 2, with 2 being the most recent and is full of 317 kontakt instruments, mutations 1 has 275. Each stand on their own, and definitely shine when used together.
This library is ready for any electronic music producer, video game sound designer, film composer, experimental hip hop producer, or anyone that loves the let the sound take control.
Quick Specs
* Content: 593 kontakt instruments (4gb)
* Format: Kontakt Player or Kontakt 4
* Price: $169 (bundle) or $119 each
How does it sound?
Well, depending on which sounds you use it can sound scary, vicious, epic, soulful, experimental, edgy, terrifying, esoteric, ambient, alien, monstrous, airy, metallic, demented, angelic, demonic, percussive, chilled, spine-tingling, blood curdling, soothing….well I think you get the point.
I honestly have NEVER played an instrument like this, anything you load just sounds wonderful, ready to go. Everything is produced with the up-most quality and creativity.
The Multis…oh my….you could literally complete a movie trailer with just the multis! I promise to you the first night I installed it I couldn’t even make it through demoing all the sounds without opening it up in Ableton and putting it to work for some hardcore movie style compositions.
Everything you can imagine, all the small little fx, the stuff you hear on commercials or in the theaters…that stuff is here. It may not be the exact sounds, but it’s the styles I’m speaking of. Because to me, this is easily one of the most unique and irreplaceable instruments you’ll ever come across. Heck…I’d say Heavyocity as a company is irreplaceable because I know of no one that is doing it like this. Not that I’ve come across.
Everything has a sheen and shine that says “I’m ready for my closeup!”
What’s your favorite part?
Man…that’s such a tough call, I love this bundle so much it’s really hard to say, but one of the things that really sticks out to me are the trigger fx in Mutations 2. I installed Mutations 2 before I installed Mutations 1 or the original EVOLVE library, and I see why Trigger FX were such a big deal! It let’s you get some morphing, mutating, randomly sick sounds just by “flipping switches”
The interface is made up of tiny switches that control things like dirt, cabinet, saturate, lofi, pan, eq sweep, pitch, delay 1, delay two, and glitch! And these all respond to keys on your keyboard as well…so you can hit the keyboard keys which control each one, play your sounds, and let the sound organically mutate right before your ears and eyes….yes…these sounds have so much personality I feel like I can see them.
Seriously, I found myself wishing the other libraries included trigger fx…BUT since they can all live with each other inside of Kontakt 4 or the Kontakt Player…I’m free to layer, trigger, mutate, and experiment as much as I wish!
If there was one thing outside of the sound design and organization that makes Heavyocity stand out…it’s their use and abuse of fx…and how creative they allow you to be with them.
Nyshiem Myrick was recently interviewed by Grind Music Radio where he reveals his outstanding catalog of classic hip hop, behind the scenes with Notorious B.I.G. and going from "pause" tapes to producing "Who Shot Ya?". Originally posted at CRATEKINGS
It took me many years to move over to software. Reason being, most of it just didn’t “flow” like I wanted. The instruments and plugins have been high quality for a while, but I hadn’t found a sequencer good enuff to replace my mpc. An environment to bring all my production together in a way that works for me.
My boy Pierre had been using ableton for years, and kept telling me about it, but I never got down. Until I actually tried it, and he showed me the layout…then it made sense. This video shows how I understand ableton as a user raised on and comfortable with hardware. I truly feel that when you see this, if you’re a hardware dude…you’ll be like me and feel ableton is the only daw that works how you think.
Let me know what you think, and let me know if you have any questions.
No this isn’t the only way to use ableton, it’s the way that makes the most sense to me…and when I share it with others like me, the hardware dudes…they finally “get it”.
Cop the album now! I rolled thru the signing at Fat Beats yesterday and Eternia was all smiles through weary eyes. Stay on your grind E. The CD is a banger! Cop yours from iTunes or direct HERE
RZA has finally released a trailer for his kung fu flick Wu Tang vs. The Golden Phoenix. The film, which RZA calls “my homage to the 70’s” has no set theatrical or home video release date. Although the film has been in the making for the past ten years, the trailer was just released to commemorate RZA’s twentieth year in the music industry.
The hip hop icon says he made Golden Phoenix to prove to himself and Hollywood that he could be taken seriously as a director. He had some help from Eli Roth, who is billed as an executive producer for the film. The film also features several kung fu legends like Robert Tai, fight choreographer from the 1978 classic The Five Deadly Venoms. Golden Phoenix was made in the style of 1970’s “Kung Fu Theater” – grainy shots, crazy sound effects and lots of dubbing. RZA is well known for his kung fu obsession; just listen to any Wu-Tang album. Now he’s taken that vast knowledge of the genre to create “a world where everyone fights…and they’re all fighting for one thing – the Wu Tang weapon.”
Read more about his next production, "The Man With The Iron Fists", at the link above.
I spent the two days re organizing my sample library. I’ve been wanting to do it for a while, but up until now had only managed to do maybe one or two collection. However, I just decided to get it done.
My sample library file system:
Basically what I do is this. Sample libraries have two main categories, Sample Packs and Sample Libraries. In the “sample pack” I put all the stuff I get like drums, loops, and riffs, the smaller collections. In the “sample library” folder I put all my dvds and large libraries like stuff from Big Fish or Sample Magic…the multi gigabyte stuff.
After that I organize them even further.
For the sample packs, I break them up first by company, then within each company folder I will break it down more depending on how much I have from them. Sample pack companies like nova loops, where I have a bunch of stuff, I’ll break into categories within the folder. I’d do drums, keys, synth, strings, loop sets, etc.
Then in each folder I’d put the sample pack that goes in there. So if I have roots rhodes, I’d put that in the keys, if I have Hood RnB construction set I put that in loop sets. I THEN break down the loop sets even further.
First I break them down by genre, like pop, rnb, dirty south, chillout, etc, depending on what collections I have. Then I go into each construction set collection and break it down. By default, they are just a bunch of folders with each individual construction kit, that includes the bass, keys, strings, drums, etc for that kit. You get anywhere from 10-30 of these depending on the set and the company.
Basically these are “pre made” beats, that you can put back together.
I don’t roll like that, so I needed a better way to utilize these kits, since many companies make them and they have dope sounds. I hated going through each folder looking for some keys, or strings, or bass. So I take all the files out of the individual kits, and put them in one big folder. Then I create new folders based on the instrument category…so I’d have bass, keys, synths, drums, brass, etc.
So now instead of a bunch of folders with premade beats, I have a bunch of folders with various instruments from across the whole collection. So I can find what I want much faster, go to keys for keys, bass for bass, etc. I do the same thing for my sample library collection, it’s just much bigger because they are dvds full of stuff.
I break it out by genre, then I put each library where it needs to go. After that I break each library up into folders of sounds instead of construction kits. I also take the demos out, which is a full mix of each construction set. I only use those for review purposes when I show yall the libraries, then I delete them.
The idea of this library is to provide you with a collection of “radio ready” sounds and samples. Not just one style but any and everything you’d be likely to hear on any popular urban radio station.
The crunk club smashers, the urban rnb vibes. The chopped/pop sample style music, synth based euro gangsta lol…you get the idea. This is just a large collection of popular and contemporary sounding samples
Quick Specs
* Content: 2gb 24 bit wav files (4.68gb all together across formats)
* Format: wav, rex, acid, rmx, apple
* Price: $99.95
How does it sound?
It sounds like urban music…period.
I won’t lie, I was expecting some corny attempt to capture the current “trendy” style of music, I expected it to be one-sided. This library has a lot of various styles from east to west, north to south, club to street, it’s all covered.
The production style is on point, the sounds especially keys and strings are organic, the drums bang, the synths are nice. Everything is recorded and produced with a certain “sheen” on it, but yet still captures everything you’d expect from the particular genre it’s going after.
There are even some random vocal and other samples to give you that chopped, vocal, sample vibe yet still keeping it radio ready.
In my mind, poise is the drum sampler we’ve all been looking for. Poise is what I would make if I could write software….
Poise is a simple, 16 pad drum sampler that lets you quickly add layers, manipulate the layers, and come up with new sounds.
Poise is NOT a sequencer. You can NOT sample into it. From the site:
Direct, straightforward, no frills and no bloat! Poise aims to make working with drum samples quick and painless, allowing you to focus on making music.
Sounds good to me, so good I had to keep it under wraps until I could actually SHOW you what it did. It’s not new, it’s been around, but I just found out about it and I know many of you will love it, because I get the same questions from folks looking for an easy drum sampler that let’s you layer your drums quickly and tweak each layer.
Why I think Poise “gets it”
Why do I think it’s the best? Let me list the reasons.
* It’s easy to layer sounds, just drag them onto the pad, and a layer number will appear in the window
* layers can be played in round robin, layered, or velocity switching mode
* You can have up to 16 outputs, enough to send each pad to it’s own track in your daw if you want
* It’s easy to setup to work with your midi controller
* You can have note on or one-shot mode for your samples
* It has mono mode, so you can get down like on your hardware, making pads cut each other
* You also have “cut groups” so you can set pads to cut each other off
* You can link pads… so you can quickly layer multiple sounds just by linking the pads together
* You can save your own kits quickly
* You can tweak each layer on a pad separately or together
* you can use wav, aiff, or mpc snd format sounds
* It’s lean and cpu efficient
* It’s 49 bucks
Afro-Punk Returns to Brooklyn for 6th Annual Festival, June 26-27!
Bad Brains to Headline, with Ninjasonik, KOS, God Forbid, Activator, Game Rebellion, P.O.S.
and Many More!
Two Additional Dates in Chicago and Atlanta TBA
"Definition-defying artists like Santogold, Janelle Monae and TV on the Radio are finding peers and a fanbase under the movement's welcoming umbrella." - MTV News (view clip here!)
Fresh off its first national tour, Afro-punk is returning to Brooklyn for the 6th Annual Afro-punk Festival on June 26-27 in Fort Greene's Commodore Barry Park. And this year, the festival is proud to host hardcore legends and Afro-punk godfathers Bad Brains. In addition to Bad Brains' set, the festival will include performances from Ninjasonik, KOS, God Forbid, Activator, Game Rebellion, P.O.S., and many more! In addition, this year's Afro-punk will feature the Battle For the Streets Skate and BMX contests. The Best Trick Competition (Skate) will take place on Saturday June 26, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will be hosted by Steve Rodriguez & Keith White. The following day, Sunday June 27, The Best Trick Competition (BMX) will be hosted by Danny Parks aka Baby Bean, Jimmy Mac & Keith White. Both contests will be open to the public, and the contest winners will receive cash prizes, including an All Expenses Paid Trip to the XGames, courtesy of ESPN. The festival will also feature a BMX demo by NYC's Bulldogs Bikes Team, Battle For The Streets Art, NIKE ID Customization, and more. Tickets for the festival are $20 and available at http://www.afropunk.com. After the Brooklyn shows, the festival will hit Chicago and Atlanta.
Afro-Punk 2010 Band Lineup
JUNE 26th
Bad Brains, P.O.S, Ninjasonik, Cipher, Game Rebellion, The Bots, Activator, The 54, Belikos, More TBA
JUNE 27th
24.7 Spyz, The Cool Kids, J *Davey, Martin Luther, The Memorials, Bad Rabbits, More TBA
You read that right. Clone your hardware and software instruments. If you have access to an old synth laying around, or you want to borrow your peep's Roland Fantom, you can clone the entire library of sounds and playing dynamics within the patches. Open Labs' Neko and Miko synth/computer workstations have had this feature available for some time. Sample Robot allows you to perform the same functionality with your PC. Take it away Saint Joe:
What is SampleRobot?
It’s basically your personal software, hardware, acoustic instrument cloning, recycling, re-mangling, ninja sound design system.
It will automate the process of cloning ANY instrument that can receive midi, and will even help automate sampling and instrument creation of acoustic instruments.
It can export them in various popular formats like Reason’s nnxt, or Cakewalk Dimension format, Wusik format, or Emulator X, Kontakt, EXS, you get the idea.
It’s a simple way to automate the creation of your own custom virtual sound library made up of any instrument you have laying around, or your friend has laying around, or your friend’s cousin’s uncle Steve has tucked away in his Ghostbuster van!
You get the idea!
So is it easy to use and does it give good results?
I don’t wanna sound like the infomercial dude but it’s really “set it and forget it” lol. It’s VERY deep, you can do multi layers, automatic sound looping and crossfades for perfectly playable instruments.
You can send all the attack parameters, midi cc, program changes, or anything else you need to make sure you capture every subtle characteristic of your favorite sound.
In my tests, the auto-loop and crossfade was spot on! Very seamless and I couldn’t even tell where it looped. It can record up to 192kHz at 24 bit dependent on your interface. Has a very nice built in wave editor, and a ton of presets for common projects like sampling bass, piano, synth, rhythms, pads, etc. This will give you various options, and tell you how much space it’s going to take!
NATURAL HABITZ rep Tennessee with their single "Reason to Smile". Diggin' the feel good Summer vibe. The crew has a nice sound and it never hurts to see more females on the mic.
