the OFFICIAL when you sell or give a beat to somebody what format do you use?

[N.U.G.]

the best way I can think of doing this is giving them a CD with all the patterns/instruments seperated as .wav files. They can then go to the studio and arrange it how they want. Is this how you guys would do it?

[Fade]

That sounds best to me. But then again, if they're going to a studio that has something like Cubase, Pro Tools, Cakewalk, etc., having the song in the proper format, along with the wav files is best.

[Rip]

i give a mp3 or wav (doesn't matter, the emcee will take it to the studio and just to record over it) and get it back and handle the mixing process from there. tailor the beat one more time to match the verses. forget some fool messing with my beat and levels and such...only you know how it's supposed to be, (giving you trust yourself with that). the version emcees take to studios, usually have my name etched in the the beat too, cuase there are tons of shady mf's running or working at studios, who are salivating at a chance to jack a dope beat.

[Fade]

^^True. Plus it all depends on the situation. If you're selling them your beat along with all the rights to it, then they can do whatever they want to it. But if you're producing them, then go to the studio to mess with everything yourself.

[HaZwaiOh]

as rip said. give them a loop that they can work with in the studio and later on i´ll arrange stuff, set breaks, add sfx etc. I think that works best

[BoogieMan]

I'm usually in the studio with them to record it. Chances are, if you're selling a beat to someone, it's someone who can't make their own so why give them a CD of sounds and expect them to know what to do with it. :P

But if they chose to do it that way, I'd probably give them a ZIP disk with all the sounds and arrangements on it. Simple, clean and done.

[" Killah! "]

If you finna shop a beat yo... you need ta get dat shit on CD but in .cda format, so bytchez can bump yo' shit while dey be in dey car n' shit.

Den if dey wants ta use u n' shit. You hook 'em up wit da loops n' shit.

Or dey just put yo' shit thru da MPC and do stoopid shit wit' it.

One.

2Pac fa evah.

Biggie died after eating a ham sandwich.

[Streetwize]

i've sold quite a few beats before and this is what i did:

Took the pattern of each instrument, so lets say the sample i used, i exported the sample, then the drums, the bassline. the sfx, etc. zipped them all up. But i export each pattern in .wav format and then i create the full intstrumetnal and zip that up too just in case they don't want to change anything at all and dont want to sequence it all out again.

I then put a small business card in the insert of the cover with my website addy, phone number,etc. so that they can pass it onto potential buyers. It's a good thing to do because i got another beat customer via that way.

Streetwize

[trez260]

damn good idea streetwize. i got a cat i have to send a beat too. i hadnt thought of the business card idea. i'ma damn sho do that..good lookin out tho.

[bigdmakintrax]

Ok I handle my biz like this.....on certain tracks that I want to strictly control that might be royalty free or maybe the artists might not be poised to do a major distribution or just street level...I give the 2 tracks only (stereo interleaved)....if they want shidd muted etc...we get that straight.....make sure they got space and intro's etc to do verses.....after that all they get is the 2 track.......if they have invested more money they get the multi tracks.....along with a contract....kind of controlling what they can alter and you cannot break out the track, especially the drum pattern separately and lay some other producers shidd on top....etc.........or maybe the studio they go to steals the shidd in the process of recording and having the master.......

NEVER GIVE AN ARTIST THE MASTERS....bottom line not unless they paid you a nice fee that you feel comfortable with......or you have a good contract behind that.....you would be surprised what will happen to a multitrack, that you might not be too happy with...

[N.U.G.]

BigD,

when you say you only give them two tracks, who do you actually mean?
Is it just the instrumental left and right tracks that you mean?

[bigdmakintrax]

Exactly I give them the left and right channels..or put it on cd in cda...with a good mix that they agree on that also has enuff room for compression or fx that the studio might add....I don't fully normalize the track.....most studios can work that for an MC, if they are big time or whatever then they got dough to pay for the multitracks.....I let them have every instrument on separate wave files so they can mix and mute etc....

[N.U.G.]

awesome, thanks for that info BigD. I'mma do the same thing from now on too!

[CooGi_dice]

i do my thing in a similar fashion to big d... in the first stage i give the client a 2track so they can go the studio and record there vocals.

after that i have them send me a copy so i can listin to it... the client may request minor changes here and there or i might hear something that i feal would sound dope if i swich it up, if so i will bring it to the clients attention and move from there.

next it depends on the situaton and how i have worked things out with the client as far as who and where the song will be mixed, but in the end someone recieves a multi track of the song with all the instruments split up.

if i am recording and mixing the song my self or am having a engeneir freind do it then things are done a lil diffrent.
no matter what though contracts are involved, and its true what big d said about the masters.. me my self, i hold on to those.

[Chedda]

u mean proper written contracts?

[CooGi_dice]

Originally posted by Chedda
u mean proper written contracts?

yea, writen out and all by a lawyer, thats how i do my buisness.


verbal contracts aint sh*t, technacly u make a contract your self on a piece of toilet paper but i rather do things the profesional way.

[Chedda]

do u get one of those special music lawyers or just a normal one?

and how do u get the other person 2 sign it, say if they're from a far away place, just do it thru the post?

[CooGi_dice]

ive been blessed with some conections so i have a lawyer who specilazes in the music buisness and what not...
but a regular lawyer would be fine, the diffrence is the music dudes know about the evil and grimmyness of the industry, they know the ins and outs of the game.

ive only done local stuff so i dont know about how u would go about doing a long distance deal, im thinking that working threw the mail would be fine.
but im not sure ive never done that and dont know anyone who has either, maybe someone else here has experince with that.

[N.U.G.]

what do y'all playas actually mean by keeping the masters?

[Chedda]

good lookin for the info CooGi

[djswivel]

Weel my personal opionion depends on if your gonna be working closely with the artist. If the artist just wants the beat, and he's just up and coming and is doing some sort of underground freestyle thing, most likely he or she isnt gonna care much about re-arranging the beat because for the most part, its not gonna be on a commercial album and when your doin the freestyle thing, it's more about the lyrics then the beat.....If on the other hand the artist is paying for studio time or puttin a serious project together, the artist is prolly ognna know what he or she wants. How they want it arranged, how they want it to sounds etc. In that case give them as much of the raw beat as possible. All the different wav's, reason files, etc etc. It totally depends on the artist

[CooGi_dice]

Originally posted by N.U.G.
what do y'all playas actually mean by keeping the masters?

well the term masters has a bunch of meanings in the industry...

but in my case and i think the other person who mentioned keeping there masters, masters means master recordings, sound recordings (the 2 track, as well as the multi track, and the split mix with the vocals).

for me its what i stated above but i aslo like to keep the sequences saved on disks in case i gotta go back and do something or remix, it makes it alot easyer.

i save my stuff on dat's as well as cd's.