What was your "WOW" moment in the studio?

Fade

The Beat Strangler
Administrator
illest o.g.
When you realized something special and game-changing for you in the studio? Past or present.

Mine was probably when I first got Cakewalk Pro Audio and realized how many tracks I could put on that thing, and the ability to just cut/copy/paste as needed. This was a huge upgrade from my drum machine, sampler and 4-track!

What about you?
 

Pug

IllMuzik Mortician
Moderator
ill o.g.
Going from Impulse Tracker on the PC to the ASR-10. It's like going from a Flinstones car to a rocket ship.
 

Sucio

Old and dirty...
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 304
Sampling my first record.

I was making beats using stock FL sounds and wanted to start sampling, but couldn't with FL 2.5. I got cool edit and was able to chop up sounds....the rest is history.
 

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
Before I started sampling I could make some decent composed music but it just didn't have that hip hop feel to it. It was more jazz than anything. So I started looking for a site that was all about hip hop and I found illmuzik. This was back in 03 and there were cats here that were amazing (The Smash Bros., Copenhagen, Strada and many others) ...I listened and took notes like a dude possessed, I had to get my skillz up to these guys level (or atleast close) but I had a looong way to go. It took me 6 years before I felt worthy to even submit a beat for a Beat This Contest and I won it on the first try! That was my favorite "WOW" moment!
 

MitchHolmes

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
MIne is not really related to what you guys mentioned.

was at a studio chilling with my boy and basically hanging out after our session going to do a radio spot next door. Now were chillin and these two guys sit down apparently going on the radio as well. We start talking to the guys about making beats and one of the guys says "you know who this guy is"? Of course I dint know so he says Prestige. IM like ok? He's like " you know the song notorious by Biggie"... yep that was him. Go check out the song he produced... I have him on fb now and talk to him here and there.

That is my WOW moment.
 

Sucio

Old and dirty...
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 304
^LOL


"I was in the horde and shit got real, son"
 

slik da relic

RS Jedi
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 1
i had a few but the 2 that sticks out:

yes... i hafta agree with Fade... it wasnt with Cakewalk, but with hardware.. i forgot which machine, but cut/copy n paste will make u jump for joy! i couldnt believe the ease and speed of it... no splicing or bouncing... definitely changed the game for all of us! lol

the other is decades b4... my 1st came when i was using a Casio RZ1 drum machine in the 80s with my group... pretty decent drum machine back then, but with the DXs, DMXs, and other machines out there (no MPCs as of yet), this definitely wasnt in the "elite" class... the "WOW" moment came when we did a track and went to Calliope studios... i had to bring that drum machine bcuz the pattern was song written on there... i kept thinkin we were gonna hafta reprogram the pattern on a more "professional" drum machine up there.. but the engineer at the time, just plugged it in, and started running it thru the mixer and the FX and DAMN... the sounds sounded like they were on steroids! i was like, yooooo... that changed my attitude about any sound i may have... even the crappy sounds can be beefed up, and made to sound like they are bein produced by very expensive equipment!

da relic
 

Some Guy

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 100
Hardware: When my boy got a SIXTEEN TRACK I think it was Alesis or Roland I cant remember. Those were like $2 g's back then. I just remember damn, SIXTEEN TRACKS! I was used to four. We were like what the fuck are we gonna do with all these tracks?!

Software: Sonic Foundry Acid. The fact that you could put a loop in there and chop it, and it would time stretch it automatically was like magic to me.
 

Greg Savage

Ehh Fuck you
ill o.g.
Software.... just how fast it was to create tracks compared to using an akai Mpc

...Robbing others swing from audio files

how many producers shared tracks with other producers

the # of producers who work from presets (not stock) but their own
 

Formant024

Digital Smokerings
ill o.g.
Past: Getting an 8 bit soundcard after realising i could hook up a juno to a 386.
Present: custom/diy discrete signal processing, just really impressive developments
 

Heez Magnif

Member
ill o.g.
When I finally learned about & started applying mixing, EQ and compression properly to my tracks. Made my jaw drop on how much "bigger" my sounds got compared to being dry. Opened up a whole new world to me.
 

JustRipe

Analog Architect
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 75
ive never really gone deep and listened to as much hiphop as i should i so i never know which samples have been used i just blindly dig and am ignorant but it kinda works out for me when i flip a used sample because my flip will be completely different from the pro's, anyways so i was digging and all of a suddened stumbled apon the sample jedi mind tricks used for the song retalliation, my jaw just dropped and then i realized every single good sample has been used lol, i now have to focus on my style alone so i can flip any used sample and have my own completely new feel, from then on out i no longer tried to recreated my favorite sounds from hiphop, i just do what comes naturally (that realization=biggest WOW moment) hoping i develope a style people wana recreate someday and that kids will get as hyped as me someday when they hear a sample ive used..
 

Medl4

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 69
When someone told me how to use the NNXT in Reason to sample, I didn't have recycle not could I afford it & had been making beats in reason for like a year & a half just using random reason sounds and synths, trying to make it sound the way I wanted but couldn't get that unmatchable feel & vibe that sampling delivers. One day this cat told me I could load WAV files into the NNXT & chop them up, I never looked back after that, it completely changed the way I was doing things. Im still relying solely on the NNXT and a few of the plug ins in reason to make every beat that leaves my lair.
 

Step Soprano

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Acid Hiphop when I was 8, my cousin selling me his ASR-X when I was 12, then working with TI on the next album, and learning from him and BOB's engineers. They are truly geniuses. Learning how to make shit sit right, and how to really freak certain plugs, greatest 6 monthes of my life as far as learning goes.
 
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