The 365 Songs Project by Chris Sands

Posted: November 04, 2011 10:55AM | Author: R* Q

We’d just like to take a moment to send a special shout to Chris Sands – who recently dropped us a note via mouthoff to let us know about his inspirational story and about his incredible music project, “365 Songs”.

You may have heard of Chris before as the BBC had covered his battle with a rare brain tumor, via the 2010 documentary “The Man Who Can’t Stop Hiccupping”. Chris writes to us:

“...we found out I had a brain tumour, so I had brain surgery, leaving me with a cool scar but also leaving me numb over most of my body, I couldn't walk for a while. I'm on the mend now and have got most of my feeling back. I'm still a quite numb down my left hand side and especially in my left hand which leads me to why I am writing this email. I'm a musician, not a very good one but I love to play music, after the surgery I was laid in the hospital bed and I thought I would never be able to play guitar or piano or anything again. I was in tears listening to all my music on my PSP, the only thing that kept me going was Beaterator, I could sit there and though I struggled to even hold the PSP properly for a while, I could sit and craft the songs that would pop in to my head using it. After getting out of hospital I picked up the guitar again and was just about able to record small parts using the mic and the vocal record function, then copy and paste them and write parts over them. It was just what I needed to help me recover. So now I've started a project to write a song a day for a year and most of my songs have been recorded on my PSP using your excellent program.”

Truly amazing, inspiring and humbling. And better still, the tracks he’s been recording are really, very well done.
We’re particularly fond of this catchy tune – “a story about a man on a horse”, entitled “The plAIN and mountAIN” recorded on Day 73.



Please everyone check out his site at http://www.365songs.co.uk/.

All the best to you, Chris – please keep up the awesome work, best of luck with the remainder of the project and stay well!

• Beaterator
• Music

71 Comments

Jay Electronica – Unreleased Beaterator Instrumental

Posted: February 26, 2010 10:05AM | Author: R* Q

Jay Electronica, who’s been blowing up airwaves this year here in New York and worldwide with his breakout Just Blaze-produced anthem, “Exhibit C” – was one of several artists who passed through the Beaterator Lounge a few months back to test out the beatmaking abilities of Beaterator for PSP.

Digging through our files, we came across this unreleased original beat he whipped up that day live on the spot in just a few minutes flat.  Simple, bass-heavy and vocals-ready with a funky electronic cascade to it… check it out:

Previously:
Beaterator: Artists Series Video Part 2, Hands-On with Pete Rock, Buckshot, Twista, Jay Electronica and More
Beaterator Exclusive Preview at VMA Weekend in NYC

• Beaterator
• Music
• PSN
• PSP

8 Comments

Beaterator Breakdown: Looping Around the Competition (iPhone / iPod touch) (Part One)

Posted: February 11, 2010 10:05AM | Author: R* Y

The dynamic functionality of Beaterator for iPhone and iPod touch easily allows anyone to create powerful and innovative mixes.  Mastering the art of looping will propel your content above the competition, and help you stand out amongst the crowd when uploading your masterworks to the Beaterator Community at Rockstar Social Club.  Here are some tips that will help hone your looping skills:

A Starting Point - The Loops screen is a great starting point for making a song.  Play around with the various Templates – found in New Song on the Main Menu – until you find one you want to work with.  Spend a little time jamming to get a feel for the arrangement of loops, and replace or remove any you don’t want.  Then tap the 'Record' button and start jamming for real.  In no time at all, you will have recorded the basics and can then go to the Song screen to do some finer editing.

(Selecting the right Template is the first step to getting your musical creativity flowing.)

The Loop Picker - Use the Loop Picker at the bottom of the screen to change which loops you will place in each track.  Whatever loop is shown there will be the loop you place down when you tap in the song.  The available loops for the track you tapped will be slightly brighter, and all the current loops for each track – that is, the loops displayed on the Loop Picker bar – are brighter still.  While in the Loop Picker, you can tap a loop to preview it.  If you want to change the loop, tap and hold a loop to remove it, and tap the empty loop slot to browse for a replacement.

(Experiment with different loops until you find the right rhythm.)

In addition to these tips, use the Transport Slider to quickly scroll to other parts of the song.  Access the Transport Slider by touching the small horizontal line icon on the top of the Loop screen or Song screen.  Also, don't forget to make use of the Mute Tracks feature when you are working on specific parts of a song, especially when working with effects.  Remember to keep it simple!  If your song starts to sound bad, you might be mixing too many loops together at that point, or even mixing loops that don’t sound quite right next to each other.

Stay tuned for more looping tips in the future.  If you haven't gotten your hands on it yet, head over to the App Store and cop it – it's only $2.99 for a limited time - get on it!

Previously:
Beaterator Breakdown: The Power of the Synth Editor (PSP)
Beaterator Breakdown: Getting the Most out of Trigger Velocity (PSP)
Teaching Music with Beaterator (PSP)

• Social Club
• Music
• iPod touch
• iPhone
• Game Tips
• Beaterator

7 Comments

DJ Kiva Delivers BTR8ION: World's First Album Created on Beaterator for PSP

Posted: February 05, 2010 10:36AM | Author: R* S

The crew at Dubspot were among the first to recognize the potential of Beaterator for PSP, working with us to reach out to schools using Beaterator as a music production teaching tool.  They also created some great instructional videos to help the crew come to grips with some of Beaterator's more advanced features.

Just to prove just how powerful and versatile Beaterator is, Dubspot's DJ Kiva has created an entire album using Beaterator - and it's awesome. Set up like an old school mixtape, Kiva uses Beaterator's sequencer, sampler and tools to mix up live instrumentation, spoken word, vocals and samples to create a smooth collection of beats ranging from classic old school hip-hop to head-nodding reggae, deep house, subatomic dubstep basslines and more.

Listen and download BTR8ION at Kiva's Soundcloud account http://soundcloud.com/dj-kiva/btr8ion.

Previously:
Beaterator: Video Tips Series by Dubspot
Teaching Music with Beaterator

• PSP
• Music
• Beaterator

7 Comments

Beaterator: Video Tips Series by Dubspot

Posted: January 22, 2010 1:27PM | Author: R* Z

The good folks at Dubspot, the premier music school specializing in electronic music production & DJ’ing located right near our home base here in NYC, have been touring schools across the country using Beaterator as a tool to help educate kids on the fundamental aspects of music theory and composition.

Now, on the official Dubspot blog – they’ve gone a step further and put together their own series of very helpful and informative instructional videos taking you through some of the more advanced mixing and music creation features of Beaterator for PSP.  

There’s 8 vids in total in the series ranging from mastering effects like Reverb, Delay, and Filter – to more advanced features like Loop Slicing and Sampling Live Instruments – and even the finer points of using the Synth Editor to create what they call a “Dubstep Wobble” (as featured in our most recent Beaterator Breakdowns installment).

Check out http://blog.dubspot.com/beaterator/tips.html to see the full set of clips – and also check out some episodes from their nationwide schools tour here.

• Video
• Beaterator
• Music
• PSN
• PSP

6 Comments

Winner Announced in the Beaterator and MySpace Records Challenge: "Night Courtship" by Leeni

Posted: January 08, 2010 2:59PM | Author: R* Q

We're proud to announce the winner of the Beaterator and MySpace Records Challenge, a competition in conjunction with IGN and MySpace that offered select artists and bands on MySpace Music the opportunity to win $5,000 by creating a track using the song-crafting tools provided in Beaterator for PSP.

The winning song is "Night Courtship" by Leeni. You can listen to the track below, and check out more of her music on her official MySpace page.

We'd also like to put forth a few outstanding honorable mentions we also enjoyed. 

"My Corazon" by SuperROOT 

"Sixshooter" by The Rouge

• Beaterator
• Contest
• Events
• Music
• PSN
• PSP

7 Comments

Beaterator Breakdown: The Power of the Synth Editor

Posted: January 06, 2010 8:35AM | Author: R* S

Behind Beaterator for PSP’s easy-to-use interface are some pretty powerful music creation tools.  In previous Beaterator Breakdowns, we’ve looked at the Loop Slicer and how to create complex drum sounds using Trigger Velocity.  Today (and thanks to Adriaan on the suggestion), we’re going to get deep into the heart of Beaterator and show you the potential that lies within the Synth Editor.  From here, you can create your own rumbling subsonic basslines, cool sounds to use in the melody crafter, and if you’re a bit of a synth ninja, you can even make your own original drum sounds.

For non-musicians like us, the Synth Editor may appear a little intimidating at first: rows of knobs affecting every possible parameter.  But to easily get right into experimenting with what the Synth Editor can do, start with the knobs at the top left. That’s where you choose perameters for what kind of sound wave you’re going to be working with - with options of a "sine wave" (a smooth sound) and a "sawtooth" (a rougher, buzzier style sound).

From there, you can choose a range of effects and filters to alter the character, pitch and tone of the sound.  Small differences in each parameter can have huge effects on the sound itself, so make sure to experiment as much as possible.  Really, that's the best way for a novice beatmaker to truly strike gold with the Synth Editor - load up a sound that you like to start with, and then just experiment away with the various knobs and settings and you'll likely wind up with a serendipitous original creation to use in your mixes and songs.  If you want to get really advanced, you can shift the parameters over time, and record your movements to create amazingly diverse sounds.

To give an example of just what's possible, below is a video from our friends at the Dubspot music education center demo'ing how to create a classic wobbly Bassline with the Synth Editor:

***

Look out for more breakdowns of Beaterator production techniques, from simple shortcuts to more advanced ways to supe up your songs.  In the meantime, if you have a production tip of your own to offer or are looking for advice on an area of Beaterator PSP you’d like us to breakdown in a future installment here, give us a shout via comments below or shoot us an e-mail.

Also look out for tips for the recently released iPhone & iPod touch version of Beaterator soon.

Previously: 
Beaterator Breakdown: Getting the Most out of Trigger Velocity
Teaching Music with Beaterator

• PSP
• PSN
• Music
• Game Tips
• Beaterator

11 Comments

Beaterator User-Created Jams: Remixing via the Social Club and Some First iPhone Tracks

Posted: December 15, 2009 11:02AM | Author: R* Z

Over the past week, the Beaterator Community at the Rockstar Social Club has seen a slew of new user audio creations already streaming in from the iPhone version of Beaterator just released last Monday…

Here are some choice works we've been bumping...

• Beaterator
• iPhone
• iPod touch
• Music
• PSN
• PSP
• Social Club

18 Comments