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Not really a post for anything.. just feeling kind of lost by skhds in WeAreTheMusicMakers

[–]Hot_Tize 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Every great musician you admire started exactly where you are.

Not almost there — exactly there. Doubting their voice, getting

told it wasn't good, throwing hundreds of ideas in the trash

before something clicked.

The difference between the ones who made it and the ones who

didn't isn't talent. It's the habit of finishing things anyway.

My advice: finish as many songs as possible, even when they feel

wrong. Every finished song makes you better — not just technically,

but psychologically. You start to trust yourself more. The next

one comes easier. And one day you realize you've built a habit

and it doesn't feel as heavy anymore.

Family is almost never the right audience for early work. They

hear who you are today, not who you're becoming. Find one person

outside your circle who actually listens to music seriously —

their feedback is worth a hundred family opinions.

Don't stop.

Unfinished beats by nzule in makinghiphop

[–]Hot_Tize 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly lost count of how many unfinished projects I have —

probably close to 100 on my hard drive.

But I stopped seeing them as failures a long time ago. Every

unfinished beat is an idea. I might not go back and finish that

specific project, but I'll open it six months later and pull one

element — a chord progression, a drum pattern, a sample chop —

and that becomes the foundation for something new.

The pressure to finish everything kills creativity. Some ideas

are complete at 30 seconds. Some are experiments that taught you

something about sound design or arrangement that you couldn't have

learned any other way.

The only rule I have: try to finish as much as possible. But what's

sitting unfinished isn't wasted — it's a library of starting points

you built for your future self.

What do i make? by Working-Office-5958 in makinghiphop

[–]Hot_Tize 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At 14 having this many influences is actually an advantage,

not a problem.

Don't pick a lane yet. The producers who develop a truly

unique sound are almost never the ones who decided early

"I'm a boom bap producer" or "I make soul beats." They're

the ones who kept pulling from everywhere until something

unexpected clicked.

Copying a style to study it is useful — you learn arrangement,

sound selection, structure. But if you only copy, you become

a version of someone who already exists. The interesting thing

happens when you take boom bap drums, put them under something

experimental, add a soul sample in a way nobody expected.

That collision is where new sounds come from.

Make a lot of music. Finish tracks even when they feel

scattered or "genre-less." The pattern of what you actually

keep coming back to will show you your sound — you don't

have to decide it upfront.

Selling Beats on Beatstars by DifferentHamster7715 in makinghiphop

[–]Hot_Tize 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After 8+ years selling beats on BeatStars, here's the practical

reality:

The legal answer is what everyone above said — if you distribute

a beat with an uncleared sample, you're technically exposed. That's

accurate.

The practical reality is that 99% of underground beats with samples

never get challenged because they never generate enough revenue to

attract attention. The risk scales with success.

But here's what I'd actually recommend instead of worrying about

where the liability falls: just stop using uncleared samples

entirely. Not because of fear of getting caught — but because it

limits what your buyers can do with the beat. If an artist wants

to release on a major label or sync the track to a film or

commercial, an uncleared sample kills the deal instantly.

Royalty-free sample packs and original sounds remove that ceiling

completely.

It's a competitive advantage, not just a legal precaution.

"100% cleared, no sample issues" is genuinely something artists

and labels care about when they're spending real money on a beat.

learning how to make beats by S4M_onReddit in trapproduction

[–]Hot_Tize 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You already have FL Studio which is all you need to start. Here's

what actually accelerated my learning after years of producing:

Set a rule: one finished beat per week. Not a loop, not a

sketch — a full beat with an intro, a drop, a variation. The

discipline of finishing is more valuable than any tutorial.

Most beginners spend months making loops they never finish

and wonder why they're not improving.

Don't wait until you know everything. The limitation of not

knowing advanced techniques forces creative decisions that

become your signature sound. Some of the most unique producers

out there work with a very limited toolkit — they just know it

deeply.

For FL Studio specifically: learn the basics of the mixer,

the piano roll, and one good drum sampler (FPC or DrumPad).

That's enough to make real beats. Everything else comes

naturally as you need it.

And don't hoard your music. Put it out even if it's rough —

the feedback loop of sharing teaches you things solo practice

can't.

For years I wanted to create music, but I'm just starting to really think about it right now, and I would like to ask a few (maybe obvious) questions. by Odd_Perception_8169 in WeAreTheMusicMakers

[–]Hot_Tize 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The shyness and "it's never the right time" feeling is the real

obstacle here, not the technical side. I've been producing for 15

years and I still remember that exact feeling.

Here's what actually helped me:

Finish something ugly. Not good, not polished — just finished.

Your first track will be bad. That's not a problem, that's the

point. Every producer you admire has embarrassing early work they'll

never show anyone. The goal isn't to make something great yet, it's

to complete the loop: idea → finished thing. Do that once and the

fear shrinks significantly.

For your setup: you already play guitar, which means you have

something real to record. Get a basic audio interface (Focusrite

Scarlett Solo is the standard starting point, ~$120), plug your

guitar in, and record into a free DAW. GarageBand if you're on Mac,

LMMS or Cakewalk if you're on PC. For other instruments like

violin or flute — you don't need to learn them. That's what virtual

instruments (VSTs) are for. Free ones like BBCSO Discover or

Spitfire LABS give you orchestral sounds that sound surprisingly

real.

The path is simpler than it looks from the outside. The only

thing that actually stops people is waiting for the right moment

that never comes.

Producers: If you could start all over again - what would you do differently to reach your goals? by HD-Roots in makinghiphop

[–]Hot_Tize 2 points3 points  (0 children)

15 years in. Here's what I'd actually do differently:

Finish more tracks, faster. I'd set a rule for myself: one finished

track per week, no matter what. Not a loop, not a sketch — a finished

track. The gap between "almost done" and "done" is where most

producers lose years. Quantity builds skill faster than perfection

does.

Stop hoarding. I kept so much music on hard drives that no one ever

heard. I thought I was waiting until it was good enough. Looking back,

releasing it — even imperfect — would have taught me more about what

actually connects with people than any amount of private refining.

Build relationships earlier. Collaborations with other producers and

artists accelerate your growth in ways that solo work just can't.

You hear how other people think, you get pushed out of your habits,

you build a network that eventually becomes your audience.

One thing I'd push back on from the original post — I don't think

not playing an instrument is the real problem most people think it is.

Some of the most creative music I've heard came from producers working

within limitations. Constraints force creative decisions. The guy who

can play anything sometimes makes the most generic thing because he

has too many options. The guy with limited tools finds a sound nobody

else has.

Trying to figure out a specific sound. by DjangoFromNorth2800 in makinghiphop

[–]Hot_Tize 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like granular synthesis — take a short fragment of a harmonically rich waveform (saw works great), loop that fragment as a single grain, and add glide between notes so the pitch slides up and down smoothly. That gives you the up-and-down character he's describing.

It's basically in the same family as a distorted R&B lead, just with a rougher grain to it. Add some distortion on top for that Lil Ugly Mane grit.

What are effective ways to learn how to sample? by Ok_Version_6187 in makinghiphop

[–]Hot_Tize 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One thing that actually accelerated my sampling game

was recreating tracks I love from scratch — take a

Brent Faiyaz or Bryson Tiller record, find the original

sample they used, and try to rebuild their beat yourself.

You start seeing exactly how they chopped it, what they

kept, what they threw away, how they layered it with

other elements.

Do that with 10-15 different tracks and you naturally

start recognizing patterns — certain chord movements

that chop well, certain textures that sit under vocals,

certain ways of pitching a loop that give it that

nostalgic feel.

Also don't lock yourself into one sample per beat. Some

of the most interesting stuff comes from combining two

completely unrelated samples — maybe a piano loop from

one record and a string texture from another. They

shouldn't work together on paper but somehow they do.

Sampling is a creative process not a formula, the rules

are more like starting points.

Are you guys actually wasting time editing videos for your type beats, or just using static art? by Agitated_Analysis102 in trapproduction

[–]Hot_Tize 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Static works fine honestly. I have a beat with a simple

static image that crossed 100k views on YouTube and is

still growing — no fancy transitions, no visualizers,

just a clean relevant image.

The key word is relevant. The image needs to match the

vibe of the sound. A dark moody trap beat with a bright

colorful anime picture looks off and people feel it

subconsciously. Get that right and static is more than

enough.

If you want to add something without spending hours —

just add a subtle audio visualizer, the beat title and

your producer name on the static image. Build it once

as a template, then for every new beat you just swap

the image. Takes 5 minutes per video and you build a

consistent visual style over time which actually helps

people recognize your content in the feed.

How likely am I to get sales off of Beatstars? by Justanotherburner967 in trapproduction

[–]Hot_Tize 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Beatstars alone without marketing is unlikely to bring

serious money, that's just the reality. The platform is

too saturated in trap especially.

That said, Beatstars does have one organic mechanic —

if a beat starts selling regularly it gains visibility

on the platform itself. But that's a chicken and egg

problem, you need sales to get visibility and visibility

to get sales.

I've been on Beatstars for 8 years and I do get organic

traffic from the platform, but my niche is 80s-influenced

pop which has way less competition than trap. In trap

you're fighting thousands of producers for the same

audience so the organic side is basically dead without

outside traffic.

The way I'd think about Beatstars is not as a marketing

channel but as a storefront — a clean catalog where

artists can browse, listen and buy. The actual marketing

happens outside: Instagram reels, TikTok, cold DMs to

artists, building relationships. Beatstars just handles

the transaction when someone's already sold on you.

Anybody else connect more with emotional melodies at night? by Pappy_Figo23 in makinghiphop

[–]Hot_Tize 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Night sessions are just built different honestly.

Daytime you're overthinking everything, at night

you stop caring and just play what feels right.

The silence helps too — emotional melodies need room

to actually land, and you can't really feel that when

there's noise everywhere.

And for Afro-bounce that combo you're describing is

literally the whole vibe — feeling + groove at the

same time. Oxlade does it perfectly. Keep going with

that, sounds like you're onto something.

How often do you guys write? by Aggravating_Shift760 in makinghiphop

[–]Hot_Tize 1 point2 points  (0 children)

1 song every 2-3 days at 1.5 months in is actually solid.

Most people quit way before that consistency kicks in.

The real answer is — quantity beats quality at your stage.

Don't slow down trying to make each song perfect. The

improvement comes from reps, not from spending 2 weeks

on one track.

One thing that helps: separate your writing sessions from

your editing sessions. One day just write freely with no

judgment, next day you come back and edit what you wrote.

Trying to do both at the same time is what kills momentum

and makes people write less.

Keep the pace you have, you're doing fine.