Exporting Reason Drums to Ableton Live

A while back I downloaded a drum kit called the Tape808 from Goldbaby. It was really an exxcellent purchase – I got all those awesome authentic high quality 808 sounds I’ve been needing to beef up my productions (and for only $20!!!). The only thing was, for some reason i decided to get the drums as Reason Refills. This made it really difficult to use the drums for layering in my other program of choice, Albeton Live. Sure, you can Rewire the two programs, but its not quite the same as actually having the individual WAV hits to play with in Impulse or a Drum Rack.

Thats when I thought of this trick for getting the samples into Live quickly:

-Open the desired drum kit in Reason

-Create a drum pattern which uses every drum hit, one at a time, at evenly spaced intervals of 1/4 measure (or 1/2, just long enough for the tails to die off without running into the next hit).

-Export this loop to a WAV file.

-Open said WAV file as an Ableton Live clip

-Right click on the clip and use the “Slice to MIDI” tool to slice at the same intervals the hits were at.

And there you have it- a drum rack created quickly from the Reason drum kit! Enjoy.

The EASIEST Way to Warp (most) Songs in Ableton Live 7

1) Open clip (make sure “auto-warp” isn’t set in preferences)

2) Drag clip’s start arrow to very start of first downbeat

3) Right click on that arrow -> Warp From Here (straight)

You’re Welcome,

DJ Oscillator

How to Freestyle

Just found this interesting “how-to” article- how to win a freestyle battle. Personally, I’m not so good at making up shit on the spot, but maybe if I practice…

 How to Win a Freestyle Battle

Here’s one of my gems:

Run for cover muthaf*ker, less you lookin’ for strife

I pop two in your gut, then bust a nut on your wife!

Beat that!

Making Beats: Acapellas

Okay- this might be skipping ahead a bit. Say you read my previous articles on making beats and came out with something pretty sweet. Or say you didn’t read my articles but made some sweet beats anyway. Whats the next step? Add rapping! “But I can’t rhyme for shit and I have the voice of a prepubescant albino chipmunk!” you squeel? Not to fear, this is what acapellas are for.

You want the rap from some awesome song without the beat? Getting this may be a bit harder than it sounds. The easist way is to find a file where its already like that. There are many acapella’s floating around the internet- I’ve had pretty good luck using BitTorrent- try typing “acapella” into a site like Isohunt and download away (if you don’t understand this, read my article on “How to Download Anything You Want”). Another good source is Frostwire, similar to Limewire but not being sued.

But what if you can’t find the acapella for a specific song you really want? Well.. its not pretty, but there are ways…

How To Hack

While randomly searching the internet today (putting off my impending network programming assignment), I came across this excellent article. It tells you everything you need to know to be a true hacker. Not a cracker. Not a freaker. A hacker. I don’t think I’ve really gotten to that level yet. Although I know all of the languages required, I don’t think I’ve really aquired the mental discipline and passion for problem solving required to really consider myself one. Perhaps, like he warns in the article, I’m too distracted by “sex, money, and social approval”. Its hard, you’ll see…

How to Be A Hacker

How To Rap

In responce to the downright terrible lyrical “skillz” of the aforementioned K-Fed, here is a link that may help you hone your skillz. Use your newfound knowledge wisely.

The Onlice Emcee Tutorial

K-Fed could definitely benefit from reading this (if he can actually read that is).

Making Beats: The Prologue

Over my many years of net-surfing I’ve come across quite the collection of useful music-production websites. In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion that one can become an excellent producer without any formal schooling just be doing research on the internet (plus plenty of practice). Anyway, heres two of my most prized gems, sites that have helped me to be what I am today:

Illmuzik: The best online hip-hop community I’ve found thus far. It has a good collection of tutorials, articles, and interviews, but the real wealth of information lies in the forums. Another plus, the monthly “beat this” compitition.

Tweakheadz Lab: Not focused solely on hip-hop, but more on any kind of computer music production in general. A comprehensive and invaluable resource; “the guide” will take you all the way from not knowing what MIDI is to being a full-fledged production guru getting blunted in the lab with Dr. Dre and Scott Storch. <—(slight exaggeration)

So, enjoy these sites!

Soon to come: Dr. Oscillators complete guide to making a “hit” rap single!

How To Download Anything You Want

When I was a little kid, I always wanted to be a pirate…

Disclaimer: The techniques described in the following article are for educational purposes only. I do not condone any illegal activity that transpires with the use of this knowledge, and I absolve myself of all legal responcibility. Downloading copywritten material is (currently) illegal, so be careful and don’t say I didn’t warn you..

That being said-

Thanks to the miracle of the internet and several fairly recent advances in file-sharing and bandwidth, it is now possible for anyone with an internet connection to obtain any kind of media they want for free (movies, video games, software, music, books, etc. etc.). In this article I will explain the best ways I have found of gaining access to this material. Click more to see how….