What Are Your Standards?

[Ben Grimm]

My standard started as "discover how to create beats that carry the same punch and quality as such and such a track." This was purely as a self-teaching tool, and I approached it the same way I did when I was in art school and would learn how to use the Macintosh by putting tasks ahead of me to create simulacra (not a copy, but something that looks as though it could be a copy) of various things, and to exactly duplicate designs from scratch.

I found a set of processes that got sounds I worked with into the range and quality I wanted, and then my standard became "create at least one new direction for myself in every beat" and that's where I started branching away from the hip-hop genre, and built beats in genres I listened to, or danced to, or was just enamored of. I learned about treating and using instrumentation that I was unfamiliar with, song structure I had never really paid attention to (just how long is the average drum n bass intro? etc), and of course, learned more production techniques. Its fun to experiment like this, and event though I do it less now, I still do it.

After my experimentation as a rule stage passed, I went through a period where it was "as many beats per week as I can manage," and I found I can't really work this way. For whatever reason, I just end up with a bunch of 8 and 16 bar loops that didn't really have enough effort put into them.

Currently my standard is "maximize the sonic quality, innovate where possible, work on creating a recognizable 'sound' and 'style' to my work," which is pretty tough on myself, but I think its where I need to be headed in order to really take that leap forward into making a big of a gig out of this. I've already been working with an MC, both directly, and adapting beats I have already created, and that's been a cool new experience as well, because his taste and my tastes are vastly different in a lot of areas. Not much arguing, but lots of "hmm, let's give it a try, if it works it works, if it don't, it don't."

Oh, and the other standard I always try to follow "make it cool enough for me to listen to over and over again." That one is really important when you're looping the same 16 bar section for an hour.