R&B/Hip Hop Synths

[samonbass]

Hey everyone, just looking to expand my library of R&B/Hip Hop & was wondering what synths to they use for this music? I've been looking at soundsonline & they have several disks, but not sure what the difference between them (if any) is. Ive been looking at Blazin Hip Hop/R&B vol2, Complete Urban Flava & Zero G urban elements, I know one of them says it has synths & effects, dont know if its just loops or you can patch them into something else? if anyone has any of these or anything similiar or better or any kind of advice, it would be much appriciated.Thnks & Merry Christmas,Sam.

[sgs4u]

Worthy Opinions re: StylusQuote:Hey everyone, just looking to expand my library of R&B/Hip Hop & was wondering what synths to they use for this music? I've been looking at soundsonline & they have several disks, but not sure what the difference between them (if any) is. Ive been looking at Blazin Hip Hop/R&B vol2, Complete Urban Flava & Zero G urban elements, I know one of them says it has synths & effects, dont know if its just loops or you can patch them into something else? if anyone has any of these or anything similiar or better or any kind of advice, it would be much appriciated.Thnks & Merry Christmas,Sam.

[jh]

Hi Sam!I´m using albino3 http://www.robpapen.com/synths/albino/ . Once you learn how to use it, you can do various things with it. In my experience those disks are obsolete before they hit the market. Hip-Hop is a little different from other genres when it comes to "library music". I´m sure Cisco will chime in once he sees this thread He knows a lot about this stuff.Happy holidays! - JH

[slideboardouts]

In my opinion, its a little tough to exactly pin-point good "hip-hop" synth/sound libraries. The reason for this, IMHO, is that hip-hop borrows sounds from every genre and then adapts them to suit its needs. Also, the genre is constantly changing and evolving. I think you can take just about any sound and use it in hip-hop...the important thing is the drum pattern and how you use the sound. I agree with jh about the hip hop discs you mentioned. From the samples I've heard, they are all kinda wack. I guarantee you that timbaland, lil' jon, Scott Storch, etc. aren't sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for the next version of "Complete Urban Flava & Zero G urban elements." I would buy a good orchestral sound library WAY before any of that since orchestral sounds are used a good bit in hip-hop.From your other thread I gather that you have Reason. If you have version 4.0, the new Thor synth has a lot of useful stuff. The 808 is useful for obvious reasons but it also has a patch called "The Val(cry)" in the lead synth folder that is nearly a carbon copy of the lil jon synth from "yeah" and that new song "Cyclone" by Baby Bash and T Pain. You just need to take off the delay and add a little reverb. There are other useful stock patches and free refill patches but you kind of have to hunt for them. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack sometimes.I can make you a list of sounds in 4.0 that are used quite frequently in various hip hop songs, but if you are sitting on 2.5 or 3.0 (like I was a few months ago) I think you will have a hard time finding good sounds. But if you have 4.0, I would examine your stock library and the free refills a little before spending more money. There's some good stuff there.Here is a song I'm working on for the listing wanting pop/rock/hip-hop songs that mix asian and western instruments. It is barely mixed, not mastered, and done completely with stock sounds and free refills:http://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_ ... am=trueFor some reason when its played streaming, it has this weird static knocking sound in it. Maybe thats just on my rig though.-Steve

[mazz]

I think you've mentioned loop CDs, probably loops made with various synths and drum boxes, these CDs probably wouldn't have synths on them.I don't think there's necessarily a "hip-hop" synth out there. If you read interviews with the producers/artists in, for instance, Remix or other mags, you'll see many different kinds of synths used. A synthesizer is supposed to be something that unique and personal sounds are created with but they usually end up being used like a box full of presets. Any synthesizer can create hip-hop sounds, it's the programmer that makes it sound like it sounds.You could make great hip-hop with any synthesizer once you learn how to get the sounds out of it that you hear in your head.Merry Christmas,Mazz

[bigshanek]

Here's a freeware I've used in the past. You could try it.http://www.kvraudio.com/get/2373.html

[ciskokidd]

Hi Sam,I agree with JH and Steve. I bought a couple of those loop discs a while back and they are utterly useless for composing Hip-Hop. Firstly they are extremely limited - you are lucky to get 4 bars worth and matching tempos and pitches is frustrating beyond belief.I've found that there are various synths that work really well. Reason is a great place to start as the synths onboard are really good. The one thing that bothers me there is using ReWire in Cubase. To me it's a bit of a pain, but is workable. If you are comfortable using their onboard sequencer then you can do it all in reason and there are a ton of sounds available.Rob Papen's Albino 3 is great.NI Pro-53 gives you killer analog synth sounds.Spectrasonics Trilogy is my all around bass synth.Cakewalk Z3Ta synth is quite good.Soniksynth is a great all-purpose rompler. We use it a great deal. The sounds are kinda vanilla, but very useful in the mix.East-West Colossus is great for orchestral stuff if you don't want to go all out and get an orchestral library, and it has a bunch of other great sounds as well.All in all - concentrate firstly on the beats. Hip-Hop is all about the beats. Stylus is a great tool for getting your beats started and adding great little elements.Best of luck,Cisco

[mazz]

I was going to mention Reason. It also has very good samplers in it that could be used to play back drum samples while making beats.Hardware-wise, I've got a Dave Smith Evolver and it makes sounds like pretty much nothing else. Dave Smith invented the Prophet 5 and Pro-One among other classic analog synths and he has some very innovative ideas about synthesizers. I have the tabletop model and it sounds pretty cool.Have fun!Mazz

[samonbass]

Thanks so much everyone, I dont think I will be getting those loop libraries nemore, have to focus on getting some better software I think, have posted a new thread with another question. Thanks again everyone, having this forum with everyones knowledge is such a great asset of being a member of taxi.Sam.