Interview with Dj_RATCH From UKS

Today i'm going to be talking with UKS member DJ_Ratch who has been in our studio for the last week working on his latest album and we manage to catch up with him for a few moments.


Q1, what first got you into dance music?

A1, well when i was younger i used to listen to steps but i though that was pop music but my main liking for dance music was when i started listening to bass hunter i then wanted to to explore and then got into tiesto.

Q2, how long have you been dj ing for?

A2, I have been into dj ing for a while got my first set of decks witch were kam 150 when i was 16 at the age of 18 i dj in a local club with a night club dj from a local town for dance decade playing all the dance hits from 1990 to 2010. i then moved to bath and was dj ing at a club there before going to ground to produce.

Q3, how long have you been producing music for?

A3, i have been producing music for 5 years round about i started producing hip-hop music i got close to around top 4 for a tv and film placement i made that track on  Fl studio 9.

Q4, how did UKS come about?

A4, UKS came about when i teamed up with Dj_nock and we wanted something new and as i'm from the UK and he from the US we took the letters from each and put them together.

Q5, how did you meet each other?

A5, we met each other on studiolinked.com where artist and producer can learn to do music / talk to each other and we just started talking and working on a few tracks then we decided to do the album

Q,6 where can we hear your music?

A6, our music is on sound cloud you can take a listen to a few of the tracks  from the album on there there are 3 of them as the album is still not finished yet. the tracks are called one day, B.U.L.L.Y and 9X9
this is the link
http://soundcloud.com/dj_ratch we will let you know when the album comes out and where you can pick a copy up from
there is also an exclusive track that buybestbeats co produced with me

thank you DJ_ratch and we hope to speak with you again soon when your album drops stay tuned as we have more artist we talk to.

Fl Studio VS Logic Pro

In my five years on music production i have used many different software

i started off with the demo of fl studio before buying it and now running fl studio on windows and now moving onto logic pro on my mac.

so i thought i would do a quick write up about my option on fl studio vs logic pro.


fl studio

i have used fl studio 8-9 and 10 for the five years i have been producing music.

and i have seen the changes that has gone along with it.

the main thing i like about the fl studio is the step sequencer and the chance to put your own drum sounds into the project for  example. i could use the kick drum from the dr. dre kit and a snare from the Eminem kit  i can mix and match them.

this is what i mean by the fl studio step sequencer you can add drums in from different areas to make a beat and it's all easy to find. this is not one of my beats i found it online. this project here uses what we call stock sounds they are already built into fl studio how ever if you can pull it off like soulja boy did when he made crack dat he used all stock sounds.





the next thing i personally like about fl studio 9 the lay out how you can set you track out on the playlist in the way it's going to be and you can even label verse, hook ect i did not do that i personally used to count the bars i normally do 16 or 24 bars verses in my hip-hoip beats.


the next thing i like in the fl studio is the mixer this is because it's set out like a proper mixer where you can assign instruments to a channel by pressing ctrl L and it will automatically name it and you can send it to send or sub mix it down. and the fact each channel can have up to 8 fx on it.

this shows you a mixer of fl studio with the assign tracks the way i just told you by pressing ctrl L

it is the mixer preset that i like with the 8 fx you can have up each one easy to tweak if you needed to as everyone i know has there own preset they like to use i have my own preset i like to use.

this included my own mastering preset and the oder i put them in and what i set my master channel to when i bounce or export the project in wav files.









i still use fl studio 9 on my windows desktop as fl studio 10 got rid of the bottom part of the play list i know some people like to use that on there track and make there track that way and some like doing it the way i do.

this is the play list in fl 10 fl 9 can have the multiple colour on them.

and some people like the patterns part being there so they can add stuff to there beat and keep it out the way in fl studio 10 they taken that away.









LOGIC PRO

as i said at the start of the blog i now use logic pro on my mac.
i have only been using logic pro for 4 weeks now and i can see some of the stuff i like to do in fl studio but i can not do it on logic pro or if you can i have not figure it out yet.


the piano roll in fl studio is easy just click away how ever in logic pro you have to right click every time and tell it to create a note gets a bit annoying but you get used to it.

logic pro dose not have a step sequencer in it but it has the playlist grate. how ever with you adding in whole drum kits to logic you can not record you kick and then the snare on top of it as it replace the original pattern with the new one you recorded. so if you want drums it takes up 3 space on your play list.

no big deal but i like to mix and match my sound where i can not do it on logic .
the mixer of logic pro is much different to the one on fl studio you have seen the mixer for fl studio above this is the mixer on logic pro

some people like the mixer like this i however like the mixer like they have on fl studio. people may like the effects unit on logic pro i like the one of fl studio.

you can do the same with the softwares in question.

i do like the fx on logic pro however i also like the fx on fl studio.











some producer who use logic pro are. dr.dre, Eminem, 50 cent.

but some producer who use fl studio are boi 1da, alex da kid, just blaze.

if logic mixed and match the softwares together with fl studio i would buy it as it will have the same result but what it allows you to do on it.

my final point is if fl studio was to come out on mac i would buy it as i like the way fl studio works i know it as i used it for 5 years if you ask me the same question on this in 5 years time i would properly say logic pro i'm not saying one bad and the others good. i like them both equally.


fl studio cost $279 for the best version

logic pro 9 cost $499 with no trail available

so if you going to start producing or want to learn how to produce and you use windows starts with fl studio.

please fell free to comment, and ask questions about this i will be writing my blog update on friday for this to answer your question you may have.

www.buybestbeats.com  to hear beats produced by me on fl studio at low prices.

studio day1

Hi for all of you who don't know me my name is ben ratchford i own buybestbeats.com today i'm in the studio working on a bit of music for someone who gets bullied because he wants to be a rapper out of the 3 tracks i'm making him for free.

this will take you thought what i do in the studio on day one of production

today i'm making a hip-hop beat for the person i mentioned above ok to start of with i'm going to start a blank project

this is is what logic looks like when your first open it up. all i have done is added 6 software instruments into my project i'm now going to drop the tempo down to around 90 bpm

tip

hip-hop is set between 70 to 110 bpm  sometimes quicker but when first making hip-hop beats stick within these guide lines.


so this beat is going to be set at 90 bpm

this i my project it is set at 90 bpm



when making hip-hop i like to start with the drums some people make melodies first then the drums to suit it but i go for the drums first time around

in my drums folder i'm using the kit known as heavy hip-hop drums this will be my kick drum


i'm going to enter this manually using the logic piano roll

with mac there no right click but on logic you can right click a go  create note.






i always start by do a 4 on the floor this means every beat of the bar is going to be a kick drums then i'm going to change it around with my drums i always make them 2 bars in length

i know that my snare is going to hit on the 2 and 4, 6 and 8 in the 2 bars so in insert 2 on logic i have put in 90's hip-hop drums

ones this is done i'm going to go back to to my kick drum and make it into a beat

i have now got in my drums  kick and snare along with a snares clap on insert 3 .

for my liking the kick is not hard engouth so i'm going to go over to the mixer and make them hit harder

by adding some fx into them

the fx i used are

chain eq
fat eq
and compression

i also need to add some hi hats in so i'm going to have open hi hit, closed hi hat, and maybe a bit of a shaker

this is what my drums look like so far i'm a neat freak when it comes to music i like to keep my project tidy

i'm going to make the drums 16 bars long and that is going to be my verse so my song structure will be

8 bars intro
16 bar verse
8 bar hook
16 bar verse
8 bar hook
4 bar outro

tomorrow i'll be adding in the brass, strings and any pianos i want to add.


any question please contact me i'll be happy to answer them also head over to

www.buybestbeats.com
to hear other work and now we able to do a live studio session for $20 a session that you can book no other music producer can do that.


from
ben