Cloud-Based Music Production Sampling, Synthesis, and Hip-Hop

Cloud-Based Music Production: Samples, Synthesis, and Hip-Hop presents a discussion on cloud-based music-making procedures and the musical competencies required to make hip-hop beats. By investigating how hip-hop producers make music using cloud-based music production libraries, this book reveals how those services impact music production en masse. Cloud-Based Music Production takes the reader through the creation of hip-hop beats from start to finish – from selecting samples and synthesizer presets to foundational mixing practices – and includes analysis and discussion of how various samples and synthesizers work together within an arrangement. Through case studies and online audio examples, Shelvock explains how music producers directly modify the sonic characteristics of hip-hop sounds to suit their tastes and elucidates the psychoacoustic and perceptual impact of these aesthetically nuanced music production tasks. Cloud-Based Music Production will be of interest to musicians, producers, mixers and engineers and also provides essential supplementary reading for music technology courses.

Introduction: Cloud-based Music Production (CBMP) 0.1 Defining Music Production 0.2 CBMP Services 0.3 Sound-Tagging and Search Filters 0.4 Project Backup and Sharing 0.5 Access to Professional Sounds 0.6 Free Tools/Rent-to-Own 0.7 Community, Contests, and Collaboration 0.8 Chapter Outline Chapter 1: Understanding Samples, Synthesis, Editing, and Mixing 1.1 Virtual Performance: Performing Samples, Performing Synthesis 1.1.1 Performance Inputs: Sample Triggering, Synthesis, and MIDI 1.1.2 Point and Click Editing 1.2 Creating Hip Hop Sounds: Sampling 1.2.1 Technological Constraints, Sample Arrangement, and Sample Phrasing 1.2.2 Types of Samples: One Shots and Continuous Samples 1.2.3 Timbre and Arrangement 1.2.4 Categorizing Samples: Instrument Families as Conceptual Groups in Sample Arrangement 1.3 Synthesizers 1.3.1 Synthesizer Types 1.3.2 Synths in Modern Hip Hop Chapter 2: Making Music Using CBMP Resources 2.1 Making Music from Samples 2.2 Drums, Percussion, Bass 2.2.1 Creating Drum and Percussion Tracks with One Shots: Timbral Selection and Arrangement 2.2.2 Rhythmic Congruence in Sampling: Using Continuous Samples for Additional Percussion 2.2.3 Hip Hop Microrhythm: Creating Intentional Rhythmic Incongruence 2.3 Bass 2.4 Melodic Sounds 2.4.1 Categorizing Short-to-Medium Length Melodic Samples: ADSR Profiles 2.4.2 Arranging Long Duration Melodic Samples 2.4.3 Arranging Commonly Used Short- to Medium Duration Melodic Sounds 2.5 Textures, Atmosphere, and Harmony 2.5.1 Ready-Made and Cloud-Based Textures and Atmospheric Samples 2.5.2 Custom Atmospheres and Textures Chapter 3: The Mix — Conditioning Musical Materials on Records 3.1 What is Mixing? 3.2 Establishing Genre through Material Means 3.3 Spectral Distribution 3.4 Dynamic Contours 3.5 Stereo Configuration 3.6 Ambient Design 3.7 Noise, Distortion, Saturation, and Enhancement Chapter 4: Hearing for Your Audience — Beat Production as a Psychoacoustic Art 4.1 Sonic Realism and The Canvas of Psychophysiology 4.2 Mixing Beats: Constructing Past Tense Aural Narratives 4.3 Painting on the Psychoacoustic Canvas: Applying Gestalt Theory to Mixing Technique 4.4 What is Gestalt Theory? 4.5 Auditory Stream Segregation and the Law of Disjoint Allocation 4.6 Laws of Similarity and Common Fate: Location, Timbre, and Signal Routing 4.7 The Figure-Ground Phenomenon: More Applications for Mix Buses 4.8 The Rule of Good Continuation: Parameter Automation and Low Frequency Oscillators 4.9 Chapter Summary Chapter 5: Case Studies in CBMP Case Study 1: "melancholy" by kingmobb (2019) Case Study 2: "fayth" by kingmobb (2019) Case Study 3: "Dxn’t Want U" by kingmobb, from KNGMXBB II (2017) Conclusions

Matthew T. Shelvock teaches at Western University in Ontario, Canada. Matthew currently works in the music industry in Legal and Business Affairs and also has professional experience as a session musician, engineer, and producer.