Using Ableton 11, create ONE 16-bar beat loop utilizing techniques from the southern style from any of the Dirty South regions covered in class/ found on the Dirty South Record your sounds into a final loop and upload them to your Soundcloud profile. Reflect on thoughts of this sound and add a short reflection on your process of sample-based beat-making to your journal.  

I found this assignment to be somewhat difficult. Like the NYC hip-hop beat, I spent a lot of time trying to perfect my loop and could not find a way to keep improving it. I gathered samples from the website Sample Focus, which have a Standard License and are Royalty Free. I tried to start by researching songs in this genre and found the song “Dressed 2 Kill” by Six2 within a Spotify playlist called “Dirty South Memphis”. I definitely did not have the 65-80 bpm, as listed in the Key Elements of Dirty South Sounds infographic, but I really liked the intro, scratch, and then the drums and melody. 
I played around with Ableton instruments until landing on Sweet Lead under the Synth Lead category within Analog Instruments, to make the intro. Then I sampled a record scratch called “Record Scratch - Sound Fade In & Out” by Lil Yoshi, which can be found here: https://samplefocus.com/samples/record-scratch-sound-fade-in-out. Then I started working on the drums, including a bass, which was later supplemented by the sub-bass that I made using the Operator and measuring the frequency using the Spectrum. After trying many different beat patterns and drum kits on Ableton, I ended up with one that resembled one that overall fit the style (I think lyrics would really tie it together). I played with many effects including erosion and saturator and added other percussive effects.
I wish I had focused on a more soulful melody to complete the song, but I enjoying the lo-fi and dark horror sounds, which I had not played with since the beginning of the semester. Like the previous assignment, I had trouble adapting the sonic style to my preferences, but I also noticed an improvement from the NYC beat. I had never heard of this type of music, so it was cool to get to know more about the genre and adapt what I was listening to the beat for this week 

Key Sonic Elements: The Dirty South
Sub-Bass (Ableton Operator)
808 percussion especially closed triplet high hats
Tuned drums
Pitched Samples (Usually soul music samples)
Synthesizers (Typically 2 - 4 + notes)
Typically guitars, strings, organs, orchestral sounds, and gospel-inspired instruments
Swing (created by use of triplets)

DirtySouth(80 Bpm)

Using Ableton 11, create ONE 16-bar beat loop utilizing techniques from the styles of dance-based beat-making - either Techno or house genres. Record your sounds into a final loop and upload them to your Soundcloud profile. Reflect on thoughts of this sound and add a short reflection on midwest beat-making to your journal. Reflect on thoughts of midwest beat-making techniques and add a short reflection of your own sample-based beat-making to your journal. Explain the sounds used, and how you arrived at the submitted beat.

	When I first enrolled in the class and even during the early weeks, I thought that beat-making was synonymous with making electronic music. I focused on the songs I had saved from those genres and started paying attention to the drum patterns and melodies of such. Eventually, I realized that this was not the focus of the class. I was excited to learn about this music style and recreate a beat using its sonic elements, especially because of its rising popularity as samples in modern music (Friday – Dopamine Re-Edit by Nightcrawlers & In Da Getto by J Balvin and Skrillex). As I have become older I have come to enjoy House music and exploring different artists; it is very different from my normal repertoire of mainstream Pop, Reggeaton, and Indie tracks. I was heavily inspired by Dennis Cruz’s Bad Behaviour.
	I started my beat by going back to the 4-on-the-floor pattern and thinking about the iconic ‘boots and cats’ pattern in house music. I set the BPM to 125 and started arranging the kick, high hat, and snare sounds from the DS Drum Rack, to which I applied the Saturator Effect. I started playing around with the different instruments to make the loop sound more complete and ended up adding some very interesting sounds. I sampled a spoken quote from Sample Focus using the Simpler,  it can be found here: https://samplefocus.com/samples/as-soon-as-we-finish-our-drinks. Even though it is not Gospel singing, I thought it added a vintage feel and I ended up building the sound around it. I separated my drums into a soft and loud portion, before and after the sample. I did the same thing for the bass, using the Basic Sub Sine from the instruments. I added a distortion before the sample and a melody afterwards using the sample inside the Simpler with the Arpeggiator. 
	This was a lot harder than what I thought it would be, but I had fun. Using the familiar ‘boots and cats’ sounds and my own bearings on house music while trying to figure out Ableton was particularly interesting. This is the first Style Style Session that I actually listened to the musc before, and I have a feeling that might be true for my classmates as well. I wish I could use cooler quotes as samples, but sadly because of the copyright issues I had problems finding ones I could use (that were royalty-free).

DanceHouse(125 Bpm)

In a small assigned duo, create a complete beat in collaboration with one other student by sharing recorded “stems”. Record your sounds into TWO final 16-bar or more loops and upload them to your Soundcloud profile. Include both beat makers' names in the title. Reflect on thoughts of collaborative beat-making sound and add a short reflection of your own group-based beat-making experience. Explain the sounds used, and how you arrived at the submitted beats.

We made the second loop titled “Cascade” using 2 of Patty’s dirty south samples and 6 of Pang’s drum loops at a tempo of 140bpm. We started by using Patty’s Dirty South drum track as the foundation and layered Pang’s drum tracks to produce a fuller overall drum sound to which we could add a melody to. Pang noticed that Patty’s “Sweet lead” stem had a lot of potential and decided to try to splice the stem into pieces using Simpler to construct a melody distinct from the original. After adding in some melody ideas, we added additional reverb to the melody to make it mix into the drums a bit more effectively. We liked what we were working with so far, but felt it ended too plainly, so we decided to add some chopping towards the end of the beat to give it some additional character. Arranging this beat was fun because of how we spun each other's stems with our personal beatmaking habits to produce something original. This sound came out very upbeat due to the nature of the melody and the fast paced drum arrangement.

Cascade (140 bpm) patty_en_las_rocks x Pang

In a small assigned duo, create a complete beat in collaboration with one other student by sharing recorded “stems”. Record your sounds into TWO final 16-bar or more loops and upload them to your Soundcloud profile. Include both beat makers' names in the title. Reflect on thoughts of collaborative beat-making sound and add a short reflection of your own group-based beat-making experience. Explain the sounds used, and how you arrived at the submitted beats.
 
We made the first loop titled “Sinking” using Pang’s sample and 3 of Patty’s drum tracks - with a tempo of 100 bpm. We started by picking out the bass line, ‘Bass’ from her Loop 2 of the Non-Sampled Beats assignment because we wanted to have an introduction where it stood out. Then, we layered in the first set of drums, ‘Sample’ from her Loop 2 of the Sampled Beats assignment. The hunt for a good melody within our stems was a little difficult, we definitely wanted to challenge ourselves to pair a more unexpected sound with the upbeat drums we had lined up and ultimately ended up picking Pang’s ‘slowguitarsample 1’ from Project 3. We used the Simpler’s 1-shot feature and experimented with different speeds and sounds until we settled on the right one, then we played around with the controls such as the frequency, fade in/out and pitch envelope. We decided we also wanted to add some reverb to make it fit better with the drums, but ultimately something was missing. The loop we had at that point seemed a little dull, so we decided to silence the ‘Sample’ in the middle and try to either replace one of the halves or add something in the middle. Patty suggested adding in her drum track from the Midwest Techno Style Session (which we hadn’t originally swapped because we only had Portfolio 1 on our USBs) because it was distinct but still had character like the one we already had. We also used the 1-Shot setting on Simpler to find the right version of the sound to add to our loop. Arranging this beat was really fun, especially because of the different elements that we had to split up and modify. The sound came out very eerie but also energetic - we thought it felt much like the soundtrack from the Black Panther Movie (the first one) for some reason.

Sinking(100 Bpm) patty_en_las_rocks x Pang

Using Ableton 11, create ONE 16-bar beat loop utilizing techniques from the styles of beat-making experimentation with the Los Angeles funk and/or lo-fi. Reflect on thoughts of the west coast beat-making traditions and add a short reflection of your own beat-making to your journal.

LA Funky Fiesta (85 Bpm)

Create a 2-minute performance using Ableton clips to play two or more of your beats live.

DanceHouse PERFORMANCE (125 Bpm)

My name is Patty Castillo and this is my SoundCloud for the class Beat Making Lab (MUSC 156 - 002) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There are so many things I learned as a beat maker this semester. First and foremost, I learned how to use Ableton. Getting familiar with this program not only allowed me to actually make my beats, but it also taught me so much about the elements within music. Aggregating elements, sounds, and lessons from the class discussions to complete the assignments and giving myself ample time to prepare (and research) the different styles we emulated ultimately guided my creations. Over the course of the semester, I used the instruments Cord Dub Keys 3, E-Piano Short Soft, Neptune Arc, Sunrise Wave, Chord Analog Brass 9, Eurythmical Arp, Sweet Lead Operator, Spectrum, Basic Sub Sine, the drums 707 Drum Kit, 808 Drum Kit, DS Drum Rack, the effects Vintage, Glue, Erosion, Saturator as well as the Simpler and Arpeggiator. The second thing I learned was the importance and versatility of samples. Even sounds that do not “sound” like they have samples can pull from other people’s loops to make something new - of course, while staying within the legal limits of ownership and making sure not to infringe on anyone’s property. Having access to SampleFocus this semester allowed me to explore the different style sessions effectively and listen to the sounds that people publish online. Finally, I reflected in my journal that I spent a lot of time trying to perfect the loop - something I mentioned almost in every one of my journals - but now I realize that there was never going to be a beat that I would agree is “perfect”. It is so early in my beat-making and I am so picky about the music that I listen to, so realistically I will have to improve extensively as a beat-maker and my Ableton abilities to actually be satisfied with what I created. I realized this towards the end of the semester, and it is vital for me to remember that this class was merely an introduction to the possibilities of beat-making. Before taking this class I would not have been able to fathom the DAW capabilities or even imagine that I could use them to create my own beats.