Hip Hop Producer Standards

Part 1 - Software

Ok, I'm going to give it to you straight; most producers today do not have a clue as to industry standards when it comes to producing tracks for hip ho or rap artists. There, I said it. Go ahead, start whining, bitching, telling me “You Just Don’t Know,” or thinking you want to go down your own road and forge a new path that everyone will want to follow because you got platinum beats. Now that you have that off your chest, let me explain a bit deeper so you can get on board and help yourself make more money from selling your platinum beats to more artists more often.

The music industry, specifically the recording studios, have got to have a set of standards that all of us follow to some degree to make sure that your project, beat, or song can be worked no matter where you are in the world, what studio you use, or who the engineer is that is trying to make sense of what you just laid in his/her lap. If all studios, producers, and engineers simply did what they wanted, how they wanted, and on what format they wanted you as producers or artists would be stuck only working at that one spot because no other studio could open your beat, song, or project.

Think about all the collaborations that are happening in urban music today. How could any of these be possible if there were no industry production standards in place? They couldn’t unless collaboration artist “A” went to the studio collaboration artist “B” was working in so the song could be completed with the system/engineer used when the song/project was originally started. With the busy schedules of today’s urban artists do you really think that is going to happen? The collaborations we have all grown to love and respect would simply not be possible.

Take it one step further. How could you as an independent hip hop or rap producer expect to sell your beats to artists outside your immediate circle, that do not have access to the engineer or studio used to create your beat/song, if you did not provide industry standard “master” files to those artists interested in buying?

Yes, right now, right here today, you might be selling your beats to upcoming artists as a simple mp3 stereo track. You might even be sending those artists your track over the internet. Good for you. But is selling a $50 track to an unknown artist what you want out of life or are you like most producers I meet and want to be selling your tracks to national artists that get real radio rotation out of every song they record? Selling mp3 files will not get you there.

National artists, record labels, “big name” engineers, and A&R reps expect industry standard “master” files from producers. Yes, they accept an mp3 or CD as a reference to songs being consider for purchase. But once they decide to buy a beat/song they expect it to be delivered as industry standard “master” files. The first time you tell them you don’t know how or can’t because that is not how you produce your tracks they loose your number! Period.

I am not saying you have to produce your beats/songs a certain way. I am not trying to steal your creative juice or force you to use some formula based system. You can create your music on whatever equipment you want, listen to your beats however you want, and express your creativity in any manor you see fit that allows you to bring the platinum sound to your beat/song. But I am saying once you finish creating the track you have got to be able to deliver it in an industry standard format that is acceptable by anyone who wants “master” files.

So what is the industry standard? Currently, and it has been for over 15 years now, Pro Tools session files are king. Just about every recording studio that is actively working on national projects has a Pro Tools system sitting in the control room, especially urban music production houses. If you are a producer in today’s industry you have got to be able to deliver your beat/song in a format that can be opened by or imported into a Pro Tools system.

Pro Tools is a closed system. This means it will not open sessions created in other systems like Cubase, Sonar, Acid, Cool Edit Pro, Logic and others. It will only open Pro Tools sessions. You can import audio files into a Pro Tools session. Industry standards dictate that these files be either wav. or aiff files preferably 24 bit and at least 44.1khtz.

What this means to you is that you either have to be recording your music in Pro Tools or you have to export your files as either wav. or aiff files for future import. Again, you can use what you want to create your music, but wouldn’t it be easier to record into a Pro Tools system rather than another, non-industry standard system, and then have to export every time so you can deliver proper “master” files.

Here is the deal, most hip hop producers I meet get there information off the internet in user forums from other producers just starting in the game. Everyone has opinions, but most of the opinions I have read over the years in these forums are simply formed from “ease of use” rather than what needs to be learned and utilized to rise up in the industry as a super producer. Or worse, the opinions are formed from what is readily available as a “FREE” download on a peer-to-peer file pirating site. I understand money is tight and that you may feel that you have to go with the “FREE” option so you can get started. But you are really hurting yourself.

Every audio recording program has a “learning curve” you must get through before you can really start fully using it. Once you get through that “learning curve” it is what you know no matter if it is logical and good or if it really sucks in terms of what the software is offering you as a producer. The problem comes when you are forced to use another program, in our case Pro Tools, and have to go through the “learning curve” in order to properly use the new piece of software. What happens is that it is very hard to grasp the new software and you find yourself thinking the new software, again no matter if it solves your problems or not, simply is crap. It has been my experience while working with up and coming producers that most, after trying to switch to Pro Tools, feel that it sucks or that is does not offer what the software they are used to using offers. This simply is not true. Pro Tools has all the features of other software on the market. But what happens is that the “learning curve” gets the best of the producer and he/she does not take the time to actually dive in and learn how to use Pro Tools and instead goes back to what they know - the other software. This is why the user forums are full of bad advice from producers saying Pro Tools sucks. Why do you think Pro Tools is the industry standard in almost every professional studio around the world? It’s not because it sucks.

My point, do yourself a favor and stop thinking “right now” and starting thinking about your future. You have to learn how to use what is industry standard. In addition, the “FREE” versions of the other software are not worth it any longer. You can get your hands on a Pro Tools LE system for under $300 now-a-days. So the excuse that it costs too much simply won’t fly. Invest into your future, learn what needs to be learned, and start delivering “master” files that pros want to see.

In the next article I will discuss how you need to deliver your songs to artists... hint, it’s not as a stereo track!

Peace,
Jai
“Love the Music in Yourself, Not Yourself in the Music!”
©2009 Jai Hutcherson. All Rights Reserved.