Check this, here are 10 things that you can from listening to Black Milks work.

1. Hi hat + hi hat = snare


2. Intentionally abrupt transitions and
   sloppy sample chopping sound just as good, if not better, than
   perfectly smoothed out loops.


3. Vocal samples chopped into syllables can be made into unique instruments.


4. Sampling is better than not sampling


5. Fluctuating velocity is a very good thing


6. There is a time and place for quantization.


7. Random and out of place sounds can make a composition very interesting.


8. Pay attention to the rules of production… then break them.


9. Make music for yourself and that you would listen to when by yourself.


10. Most innovators aren’t understood until the innovation is over and done with.  By that time they have more than likely moved onto something else that is misunderstood.

EQ can be used in a
variety of situations, from live sound to recording to tape to mixing
down. Mainly, it should be used to enhance signals that have some
problem. The golden rule of EQ is less is more. If something seems fine
without it, I avoid EQing it at all. Then, if I do use it, I try to
remain subtle. My personal golden rule is nearly never EQ signals going
to tape (as in a multitracking situation). I always try to get the
original sound on tape, then I can mess with it later. Putting EQ (or
any other effect) on tape usually just leads to trouble. The other rule
(the silver rule) is cutting is almost always better than boosting,
especially when fixing problems. For example if a guitar sounds too
thin, first try cutting high frequencies and boosting the gain a bit,
instead of boosting the lows. The more clutter you can remove from a
mix, the better. A better example is I very often cut a bit of high
away from hats. Another example is, many times you may not hear
something well in a mix...You might try cutting some frequencies in a
different track that seems to be interfering, rather than boosting in
the track you want to bring out. With these basic rules in mind, I'll
tell you my rules when I enter a mixdown session:

1. Rule Of
Opposites: Usually, tracks with high sounds, (a high guitar, hats) need
cutting in high frequencies and boosting in lower, and vice-versa. This
is really only a starting guide, not a rule. Also, sounds that
interfere with eachother can be separated in a mix by EQing them in
opposite directions.

2. Bass usually needs a boost in the mid
range somewhere and sometimes the high. This way it can cut through and
be heard on smaller speakers.

3. Kick drums usually need that
same mid and/or high boost on a subtle level so they too can cut
through on smaller speakers. For hip-hop, kick needs a low end boost,
but NOT TOO MUCH.

4. Snare drums always sound warmer with a
boost in the low-mid range and some cut of the highs. An annoying CRACK
can be softened with this high cut. Sometimes I boost the lows in
snares to make them even fatter. But it really depends on the snare
sound. The rule of opposites usually applies here. Snare sounds that
were thin to begin with I usually warm up a bit, and heafty snare
sounds I might thin out a bit.

5. Hats almost never need any
EQ if they're recorded clean. Usually an EQing for my hat tracks is to
cut highs to get rid of an annoying hiss.

6. Guitars are
simaler to snares for me. A thin original guitar might need boosting in
mids and lows (depending on what the desired sound is, and what else is
present in the mix) or a heafty guitar might need to be thinned out a
little by cutting lows and low-mids.

7. Vocals usually like
to have a boost in the mids or high-mids, but it depends on the voice.
Vocals nearly always get lost amongst guitars...a good way to deal with
this is the rule of opposites. Boost mids in the vocals and cut them in
the guitar, or something similar. Vocals can also have annoying hiss or
sibilance, and sometimes cutting high frequencies can help that.


8. Strings, and more specifically good string patches from a synth,
usually need little EQ. If they are merely a support player, I may thin
them out a tiny bit, or if they are meant to be present, I may thicken
them in the mids a little (or sometimes the opposite...this stuff is
highly subjective). But they usually work well left alone. Really clean
piano or keyboard synth patches are the same way.

9. I like
to leave reverb returns alone, but if the reverb becomes annoying and
noisy, cutting some high can soften it up a bit...same with strings.

10. Extreme EQ setting create sounds of their own. Experiment. But for a non-novel track, be subtle.


11. AC hum from a track can almost always be fixed by cutting 60 Hz all
the way off. (Sometimes this can take away from bass or kick sounds,
but I believe that most frequencies audible in a song are above 60 Hz).


12. Play with EQ settings thoroughly to find appropriate settings.

13. I don't mix horns too often, but when I do, I like to leave them alone. Clean horn tracks usually seem fine to me.


14. NEVER EVER EVER force yourself to EQ a track that sounds fine, just
because you think you should use the full capabilities of the studio.
NEVER NEVER NEVER!

Here, users can tell us about their favorite producer(s), why they like that producer and some key tracks from them.

I could go with the usual top guys like Premo, Pete Rock, Jake One
etc, but one of my favorite producers is The Alchemist. Don't get me
wrong, I do admire the others mentioned, but for me, no one makes beats
like Al.

As a teenager, Al began to identify strongly with the rebellious
lyrics and urban sounds of hip-hop, and he began writing his own lyrics
as a creative outlet. He joined up with other like-minded artists who
wrote lyrics and rebelled strongly against their "uptight" suburban
surroundings. He was also associated with Shifty Shellshock of Crazy Town, Evidence of Dilated Peoples and Scott Caan, son of James Caan. Al and Scott decided to become a duo named The Whooliganz. While rhyming at a party in L.A., they attracted the attention of B-Real of Cypress Hill. He invited the teens to join his crew, The Soul Assassins, which also included the groups House of Pain and Funkdoobiest.
In 1993, the Whooliganz released their first single, "Put Your Handz
Up." The song received little radio airplay and their record label, Tommy Boy Records,
decided to shelve their album. Rejected, Scott focused his creative
energy on acting while Al became interested in process of making
hip-hop beats

After helping to produce a few tracks for Cypress Hill, Al became the main producer for his childhood friend, Evidence and his group Dilated Peoples.

When Dilated debuted in 1998, they were an underground sensation
creating a huge buzz about the man behind the beats. Alchemist also
produced several tracks on the debut album Focused Daily by Defari, another Dilated and Alkaholik affiliate. In 1999, Muggs introduced Al to his good friends, the popular hip-hop group Mobb Deep. Al produced two songs for their Murda Muzikstreet smarts,
Mobb Deep took him under their wing, using his beats on all their
subsequent albums. As Alchemist's profile increased, he went on to
produce for many of hip hop's most successful and prominent artists,
such as Nas, Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Ghostface Killah and Snoop Dogg. He has also remixed songs for bands and artists in other genres such as Linkin Park and Morcheeba. Al stayed loyal to his old friends, continuing to produce for Dilated, Cypress Hill, Everlast
(formerly of House of Pain) and Crazy Town. He also enjoys producing
for lesser-known underground rappers, often giving them some of his
best beats. In 2004, 11 years after his rapping career folded, The
Alchemist returned with his long-awaited debut album, "1st Infantry." The album yielded the hit single "Hold You Down" (featuring Prodigy, and Nina Sky), which hit number ninety-five on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2005. album.

This section is going to discuss what tools people use to make their beats, record their tracks, mix and master tracks, as well as sources for samples and other methods for making hip hop music.
Members are requested to add their own methods and what tools they use. That way, someone who uses Reason or Sonart etc can give a better insight in to that tool than me just glossing over each product.

I'll kick things off with the MPC. I've owned MPC's for about 3 years now. I started off with a 2000XL and now I have the 2500. Before I got the XL, I had a Boss SP505. This was a good introduction to hardware samplers and gave me the basic knowledge needed to use an MPC.
When I got the XL, I got an external SCSI hard drive. On the 2500, a USB connection means you can connect the MPC to a PC and use any hard drive on that PC to store your work. This held all my drum sounds, basslines, instruments as well as the location to save my final beat. It also had a multicard reader built in, so you could use a large compact flash card as well as the HDD. One thing my XL never had, but the 2500 does as standard, was the optional 8 output board. This would enable the user to output sounds to separate channels in a mixer/soundcard so the beat could be mixed down with more control. Fro example, you could have the kick drum coming out of channel 1, snare on 2, hi hat on 3 etc etc, and then when this is recorded in the DAW, you can EQ, compress and tweek each drum sound separatly.
The 16 pads are what makes the MPC so legendary. Each pad can trigger up to four sounds at once, pads can cut other pads off, they're velocity sensitive(the harder you hit them, the louder the sound is)and on the 2500, you are able to adjust the velocity curve and determine how hard each pad needs to be hit in order to get full volume from that pad.
The built in effects, compressors and EQ's are something I never use on the MPC. I do all that when I record the beat in to the DAW. From what I've heard from other users, they seem to do a good job, but I guess it's what you feel comfortable using.
The seqeuncer on the MPC is brilliant too. Its easy to put a sequence together, and easier to edit it. Quantizing is another thing the MPC is well know for. Its swing and timing means that the quantizing doesn't sound as "programmed" as it can do on other products.

Overall, the MPC is by far my favorite method to make beats. I've used Reason, Fruity Loops and other hardware samplers, such as the Roland MV series, and to me, the MPC is the easiest to use, the most reliable(due to the fact there is no PC involved ;)) and the one which gives the best results. MPC's can be bought fairly cheaply on Ebay, and the 2000/2000XL is a good place to start. Akai have got the MPC500 and MPC1000 which are also a good starting point.

Check out www.akaipro.com for more info on MPC's

And please feel free to add information about the tools you use to make beats.