Album: Ruff Draft (2003)
Track: Nothing Like This
Time and drums:
The first thing I hear in this piece of music is the drums. They set the tempo at 100bpm approx. and make up a two beat loop. I can hear a solid punchy kick with lots of low end alternating with a snare drum. The snare lacks some of the “snap” I normally hear and instead has a very heavy bottom-end. I believe some EQ’ing has been used to create this drum sound. Following each snare drum stroke is a faint repeat stroke. This may have occurred in the original performance however, I believe it was created using a short delay effect. Normally with a ghost-stroke or grace-note you can hear the stick definition of the second stroke. In this case, the sound of the second stroke sounds like a repeat of the tail/decay of the first stroke.
Vinyl cutting:
Additionally, it can be heard that these drum sounds have been sampled from a vinyl recording. The crackle that fills the negative space in the sound is indicative of this. The drums are the centerpiece of the mix - they punch through as the loudest element of the music. After a 7 beat intro (unusual meter [the track begins with a snare stroke]) the other sounds come in. I can hear electric guitar and a male vocalist. The guitar sample has been reversed, you hear the decay of the sound build up to the attack. The best point of reference for this is the reverse crash cymbal at the end of each 2 bar loop. You can hear a metallic “suck” from beat 4 leading to beat 1 of the next measure.
Saturated vocal:
The vocal is saturated with a filter which creates a lo-fi effect. In parts it sounds like the vocal has been duplicated to create a thicker sound. There are also sections of delay applied to the vocal. In some instances it is repeated in such a way that creates a “glitch” sound similar to that of a scratched CD. In some sections two voices overlap each other. This suggests that some of the vocals are also cut samples. Also note the over-compressed effect. After each word you can hear some noise being “pushed up” in the mix. Where the vocals stop briefly at 1:33 a modulating soft pad synth fills in.
Time and drums:
The first thing I hear in this piece of music is the drums. They set the tempo at 100bpm approx. and make up a two beat loop. I can hear a solid punchy kick with lots of low end alternating with a snare drum. The snare lacks some of the “snap” I normally hear and instead has a very heavy bottom-end. I believe some EQ’ing has been used to create this drum sound. Following each snare drum stroke is a faint repeat stroke. This may have occurred in the original performance however, I believe it was created using a short delay effect. Normally with a ghost-stroke or grace-note you can hear the stick definition of the second stroke. In this case, the sound of the second stroke sounds like a repeat of the tail/decay of the first stroke.
Vinyl cutting:
Additionally, it can be heard that these drum sounds have been sampled from a vinyl recording. The crackle that fills the negative space in the sound is indicative of this. The drums are the centerpiece of the mix - they punch through as the loudest element of the music. After a 7 beat intro (unusual meter [the track begins with a snare stroke]) the other sounds come in. I can hear electric guitar and a male vocalist. The guitar sample has been reversed, you hear the decay of the sound build up to the attack. The best point of reference for this is the reverse crash cymbal at the end of each 2 bar loop. You can hear a metallic “suck” from beat 4 leading to beat 1 of the next measure.
Saturated vocal:
The vocal is saturated with a filter which creates a lo-fi effect. In parts it sounds like the vocal has been duplicated to create a thicker sound. There are also sections of delay applied to the vocal. In some instances it is repeated in such a way that creates a “glitch” sound similar to that of a scratched CD. In some sections two voices overlap each other. This suggests that some of the vocals are also cut samples. Also note the over-compressed effect. After each word you can hear some noise being “pushed up” in the mix. Where the vocals stop briefly at 1:33 a modulating soft pad synth fills in.
Reverse sample:
At 2:30 Dilla reveals the fundamental melody sample used in this piece. The sample is flipped out of reverse momentarily. Having heard this I can now also deduce that the bassline heard through the track was played in by Dilla. I’m going to see what the track sounds like as a whole when I reverse it.
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