DJ Pain 1 is releasing Free Vinyl Fills #1, a free collection of drum fills with a warm vinyl vibe. He has also published a free beat making video and is joining us for an interview in which we cover topics like hip hop production, music promotion, etc.
The vinyl fills pack contains 30 free drum fill samples in total. The fills are provided by DJ Pain 1, as a free download for anyone interested. DJ Pain 1 has produced tracks for artists like 50 Cent, Ludacris, Public Enemy and Rick Ross among others, so grabbing a free drum pack from him is pretty much a must for any aspiring hip hop producer.
Download: Free Vinyl Fills #1 (7.76 MB download size, ZIP archive, 30 drum fills, 16-bit WAV)
DJ Pain 1 has also been cool enough to join us for an interview, so we talked about his studio setup, his hip hop tutorial videos (DJ Pain 1 has been publishing music production tutorial videos on his YouTube channel for several years now), the reality of music producers in today’s music industry, music promotion, etc. He has also published a beat making video which is embedded below for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
The Interview
BPB: Hi DJ Pain 1, thanks for joining us for this interview and for the free drum fills pack. I remember watching some of your tutorial videos back when BPB was still in its early days. Can you tell us when you started making tutorial videos on YouTube and how you got into making this type of content?
DJ Pain 1: I don’t know exactly what year I started, but it was before I had any type of fan base or social media following. I was working at a program here at the state university called the Information Technology Academy, a tech program that increases student diversity on campus by giving scholarships to high schoolers who complete the program and get admitted into the university. I was teaching Sony ACID among other programs and put some ACID tutorials on Youtube for my students so they could practice at home. Next thing I know, these videos were getting thousands and then hundreds of thousands of views. I realized there was a need for production tutorial videos, so I kept producing and uploading them. Then I moved on to releasing free content – kits, samples, music business advice – for both producers and recording artists.
BPB: You make tutorial videos, you’re also a beat maker, a sound designer… which one of these aspects of your creative work do you enjoy doing most?
DJ Pain 1: I’ll always love producing and composing music the most. That’s what I have the most fun with.
BPB: Can you describe your studio setup for us? Which hardware and software tools do you use the most?
DJ Pain 1: I have a pretty awful setup. I use Sony ACID as my DAW, an ASR-10 (mostly as a controller), a couple of Keith McMillen controllers, some hardware (ME-1, Motif, Planet Earth) and the BX5a monitors (which I love, especially for the price). I haven’t explored too many other DAWs and I’m really fast and efficient with Sony ACID, though Sony has pretty much abandoned that program and stopped updating its features.
BPB: Your #1 production tip for up and coming beat makers?
DJ Pain 1: Make a lot of beats and work with a lot of artists. Mastery as well as success and accomplishment will come with time and experience. A lot of producers are afraid to finish beats, or release beats, etc, but producers who are just starting out should be having the most fun of any of us – they have no expectations or pressures to adhere to so they can experiment and learn through trial and error. Fear shouldn’t stop a serious producer from releasing music.
BPB: And how about promotion? Is it becoming harder than ever to make your music heard with so many artists out there trying to do the same?
DJ Pain 1: It’s getting harder to be taken seriously when virtually everybody is making rap or EDM. But I think it’s theoretically easy to get your music heard these days with resources such as YouTube and Twitter. The problem is, so many people are using the same strategies to get their music heard: upload music to SoundCloud, tweet about their SoundCloud, post on Facebook every day about their SoundCloud. Everybody’s doing that so people ignore it, it becomes white noise. The artist that finds a new way to deliver their content directly to fans will win. It’s just a matter of spending time figuring out how to stand out. Standing out is a lost art these days.
BPB: It’s always a hard question, but what’s your favorite beat you ever made?
DJ Pain 1: My favorite beats haven’t been used. They’re sitting on my computer. But of the beats that have been published, I would definitely have to say Doe B’s “God Flow” beat and the Slaughterhouse “Offshore” beat are two of my favorites.
BPB: What are your plans for 2015? Do you have some exciting projects in store for this year?
DJ Pain 1: I’m definitely excited for the new Do or Die album. I have a couple tracks on it, but mostly as a fan I can’t wait for another project from them. I’m working on a lot of music, so expect a lot from me. Some of it I can’t talk about yet, though I wish I could.
BPB: Thanks again for this interview and for all the cool content you’ve released for free so far!
DJ Pain 1: Thank you for being an amazing resource for producers all across the globe.
Last Updated on May 11, 2015 by Tomislav Zlatic.
