We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. The Heatmakerz themselves are known for a particular sound, and he says they kept it that way because it is more true to who they are. He realizes certain sounds just are not meant for certain artists, and even though it may preclude him from working with certain people, it does not bother him in the long run.
The Heatmakerz are entirely responsible for Dipset’s signature sound of sped up vocals, super hard kicks, and heavy gunshot snares. Very few producers have burst upon the production scene with such ferocity as this amazing team. In addition to setting the careers of Cam’ron , Papoose, and Jewelz Santana on fire, these two producers caused blown speakers in cars, trucks, and clubs everywhere!
Finally, your beats will have the hard edge that you’ve looking for once the Heatmakerz drum and sample kit is in your production toolbox. Your beats are guaranteed to rule the competition with over 100 lighting hot kick drums, snares, claps, and percussion sounds.
The Heatmakerz drums and sample kit is compatible with all samplers that make use of .wav files…
* Reason * Fruity Loops * Korg Triton * Yamaha Motif * Akai MPC 2000, 3000, 4000, 1000, and 500 * Gigasampler * Sony ACID * Ensoniq ASR-10 & ASRX * Any Sampler that reads WAVs
All samples are in 44.1khz in 16 bit WAV files for any hardware or software sampler that work with .WAV files.
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Legendary Dipset, Lil Wayne and Gucci Mane producer Rsonist shares his sampling workflow.
You know those records that stop you in your tracks the first time you hear ‘em? The ones that make you say, “this is what I’ve been waiting for, I can’t believe nobody’s done this yet.”
The first one of those for me was Cam’ron’s Come Home With Me.
The year was 2001. Everybody’s t-shirts were, at a minimum, size XXXL. Rap music had become more and more mainstream, with rappers and producers becoming overnight millionaires. But the 90’s NYC hip-hop sound was getting stale…
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Until a breath of fresh air came onto the scene in the form of Cam’ron, Juelz Santana, and The Diplomats.
There’s a reason their sound felt so unique—at once classic and contemporary, familiar but boundary-pushing.
The amazing spider man 2 bluray download. That reason has a name: The Heatmakerz.
Rsonist from The Heatmakerz is responsible for a lot. He defined the early-2000s Harlem sound, which quickly spread to all of rap music. He laid the groundwork for modern trap almost 20 years before it happened. His influence is undeniable, and his production chops are untouchable.
He took a break from a session at his Midtown Manhattan Diamond District Studios to talk about how he gets his signature drum sound, sample sourcing, and the #1 thing that ruins a hip-hop record.
Before we get into sampling, I’m curious what you’re working on today?
Joell [Ortiz] just stopped by. He’s working on a new album that I’m contributing a couple tracks to.
In general, I’ve been working on the Jim Jones album, some stuff with 50 Cent for his album, Fat Joe’s working on a solo album—I’ll be doing some stuff with him. A plethora of people, just trying to staying busy.
Plus some commercial work, TV work. I’ve got a couple theme songs.
There’s a show called Huang’s World ( where he goes around and tries different food places). I did the theme song to his TV show. Cam is on there. I did the beat and Cam is rapping on it. Dipset is their favourite group so they reached out to us.
Busy indeed… On that note, let’s talk about sampling a little bit. When I think of Heatmakerz, I think of sampling right away.
You’re looking at Heatmakerz. It sounds like a group of people, but it’s me. That’s how powerful it was, just named it like a team.
Where do you look for samples? Where are you sourcing them from?
Nowadays it’s online. I used to go to a couple record stores in New York. One was called ‘Sound Library’, one was called ‘A1’.
I always stay stocked on samples. I don’t really have to look anymore, unless I’m looking for something specific.
But now, just because of time, I really just search online. People send me samples all the time now too, so I always stay stocked on samples. I don’t really have to look anymore, unless I’m looking for something specific.
Now they come to you.
Right. You know a lot of people, I guess they wanna say, “I gave the Heatmakerz this sample.”
What do you listen for when picking a sample? Are there particular drum breaks or things you look for?
Never drum breaks. I do my own drums 95% of the time. I listen for hits. Something undeniably melodic. I don’t really search for melodies, but if they sound good, I keep them.
I don’t look for drums. I always do my own drums.
You have the best drum sound of all time…
God bless you. Getting things started on the right foot.
What are the 3 favourite samples you’ve ever used?
Barbara Mason “Yes I’m ready” on The Diplomats’ “I’m Ready”
Sanchez’s “One in a Million” on The Diplomats’ “Dipset Anthem”
My homeboy’s voice on “Killa Cam”
So let’s say you’re working with a sample, do you usually start with the sample, or do you start with an idea of a beat and try to fit the sample into it? How does that process work?
I always start with the sample. The sample dictates what I’m gonna do with the drums. At the end of the day, I could sample something and it could sound depressing or whatever the case, and I could make the drums wake up the sample.
I always start with the sample. The sample dictates what I’m gonna do with the drums.
Or if I wanna keep it depressing, I know what to do with the drums to make it feel like that. So I have to lay the sample first. If I lay the drums first, it’s over. I’m locked in at that point. I could never work like that.
And what does that process look like? You start with the sample… What’s usually the first thing you add, or is it different every time?
I go through the sample and I find multiple sounds that I like out of the sample. They might not make any sense with the things sampling but when I’m done, I take those pieces and I make it into a melody.
Copying is wrong to me. Just be your own producer. Come up with your own sound.
So if I have ten pieces, I find a way to take those ten pieces and make it into a four bar melody. Then after I do that, then I’ll get into the drums and extra instrumentation, whether it’s bass lines, organs, strings, things of that nature. Everything starts with a sample for me.
Everything starts with a sample for me.
How much of a finished track is usually samples? You always do your own drums, sometimes you add basslines and stuff on top of it. Is a beat usually 90% from the original sample, or is it more like 60%?
Nine times out of ten you can’t tell where I take the sample from unless it’s a super popular record.
I’ll chop that sample up into multiple pieces and then treat it like a piano. I’ll play those sounds into my own melody. Sometimes, people don’t know where I take samples from. It’s just that I tell them it’s a sample. If they didn’t know, they would never know.
You would hear the sample in the back, but you’ll never know where it came from because I’ll either speed it up to the point that you won’t know, or chop it up to the point that you won’t know.
What do you need in order to make a sample fit nicely into a mix?
The drums have to match. A lot of people who are sampling, the drums that they use, it doesn’t sound real. It’ll sound like you’re putting drums that don’t belong on top.
If I sample something from the 70s, I can’t use EDM sounding kicks. It’s not going to sound right because they’re from two different eras and they would’ve never used that back then.
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If I sample something from the 70s, I can’t use EDM sounding kicks. It’s not going to sound right because they’re from two different eras and they would’ve never used that back then.
So I have to find something that kind of brings it together and makes it feel like “now” but mixed with “then”. So it’s really the drums. It’s the way I program the drums that keeps the feel and integrity of the records.
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So it’s about matching the new sounds that you’re adding to the overall feel of the sample?
Right. See my thing is this—I use all the drums that work but it’s really the groove that I put on it that makes it “now”.
I’ll change the old groove and make it something that can work now.
If the drums don’t sound right, the record is finished in my opinion, especially in hip hop music.
People like the old stuff but then when you mix it with the new stuff they don’t know why they like it, because they hear the old thing in the back that reminds them of old music but now it feels new, so it’s kind of like you kill two birds with one stone. You’re reintroducing them to something they already like.
Those drum sounds—have you built your own kit in Logic or Ableton or whatever you use?
The way I used to do my drums, and I still have a lot of those drums to this day is, when I got a record mix, because I would chop my own drums off of break beat records. When I used to get records mixed, I used to ask the engineer to give me back the mixed drums, so I could add them to my catalogue. So a lot of my drums, the reason they sound heavy is because they were mixed already.
So it’s real drum sounds originally, that got mixed, and then you cut them out, and built a kit from them?
Yeah and I get rid of the older version of that kit. I swap everything out for the mixed version. So a lot of my kicks sound heavy, snare sound heavy, hi-hats sound clean, crashes sound clean and loud. Thats key for me because if the drums don’t sound right, the record is finished in my opinion, especially in hip hop music.
I have to ask because it’s one of my personal favourites of yours, where is the sample on Lil Wayne’s Receipt from?
That’d be Isley Brothers’ “Lay Away.”
How are you using LANDR in your workflow? How have you made it part of your workflow?
When I make a track, after I arrange it and put a light mix on it, I run it though LANDR to see what mistakes I might have made in the mix. If I had the bass too loud, the kicks too low, etc. It helps for that.
It’s worth it. That extra boost might help sell your track.
And its quick. It takes maybe no longer than 6-7 minutes. A lot of my tracks are snippets. If I’m sending tracks to people, I’m not sending a full track. I might send them 1.5 minutes, 2 minutes, so if I master that, it takes literally 5 minutes. And it’s worth it. That extra boost might help sell your track.
They’ll get more of a feel for what the final things sounds like?
Most people won’t know that you mastered it. They’ll just think that your shit sounds that good. That’s the cool thing about it.
When you think about sampling today, is there any time where you think “no stop, you’re doing that wrong?”
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I don’t think there is any such thing as wrong. I just think it’s when you try to sound like someone else that samples, that’s wrong. If someone hits me up with “I got a beat that sounds like yours,” I’m like, why would you do that?
At the end of the day, I get why they’re doing that but I don’t understand how you feel comfortable doing that. Because we’re in a business of creativity.
If someone hits me up with “I got a beat that sounds like yours,” I’m like, why would you do that?
To copy someone else’s sound or style, there’s nothing creative about that. I don’t think anybody’s doing anything wrong unless they’re copying. Copying is wrong to me. Just be your own producer. Come up with your own sound.
Watch every episode of the fantastic Heatmakerz POV beat tutorials and see Rsonist’s process at work. Keep up with The Heatmakerz on Twitter and Instagram.