I had been a beat-addict for about seven years now but up to the time I made this one, I had never really tried my hands at the Afro-Beat Dance kind of song. As at that time, I started to become really fascinated with the beauty of afro-beat songs.
I think one of the producers I respect when it comes to afro-naija beat-making is Young John. He knows how to combine few elements effectively without "sample overcowding" and yet give a naija song a foreign feel without messing with the afro-dance groove.
So I came home that day from school and I told my brother that I was going to try to make a naija beat. It was feat for me. I was an enthusiast,not a professional I think. I had never been to the studio as at then , it was just me and my computer.
So I took out a pen and made my plan. First I listed the features of Afro-Beat as at then, it has really evolved.
So after making this observations, I went straight to FL studio. the problem with FLStudio is lack of quality samples but FL actually has some not-to-bad VSTs that give some awesome sounds, examples include HARMOR, HARMLESS and my beloved SYTRUS.
So I tried to stick to those three VSTs , most especially sytrus for choice of sounds, then downloaded some "totally-free-to-use" sound pack. i think I downloaded Sam klef' s sound pack .
Then here is the magic:
I didnt have any instrument and I knew to have the best groove, I really needed an instrumental flow, rather than just typing and drawing on piano roll. So I fell back on the most common musical instrument in the world: THE VOICE, turned on my EDISON and connected to the LAPTOP mic, then I hummed everything from melody to groove. That made a lot of sense, even though, it took time to get the best hum sample while I transferred them to piano roll and then made each bar.
After that, a lot of other magic happened and here we are , with this beat.
I love the beat but I won't consider it as finished. I think it still needs some mixing and perfect mastering.
In the beginning of the song, I added some Computer-Generated Voice that says "AKIN on the Beat". Just trying to add a signature before someone else says I did it.
So please listen and feel free to "criticise" me.
