Hi everybody! We’re back with our weekly report from the Stones Throw Beat Battles. This week we have a chat with battle winner Walkingshoe, who shares some info about his winning track.

The STBB is a weekly beat battle, where anywhere from 50 to 100+ participants from all over the world, are provided a sample to flip/chop/edit/screw, and make a beat out of it within just a few days. All the participants then cast out a vote, and the winner picks the samples for the next round.

Original Samplepack: (provided by MNSTRMKK)

1. “Thousand Year Slumber of the Blastia” from the OST of Tales of Vesperia
2. “Recolition” from The Amazing Spider-Man OST. Not sure who’s the artist or what the series is, but dope nonetheless!
3. “Killer Hill” from The Hanged Man OST (composed by Alan Tew, who has some great stuff).
4. “Tumbleweed” by Geoff Bastow, who has made some amazing library music.
5. “The Promise” from the Final Fantasy XIII OST

 

Special Rules:

• Use at least one of the provided samples
• Outside everything allowed
• Make it super dope
• POST IT ON THE FORUM
• SPECIAL RULE: Don’t go swag, just stay you!

 

The Winnner

 

Interview with the battle winner, walkingshoe:

Hi man, much congratulations the win!

Can you shortly introduce yourself?

walkingshoe: My name is walkingshoe and I’m a producer from Chicago, IL that’s a member of the Cosmonostro label.

What Equipment or software (DAW, VST’s etc) did u use on this track?

walkingshoe: For this track I used Acid Music 7.0 to produce the track (using various samples and one shots on my beat pad), Reaper to mix, and then sent it off to an engineer named Kevin Kearney to help master. Due to living constraints, I often need to mix on headphones so the mastering part is crucial to get a half-way decent sound.

What was your approach to get started?

walkingshoe: I would say my usual approach which is mess around with the samples for like 2-3 days with absolutely no constraints, and then sort of clean up the mess on Tuesday/Wednesday to get some sort of presentable piece of music. My producing style is really random and I like to try hundreds of possibilities and sounds before arriving on a sequence I like.

How did you make use of the sample?

walkingshoe: For the intro of the track, I basically just looped an eq’ed a section of the sample I liked and then added some drums for definition. For the second (main) part of the sample, I chopped up a little piano section, removed all low end, and used it as a sort of driving melody throughout.

How did you go about the drumwork?

walkingshoe: The kicks were originally played on my pads while the more higher register shakers/clicky noises were all acquired from about 3-4 different percussion samples that I melded together. For this track, the end result was very tribal and a little crazy and strange.

Are there any insteresting aspects of the track that you would like to share?

walkingshoe: Well, I found this cool acapella from a band called Puggy. They just had it sitting up there on their SC page saying to “use it in whatever way you see fit”, which I did, lol. I think it really tied the track together and gave it the final piece it needed to call it “complete”.

 

Check out walkingshoe’s “Blastphemy” EP on Cosmonostro

 

Other beats worth checking out: