Beat vs Track

How it relates to each other and differences
You know in hip hop they call a track is a beat
I just discovered beat a few days ago

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Some older DJs and dance music artists will also call a full track a beat sometimes. I think it is more common these days in most genres to refer to a fully finished piece of music a track or a song. Strictly speaking, from an ā€œacademicā€ standpoint a song is a whole a arrangement and ā€œthe beatā€ is just the percussion parts (or maybe the bass and the percussion).

Sometimes, personally, I will make what I call a beat on a sampler and integrate that ā€œliveā€ into a DJ set. In the case when I say beat its basically a loop with a bunch of parts that work together but there is no arrangement, I arrange it on the fly by muting/unmuting different samples or adding FX, playing with filter cutoff etc. I never call these a song or track because there isn’t a full arrangement.

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This is interesting. I think the usage of the word can vary, as @relic already pointed out, some people say beat and mean a full track and some only mean the drums etc.

Sometimes i would call my unfinished music, when i only have, for example a 16 bar long loop, a ā€œbeatā€ and when i arranged it fully i would call it a track… or still a beat. :sweat_smile:

I remember a video i once saw on instagram, where someone interviewed a successful producer. His advice was something like… ā€œbecome (or be) a producerā€ not a ā€œbeat makerā€.

I tend to associate ā€œbeatā€ with a finite loop that serves as the music for a rap song. Usually basic and repeats throughout the whole song. I guess it makes sense that it’s basic and repetitive, since the ā€œmelodyā€ and ā€œmusicā€ is supposed to be the vocals

(can you tell how much I can’t stand rap/hip-hop music?)

Each of those make me cringe hard. ā€œMusic producerā€, yeah, like farming. I ā€œproduceā€ music.

I may be very old school here but making music is making music, WHEN you are a musician.

ā€œProducingā€ is often used by people who have no clue about playing any instrument or music theory, make lego music with a couple of loops & think of themselves in terms of something they’re reaaallly not… Namely, a real producer (as those are accomplished musicians more often than not).

Same here, there are a lot of producers who normally perform with vocalists who also release their own instrumental ā€˜beats’ and it’s pretty obvious that vocals could theoretically just go over top, since there’s usually not a whole lot going on in terms of leads or strong melodies to throw it off.

It’s also not unusual in the hip hop world to have multiple people producing your album, or possibly even 10+ producers contributing to an entire album, as in one producer or production team per track. Especially when it comes to mixtapes, bootlegs and all of the weird shit that gets passed around on the internet.

People ā€˜selling beats’ online are pretty much just making something for the buyer to rap over, usually being somebody who isn’t even remotely interested in making music themselves but wants something unique to integrate as part of their song

So yeah, instrumental beats are pretty boring but I guess that’s the idea

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Also beat is a beat in music. It’s a 1/4 of a 4/4. You know.

I do not know how to explain it in words, I cannot formulate it. But I know the beat is part of the track and I’m not talking about hip hop. Take a look at deadmau5 - Vanishing Point or deadmau5 - Sex Lies Audiotape.

It’s like hip hop sampling to me.

I always find it funny when people talk about beats.

"Beat is produced when two waves of nearby frequencies superimpose when they travel in the same path. This causes a periodic variation of intensity of the resultant wave.

The beat frequency is the number of beats produced per second.*

Or at least to those who use the terms in an engineering field refer to it.

Those who use popular culture references use it when referring to anything other than a band performing with acoustic instruments. While the consumer grade people always have the argument of is it hip-hop…is it a house song? :rofl:

Edit:
Forgot to talk about tracks, which in a studio/ production house references a single recorded/edit source. If we are referencing a single track, that is processed, and then further interpreted to be amplified on a consumer grade component system, then said track may be a song, comedy album, or various other produced end materials sourced for a particular audience.

At the end of the day, unless you are getting paid, who cares! If your beats bangs, cool…got a dope track you wanna share?! Please do…if you’re not in a professional environment where terms/words matter…don’t get caught up with silly comparisons from people who are just trying to impress the cool popular kids!! Haha

Sorry /end rant

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Potato potahtah

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Thank you very valuable comment! :sweat_smile::sweat_smile::sweat_smile:

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Yeah, i see why it makes you cringe, but on the other hand, the lines between are very blurry and while a lot of producers start with almost no knowledge, very often they sooner or later learn music theory and are even starting to learn to play instruments. In the end, i really don`t care, if the person who ā€œmakesā€ or ā€œprducesā€ or ā€œplaysā€ the music i enjoy, has any practical or theoretical music-knowledge… as long i vibe with his or her music.

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Track and beat are different from each other. I like listening to the track version.