Case Study Trippie Redd – Love Scars/You hurt me produced by Elliott Trent

Something I’ve been listening recently that is from another up and coming artist, Trippie Redd, (https://soundcloud.com/trippie-hippie-2/love-scars) is something that really encourages me and motivates me to catch this wave of young artists blowing up on SoundCloud. So let’s break down the genre, bpm, samples and all that good stuff.

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So before we get into that, before analysing the track, I had to decide between listening to the YouTube mastered version, which is limited to -14LUFS or should I analyse the louder SoundCloud version. So I decided to go with the SoundCloud version because that version would’ve been the master that he or his team would’ve uploaded in the first place. They would’ve then made a separate YouTube master because I'm pretty sure the dynamics and all the elements of the track still remain consistent between both versions, however, for me personally, I found that the hi-hats in the SoundCloud master were noticeably more 3 dimensional and brighter, where as in the YouTube master it sounds like it’s been squashed and 2D, might just be me.

The track is 120bpm and is 2:24. Lets break it down now. The beat is actually really simple and doesn’t really have an A or B section. Elements come in and drop out to maintain some interest, but the main interest or key thing is the vocals which are heavily processed with audible, echo effect from delays and reverbs. If you look at it simply, its only an 8 bar intro, 8 Bar Hook section, 8 bar breakdown and then 40 straight bars looped, then finally the 8 bar outro.

Now as for sounds the main sample of the evolving hi-passed pad thing Elliott has going on seems like a sample with some reversed string sounds or keys. So I decided to reveres the sample and it definitely sounds like keys, by that I mean it’s a piano sample.

Now moving on to the kick and 808, this is another track with an 808 with harmonic distortion which is a trending thing in this genre, it is the second most import thing that stands out on this genre, first being the vocal processing and effects, or sometimes it’s just raw dry vocals.

Here’s what’s taking up all of the low end, the kick and the sub. Sampled kick, and a gliding 808 that rises probably from a transposition, glide or pitch automation.

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Then there’s the fundamental frequencies of the snare sample, really popping around that typical 4k trap snare sample.

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And finally a hi-hat which is taking up all the highs, the hats play in that typical 1/8 1/16 pattern and has some 1/32 rolls. also panned to the left like typical hiphop style, placing the listener in the drummers perspective.

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That’s basically it, that just goes to show, I will be able to make this kind of production soon and hopefully something I will be able to be proud of to put up online. Right now I'm still finding my vibe with my group.