Ill

[cj hood]

http://soundcloud.com/randomrapradio...u-january-1986

[pshabi]

Wow. What is that? Is that an in studio performance or just a remix with slowed vocals? A demo that got some chop and screw treatment?

[dirtydan11]

ILL

[Laver1969]

In love it. Def sounds slowed down just a touch.

[camo]

Wow thats amazing! Thanks for sharing!

[Kid Presentable]

I'm guessing lots of treats such as this will come to light ahead of (and indeed as part of) the 'not a straight memoir' memoir.

Maybe the live version of Three the Hard Way from Milan, TMU demos with vocals, and that CYH instrumental which the Adams seemed to innately recall on the remaster commentary will come to light alongside many, many more treats across all eras. If it is to be multimedia, some sort of video archive of their career spanning concert footage would be nice.

Maybe the memoir needs its own thread. Both fans from the board and those not from the board would be well placed to drop suggestions somewhere. The written word alone is a poor, poor choice to do justice to the band (acknowledging that they know this and hence the 'not a straight memoir' statement).

/hijack

[Jiberish]

This is incredible.

It's weird to hear AdRock saying those rhymes but not quite sounding like he nailed the adrock voice yet.

[3stooges]

Sounds like an earlier take from their studio sessions with Rick. Probably gave it to Dre as a promo, and then decided to issue a later version instead. But they were right there in the recording process, not far away at all from the final version. Just a few different rhymes, a little different feel...

I definitely don't think it's live, unless they were multitrack recording them at WBAU (which is highly unlikely), and somebody took it and mixed it. It sounds like it's been professionally mixed with the delays on the vocals. Plus with a live version the vocal delivery would just not sound as good.

The reason it's slowed down, is most likely it's from a cassette somebody recorded off the radio. Sounds like radio static on there. Those tapes stretch out once you play them a lot and that makes the songs sound slowed down. If you want it to play at the regular speed somebody can easily pitch it up with some software program.

You can tell that the beat's not set at a slower bpm intentionally, because the voices are pitched down also.

That shit is pretty dope though. It's interesting if you listen to these old songs, the verses are just over a drum machine, and the musical parts only come in during the breaks from the rhymes. They barely even used a sampler on this song (like with the Mr. Ed part). But mostly it just sounds like they used a turntable to mix the musical parts in over the drum machine (and for the scratches). That was how it was done back then, before using a sampler became the standard way. This was right at the beginning of that.

[Kid Presentable]

On topic, yeah I like how it almost has a loose live feel in its structure akin to their work circa 92. The slower beat makes it knock (is it just pitch or tempo - if you pitched it up it would sound normal but slower, no?); they get shoutier at the 3:03 mark, horn stabs, almost live sounding drums. I love it all.

You can only imagine what other forms and shapes for countless other tracks exist. Thanks hood!

[3stooges]

Originally Posted by Kid Presentable

(is it just pitch or tempo - if you pitched it up it would sound normal but slower, no?)

It's both tempo and pitch. It's from a tape. Just imagine you were playing a tape back slower. You'd have a slower tempo (lower bpm) and everything at a lower pitch. If you play it back faster, you can get the audio back to where it originally was.

I'm not talking about using a software like Ableton that has warp and can turn up the tempo while keeping the pitch the same. You want the pitch to go up too. Just speed up the whole thing. I don't know what the bpm is on the LTI version but that's what you'd need to be at.

[Kid Presentable]

For my money the pitch going up and the tempo staying the same would sound cool.

[tt5brevisited]

Dope! thanks.

I'm with 3stooges, sounds like a slowed down (tape) earlier version of the OG.

This should sound less off:
http://www.fileswap.com/dl/yo4hILRKr1/

I just pitched it up 2 semitones, so tempo goes up as well.
Not there 100%, would have to do proper A/B to get vocal tuning closer to the OG / album version.

Sounds like it has Billy Squire 'The Stroke' (as sampled on Eminem 'Berzerk') drums mixed in towards the end.

[Laver1969]

Originally Posted by tt5brevisited

Dope! thanks.

I'm with 3stooges, sounds like a slowed down (tape) earlier version of the OG.

This should sound less off:
http://www.fileswap.com/dl/yo4hILRKr1/

I just pitched it up 2 semitones, so tempo goes up as well.
Not there 100%, would have to do proper A/B to get vocal tuning closer to the OG / album version.

Sounds like it has Billy Squire 'The Stroke' (as sampled on Eminem 'Berzerk') drums mixed in towards the end.

Bam! That sounds like the boys in '86 or earlier.

[abbott]

thats why I keep coming back .... for shit like this

thanks Mr Hood.

Fucking Sweet

[Brother McDuff]

epic. love the dubbed out ending. the original drums from the russell bros. track were always my fav part of time to get ill, but shit, this version is clearly just as dope.

sickeness

[brooklyndust]

Awesome shit!

[Micodin]

LTI demos are rare a fuck.

Props to Hood for the find, props to tt5brevisited for the tweaks.

Much appreciated!

[pshabi]

Originally Posted by Laver1969

Bam! That sounds like the boys in '86 or earlier.

Yeah! Nice work. This is the best thread this place has seen in a minute. Can't believe that was out there for 5 months without getting dropped on here.

[pm0ney]

That is so nice.

[Sir SkratchaLot]

That's dope. I love how MCs from the 80s worked on their voices so much more than MCs now and you can tell Mike and Adrock still had a few things to work out still.

tt5brevisited, I think you sped it up a tad too much.

[Sir SkratchaLot]

Also, anybody notice how the file is "07 Time to Get Ill"? Are there other tracks or is that just the 7th song in the lineup where it was played.

[Mister-Gerard]

Originally Posted by 3stooges

That shit is pretty dope though. It's interesting if you listen to these old songs, the verses are just over a drum machine, and the musical parts only come in during the breaks from the rhymes. They barely even used a sampler on this song (like with the Mr. Ed part). But mostly it just sounds like they used a turntable to mix the musical parts in over the drum machine (and for the scratches). That was how it was done back then, before using a sampler became the standard way. This was right at the beginning of that.

Great demo, the scratches are pretty (old s)c(h)ool ! Always nice to hear how the songs evolve.

[abbott]

just downloaded

[3stooges]

Originally Posted by Sir SkratchaLot

tt5brevisited, I think you sped it up a tad too much.

Okay, so the funny thing is, this is from an old ass tape. So it's been stretched.

The mp3 tt5b uploaded is actually a slower average bpm (96.5) than the LTI version (98). It starts off sounding faster, but then it slows down, speeds up. It's up and down. This is just the way these old tapes are.

I did a stretch edit here, to make it an average bpm of 98 to match the LTI version. So if you line these two versions up together, what you'll hear is how the Dre version's tempo is just inconsistent. So the beats should be on time in the beginning of the song, and at the end of the song, but in the middle they are going to be off and on. This is just the nature of the beast with these old tapes. So here it is at 98 bpm (average), same as the LTI version:

http://www.fileswap.com/dl/6Bx2cxgk2F/

[3stooges]

You know what, second thought, I'm starting to think it shouldn't be the same as the LTI bpm. The voices sound higher don't they ?

I'm thinking they recorded this version at a slower tempo maybe....not as slow as the one on Soundcloud, but slower than the LTI version. I think maybe they did this one, and then they said, let's speed it up a little bit. So they sped up the beat a touch, and then did the new vocals we hear on LTI.

I'm not sure what the ideal tempo is to get the voices right, I guess we'd have to try some different speeds...

[tt5brevisited]

Originally Posted by 3stooges

You know what, second thought, I'm starting to think it shouldn't be the same as the LTI bpm. The voices sound higher don't they ?

I'm thinking they recorded this version at a slower tempo maybe....not as slow as the one on Soundcloud, but slower than the LTI version. I think maybe they did this one, and then they said, let's speed it up a little bit. So they sped up the beat a touch, and then did the new vocals we hear on LTI.

I'm not sure what the ideal tempo is to get the voices right, I guess we'd have to try some different speeds...

We would have to know exactly what went on in the studio (and recording from radio), but I think best thing to do is tune/pitch match the vocals with the album version (or some of their 1985 tracks even) cause indeed they could've messed with BPM or tape speed when recording the album version. Sudden tempo variation might also be due to tape edits or manually start/stop drum machines etc.

When I try to tempo match it with the album version vocals start to sound too high in pitch so yeah most likely the album version was recorded to a higher BPM or tape speed.

[Laver1969]

IMO with TT5B's tweak the voices sound very similar to Rock Hard and Beastie Groove. And their voices on those two tracks always sounded just a bit higher than on LTI. So...I think this could be pre-LTI if TT5B's tweak is on the money. And I think it is. Just my 2 cents...

[Jiberish]

I got more rhymes then "WHO?" Phyllis Diller.

love the little differences.

[Sir SkratchaLot]

Originally Posted by 3stooges

You know what, second thought, I'm starting to think it shouldn't be the same as the LTI bpm. The voices sound higher don't they ?

I'm thinking they recorded this version at a slower tempo maybe....not as slow as the one on Soundcloud, but slower than the LTI version. I think maybe they did this one, and then they said, let's speed it up a little bit. So they sped up the beat a touch, and then did the new vocals we hear on LTI.

I'm not sure what the ideal tempo is to get the voices right, I guess we'd have to try some different speeds...

This is what my ear/instinct is telling me. I was going by the pitch of their voices. I've been DJing forever so I'm used to hearing various pitches. Matching the tempo to the LTI album version sounds too high to my ear. My guess is that this demo has a slower tempo than the ablum version but not as slow as the original file.

[cj hood]

hope you don't over analyze the next one this much...just enjoy...