Old Beat - New Opinions?

[burninkasha]

What up my new recording fam? I've been producing for almost 2 and a half years now and haven't had the opportunity to get other people's opinions for most of it all until I found this site.

You guys can call me Dan, but for the sake of DJ pseudonyms, you can refer to me as Flow J Simpson.

I wouldn't say I'm limited to one style, as I like to use as many sources as possible for my sounds, but I produce mostly R&B/Hip Hop. Adding my own instrumentation is fantastic because I play keys, guitar and drums and believe I have a good ear for this production stuff, but I find it difficult to get the sound quality I crave from my recordings, and that's why I'm asking this wonderful community for feedback.

My current setup is a Powermac G5 running Ableton 8 through a Presonus Firebox output through a pair of KRK vxt6 studio monitors, and I like to use the Fantom G8 as well as select synth sounds from shitty keyboards which I hoard in my closet like dusty monsters. I'm really looking to get the most out of my mixes and would love your bashing.

Attached, from 2 years ago - the first finalized beat I ever produced - it is slightly mundane but I hope you like it. There aren't any samples in the best except for the backing strings which I stretched from a 2 or 3 second Tchaikovsky record. I'll be posting more recent stuff soon which is much improved.

Additionally, if there are any MC's out there who'd like to rub a DUB, I give you my full blessing, although the beats will obviously remain my copyright.