Hi-Tek

Mentioned in this June 1, 2001 Remix article.

Although DJ Hi-Tek samples his drums primarily from vinyl or from live drum performances, he's fond of laying Roland TR-808 kicks behind his sampled bass drums “just to keep it thumping,” he says. Hi-Tek samples his drum hits with a classic Akai MPC 60 sampling workstation.

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• Akai MPC 60
• Alesis ADAT digital multitracks
• Digidesign Pro Tools
• Fender Rhodes electric piano
• Korg Trinity
• Harrison MR3 mixing board
• Moog keyboards
• Røde NP2 mic
• Roland TR-808
• SSL mixing board
• Tascam DA-88 digital multitracks
• Wurlitzer electric pian

In a studio session captured on YouTube by V Clark, Hi-Tek is seen using the Akai MPC 2500 alongside 9th Wonder.

Listed in this June 1, 2001 Remix article.

• Akai MPC 60
• Alesis ADAT digital multitracks
• Digidesign Pro Tools
• Fender Rhodes electric piano
• Korg Trinity
• Harrison MR3 mixing board
• Moog keyboards
• Røde NP2 mic
• Roland TR-808
• SSL mixing board
• Tascam DA-88 digital multitracks
• Wurlitzer electric pian

Listed in this June 1, 2001 Remix article, erroneously written as "NP2".

• Akai MPC 60
• Alesis ADAT digital multitracks
• Digidesign Pro Tools
• Fender Rhodes electric piano
• Korg Trinity
• Harrison MR3 mixing board
• Moog keyboards
• Røde NP2 [sic] mic
• Roland TR-808
• SSL mixing board
• Tascam DA-88 digital multitracks
• Wurlitzer electric pian

Producer Hi-Tek uses the Yamaha NS-10M studio monitors, as shown in his Instagram post.

Used for recording vocals, as mentioned in this June 1, 2001 Remix article.

Hi-Tek records vocals either straight to 2-inch analog tape or to an Alesis ADAT or a Tascam DA-88 digital tape machine. He never records into Pro Tools. “I don't like the computer's flat sound,” he says. “You need to have some type of tape sound. It has to sound like a record.” When working with Hi-Tek, MCs usually get just a few bars of a beat to rhyme over, with perhaps a hook or chorus in place. Then, with the vocals recorded, Hi-Tek will build the remainder of the track around them. He'll even cut up vocal parts in the sampler. “The vocal is just another instrument in the track,” he explains. “So whatever we have to do to make it sound good, we do it.”

In this video Hi-Tek is seen creating a beat at 3:57 using an Akai MPC 3000.

Hi-Tek gives Dynamic Producer a tour of Teklab Studios, the SSL is seen at 2:14.

At 0:23 in this video by Baby Grande Records, you can see Hi-Tek holding an SM-57 microphone in his hand as he is about to record a tom-drum. Later in the video (at 2:26) when Hi-Tek is talking about mic'ing his Snare, you can see an SM-57 pointed at the top of the Snare.

In an Instagram post, Hi-Tek showcases his Akai MPC60II, highlighting its role in his studio setup.

Mentioned in this June 1, 2001 Remix article.

Although DJ Hi-Tek samples his drums primarily from vinyl or from live drum performances, he's fond of laying Roland TR-808 kicks behind his sampled bass drums “just to keep it thumping,” he says. Hi-Tek samples his drum hits with a classic Akai MPC 60 sampling workstation.

Having a good ear for the right sounds is as important as being a good programmer, according to Hi-Tek. On top of that, you have to learn sound engineering and how to use effects and signal-processing techniques such as compression. Hi-Tek often leaves his drums raw, or he may run the beats and the individual sounds through compression twice before recording the track, depending on how it all sounds. One of his tricks involves running sounds through his mixing board before sampling them, so that he can “freak” the sounds. For example, he may turn a snare into a hi-hat sound by thinning it out with the mixer's EQ. “When I first started, I was just using straight MPC, cranking the beats out,” he muses. “The more I got into engineering and learning how to run sounds through the board, the more I started expanding.”

Mentioned in this June 1, 2001 Remix article.

Hi-Tek agrees that you can fashion bass lines from just about any type of sound. For example, he says, “Sometimes I use guitars that sound like bass. When recording his own samples, he prefers warm sounds like those of vintage Moog keyboards and old electric pianos. On the Black Star song “(KOS) Determination,” he sampled himself playing Rhodes piano riffs, and rapper Mos Def played Rhodes on the outro. In that type of situation, Hi-Tek will run the Rhodes through an amp, and mic it dry so that he can put effects on it later. He also likes the warm sound of his SSL mixing board and his “old school” Harrison MR3 mixer. Although he tries to avoid the digital sound of a computer and steers clear of plug-in effects, Hi-Tek will use Pro Tools for certain functions, such as making a mono track stereo by duplicating it and panning the two mono tracks left and right.