Beat Bang: NeL Magnum (NLMGNM) Talks his Top 5 Produced beats
‘Roger That!’ Henceforth, whenever you hear this signature tag on a song, be informed the song is produced by Nel Magnum (NLMGNM). A brilliant young producers whose productions are as soulful and lush as you’d hear, Nel has earned himself respect among some artistes. As production credits goes, NLMGNM has worked with artistes like EL, C-Real, Gemini, Feli Nuna, Quayba and Alexia. He’s one of the sampling heads in the game. His song productions aside, Nel has extended his gifts to movie scoring. He scored for the Pascal Aka directed movie Interception. In this post, NLMGNM talks his Top 5 works and how it came together.
EL – Don’t Let Me Burn
The production for this song was composed primarily in Propellerheads Reason 5. It began with a funk electric guitar loop from Reason Soul School Refill.
Don’t Let Me Burn is one of those songs that makes me understand that we have amazing talents in Ghana in the sense of EL’s ability to create a sound that is fit for a Hollywood produced movie. The production for this song was composed primarily in Propellerheads Reason 5. It began with a funk electric guitar loop from Reason Soul School Refill. The horns and the organs were programmed in FL Studio along with the drums and the percussions. Originally this beat wasn’t meant for EL. The instrumental went through a number of musicians who seemed interested. However, at the end of it all, EL was the one who rose to make claim of this beat. The recording, mixing and mastering processes were done by EL.
C-Real – Make It Work
The beat was originally called Homeland Glory. The horns inspired the name. This instrumental was produced in 2013. There wasn’t any story behind this production. However, the beat has been through more studios and through the headphones of more rappers than I can imagine. At a point in time, it was the very first beat I played to anybody looking to work on a hip-hop anthem, but none was able to make it theirs until C-Real stepped up to it in 2014. The process for this instrumental began with the horns. However, the most notable element in this production is the uplifting spiccato strings from Edirol Orchestral that is prevalent in the chorus. The drums, and the muted guitars in the pre-choruses, are from Propellerhead Reason 5. In the chorus, there’s this guitar that plays and that comes from Sample Logic Cinematic Guitars. The song was recorded and mixed (by NLMGNM) at MixDown Studios and was mastered by Waxi. The final song was released on C-Real’s 2016 mixtape Business Ties & Dress Shoes.
Lvin Red – On Top Of The World
Working with Lvin Red has been one of the purest forms of musical compositions ever. He’s always pushing the boundaries. And even though he recognizes the limitations in the Ghanaian music industry, he never forgets the limitless potentials he possesses within himself. Quayba with her extraordinary voice delivered an award winning vocals on the chorus which was written by Lvin Red.
The production for this song began with a piano riff from Nii Kpakpo Thompson (best known as GAVET) and host of Tonight with Nii Kpakpo Thompson. Upon hearing the riff Nii played, I sought to produce a song Coca-Cola or Pepsi will buy to use in their marketing campaigns. The acoustic guitars are from Native Instruments Session Guitarist. For the electric guitar, I manipulated an electric guitar preset in Steinberg’s Hypersonic 2 and I ran it through Native Instruments Guitar Rig to give it that dirty distorted feel. The uplifting spiccato strings I got from Odirol Orchestral. On Top Of The World was recorded at MixDown Studios (mixed by NLMGNM) and mastered by Waxi.
Alexia SunGold – Dance Tonight
https://soundcloud.com/user-286983741/dance-tonight-alexia
As with most of my productions, this beat wasn’t meant for Alexia. It went through a few signers before Alexia SunGold made a classic out of it.
Alexia is one of those singers you’d want to work with after hearing her voice. She has grace and her voice range is quite impressive on a lot of productions from my camp (REGAL MUSIC). The instrumental for this song was made in the final quarter of 2016, and I was looking to make it a happy tune for the Christmas season. If you should listen very well you can hear the jingles of sleigh bells in the beat. However, plans did not go as one imagined. The process began when I was playing around with some piano chords. With a solid tune from the piano chords, I proceeded with percussions. Once that was done, the rest of the instruments followed up so effortlessly, especially the horns. The horns from Native Instruments Session Horns gave the production a victorious and uplifting sound. As with most of my productions, this beat wasn’t meant for Alexia. It went through a few signers before Alexia SunGold made a classic out of it. The song was mastered by Waxi.
Modulo TGB X NLMGNM – Shito
This song is one of the most incredible songs I’ve produced in my career as a record producer. This production was a challenge thrown to me by a friend to produce a song with as little melody as possible. Being an African, and to be able to produce such a song with little or no melody, I went back to my root instruments, percussions. Making this the Ga song it is I decided to visit the gome, a traditional Ga instrument. At a tempo of 123bpm, I began with the traditional “ka-ka-ka–kaka” rhythm.
This song is one of the most incredible songs I’ve produced in my career as a record producer.
The congas from Discovery Series West African Drums threw a little “busyness” on the tune. Displacing the kicks by shifting it to the second and the fourth beats, I threw the instrumental into an unprecedented kick pattern.
After the beat was done, the chorus came to me when I decided to freestyle to the beat. For the reason why it is Shito, I don’t know. After the chorus was recorded, I invited Modulo TGB to do justice on the beat. The recording (NLMGNM), mixing (Waxi) and mastering (Waxi) was done at Mr. Waxi’s Studio at Labadi.
