Quote: Originally Posted by ReaLsoN Preme is Preme, why the hell would you wanne sound like him? I don't think if somebody asks for a tip on a part of somebody else production style, they're necessarily doing it because they want their overall production to sound like that person. Nothing is really new; everything is just pieces of different things that have been done over time, put together in a different way. Music is an evolution, and in order to build your own style you have to first learn from the masters, the same way the current generation learned by imitating Primo, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Marl, Teddy Riley, and everybody else. Take some storch strings, a dre snare, some timbo syncopation, Just Blaze-style fanfare, and put it all together and eventually it starts to morph into a totally different style that sounds like YOU. It's just like mixing... You learn by listening to the best and seeing what they use to get their sound. It doesn't mean that you're going to come out mixing exactly like Tony Maserati, but it's by having that foundation to build on that you allow yourself to reach a high level and create your own statement. If you want to be the best, you have to learn from the best. Then you take the knowledge, put your own twist on it, and use it in your own way. If you don't want to be the best, then by all means go ahead and try creating stuff out of thin air... But most of the producers that are at the top of the industry today spent a lot of time doing their homework and learning to imitate their predecessors and mentors first.