How To Make Hip Hop Beats

how to make beats

To a beginner learning how to make hip hop beats can be extremely difficult. You have all your software running and your MPC is plugged up and you build your first loop. Your kicks, hats, and snares are right where you want them. However when you play your beat back it sounds horrible and generic - something like a machine - like a flat soda it has no fizz to it. You listen to it, against the beat of your favorite hit song, and it just lets you down. Your beat gets 5 thumbs down, you wanna run away with your tail between your legs. This is how it is when your learning how to make hip hop beats. You ask yourself what are the famous music producers doing to their beats that your not?


Well what you haven't done yet is master the 3 keys to beat making. What are the three keys you might ask? Do you really wanna know?... ok drum roll please...


The 3 keys to how to make beats are:


1 - Quantization

2 - Velocity

3 - Sound


There I told you, now you know, so what are you going to do about it? Get ya skills up I hope! Now let's talk a little more about the three keys to beat making.



Click Here To Learn How To Make Beats>>


how to make beats - Quantization


Quantization is the process of aligning a set of musical notes to a precise setting. This results in notes being set on beats and on exact fractions of beats. MIDI sequencers are used for this purpose. MIDI sequencing has a rigid time grid. Here in lies the big problem when it comes to making hip hop beats. You have to learn how to break out of this time gird, reason being quantized music sounds so unnatural. Learn to come up with your own grooves. Think outside the box, your tools are just that... tools. You have to put that human element into your beats.


For instance take the drum machine as an example. It is only a machine, any sounds it produces will sound machine - created (not human). Make your machine - created beat sound like a human drummer. This will give you natural sound. IF you still don't understand let me explain it this way -


Human drummers cannot play perfectly the same way a drum machine can. A real drummer will play some of their hits early and some of their hits late (breaking out of that preset-grid). These small "mishaps" cannot be picked up on by human ears but they play a big factor in what is banging at the clubs and what is not.


This is how real music was made back in the days of the Temptations, Phunkadelics, Earth,Wind and fire and the Delphonics. These groups had live bands that could play the hell out of live instruments. This is why their music was so spectacular, it had that out of the MIDI restrictive grid sound, that real human feeling. This is also why we music producers of today sample all that old good human music. So learn to quantize your notes with some human touch.




how to make beats - Velocity


Velocity is another way to make your beats sound like a human drummer. Human drummers can beat their drums in numerous ways - softly, hard, directly in the middle of the drum, outside toward the rim of the drum, loud, flams and rolls, and ghost notes. These different patterns forces contribute to human playing of the drums.


Remember these types of hits are unnoticed by human ears, however they play a major part in what makes the crowd get up and dance and what doesn't.


You can program in the Velocity after you program your beats in the drum machine. When your using your keyboard or your MPC you should be able to control the Velocity. If your really good you can tweak the velocity manually. Hey this is for the really talented.




how to make beats - Sound


Mostly all amateurs mess with sound first. Downloading kits, and playing with the EQ's and rummaging through samples try to make their beat sound hot. This is a no no, Your beat will automatically sound good if it is well programmed. You do this by getting Quantization and Velocity down to a tee.

"GET THE QUANTIZING AND THE VELOCITY STRAIGHT FIRST"... then do the Sound.

Master these 3 beat making keys and it's a guarantee recording artists will be knocking down your door to buy and use your hot beats.


If you want to get your sounds right master these techniques:


Beat Layering: To create original human sound real music producers take multiple samples and layer them on to of each other.

Beat Tuning: Tweak your samples to the correct notes and your drum sounds will be in the same key as the song.

EQuing: If you want your beat to be hot you have to know what frequencies to bring out and what frequencies to take out.



Learning how to make hip hop beats is an art form

Learning how to make beats is an art in itself. learning how to make hip hop beats is gonna take plenty of practice, trial and error. This is also going to consume a lot of your time. Understand and master the 3 keys to making beats and you as a music producer will go to the next level.


Click Here To Checkout The Rap Beats Manual>>



Until next time-


Keep Producing


Lavish the beatmaker