Tuesday, 5 March 2013

Making Beats In Pro Tools

Making Beats In Pro Tools


So you want to make a hip hop beat? It's actually easier than you think. There are some simple guidelines to follow, especially when you're first starting out, so get your software beat maker and let's get going.A good hip-hop beat is going to be around 80 to 90 beats per minutes (bpm's). I suggest starting at around 80 bpm's on your first few tries because making a beat when the tempo is slower is a bit easier then a faster tempo because you can concentrate more on the details. Also, you can always speed up the tempo later.I suggest to start with the bass drum (the deep thump). This is an essential part of every drum beat no matter what type of beat you're making and no matter what type of genre. So we make the drum beat, maybe on the first and third beat of the first measure and the first and second beat on the second measure. That will add variety to the beat and give it a little something to keep the audience interested. This of course will repeat over and over every two measures.Okay, the bass drum is completed. Now we need to add the sneer drum (this is the higher sounding beat that every song needs to have). Typically, if you don't have any interesting ideas you can do the sneer on the second and fourth beat of every measure. It is not a good idea to have the bass drum hit at the same time as the sneer drum. It just doesn't work very well, especially for hip-hop beats.Okay, so we have completed the bass drum and sneer. Now we need a hi-hat to mix it up a bit. The hi-hat can be on any measure and since it plays more in the background of a song, I suggest you have fun with the hi-hat and don't be afraid to get creative. Nothing is more versatile on a drum beat than the hi-hat. The hi-hat typically adds that light tapping sound you may hear or the 'sn' sound. Both types of sounds are created using the hi-hat on a real drum set, but obviously you will be using a beat maker for this so we don't need to worry too much about that. Just know what a hi-hat does and that you will need it.Okay to review we have the following parts that make up a basic hip hop beat:- Bass Drum- Sneer Drum- Hi-HatNow we can add a symbol sound to the hip hop beat. To make a hip hop beat it's usually important to add the symbol which gives the beat a splash sound periodically. You might start doing this at every fourth beat in the measure to see how that sounds. You really don't want to over use the symbol and there are many different symbol samples (sounds) to choose from so have fun but don't over use it.Those are the basics for making a hip hop beat using a 4/4 measure. Of course this is a great place to start but you will want to do measures in 3/4 or 2/4 or even 5/4 and 6/4 eventually. Remember to have fun with the beat, but start slow so you understand the basic ingredients of any good hip hop beat and you will be on your way to creating great hip hop in no time at all.




making beats in pro tools






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