by chad glenn

Making beats is not necessarily genre specific.  From hip hop to drum and bass to experimental glitch music, the fundamentals of beat making can be used to create solid foundations in any electronic music genre.  Here are 5 tips to get you started:

1) Sequencing Software

You have many options here.  In general, the thing to look for is flexibility.  Programs that allow simultaneous layering of loops and programmed beats with many plug-in options are the ones to go for.  Some moderately priced yet very powerful packages are FL Studio, Ableton Live, and Acid Pro. They are all very popular, fairly robust and quite intuitive. On the higher-priced end of the spectrum Apple’s Logic Studio or Pro Tools are hard to beat. Logic Studio is Mac Only however, so if you’re a PC user this won’t be an option for you.  It’s worth doing the research to find out which packages fit your budget and your particular needs. Download  trial versions where possible.

2) Loops

Loops are usually a good place to start making beats no matter which music genre you are working within.   Many of the sequencing software packages come with hundreds of loops to get you going.  There are also thousands of third-party loop libraries to choose from to fit your style of music, but pay attention to file formats.  Programs like Logic Studio and Acid pro automatically time-stretch loops to fit the tempo, but in order for this to work properly, the file extension of the loops must be in the proper format.  

Once you find a loop that fits the general vibe and rhythm you’re going for, it’s generally a good idea to change it up a bit.  One way to do this is by slicing the loop into pieces and rearranging it’s components.  This can be done with slicing programs like Recycle, or directly in your sequencing software (most have editors built in for micro-editing purposes).   This is also a good technique for changing the beat in transitions as the song progresses.  

3) Layering

Layering is useful for helping your beats become more sophisticated and interesting.  There is no limit to what you can layer into a beat.  The only rule here is to keep everything you add in a consistent rhythm.  One way to start is to find a few loops that work well together, slice them up, and add pieces of each beat into the timeline.  Ideally you’ll have each loop on its own track for processing purposes once you get the initial groove working.  You can also use full, unsliced loops if editing is not your thing and process each to help them sit well in the mix.  It’s a good idea to have certain loops come in and others drop out as you progress in the timeline to keep the beat interesting.  Depending on your style of music, fast and slow loops playing together can create a good contrast.  For this to work properly, you’ll have to choose loop speeds where one loop is twice as fast as the other.  For example, if you have a loop at 80 bpm (beats per minute), layering in a loop at 160 bpm could work nicely.

For adding more punch and overall control to your loop(s), another good technique is to layer in programmed pieces like a kick, snare, or hi-hat.  Most sequencing software packages come with some type of drum synth or sampler that isolates individual hits.  When played along with a loop, this technique can thicken up a beat or add depth to a frequency range that may have been lacking in the original loop, for example, a solid kick drum to help drive the beat.

4) Creative Processing

Processing in this context involves adding effects to a beat to alter or shape it in some way.  This is a very broad topic with endless possibilities.  For the purposes of this article I will only name a few.

Besides adding EQ and compression, which you will likely do at some stage, creative use of distortion is a tried and true method for adding punch, crunch or harshness to a beat. From mildly offensive to overtly obscene, distortion can impact your beats to a high degree. To do this, insert a distortion plug-in on the track you want to alter.  Most sequencing software platforms come with some distortion plug-ins.  Logic Studio comes with 6 ranging from bit crushers to phase distortion as well as top notch guitar amp modeling.  Experiment with presets and changing the parameters until you get the effect you’re looking for.  

Pitch shifting is another good method for changing up loops or programmed rhythms.  This can be done in a sampler or in as a plug-in insert.   Pitch shifting a loop down a few cents is very common in down-tempo style electronic music, but can be applied in some fashion to almost any genre.

There are also many 3rd party plug-ins that take a lot of the work of programming and editing out by automating these processes.  These “beat manglers” are great for creating unique and powerful beats.  One very useful and reasonably priced mangler is Replicant by Audio Damage.  It’s a delay-based effect good for adding stutters, filter drops and randomization to your loops.  It’s utility should become obvious as you fiddle through the presets.

5) Unity

Once you have the loops and programmed pieces arranged and layered to your satisfaction, an important last step is to unify the pieces so that they fit together sonically.  One way to do this is to group the tracks together or send them to a single bus for global processing.  So for example, if you have 4 drum tracks consisting of 3 loops and a programmed beat track, you could set the output of these tracks to a single bus and “glue” the pieces together with some light compression and a little eq.  This will also help you listen for any errant pieces that muddy up the mix, which can then be addressed on the individual offending track with eq or editing out the offensive frequency.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 4:19 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.