In addition to the tutorial, we’ve laid out the necessary steps for you to follow to properly sidechain:

You can apply this technique to any DAW with your stock plug-ins.

To explain how you can do this, we made a free tutorial on our YouTube channel that goes through the basics of Sidechain Compression (starting at 40:14). To easily fix this issue, we use what’s called “sidechain compression” to duck the volume of the bass track any time the kick track is producing an audio signal. The relationship between the kick and bass is important in any genre of music but specifically so in hip hop.Īs a general rule, you don’t want the frequencies of the kick and bass clashing with each other, which means you don’t want them playing at the same time. Luckily, it’s now easier than ever to find good samples to start building your libraries with.Ĭheck out our FREE DOWNLOAD VAULT for all of the latest Cymatics free sample packs, the Oracle, Cobra, and Eternity packs are all perfect for hip hop production. Having your own separate folder for all your favorite kicks, snares, hi hats, shakers, 808s, percussion, instrument one shots, and whatever else you can think of will make the production process much easier in the long run. You want to start building your own personal libraries of samples with only your favorite sounds, especially for drums. Skills like this are the most important when you’re working in a session with an artist as well, because you don’t want to keep people waiting around while you look for the right snare sound. It may sound easy, but it can take years to reach the level where you know exactly what sample will sound the best for your beat - and where to find it in your files - and do it quickly (we’re talking 5-10 seconds). Having an ear to choose the right samples in any situation is one of the most important skills of a talented music producer.

For beginners if you start implementing these into your production workflow, you will quickly start seeing the improvements they can make to your beats.Īnd if you’re an experienced producer this can be good to go over just to remind yourself of a few things you may have forgotten! 1. This is a small list of essential tips for any hip hop producer. All you need is a decent computer, strong work ethic, and the will to learn. Learning how to make beats on your computer is easier now than it ever has been before.

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