MusicRadar

DJ Kentaro mixes up a hip-hop storm.

View in gallery

9. Try editing drum samples by sight and ear, without zooming in. This approximates the way samples used to be edited – on the E-MU SP1200 sampling drum machine, for instance.

10. Try reversing a kick drum and using a tiny element of it to lead into the main kick in your track. Used every few bars, this can create an excellent effect that really pushes the beat along.

11. Hip-hop usually needs big kick drums, so get layering! If you can think of a group whose kicks always, err, punch, sample one and layer it under your own. Many great producers have a couple of kicks they layer under everything – one for weight, another for punch. If done right, you can then layer a new kick over these two for every new track, giving a different sound but keeping the same feel.

12. Try playing in beats using a drum pad, or at least the keys on your MIDI controller, rather than drawing them in. And don't quantise the results entirely. Try fixing the kicks first, and any really badly out of time bits. But do it by moving the MIDI notes manually, and one by one – you never know what you'll find.

13. Try sending the MIDI notes of your drum pattern (or one generated by ReCycle!) to the wrong sampler or drum machine patch and checking out the results. Even if you only use part of it, there's lots of inspiration to be had, and plenty of classic beats have been made this way.

14. If you're struggling to analyse the groove of a loop on your favourite record, put it into Propellerhead's ReCycle!, import it into your REX player or sampler, match up the hits to MIDI notes and have a look at the placement. You'll be amazed how much difference tiny movements of individual sounds forwards or backwards can make to the groove.

15. Even when you think you like your beat, try removing random percussive hits and seeing if this makes it sound better. Cluttering a groove is a very common beginner's error, and even if you end up putting them back in, you'll have some ideas for edits and variations.

16. If you've constructed a beat across a few channels but it doesn't sound coherent, try running them all through one bus and compressing it – ideally with a vintage analogue modelling plug-in such as PSP Audioware's excellent VintageWarmer.

Around the web: