If You Want to Make Your Beats Better, Here’s 5 Tips That May Surprise You
Beat making and music production is more accessible than ever with the incredible tools we have available on our computers and inside our home studios.
However, I’ve noticed a lot of producers can ‘hit a brick wall’ when it comes to their creative process. And with a skill as complex and multi-faceted as music production, I wanted to put together 5 tried-and-true-tips that really help us make better beats,
These tips can easily be applied to any genre of music you are producing, however the accompanying video tutorial deals with genres more related to hip hop, trap and RnB.
Watch the video tutorial here or read on:
Use an EQ
The Equalizer (EQ) has become an overlooked tool in the minds of bedroom music producers.
I would only say that because so many of my private students who are learning music production, simply never considered using this tool.
The Fruity Parametric EQ 2 inside FL Studio is a fantastic visual update to such an important tool for music producers.
With some basic EQ skills, you can alter the sound of your drum samples and enhance their sonic effect. Learning to do this well can greatly enhance the quality of your beats.
Put simply, if your beats sound better sonically, people will perceive them as better, so the EQ is a tool worth getting skilled with.
Parallel Processing
Parallel Processing is another one of those greatly overlooked techniques in the world of beat making and music production.
Parallel Processing allows you to layer parallel versions of a sound, using the mixing board to control the balance between these various effects with a much greater level of control and creativity.
For beat making and drums specifically, being able to run parallel chains of reverbs, delays and even super aggressive compression and distortion effects, allows your beats to take on a far greater enhanced sonic value.
Again, simply mastering the art of sound design with your beats can make all the difference in the world, and that’s all the more reason to learn how to use this technique in your DAW of choice.
Use More Syncopation
Composition is the practice of creating music, not processing it.
When we think of what a beat is, it’s a collection of tones arranged along a fairly standard grid of four beats per measure, usually.
Every person who listens to music naturally understands that music becomes interesting when we add hi-hats, kicks and snares between those beats.
This creates a sense of variety, of rhythmic interest - what we can simply call “syncopation.”
There are many ways to practice composing syncopation into your beats that is well defined and pleasing to the ear.
In the tutorial embedded above, we see an example that starkly contrasts a very simple hi-hat pattern with another one embellished by syncopation, faster rhythmic subdivisions (better known as hi-hat rolls) and even pitch modulation.
In trap beats, this creates a much more interesting hi-hat pattern. That isn’t to call it better, as many beats benefit from the strength of simplicity. But syncopation is an integral tool to understand as a music producer, and understanding how and when to use more of it can really make the difference in the quality and originality of your musical ideas.
Use Drum Fills
Drum fills are essentially the culmination of your beat’s pattern at the fourth measure of a four-bar phrase (typically) or at the end of some span of time.
Drum Fills often function best as a kind of ending for the idea presented in the previous measures.
Even in genres, like trap and hip hop, where drum fills are less presented, simply because the music uses programmed drums and not the natural improvisations of someone playing an acoustic drum set, the use of fills is still very important to the identity of the beat.
In a typical drill-style beat, the last measure of a loop features the most rhythmic movement, as well as the most radical phrasings of the 808 bass line.
This functions as a kind of cadence to the beat, another traditional musical term meant to define the ending of an idea or the ‘wrapping up’ of a musical phrase.
Since our brains are tuned to seek resolution, drum fills, usually placed at the end of your idea, help to create this sense of conclusion, which can make your beats stronger.
Experiment More
Sure, it’s a general piece of advice, “Just experiment more.” But the truth is, originality comes from experimentation and practice, not following a clearly defined formula.
Great ideas are like capturing lightning in a bottle, but if you never learn how to unscrew the cap, you can’t hope to catch anything.
In the Youtube video embedded above, some of the later examples only seek to show you how experimentation helps create better ideas.
Overdubbing interesting sounds, trying new genres, combining different styles together, using non-standard sound sources, learning novel ways to create musical ideas - all of these things will make you a better music producer overall.
The more you can train your mind to be curious, ask questions and test new ideas - the more creative your ideas will be.
I think this matters most for typical bedroom producers, who may gravitate towards the more popular genres like synth pop, trap and EDM.
There is nothing wrong with these styles, but they build expectations in the mind of the creators who have listened to these sounds so much, and then upon finding their own music to be lacking in that professional sound, seek to cut corners or just give up on themselves.
Being willing to experiment and slowly learn more and more is the key to success at something as demanding as being a great music producer. Always keep trying new things. Always keep learning!
