This is a guest post by Marcel van Ling from Hot Beat Store, and a follow up to our beginners guide on how to product music. This lesson is more advanced. You can write for this site too.
Rap, Hip Hop and R&B beats are important for recording artists, and not hard to find on the internet. If you do a Google search for ‘hip hop beats’ for example, you’ll get hundreds of websites offering them for your use.
Beats, or instrumentals as they’re also known, are musical arrangements without the vocals. Because of their popularity, there are a lot of producers making rap beats. This however doesn’t mean there’s no space for you in the music production market. As you can imagine, the quality of these instrumentals vary very much. Some are at a very high quality, while others are extremely poor.
For a lot of amateur rappers and singers, this is not a big problem. For musicians who are making money from their music and want to take things to the next level though, many require higher quality beats. These high quality beats are often made by professional producers with years of experience who know how to make a decent mix.
The structure of your instrumentals are important. If you want to make your own hip hop beats or just want to know what goes into them, this article is the one for you.
Equalization – The Basics Of What You Need To Know
First of all, you have to understand the basics of equalization. According to Wikipedia:
Equalization (British: equalisation) is the process of adjusting the balance between frequency components within an electronic signal.
In humans, the range of frequencies we can hear is usually said to be 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz (20 kHz). In other words, the human ears are sensitive to sounds in that range. To make it somewhat easier, we can divide this spectrum into four frequency bands: 1: the low end, 2: the mid-lows, 3: the mid-highs and 4: the high end.
As we grow older, we tend to hear fewer high ends. If you’re less sensitive to some frequencies, you should keep that in mind when you’re mixing. Don’t boost frequencies that are already in the mix too much. If you want to make beats professionally, it’s a good idea to test your ears to find out if you have any hearing problems.
Instruments And Their Frequencies
There are a lot of instruments used in rap and R&B beats, all of which have a different sound. This is because the characteristic sound of an instrument is made out of different frequencies. This is called the timbre of the instrument.
A bass guitar or bass synth has a lot of energy in the low frequency band, i.e. 80 to 160 Hz. An acoustic guitar has most energy somewhat higher, around 200 to 300 Hz. Keep in mind that all instruments have a ground-note with lower and upper harmonics. So a violin has most of its energy around 200 to 400 Hz, but this instrument has a lot of upper harmonics that creates its characteristic sound. Because of this, these upper harmonics are very important.
Take a look at some frequency charts before you start choosing instruments and mixing. These charts are very useful for beginners. A good idea is to pick one or two instruments from every frequency band to create a nice balance. You can use the following instruments for the different frequency bands:
Low Frequency Instruments:
- Kick.
- Sub Bass synth.
- Bass synth.
- Bass guitar.
- Lower keys of a piano.
- Bass strings.
Mid-Low Frequency Instruments:
- Snare.
- Cello.
- Organ.
- Piano.
- Guitar.
- Electric Piano.
- Synthesizer.
Mid-High Frequency Instruments:
You want the lows, for example the kick and bass, in the middle of the mix. The human brain can’t calculate the direction of low sounds because of its long wavelength, so there is no point panning them left or right. On the other hand, you can place the claps or the snare slightly out of the middle to make room for the rapper or singer.About The Author:
Marcel van Ling finished the School for Audio Engineering (SAE) in 2005, and has a lot of experience as a musician. He produces R&B instrumentals and knows a lot about music production software and music theory. Listen to examples of his music on his website HotBeatStore.com, where you can buy rap beats. You can contact Marcel by sending him an email: info (at) mosound.nl.
i already have an idea of mixing a rap instrumental, and now ur articles has enlighten me more.. i really apreciate 4 taking ur time out to spread this message to up and coming producers like me… God blessing to us all in this musik industry..
I’m glad we could inspire you mardcore, keep up with the producing and hopefully you’ve picked up a few tips here.
this can really help
any tips about the arrangement of the instruments?
Glad is helped Owen. The arrangement is really down to you. You could go more traditional (E.G. Intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, breakdown, chorus, outro), or you could come up with your own arrangement.
This article is dope!
Many thanks MR K.O!
great write up.. following these steps can make you the best beat maker you can possibly be
Thanks a lot, glad you approve.
great info , how bout that sonic sound will this help bring that out
I’m glad this article helped a lot of beginning producers. Thanks Shaun, for publishing it.
. Maybe I can write another. About audio mastering, a very important step in music production!
Sounds good Marcel, check your email.
I don’t know if you have an article on this, but you should elaborate more on compression. I’ve noticed that a lot of people overuse it or use it wrong which then makes their songs sound bad. But great advice though!
I’ve actually got a guide on compression coming in the next couple of weeks on Music Industry How To. Anyone wanting to see that guide should ‘like’ the Independent Music Advice Facebook page and keep an eye on the updates.
This article was extremely helpfull i cant even explain man thanks ive been stuck in this hump and now i am the humper not the humpee haha thanks bud. much love bro take it easy. Rick.
Lol, glad to hear it Rick.
What are the db levels of an acoustic guitar, piano, kick, snare and hi hats? Thank you this has helped a lot. Justin.