How to Make a Hip Hop Beat in Studio

Boom Bap beats sit around 95BPM, so set your tempo as such. The ‘Live Break’ kit that comes with Serato Studio is perfect for this. Select the ‘Make Beats’ button to generate a beat in the genre you want. Add/remove notes until you’re happy with it. Finally, add a bit of swing and vary the note velocity to give the feel of a real, human drummer.

There’s a ton of free sample loops that come with Serato Studio. Pick one you like. When you drag it into the deck, cue points will automatically appear on various regions of the audio. You can the keys on your computer to play them. Get a pattern going that you’re vibing, and when you’re ready: hit record and lay it down.

Adding FX to your sample will help shape its sound and give it some flavour. Try out the Limiter Squeezer, Dry Reverb and Hard Sidechain. Adjust the levels on each until you’re happy. There are no hard and fast rules—as long as it sounds good to you.

Serato Studio also comes with loads of instruments for free, like basslines, strings and keys. String-based instruments and plucking keys are great for Boom Bap — try out adding some in. The ‘Rhythm Guitar’ instrument is a great choice if you’re unsure which to pick.

You’ll now have a nice loop to use as a foundation. Copy over the scenes, label them as your verse, chorus or whatever you need, Add/remove instruments from these new scenes so they can be brought in later on in the track to bring suspense and tension.

Now you’ve got your individual parts, you can piece them together. A basic structure for Boom Bap is: Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Outro. Try arranging your beat as such in the Master View.

Give it one last polish — mastering is all about making your track sounds balance and getting all the different elements to sit harmoniously together. Adding Mastering FX like Brightener EQ, Master Compressor and Limiter will help make your track sound more full and professional. Nice one, you’ve got yourself a Boom Bap track.