Make beats by genre – How to make a trap beat

How to Make a Trap Beat in Studio

Trap has become the forefront of modern Hip Hop. Migos, Young Thug and Travis Scott are prime examples. From Atlanta to obscure corners of the globe, Trap has officially taken over. We’re about to show you how to cook up a Trap beat of your own in 6 steps.

To get started, download Serato Studio and the free Trap Starter Pack and join the movement with these deep 808s, snappy drums and menacing pluck lines.

Start with the drums

Trap beats sit around 140BPM—set your tempo accordingly. The ‘Studio Trap’ kit that comes with Serato Studio is going to be the perfect kit for your beat. Select the ‘Make Beats’ button to generate a beat, selecting the Trap genre. Add/remove notes until you’re happy with it. After you’re happy with the beat, give it a bit of a mix. Make sure the kick is nice and loud, and the snares and claps and dry and snappy. The hi hats don’t need to be overly loud - they’re just the sauce on top.

Add an instrument

Let’s add some keys in. Typically Trap beats have a lot of piano sounds and sparkly melodies. The ‘Warmy Electro Piano’ is perfect. Never played an instrument before? Serato Studio has got you covered. ‘Play in Key’ mode will ensure everything you play stays in the key of your project, so it all sounds melodically together.

Add a bassline

Let’s fatten up our track by adding an 808 bass (the ‘808 Knock Bass’ in Serato Studio works great). You can record it in, or just paint it into the beat sequencer. Turn up the ‘Glide’ to have the overlapping notes bend into each other. Lastly, here’s a pro tip: when working on your bassline, it makes everything sound cleaner and punchier if you line the notes up with your kick drum.

Structure your beat

You can now build your track around the loop you’ve got. Copy the scenes over and label as ‘intro’, ‘verse’ and ‘outro’. Rename the original scene you had as ‘hook’—this is the biggest part of your track, so should be the main section. For the intro, leave only one instrument. For the verse, bring the drums in but hold the bass for the chorus.

Arrange it

A typical Trap structure goes like this: Intro-Hook-Verse-Hook-Verse-Hook-Outro. Head to the Song View and arrange your scenes in order.

Master it

The final touch—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. Boom: you’ve just cooked up a fire Trap beat.