First add snares on the second and fourth beats, plus an extra snare on the last 16th note before the third beat. You can double-click in the MIDI Editor to add notes, or select the Add Note (pen) tool and draw them in. Double-click the clip to bring up the MIDI Editor. Then, use the handle at the bottom right-hand corner to drag it to one bar in length. Right-click on the instrument track and select Creation Region to make a MIDI clip. Then add a new instrument track and select Drums > Drum Pads > Prince Kit, which gives us some classic 80s drum machine sounds. We’ll begin by setting the project tempo to 102BPM, which we can do by clicking it and entering a new value. You can open this project yourself here, and use it for the basis of your own productions. Here are six easy steps to make a classic rap beat that you can use as a foundation for your own track. BandLab can be accessed on both smartphones and web browsers, making it easy for collaborators to add vocals to your tracks. BandLab’s web Mix Editor is a free online digital audio workstation that allows you to share your beats with friends anywhere in the world. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how you can create a classic rap beat in BandLab. & Rakim’s “ Funky Drummer” sampling “ Lyric of Fury”.
Read more: How to make a boom bap beat on BandLabĭrum machine virtuosos such as Egyptian Lover and Davy D AKA Davy DMX released beat-driven records that made them stars in their own right, before the arrival of samplers ushered in the era of breakbeats and tracks such as Eric B. The arrival of beefy-sounding drum machines made it possible for non-musicians and producers to make their own beats with little else in the way of kit, resulting in stripped-down, beat-heavy tracks like Run DMC’s “ Sucka MCs” and Pumpkin And The Profile All-Stars “ Here Comes That Beat!” Before this relatively affordable beat-making hardware became available, hip-hop records were often made with live musicians replaying disco classics on records such as The Sugarhill Gang’s “ Rapper’s Delight” (a reworking of Chic’s “ Good Times”), or funk grooves recorded onto tape from vinyl on tracks like West Street Mob’s “ Break Dance – Electric Boogie” (which employed the breakbeat and instrumental hook from Incredible Bongo Band’s “ Apache”). Rewind back to our tutorial on making a boom bap beat on BandLab, we learned that the classic sound of 80s hip-hop was dominated by drum machines – in particular the Oberheim DMX and Roland TR-808.