makin R'n'B beats

[afriquedeluxe]

Are there any rules, or ratha guidelines to dis sort of production. If any one here has had any success in makin such beats id appreciate any tips dey hav cuz im lookin 2 expand ma production skills in2 dis genre

 

[bigdmakintrax]

Aight most RNB nowadays is usually based on a lot of the same patterns in hip hop and in some cases there is thin divide between them, I could have and RnB singer and a rapper in the same room fighting over a track...but the main thing is it depends on the RNB....are we talking brian McKnight or MusiQ or are we talking more Beyonce or
Ashanti.....I would say just like anything else start studying a track you think is hot....now you have a skill that a lot people wish they had for RnB and that is Live guitar....all that you need to know are some good riff scales to bless the track with.......and of course some kind of simple melody usually the bass carries an RNB track unless the keys are leading....start out with a nice beat...RNB usually is gonna be uptempo not always though in the case of the slow or sadd shidd.....when i say uptempo try 95-100 bpm's....next key is either a nice acoustic bass...or a Sine bass that you might modulate or use a lil portamento....RnB is changing a lil because you start hearing more synth basses like from the eighties here and there.....so the best thing is take apart some tracks you like.....the other thing is especially if you are working with some Seasoned RnB singers that might say started in church or some organized setting they are going to want some changeups and nice chord transitions or bridges and the song will have some dynamics........that should help.....I do a lot of RNb and Pop too...I'm not stuck on Hip Hop because there are so many hip hop elements that have bled over into other Popular music nowadays....even Rock...

 

[afriquedeluxe]

kool, ye am lookin mo on da tip of musiq n dem. thnx for da really helpful tips, really appreciate it. hey u got a site sumtin where u got sum of ya r'n'b or pop material i can check

 

[bigdmakintrax]

Yeah the producers for Musiq are really musical producers and you could do some RnB easily, you can even resample some of ya hip hop elements and use em....I got critiqued on a Loon remix at a conference in NY last fall and two of them were on the panel, and they are perfectionists that listened for melody and chords and things being in Tune also....even though you have to tune things up in hip hop too! if you can do both of them you open up a lot more artists to work with...and even the old schoolers like Rockwilda....even do work with RnB and Pop he did some stuff with Christina Aguilerra awhile back at another conference and he was like....Look I am not selling out it's to your advantage to know how to produce other genres to keep yourself marketable.....

 

[afriquedeluxe]

ye man i jus remembered, bridges,
ive had a go at puttin sum in some of ma beats, only did so once succesfully, i always find it hard, how do u go bout it

 

[Loose Cannon]

One kinda big difference is if you use a rim instead of a snare. I dont do tons of RnB so i dont know all this but i usually use rims to tone down the track. It works for me.

 

[bigdmakintrax]

Man you have to work at it....what I would do is just use a chord change in the first track....record it....then go back and think of how you could turn the chord change into a nice progression......think scales.....also like I said go download or buy an RnB cd it doesn't even have to be a hot artist........listen to Kellis...popular thug or blue cantrell-impatient or ashanti....and like you said musiq.....download it....put it in ya minidisc and listen to the songs over and over.....then go and take the concepts to ya track.....

 

[afriquedeluxe]

yeh, i guess i beta start pumpin ma ears wit dis music

 

[bigdmakintrax]

another thing that you will notice is that RnB might use some different fx on the drums and percussion is also important too....shakers and tambourines and congas....yeah but what I did was first find a song...then dissect the beat they had at least 4 bars or close...get the tempo and everything....then pick the bassline apart......then go for the other stuff like the guitar and chords.....but once you get the bassline and the key.....along with the drumtrack it should be easy to construct a simple Rnb track....then add the other elements...

 

[Formant024]

AD, what rnb do you like ???


Timbaland break, go to 130bpm and make a break 3/4 for 2 bars long.

Maybe a bit corny but @ www.soundclick.com/bands/4/altf4music.htm ,
T02> Funky Techno there's a break exactly like this, well, between the Oizo club track that is. Just fast forward it, I think that break is rnb material and it sound like downtempo but it's actualy 130Bpm.

 

[SupaStar]

i think it big d fairly clarified the process "frique" r n b is all about patience - choice n a lot experimenting with sounds - to get that right sound - and when you do it comes to you - also try slowing down some of the melodies in ya hip hop work - inspiration will hit ya sometimes.

sO, my turn whats the best tempo overall - for different styles of hip hop, i am using like a range of 90 - 100, but the reviews for my beat are that they too slow - is it. Fruitloops users help whats the good tempo? is there anything i need to touch in the time siganture panel like the size of the bar or the beat. thnx

 

[SupaStar]

oh i forgot to ask afrique how long do you spend on each beat, n do ya use a midi keyboard or do you compose ya melodies all on the computer.

 

[bigdmakintrax]

Imma tell you what I do and this is just a carry over from using my sp1200......I alway double my bpm.......so if I got a 100 bpm song I set my tempo to 200 that way I can take hats and shaker and make triplets, easy drum rolls and breakdowns and all of that fast light percussion to give a better feel and I adjust the swing in Fruity loops about 1/4 of the way and sometimes 3/4 of the way.........that's really how a lot of dirty south stuff is sequenced and yes including timbo....he might be having things set to 230-250 bpm to make the pattern.......this is a trick that a lot of producers used with the SP1200 in assisting with that signature swing that hip hop has......I mean 100 bpm is not really slow though that's considered uptempo but that also depends where the kick and snare fall...... I mean I think there was a thread on here once b4 about the bpms an a majority of the hip hop tracks were like 90-100 for the most part there were some faster and some slower...

 

[SupaStar]

so do i keep the same 16 beats per bar pattern.......

 

[bigdmakintrax]

you can use 16..thatz up to you.....I use 4 or 8 and then use the another pattern for changeups and breakdowns.....and then put everything together....

 

[Freakwncy]

yo. A.Deluxe, the man to hit up for the R&B tip...that's doing it well is Reggie Perry....Pboy...... he's the go to guy on that....but that's just my opinion....

 

[afriquedeluxe]

Originally posted by Krzy K.
oh i forgot to ask afrique how long do you spend on each beat, n do ya use a midi keyboard or do you compose ya melodies all on the computer.

how long does it take 4 me 2 make a beat, hmmm it can take anywhere between a couple of hours(2-3) to a week!
i got a keyboard for christmas so i wnt b makin melodies wit ma pc keyboard anymore, yeepee!!!!!

 

[bigdmakintrax]

Afrique thatz good man.....also I dunno if ya keyboard samples but some neat stuff you can do that I used to do with my motif and triton (b4 I sold my equipment off).....was to resample riffs and dirty em up to make em sound like they came from vinyl or somewhere or resample my stabs and hits from the keyboard you'll be surprised at what you can do by resampling stuff from patterns you make on the keyboard....and then chopping it up and put it in your beat as a sample....

 

[afriquedeluxe]

i got a casio ctk691, its sequencer aint gd, n u cant sample on it, but da sounds on it r dope!! i can jus record da stuff in cool edit n use it as a sequencer tho, i did ma 1st beat on it , its on ma soundclick