How To Easily Produce Hip Hop Drums in Ableton

[@vicarious_cringe]

Can you do a video about guitar and how to get it to slam e.g. gating or something like that

[@SlightyStuupid]

Hello question, how much does the notes of the drums matter in the mix. I'm just starting and my drums don't sound like they fit with the song. Is there a rule of thumb on what notes the drums should be in accordance to what the key of the sample is? Thanks.

[@innersightrecords]

Thank you for the amazing question! Yes the note of the drum matters, especially in hip hop or with electronic drums. In fact a lot of mixing engineers retune drums that producers send them haha basically you’re trying to make sure your kick (or other drum samples like snare/toms) hit the same as your root note. Example: if your sample is in A minor, your kick should be as close to A on the low end peaks as possible. Put a spectrum analyzer on the drum sound and you can see where the notes are peeking up at. Most analyzers (including abletons) will let you see what note that is if you hover the mouse over the peak. Then you can see if you pitch the drum up or down to reach the note you want. Hope this helps!

[@Bertthemovieguy]

Would you change your drum phrase for each section? Like for intro, verse, and chorus? Or just leave it the same.

[@innersightrecords]

Fantastic question! Majority of the time, yes I would change the drums with the songs section. That way it helps separate the phrases and add diversity. I'll also add fills before the section changes to help with anticipating the phrase change

[@Bertthemovieguy]

@@innersightrecords okay thanks just needed some tips from a real drummer since I'm going to start making hip hop beats for rappers. I'm good with the synth side of things with harmony and melody and music theory, just percussion was not one of my strong points.

[@SynthStudioIndia]

Where to put bass