[00:00] They say trends come back around every 20 years, but it's the perfect window for nostalgia to kick in. You can see it in fashion with baggy clothes making a comeback, and you can hear it in music with the early 2000s hip-hop sound blowing up again.
[00:16] But what actually makes a real 2000s beat? And more importantly, how do you take that authentic vibe and update it so it hits as hard as today's track? That's exactly why I put together the re-up bundle, over a thousand files to capture the 2000s energy,
[00:29] but with a modern twist. In this video, I'll show you how I made it, I'll cook the full beat with it, and show you how you can start making these beats too. So let's get straight into it. When I'm thinking of products to release, the main question I ask myself is what problem can
[00:42] I solve? And I also run polls with my audience because rather than me just guessing what you want, you can actually tell me what you want. For example, during a recent poll, 37% of you said you wanted early 2000s sounds. And it has to be something that I feel confident making because
[00:55] I can't be an expert in everything. I grew up on early 2000s hip hop, to me it's the best decade of hip hop. When you guys asked for these sounds it was a no-brainer for me. But the problem I found was that people who were making these types of beats just weren't using the right sounds. They
[01:08] didn't use sounds for the wrong genre or they just used sounds that didn't hit right. And if you watched my last video where I was fixing people's beats you'll know exactly what I mean. So the goal was to make sounds that had that authentic feel but were pre-mixed so they hit hard with today's
[01:20] Then I started working on the Reop bundle which has a huge drum kit, live recorded phrases, melodic loops, midis, an analog lab bank and a one shot and accent kit. This is the type of vibes I'm talking about.
[01:38] You hear the bounce on energy news loops. But before we get to any drums I want to show you how to make authentic Elite 2000s melodies. Just like the ones in the Legacy Loop kit.
[01:50] Or this one. Or this is one of my personal favourites.
[02:03] So let's break this down and then we'll add some drums to it. There's actually 12 different layers to this one but it all starts with this piano.
[02:15] And when you're trying to capture an authentic vibe of a certain era you want to think about what equipment the producers were actually using at that time. And when I think about early 2000s hip-hop and R&B, the ones that instantly stand out to me are the Korg Triton, Yamaha Motif and the
[02:29] Roland Phantom. So to make my melodies I wanted to start with similar sounds. So I got this acoustic piano preset in the Korg Triton and I came up with this melody. To get that vibe you want to work in
[02:47] a minor scale I'm using A sharp minor. If you look here the main notes I'm using are A sharp which is the root note. That's just hitting at every bar and then in between I'm just coming up with the keys. I'm leaving space here for something else same again here. With the middle notes I'm just trying
[03:00] to think of something simple and catchy. I repeat this one more time here and then so it doesn't get so repetitive I switch it up in this section. Now with these keys you can see I've made the notes a little bit longer and I'm getting this influence from Dr Dre because he do this a lot with his keys.
[03:14] And it sounds a little bit more mysterious at the end because I'm using this note here. If you look at the A minor scale, A isn't actually highlighted. This is a trick producers like Scott Storch would use a lot.
[03:26] I like to use it at the end before it resolves back to the root note. And it's just using the note that is one note down from the root note. And if you want to know the theory behind it, it's known as minor harmonic. So if we select that, you're going to see that everything's within the scale now.
[03:39] So now layering. I've got the foundation there. Then I'm thinking about other instruments that were popular. One of them being staccato strings. So I've got this preset in Zinology and I've got the exact same melody.
[03:58] Already those two are working really well together. Then I thought why not add a third layer. This layer is the pizzicato basses preset in the Triton. So again use the signature sounds but I'll show you why each one works together.
[04:13] And it's mainly because they're taking up different frequency ranges. We've got the piano which is covering the mids, high mids and some bass. We've got the pizzicato which
[04:25] is more bass focused. And these strings which are standing out in the high mids of treble. So then when all three play together it really filling up the frequency range Now if you look at the end of every four bar I just emphasizing those longer notes It just makes it sound a bit more dramatic and adds more tension before it results
[04:43] Because the carto strings are pretty short I wanted some longer strings. So these sounded perfect. Then I took this violin from Spitfire, not an early 2000s preset but of course strings
[04:56] were used back then and I love the character of this one so it just worked well. There's just a lot more life and movement in this one so it gives it that realistic feel. At this point I had all the layers I wanted so everything else needed to be counter melodies
[05:11] or textures. And I wanted another signature sound and this preset was really popular in the early 2000s. It's the Anna Brass lead preset. Then I wanted something else that reminded me of Scott Storch and he was really known
[05:27] for using a lot of flutes, strings. strings and just sounds that were unconventional in hip hop at the time and sometimes I'll play them in but some plugins have these runs that sound amazing too. That was just me playing on
[05:44] the keyboard. Then to separate the hook from the verse you can do that by adding instruments that are more consistent and have higher frequencies because higher frequencies generally relate to energy and for the most part you want more energy in the hook. For example I found this warm analog
[05:58] strings preset in Triton and I'm just using the root note stacked. I also found this art too. Those two together.
[06:12] Next was the bass and for the re-up bundle there's a combination of low string one shots like the type you'd hear in 50 Cent's Candy Shop and there's live bass guitars which we we use a lot back then.
[06:26] And because I've only got one bass guitar behind me, I actually hired someone to play some one shots to this. All the other 8 weight sounds were for a more modern approach. So these are the sounds that I designed and steering from scratch. All I had to do was
[06:39] copy the bass from the piano in. Then an easy way to add variation is to pitch things up and down an octave. For example This one's down and then it goes up.
[06:55] You can't talk about early 2000s hip hop without mentioning Timbaland. Whatever your opinions are about it these days, you have to admit he had some of the best hits back then. And he was really known for his drum bounce because no one was getting that groove back then.
[07:07] He had a mix of interesting percussion and textured sounds that just sounded so organic. So I wanted to take influence from that. For the re-up bundle, I actually hired a live percussionist to record a whole wide range
[07:21] of percussive one shots and percussive loops. When I'm making products, I can't have the ego to think that I can make everything better than everyone else. I have to know my strengths and I can't play live percussion like that, so why not hire someone that can do it better than me.
[07:36] If you look in the percussion folder, all these were one shots recorded live. But you know you're not going to find them anywhere else.
[07:50] Same with these percussion loops. So I really like to bring in percussion loops, chop and change them and then come up with my own. When the percussionist sent the recordings back, this is what they sounded like. That's just a raw recording.
[08:03] But then after I mixed them with things like noise reduction, an EQ, a compressor, a limiter and a clipper, I just got them sounding way cleaner and hitting way harder. So I have to process in every single one shot to be ready to use.
[08:16] Speaking of mixing, the melodies I keep it pretty simple. If you look I keep things pretty simple with EQ, some reverb, levelling and panning. So keeping things as classic as possible I use this compressor.
[08:29] Then I just boost the gain and pre-production until I get about 1dB and then to give it some vintage character I throw on IP20, use the vinyl 3 preset and
[08:41] then just add in a tiny bit of wobble and distortion. It wasn't to make it sound stompy, this is the fourth character.
[08:53] This is the no effects. This is Riff. so that you could capture a similar vibe. I made 25 loops that are inside the Legacy Loop Kit, part of the re-up bundle.
[09:05] But we also made a whole Analogue Lab Bank inspired by sounds of the early 2000s Everything from guitars to pianos to flutes,
[09:18] to bass, and strings. Let's start working on some drums and it's my favorite part.
[09:36] Another really important part of capturing that Illica 1000s vibe is layering. Not just with instruments, it needs to be with drums too. A lot of producers back then would get interesting vibes by stacking different sounds. For example, if you listen to a lot of Dr Dre's beats, you can hear snares layered with tambourines,
[09:51] sometimes snares layered with claps, triangles, just anything that work well together. When I made these I had that in mind, if you listen to the sounds, there's more than one playing together. Especially in the snares.
[10:03] Maybe we could layer that clap with a snare. That's one of my favorites. Let's try this one.
[10:26] Copy that 3-fold breath. And just change it at the end. Yeah that kick sound is sick and what I look for in a kick is just something that is punching hard.
[10:40] The one I'm using has quite a bit of punch and bass to it but if you want your beats to be a bit more relaxed you might go for something more live sounding like this. So when I make kicks for my kits I like to have a variation. I'll always
[10:53] have a go-to that I use for the majority of my beats and then when I'm switching things up I'll get a bit more experimental. You might layer different noises with kicks or just process kicks in different ways. I think making kicks is all about being experimental with the effects you
[11:08] use. Or why not layer kicks? We could take something like the shim one because this just has a completely different tone. We'll copy the same pattern in and hear how this sounds. But when you're layering kicks always play around with this button here. This just flips the phase.
[11:22] It's called reverse polarity so you'll see this waveform go upside down. Sometimes it will sound better with it flipped but with headphones i can hear a bit of low end getting lost so this is one
[11:34] kick this is two all right next up we could either add a hi-hat or a shaker and to be honest for most of these beats have been adding shakers especially if we're using a percussion loop like this
[11:46] sounds like it's already got a shaker in it so i'm just going to add to that vibe a bit and we're going to record this in because a lot of producers then were using things like the mpc so they weren't quantizing everything and sticking to the grid again that just helps the groove way more
[12:19] that's just something you might not have got if you're clicking the notes in you can always adjust things a little bit manually if you need to. I want to add another clap
[12:34] things like the rungs in that contact bank then include this that's exactly why I included a whole range of one shots and accents like this
[12:47] but if you don't have DSTs like Analog Lab or Triton these one shots are going to be perfect for you. You can use all of these as played instruments. Similar to what I said about playing live percussion, I can't play the guitar very well,
[13:03] but a lot of beats back then used live guitars. That's why I hired someone to play loads of live guitar phrases like this. You're just not going to copy that guide using a VSV.
[13:19] Same with this one. I really like to use these to song size or even to do some actual melody. There's even over 200 midis every turn from chords and counter melodies to full beat builders.
[13:35] I've had some effects too. Someone actually recorded these with Dex. I also included everyone favourite go to one and it is a sick one to use so let get it in there yeah i think i got it in there
[13:53] i'm gonna make some of these bass notes longer just needs to stand out a bit more let's go to the drum loops folder you might get some inspiration from either the full drums
[14:07] or the versions without the kick or even the version without the kick and snare just to have the percussion mmmm I like the texture that this one has
[14:19] I don't think we need the whole loop so we'll drag it in we'll just take some parts of it some of these parts too so just chopping up a few different percodes can give you a sick bounce
[14:32] you know what? I'm not sure if it works with everything though maybe there's a different one Another thing that I love to use is drum fills.
[14:49] I might just be looking for little parts of it. Even that one bit at the end with this. I think it just adds to the bounce. It's one of my favourites too.
[15:03] Alright, with that kick as well. I might just add a little note here with lower velocity and a bit off grid just to give it more swing
[15:16] Last thing I might add is just a reverse open hat Alright I think that's all the drums it needs before it starts getting too busy I just need to mix them quick so usually I say organize and rename everything
[15:28] I'm gonna highlight everything so to empty insert ctrl shift and L And for mixing drums I'll level as I go because I want it to sound right in my ears first So then when it's in the mixer I can just double check. I think we can bring the pop up a bit.
[15:42] The snare down a bit. I'll just open it up. And just shake it a bit. Go to the left, one to the right.
[15:56] Everything else I'm pretty sure. I think the fill can come down a bit. When I'm bringing the instruments up. I need to start at the low end because I feel like it's just clashing a bit. I'm going to sidechain the first kick to the 8th weight and then just use kickstart.
[16:09] There we go. With the melody we've already got a bit of structure because this is the intro, this is going to be the hook and then we can drop into a verse. So for the intro I might just bring these fills back to the drop, really like this riser
[16:21] too. and then straight after the hook we want to cut a bit of energy yeah i just copied this over this one we'll just cut a few jumps at the beginning
[16:44] i just want to see what this riser sounds like here yeah those little cuts are crazy and then right at the end before the hook i might just switch up the kick or take a few out and then let's copy that over all right let's have a listen
[17:00] from the beginning
[17:16] Got some crazy drums Let's change the bass a bit too Got those Evernote drums
[17:35] Now we've got the Stare Caps I hope you guys are feeling the beat.
[17:57] If you want to check out the video, there's a link in the description. For more Only 2000 videos, click the video.
[18:11] Thank you.