[0:00] yo what's good people it's jay cactus
[0:01] and in today's video i'm gonna be making
[0:03] a soulful hip-hop beat from scratch so
[0:05] it's gonna be for someone like j cole
[0:07] rick ross maybe jay-z we'll see when we
[0:09] start cooking up i've seen a lot of
[0:10] people commenting asking for something
[0:12] other than drill so yeah we're
[0:13] completely flipping the vibe today if
[0:14] you like this style of video then
[0:16] definitely let me know in the comments
[0:17] and if you want new videos every tuesday
[0:19] and thursday at 6 00 pm then think about
[0:21] subscribing to the channel let's get
[0:22] straight into it
[0:23] alright so whenever i'm making soulful
[0:25] beats the first thing i like to do is
[0:26] set the bpm to around about 80 maybe
[0:29] somewhere like 82 and then i like to
[0:31] start off with a piano so something like
[0:33] addictive keys the grand wire and
[0:35] contact just any piano that sounds good
[0:37] and i really just start with chords but
[0:39] i want the chords to be quite thick and
[0:41] emotional so i go for big chords like
[0:43] seventh chords and i usually pick a
[0:44] minor scale so i think i've got g minor
[0:46] highlighted right now
[0:48] so just because we've got g minor
[0:50] highlighted doesn't mean that we have to
[0:51] start with a g minor chord start with
[0:53] something like a c minor
[0:59] maybe invert the d sharp
[1:02] so i could have
[1:03] this chord play for like two bars
[1:05] and then come down to the root note see
[1:07] how this sounds
[1:08] but i'll do the same type of inversion
[1:15] so that sounded nice
[1:18] and then from here because i wanted to
[1:19] sound kind of emotional i wanted to go
[1:21] lower and lower so from g we could go
[1:24] to maybe d-sharp
[1:28] and i'm just repeating that same process
[1:35] see i'm feeling the way that sounds
[1:39] and then let's try go down again
[1:40] [Music]
[1:47] [Music]
[1:49] fill in the way that sounds too then i
[1:50] need something here to take me back to
[1:52] the first one and just try a different
[1:54] quad
[1:58] let's try this one
[2:00] [Music]
[2:06] that one might work actually from here i
[2:08] just want to thicken them up by grabbing
[2:10] the base notes can just copy them with
[2:12] shift and click and then bring them down
[2:13] active
[2:14] [Music]
[2:16] i want to make this as human as possible
[2:18] so i'm going to randomize the velocity
[2:23] bring it down a bit
[2:25] and i'm also going to strum them but i
[2:27] don't want every chord to be strum the
[2:28] exact same way because again that's not
[2:30] going to be human so what i like to do
[2:32] is have these chords just strummed a
[2:34] little bit
[2:36] somewhere like there and then these can
[2:38] be a little bit longer
[2:39] [Music]
[2:46] there we go
[2:48] all right so i've got the cards that i
[2:50] like the next step is to think of
[2:51] account melody and usually i just play
[2:53] this on repeat and then think of
[2:54] something on my keyboard so i'm going to
[2:56] record something in
[3:00] [Music]
[3:24] okay and i'm just adding this plate
[3:25] reverb i've got it on a modern setting
[3:29] and i just cut out some of the lows
[3:31] and adjusted the wet and dry signal
[3:35] then i'm just adding some delay got it
[3:38] set to four
[3:39] ping pong mode but i'm just bringing the
[3:40] feedback
[3:42] and input down
[3:44] just so it's really so
[3:46] and then after the keys i think a sax
[3:48] would sound perfect in this so i'm gonna
[3:50] pull up a saxophone contact
[3:54] [Music]
[4:11] [Applause]
[4:14] [Music]
[4:19] so it didn't sound amazing then
[4:21] but when i increase this
[4:23] sounds crazy
[4:30] i just need to figure out how it's going
[4:32] to work with the counter melody
[4:34] of the piano all right and another layer
[4:35] i want to add is just some strings so
[4:37] i'm going to use session strings too i'm
[4:39] going to copy the cards from the piano
[4:40] and i'm not going to strum these i'm
[4:42] just going to quantize them
[4:43] okay so this is what the strings are
[4:45] sounding like
[4:48] just adding a ton of emotion
[4:51] and then i think at the end here just at
[4:53] the end of the phrase i could add a
[4:55] couple notes
[4:57] maybe just to build it up so even
[4:59] something like this
[5:11] there we go
[5:14] all right the strings are sounding sick
[5:15] the next thing that i want to add is
[5:16] just some vocals and i found these in
[5:18] splice
[5:19] i'm just going to fit them to the tempo
[5:21] we already have the bpm which is 90 and
[5:23] already in the same key so i won't need
[5:25] to do much with them but i might just
[5:26] want to chop it and change it around a
[5:28] bit
[5:28] [Music]
[5:36] these two sounds sick
[5:43] so i'm not going to change this
[5:45] [Music]
[5:56] all right i'm gonna need to filter this
[5:58] out
[6:03] i'm just bringing the format up as well
[6:05] just to get it sounding a bit different
[6:09] and then just the same reverb as before
[6:11] just to really wash it out
[6:14] also in the reverb i've just increased
[6:17] the decay time
[6:19] blending in nice now and then in this
[6:21] section instead of having that there i'm
[6:22] just going to add a delay so i could set
[6:24] it to a i could bring the volume down
[6:26] set it to ping pong just increase the
[6:28] panning and then i'll automate it i'm
[6:30] only have it on for this one section
[6:36] yeah there we go
[6:37] and i'm also going to make this one
[6:39] unique and i'll reverse it and see if i
[6:41] can find something to end it
[6:43] so try each of these
[6:51] yeah maybe this one actually
[6:58] all right and that's almost it for the
[6:59] instruments i just want to find a few
[7:00] textures to sit underneath everything so
[7:02] i'm going to use arcade for this
[7:07] like this one that might sound sick and
[7:09] then this one as well this one might
[7:11] work
[7:16] [Applause]
[7:18] [Music]
[7:21] all right cool i think that's gonna be
[7:22] it for the instruments i just need to
[7:24] start adding in their drums and with
[7:25] these type of beats i like to start with
[7:27] a hi-hat loop sometimes just to get that
[7:29] realistic drum feel so i could take
[7:30] something like this i'll just fit it to
[7:32] the tempo and then i can just chop it
[7:33] and rearrange it a bit
[7:37] it sounds sick but i don't want so many
[7:38] open hats
[7:43] [Applause]
[7:49] so even something like this
[7:50] [Music]
[7:51] [Applause]
[7:53] and then maybe cut this open hat out
[7:55] here pop these over
[7:56] [Music]
[7:59] cut that
[8:01] [Music]
[8:05] this might work better
[8:08] [Music]
[8:10] [Applause]
[8:11] [Music]
[8:22] up in the snow plant just needs to be
[8:24] like that
[8:25] [Music]
[8:31] [Applause]
[8:32] [Music]
[8:42] all right cool and then for the kick i
[8:43] think i'm just gonna use the gold one it
[8:45] just works in like every beat i could
[8:47] use a real drum like an old vinyl boom
[8:49] back one but i think this one's gonna
[8:50] work all right
[8:54] [Music]
[9:22] so with the kicks as well you can see
[9:23] that i'm bringing some of them slightly
[9:25] off beat again just to get that
[9:27] realistic bounce all right let's grab a
[9:29] ride something like this we can just
[9:31] boost that up a bit and for the rides i
[9:33] like to have them on every four beat but
[9:34] then i can play with the velocity and
[9:36] bring some slightly upgraded so you'll
[9:37] see what i mean
[9:38] [Music]
[9:47] so something like that and then these
[9:48] can come off
[9:50] [Music]
[10:02] there we go
[10:08] [Music]
[10:26] all right a lot of crash in there as
[10:27] well and this one to the right a bit
[10:32] and then at the end i'm just going to
[10:33] lay the kicks with the crash maybe the
[10:35] snare as well
[10:46] i need to bring some of these slightly
[10:47] off
[10:48] and then just adjust the velocity
[10:54] [Music]
[11:16] all right and the only thing i think it
[11:17] needs now is a base i don't usually
[11:19] leave it this late to add a base but
[11:20] yeah i'm failing to add a live bass
[11:22] guitar and i'm going to use my favorite
[11:23] one in contact and that one is the
[11:25] scarby rick and baka base it's just a
[11:27] sick live bass guitar
[11:31] [Music]
[11:40] [Applause]
[11:41] [Music]
[11:55] okay so i've changed a few notes in the
[11:57] pattern
[12:00] keeping the velocity natural too
[12:05] and then brought some notes up and up
[12:06] here
[12:08] like here
[12:14] [Music]
[12:19] all right cool so i think that's gonna
[12:20] be it for the drums i'm just gonna
[12:21] finish mixing it i'll arrange everything
[12:23] and then show you the final outcome all
[12:25] right so i finished mixing and arranging
[12:26] the beat and i haven't really added
[12:27] anything other than this app on the drop
[12:29] and then for the riser i just took the
[12:31] crash and reversed it the only other
[12:33] thing that i did was use love filter to
[12:35] add a low pass filter and that's just
[12:37] for the intro and just before the hook
[12:39] so yeah i'll just play it from the
[12:40] beginning
[12:41] [Music]
[12:42] okay so for the intro i took the eq off
[12:45] just so you can hear the bass of the
[12:46] piano
[12:47] [Music]
[12:49] obviously i did some of the vocals in
[12:52] and then yeah we've just got
[12:53] the low pass filter gradually coming up
[12:56] you can see what it's doing here
[12:59] it's just a cut off
[13:07] so for the hot
[13:09] pretty much got everything played
[13:10] [Music]
[13:12] and that was the app i did
[13:14] [Music]
[13:19] so yeah this just plays once through and
[13:22] then straight to the verse
[13:23] [Music]
[13:30] so yeah for the verse i felt like the
[13:32] piano chords were enough
[13:37] because it's such an emotional track i
[13:39] feel like
[13:40] an eyes can just be heard easily here
[13:46] and then here's where i found space for
[13:47] the sucks
[13:55] just to switch things off
[14:03] i felt like if the sax was in the in the
[14:05] hook with too much
[14:09] and then we've got love builder coming
[14:10] in action again
[14:16] [Music]
[14:27] yeah i think this one turned out crazy
[14:28] you know
[14:30] really soulful emotional
[14:31] [Music]
[14:39] and then yeah just copy that over so i
[14:41] hope you like the video and i hope
[14:42] you're feeling the beat and just to
[14:43] update everyone on the instrumental
[14:45] album i've just got one more collab beat
[14:47] that i'm working on as soon as that's
[14:48] ready i'm going to release everything on
[14:50] all streaming platforms i'm also
[14:51] thinking about doing a separate album
[14:53] just for beats like this so soulful
[14:54] boombap kind of vibes if you think
[14:56] that's a good idea then let me know in
[14:57] the comments but yo i appreciate you for
[14:59] watching the video once again much love
[15:01] and i'll see you next time
[15:05] [Music]
[15:59] you