MAKING A SOULFUL HIPHOP BEAT FOR RICK ROSS, J COLE, JAY Z (Soulful Beat Tutorial - FL Studio)

[00:00] yo what's good people it's jay cactus

[00:01] and in today's video i'm gonna be making

[00:03] a soulful hip-hop beat from scratch so

[00:05] it's gonna be for someone like j cole

[00:07] rick ross maybe jay-z we'll see when we

[00:09] start cooking up i've seen a lot of

[00:10] people commenting asking for something

[00:12] other than drill so yeah we're

[00:13] completely flipping the vibe today if

[00:14] you like this style of video then

[00:16] definitely let me know in the comments

[00:17] and if you want new videos every tuesday

[00:19] and thursday at 6 00 pm then think about

[00:21] subscribing to the channel let's get

[00:22] straight into it

[00:23] alright so whenever i'm making soulful

[00:25] beats the first thing i like to do is

[00:26] set the bpm to around about 80 maybe

[00:29] somewhere like 82 and then i like to

[00:31] start off with a piano so something like

[00:33] addictive keys the grand wire and

[00:35] contact just any piano that sounds good

[00:37] and i really just start with chords but

[00:39] i want the chords to be quite thick and

[00:41] emotional so i go for big chords like

[00:43] seventh chords and i usually pick a

[00:44] minor scale so i think i've got g minor

[00:46] highlighted right now

[00:48] so just because we've got g minor

[00:50] highlighted doesn't mean that we have to

[00:51] start with a g minor chord start with

[00:53] something like a c minor

[00:59] maybe invert the d sharp

[01:02] so i could have

[01:03] this chord play for like two bars

[01:05] and then come down to the root note see

[01:07] how this sounds

[01:08] but i'll do the same type of inversion

[01:15] so that sounded nice

[01:18] and then from here because i wanted to

[01:19] sound kind of emotional i wanted to go

[01:21] lower and lower so from g we could go

[01:24] to maybe d-sharp

[01:28] and i'm just repeating that same process

[01:35] see i'm feeling the way that sounds

[01:39] and then let's try go down again

[01:40] [Music]

[01:47] [Music]

[01:49] fill in the way that sounds too then i

[01:50] need something here to take me back to

[01:52] the first one and just try a different

[01:54] quad

[01:58] let's try this one

[02:00] [Music]

[02:06] that one might work actually from here i

[02:08] just want to thicken them up by grabbing

[02:10] the base notes can just copy them with

[02:12] shift and click and then bring them down

[02:13] active

[02:14] [Music]

[02:16] i want to make this as human as possible

[02:18] so i'm going to randomize the velocity

[02:23] bring it down a bit

[02:25] and i'm also going to strum them but i

[02:27] don't want every chord to be strum the

[02:28] exact same way because again that's not

[02:30] going to be human so what i like to do

[02:32] is have these chords just strummed a

[02:34] little bit

[02:36] somewhere like there and then these can

[02:38] be a little bit longer

[02:39] [Music]

[02:46] there we go

[02:48] all right so i've got the cards that i

[02:50] like the next step is to think of

[02:51] account melody and usually i just play

[02:53] this on repeat and then think of

[02:54] something on my keyboard so i'm going to

[02:56] record something in

[03:00] [Music]

[03:24] okay and i'm just adding this plate

[03:25] reverb i've got it on a modern setting

[03:29] and i just cut out some of the lows

[03:31] and adjusted the wet and dry signal

[03:35] then i'm just adding some delay got it

[03:38] set to four

[03:39] ping pong mode but i'm just bringing the

[03:40] feedback

[03:42] and input down

[03:44] just so it's really so

[03:46] and then after the keys i think a sax

[03:48] would sound perfect in this so i'm gonna

[03:50] pull up a saxophone contact

[03:54] [Music]

[04:11] [Applause]

[04:14] [Music]

[04:19] so it didn't sound amazing then

[04:21] but when i increase this

[04:23] sounds crazy

[04:30] i just need to figure out how it's going

[04:32] to work with the counter melody

[04:34] of the piano all right and another layer

[04:35] i want to add is just some strings so

[04:37] i'm going to use session strings too i'm

[04:39] going to copy the cards from the piano

[04:40] and i'm not going to strum these i'm

[04:42] just going to quantize them

[04:43] okay so this is what the strings are

[04:45] sounding like

[04:48] just adding a ton of emotion

[04:51] and then i think at the end here just at

[04:53] the end of the phrase i could add a

[04:55] couple notes

[04:57] maybe just to build it up so even

[04:59] something like this

[05:11] there we go

[05:14] all right the strings are sounding sick

[05:15] the next thing that i want to add is

[05:16] just some vocals and i found these in

[05:18] splice

[05:19] i'm just going to fit them to the tempo

[05:21] we already have the bpm which is 90 and

[05:23] already in the same key so i won't need

[05:25] to do much with them but i might just

[05:26] want to chop it and change it around a

[05:28] bit

[05:28] [Music]

[05:36] these two sounds sick

[05:43] so i'm not going to change this

[05:45] [Music]

[05:56] all right i'm gonna need to filter this

[05:58] out

[06:03] i'm just bringing the format up as well

[06:05] just to get it sounding a bit different

[06:09] and then just the same reverb as before

[06:11] just to really wash it out

[06:14] also in the reverb i've just increased

[06:17] the decay time

[06:19] blending in nice now and then in this

[06:21] section instead of having that there i'm

[06:22] just going to add a delay so i could set

[06:24] it to a i could bring the volume down

[06:26] set it to ping pong just increase the

[06:28] panning and then i'll automate it i'm

[06:30] only have it on for this one section

[06:36] yeah there we go

[06:37] and i'm also going to make this one

[06:39] unique and i'll reverse it and see if i

[06:41] can find something to end it

[06:43] so try each of these

[06:51] yeah maybe this one actually

[06:58] all right and that's almost it for the

[06:59] instruments i just want to find a few

[07:00] textures to sit underneath everything so

[07:02] i'm going to use arcade for this

[07:07] like this one that might sound sick and

[07:09] then this one as well this one might

[07:11] work

[07:16] [Applause]

[07:18] [Music]

[07:21] all right cool i think that's gonna be

[07:22] it for the instruments i just need to

[07:24] start adding in their drums and with

[07:25] these type of beats i like to start with

[07:27] a hi-hat loop sometimes just to get that

[07:29] realistic drum feel so i could take

[07:30] something like this i'll just fit it to

[07:32] the tempo and then i can just chop it

[07:33] and rearrange it a bit

[07:37] it sounds sick but i don't want so many

[07:38] open hats

[07:43] [Applause]

[07:49] so even something like this

[07:50] [Music]

[07:51] [Applause]

[07:53] and then maybe cut this open hat out

[07:55] here pop these over

[07:56] [Music]

[07:59] cut that

[08:01] [Music]

[08:05] this might work better

[08:08] [Music]

[08:10] [Applause]

[08:11] [Music]

[08:22] up in the snow plant just needs to be

[08:24] like that

[08:25] [Music]

[08:31] [Applause]

[08:32] [Music]

[08:42] all right cool and then for the kick i

[08:43] think i'm just gonna use the gold one it

[08:45] just works in like every beat i could

[08:47] use a real drum like an old vinyl boom

[08:49] back one but i think this one's gonna

[08:50] work all right

[08:54] [Music]

[09:22] so with the kicks as well you can see

[09:23] that i'm bringing some of them slightly

[09:25] off beat again just to get that

[09:27] realistic bounce all right let's grab a

[09:29] ride something like this we can just

[09:31] boost that up a bit and for the rides i

[09:33] like to have them on every four beat but

[09:34] then i can play with the velocity and

[09:36] bring some slightly upgraded so you'll

[09:37] see what i mean

[09:38] [Music]

[09:47] so something like that and then these

[09:48] can come off

[09:50] [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