So when youвЂ™re finding those drum loops and samples to begin constructing your retro hip-hop-flavoured track, itвЂ™s important to find those that sound rather dusty or distorted, but overall they need to sound like an actual physical drum recording, and not electronic.

They were now able to make their own drum loops! The more affordable LinnDrum (released in 1982) became a favourite for aspiring hip-hop producers. These products brought drum machines to the masses. In the 1980s the Roland TR-808 and the Linn LM-1 Drum Computer (the first drum machine with digital samples) were released. But then the drum machine entered the fray, and a new approach allowed greater creative flexibility. Back in those days, however, you still needed a mixer, two turntables and a lot of records to stitch these loops together. One of the most famous records used is ApacheВ by The Incredible Bongo Band, check this song out and you will most likely recognise it immediately, since it has been used by many others and in many hits over the years. They would play the same vinyl on both turntables and switch between them to create a continuous song. Hip-hop originated in the early seventies when DJs like Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash started looping short drum solos or other parts from existing records. First, we need to understand how these old-school beats were made. But there are other ways to achieve the same kinds of effects, so donвЂ™t worry if you only have access to FL Studio (or any other DAW for that matter). So this can be a lot of additional work and maybe not within your reach.

But you will need the right equipment and you would also have to start crate digging for the best vinyl records. This automatically gives you that old-school vibe through the hiss from vinyl and вЂchoppinessвЂ™ of the samples. Indeed, the easiest way (and probably most popular way) to produce an old-school hip-hop beat is to sample old vinyl records through a sampler. ItвЂ™s probably a good starting point to get an idea of the exact sound youвЂ™re aiming to recreate lined up. So today we are going to embark on a journey to see what elements make those classic hip-hop beats sound the way they do, and how we can build them ourselves using FL Studio. Most of these beats are actually quite simplistic, compared to contemporary beats, but that does not mean they are easy to make. For example, increasing the вЂњVelвЂќ option will bring the velocities of the all the MIDI notes closer to the central point.ThereвЂ™s a lot of nostalgia for recreating classic sounds these days, and a lot of producers work tirelessly to recreate the vibes and feelings of the beats from yesteryear. These can be used to quantize other MIDI parameters. There are a few other options at the bottom of the window, such as вЂњPanвЂќ and вЂњVelвЂќ. Sensitivity: This actually functions fairly similarly and measures how sensitive the notes will be to вЂњsnappingвЂќ into place.Дuration: This can be used to shorten down notes and quantize the end times of your selected MIDI pattern. If this is fully selected, all the notes will start directly on the red lines. Start time: This alters the strength of how much your notes start times вЂњsnapвЂќ to the red lines.

You can experiment with different options here, and each pattern will change the groove / swing of the MIDI notes.Д«elow the template selector, you have various adjustable knobs: By clicking the folder next to the template box you can choose various quantize patterns such as 16_Drummer_Swing and 8_hiphop. Click QuantizeвЂ¦ as shown above, this will bring up a small pop-up window, as well as vertical red lines along the piano roll view.ДЄt the top of the quantize settings window, it should say Default. LetвЂ™s look at the quantize settings in a little more detail.

Fl studio swing hop template