{"id":8231,"date":"2011-04-29T16:54:30","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T16:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.online.berklee.edu\/erikhawkins\/?p=170"},"modified":"2026-01-19T17:03:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:03:39","slug":"hip-hop-drum-beat-and-bass-tutorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/hip-hop-drum-beat-and-bass-tutorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Hip-Hop Drum Beat and Bass Tutorial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting Hip-Hop Drum Beats and Bass Lines in Reason<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve received many requests for tutorials on writing\/producing a hip-hop or dance beat. In theory, this is a nice idea. In reality, there\u2019s just no way you can encapsulate all of the creative and technical know-how that goes into writing and producing a great sounding beat in a single tutorial. Fortunately, that hasn\u2019t stopped me from trying, because even if I can\u2019t pack all of the relevant information into one tutorial, it\u2019s still worth doing for the information that I can share in about a ten-minute video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TAKE A BERKLEE ONLINE COURSE WITH ERIK HAWK!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I threw on some clothes, my Remix Miami T-shirt, didn\u2019t bother to shave, set up the camera (top view down so you could see my hands on the control surfaces), and wrote a hip-hop style beat off the top of my head. It took me around 40 minutes, but I edited the whole process down to about a 12-minute video. Obviously, there are some parts missing, such as playing with MPC backdrops for Kong, or running the hi-hats through a compressor. But, if you watch carefully, it\u2019s all there, because in addition to the techniques I describe as I\u2019m working, you can also see all the device settings and the connections when I flip Reason\u2019s rack over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, this demonstration<\/a> was done using an older version of Reason, but even though this was done in Reason 5, all of the techniques are still applicable in later versions of Reason. The only major thing I would do differently is to use Reason’s Main Mixer for Kong’s individual outputs rather than the 14:2 Mixer. From the Create menu choose Create Mix Channel to open up new mixer inputs in the Main Mixer. Have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n