Snoman R. Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys, and Techniques

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by increasing the resonance until it breaks into self-oscillation and produces a

pure sine wave. After this, programme the kicks pattern to suit the current loop

and feed the resulting audio into a noise gate with the threshold set so that

only the peaks of the wave are breaching it. Finally, set the attack to zero, use

the release to control the ‘kicks’ delay and hold the time parameter to produce

a heavier sound.

Roughly speaking, hip-hop drums are not compressed nor are any effects

applied, as the purpose behind the genre is to keep the sound raw. Besides,

if the drums have been sampled from a record they will have already been

compressed and effects applied at the original recording, mixing and master-

ing stages. Naturally, this is only a generalization and if the loop appears quite

weak then compression may help to pull it up a little. Typically the compres-

sors used for this are as transparent as possible so solid-state is often used, such

as the Alesis 3630 or the Waves C1.

As a starting point, try a ratio of 8:1 with a fast attack, short release and a

threshold set so that the kick registers on the reduction meter by 2 dB. To avoid

the volume anomaly, set the make-up gain so that the loop is at the same vol-

ume as it was when the compressor is bypassed and then start experimenting

with the release settings. When you shorten the release the kicks will begin to

pump the rest of the drum timbres more heavily, but you need to exercise cau-

tion as to how much this pumps. Keep in mind that the hi-hats and snares are

occurring in between the kicks, so that the snares and hi-hats will be pumped

against the kick, which will take way from the ‘raw ’ ﬂ avour of the timbres used!

If after compression, the beats seem to exhibit a ‘digital’ nature then it may be

worth compressing them with a valve compressor such as the UREI 1176 LN or

alternatively the PSP Vintage Warmer can be used after the solid-state compres-

sion to give the sound warmth.

Above all, these are only suggestions – it’s up to your own creativity to produce

new variations of old loops through experimentation. One thing that is certain

is that although explaining the principles of creating hip-hop loops is simple,

accomplishing it proﬁ ciently is an art form. You have to listen to loops with

some awareness and be willing to sacriﬁ ce some elements to make the loop

work properly. Complex loops are not part of hip-hop, but it does take plenty

of time and effort to produce a loop that works properly. You have to have a

thorough understanding of the genre and how the loops work in the context of

other instruments; this can only be accomplished by digesting both the culture

and the music.

RAP VOCALS

With the drums laid down and presenting a groove, it’s usual to record the rap-

per next, since any other instrumentation will sit around their rhymes. As these

form the centrepiece of the record it’s of paramount importance that you have

a good rapper (anyone can rap but only a select few can actually rap well!).

Equally, it is also essential that the rapper have something to say that can be

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associated with the genre as a whole: simply rapping about how your car broke

down last week will rarely work well (unless you happen to be Eminem). This

is another reason why it’s vital that the rapper is actively involved in the whole

culture.

Customarily, the lyrics are drawn from lyricists rhyming about their skill, or

the skill of the crew they’re associated with, or they are simply ‘dissing’ (slang

for disrespecting) their rivals. This is a form of battle similar to breaking and is

essentially a way of competing with other rappers on the same circuit for prom-

inence and respect. In fact, this form of competition is deeply embedded in the

history of rap and is still evident today, playing a fundamental role in hip-hop.

Alternatively, the message conveyed may have a more personal political stance,

rhyming about the current state of the ghetto, the nation, guns or violence and

drug usage. These are usually not to invoke shock value but rather a true story

from the rapper’s own experience and is the one of the key reasons why the

vocalist must be actively involved in the hip-hop scene. If not, it’s very doubt-

ful that the words will have any real meaning for hip-hop aﬁ cionados and you

could ﬁ nd yourself laughed off the circuit ( Ice T ?).

Whatever the subject, rapping has become an incredibly complex lyrical deliv-

ery that bases itself around sophisticated rhythms that syncopate with the

drums. Although there are many different styles, ranging from almost being on

the verge of singing to more poetic ‘talking’, the delivery and the tone are every-

thing. Any good rapper will be able to produce complex rhythms and wordplay

that complement the instrumentation while emphasizing the most important

words.

Another important aspect is quick thinking and the right delivery. Most pro-

fessional rappers today are able to come up with rhymes on the spot, a talent

that they learned in the earlier years when they may be challenged on the street

and have to come up with a rhyme quickly. Of course, this latter talent isn’t an

absolute necessity, and while rappers such as Run DMC can come up with a

rhyme off the top of their heads in an instant, they certainly don’t walk on

stage and make it up on the spot. Indeed, these and other hip-hop artists often

take weeks to come up with an entire song’s worth of rapping since the sound

and wordplay must have the right style for the music.

Usually, the rap is recorded before the instrumentation is completely laid down

so that any additional instruments can also be laid down to emphasize the rap

itself. Of course, this is a purely conventional approach and convention doesn’t

always play a part in music, so it’s up to your own artistic interpretation.

The microphone typically used to record the vocals is the Shure SM58, as it

produces the nasal tone typical of the genre. It should be hand-held to allow

the rapper to move freely as this helps to keep the sound authentic – no rap-

per stands still while rhyming to a beat – and should be held approximately

10 –20 cm (4 –8⬘⬘ ) away from the mouth, depending on the vocalist. You need

to listen carefully to the sound produced and either increase or decrease this

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distance to capture the right sound. The vocal tone should be full and present –

if it seems deep and boomy ask the rapper to move the microphone further

away from the mouth while if it’s too bright ask him or her to hold it closer.

Compression is often required while recording the vocals to prevent any

clipping but this should be applied lightly. If heavy compression is used the

dynamics will be too heavily restricted, resulting in a rap that lacks any emo-

tional stature. Generally speaking, a valve compressor, such as the UREI LA 3

or LN1176 , are the preferred option, but the Joe Meek SC 2.2 can also be used

on vocals to add some warmth. Alternatively, a solid-state compressor followed

by the PSP Vintage Warmer can often add the requisite warmth after recording.

Whichever compressor you use, a good starting point is to set a threshold of

⫺ 12 dB with a 3:1 ratio and a fast attack and moderately fast release. Then,

once the vocalist has started to practice, reduce the threshold so that the reduc-

tion meters are only lit on the strongest part of the performance. Although the

resulting rap is best recorded directly into an audio editor or sampler, some art-

ists will record the vocals to tape cassette before transferring this to the digital

editor. This technique helps to capture a ‘rough’ yet warmer tone that is typical

of many rap records.

Once recorded, the vocals are very rarely treated to any processing or effects as

the genre tends to move towards a raw sound rather than the ‘professional’ pol-

ished sound of most popular music. This means that, unlike with most vocals,

after recording compression is not applied unless it’s absolutely necessary and

effects such as reverb are applied very lightly, if at all. Additional compression

may be needed if the rapper has been slightly off axis from the mic while per-

forming; in this instance very light settings are used to keep the vocals at a sim-

ilar volume, which allows them to pull through the mix. Unfortunately, there

are no generic settings for this – the setting depends entirely on the vocals –

but as a very rough starting point, use a threshold setting so that you have ⫺ 5 dB

on the reduction meter, along with a ratio of 4:1 and a fast attack and mod-

erately fast release (approx. 200 ms). Unless you’re after the very commercial

form of rap, the ratio should not be set any higher than this, and even then

you should avoid going over 6:1. So the vocals do not loose all of their emo-

tion and ‘raw ’ ﬂ avour. If they sound a little thin, then small amounts of reverb

may help, but similar to compression this should be kept to a minimum to

retain the feel of the music. In fact, reverb should be applied so lightly that its

application is only noticeable when it’s removed.

Many hip-hop tracks will also make use of double tracking the vocals to accen-

tuate particular words or phrases. As these are always recorded in mono and

sit dead centre of the mix, by double tracking the important phrases you can

pan the original vocal and the double-tracked phrase left and right to ﬁ ll the

stereo image and bring attention to particular parts. Many rap tracks will off-

set one side of the vocals by a few ticks so that they occur moments later than

the original, helping to thicken out the vocals and bring more attention to the

phrase. These usually lie at the end of a number of bars (similar to how much

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of dance uses a cymbal crash) but it’s up to your own artistic interpretation as

to where these accentuated phrases or words should sit. The best advice that

can be offered is to listen to the rapper and double track him (or her) wherever

they place their own accents with the music.

THE BASS RHYTHM

Although most old skool hip-hop tracks consisted of nothing more than

a break beat and a rapper, today’s producers often drop in bass lines to add

some bottom-end weight and help the track groove along. In the majority of

cases these are real bass guitars that have been sourced from another record

and are not normally cut up or edited in any way. In fact, quite a few of today’s

tracks have used bass lines (and in some cases the entire track they originally

belonged too) that are instantly recognizable. Generally, it is more prudent to

write your own, though, since there’s no chance of being caught for copyright

infringement – and it’s much easier to write the bass around a rapper than have

a rapper try to rhyme around the bass.

On the whole, most hip-hop basses are kept relatively simple as they merely

act as the underpinning of the track and do not form a fundamentally major

melodic element in themselves. This is to prevent the movements and groove

of the bass from drawing attention away from the rapper’s rhymes. As a result, a

bass line will often consist of nothing more than a few 1/8th or 1/4th notes per

bar that will tend to stay at one pitch or move very subtly in pitch by no more

than 3 or 5 semitones. As the rhyme at this stage is already down, the key of the

bass will most probably already be determined, and it’s simply a case of repeat-

ing the ﬁ rst bar of the rhyme and moving down the keyboard making notes of

the pitches that harmonize with the rapper. Once you have these, it’s just a case

of producing a groove that ﬂ ows alongside and complements the rapper.

Notably, the bass groove very rarely occurs on the beat of each bar; it’s quite

usual for it to begin just a few ticks before or after the bar to offset it from the

rest of the record. This is done to emulate the nuances of a real bassist since

they very rarely play dead on the beat. What’s more, offsetting the bass grove

by eight or ten ticks, will make the drums appear to pull or push the record for-

ward, helping to create a more ﬂ owing groove. This ‘vibe’ in between the bass

and drums is an essential part of rap, but whether you should set it before or

after the beat is entirely open to artistic license. After programming it’s worth

experimenting by moving it before and then after the beat to see which pro-

duces the best results ( Figure 15.5 ).

For the bass timbre, real bass guitars are customarily preferred over synthetic

instruments not only to keep with the original feel of the music but also

because most real basses are recorded by miking up the bass cab, they tend

to be particularly noisy. Although some engineers will struggle to get these

sounding clean, within hip-hop this noise plays a fundamental role. While it

may sound awful soloed, in the context of a mix the bass often helps to pull

through and add the grit required. Recording live instruments is beyond the

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scope of this book as it requires a whole new set of production ethics that

would require another book to explain. So for those who do not want to sam-

ple from another record but want the ‘real’ bass sound in the music, here we’ll

look at how to programme a ‘realistic’ one through MIDI.

The key to programming any real instrument is to take note of how they’re

played and then emulate this action with MIDI and a series of CC commands.

In this case, most bass guitars use the ﬁ rst four strings of a normal guitar

E–A–D–G, but these are tuned an octave lower, resulting in the E being close to

three octaves below middle C. Also they are monophonic, not polyphonic, so

the only time notes will actually overlap is when the resonance of the previous

string is still dying away as the next note is plucked. This effect can be emulated

by leaving the preceding note playing for a few ticks while the next note in the

sequence has started.

The strings can also either be plucked or struck, and the two techniques pro-

duce different results. If the string is plucked, the sound is much brighter and

has a longer resonance than if it were simply struck. To copy this, the velocity

will need to be mapped to the ﬁ lter cutoff of the bass module so that higher

values open the ﬁ lter more. Not all notes will be struck at the same velocity,

though, and if the bassist is playing a fast rhythm, the consecutive notes will

commonly have less velocity since he has to move his hand and pluck the next

string quickly. Naturally, this is only a guideline, and you should edit each

velocity value until it produces a realistic feel.

Depending on the ‘bassist’, they may also use a technique known as ‘hammer

on’ whereby they play a string and then hit a different pitch on the fret. This

results in the pitch changing without actually being accompanied with another

pluck of the string. To emulate this, you’ll need to make use of pitch bend. First

set to a maximum bend limit of 2 semitones, since guitars don’t ‘bend’ any

further than this.

FIGURE 15.5

A typical bass rhythm

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Begin by programming 2 notes, for instance an E0 followed by an A0, and

leave the E0 playing underneath the successive A0 for around a hundred ticks.

At the very beginning of the bass track, drop in a pitch bend message to ensure

that it’s set midway (i.e. no pitch bend), and just before where the second note

occurs drop in another pitch bend message to bend the tone up to A0. If this

is programmed correctly, on play back you’ll notice that as the E0 ends, the

pitch will bend upwards to A0 simulating the effect. Although this could be

left as is, it’s sensible to drop in a CC11 message (expression) directly after the

pitch bend, as this will reduce the overall volume of the second note so that it

doesn’t sound like it has been plucked.

In addition to this, it’s also worthwhile employing some fret noise and ﬁ nger

slides. Most good tone modules will include fret noise that can be dropped in

between the notes to emulate the bassist’s ﬁ ngers sliding along the fret board.

The pitch bending is best emulated by ﬁ rst programming the notes to overlap

slightly and then recording movements of the pitch bend wheel live and edit-

ing them in the sequencer.

For those who break out in a sweat at the mere mention of in-depth MIDI edit-

ing, it isn’t always necessary to use a real bass. Some producers do use syn-

thetic instruments, provided that they’re deep enough and have a good ‘body’.

Although the type of timbre obviously differs from producer to producer, the

general tone can be made in any synth by using both a triangle and a pulse

wave with the latter detuned from the triangle by ⫺ 3 cents.

Set the ampliﬁ er and ﬁ lters envelope to a fast attack, medium decay, with a

short sustain and no release and use a 2-pole low-pass ﬁ lter, with a low res-

onance setting. Finally, modulate the pulse width of the pulse with a sine, tri-

angle or sawtooth LFO set to a slow rate and medium depth. This will produce

a basic timbre typical of the genre, but it’s worth experimenting with the ﬁ lters

decay, the LFOs rate and depth, and the shape of the decay envelopes on both

the amp and the ﬁ lter to mould the timbre to suit your music.

This will not suit all music, though, and some artists ignore synths and con-

struct their own basses from culminating samples together or pitching a sample

down the keyrange because just about anything sounds great when it’s pitched

down a couple of octaves into the bass register. The key is to experiment in

creating a low tone that has the energy to add some bottom-end weight to the

music but at the same time does not demand too much attention.

On the subject of experimentation, distortion and compression are often used

on hip-hop basses. While most effects should be avoided since they tend to

spread the sound across the image (which destroys the stereo perspective),

small amounts of controlled distortion can help to pull the bass out of the mix

and often give it the much-needed rawness. Similarly, compression after the dis-

tortion can be used to even out the volume, keep the effect under control and

bring the overall levels up. As a general guideline, start by setting the ratio to

4:1, along with an attack of 5 ms and a medium release of 150 ms or so. Set the

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threshold control to 0 dB and then slowly decrease it until the bass registers on

the gain reduction meter by a couple of decibels. Finally, set the make-up gain

so that the loop is at the same volume as when the compressor is bypassed and

then start experimenting with the attack and release settings until it produces

the level and ‘sound’ you require. Unlike most other genres of dance music, rap

is one of the few that does not use a compressor to ‘pump’ the low frequencies,

so any compression applied should be applied lightly and you should generally

try to avoid pumping the low end.

CHORDS AND MOTIFS

Similar to the bass, old skool hip-hop did not employ any chords or leads, but

most tracks today will employ some sort of lead sound to sit behind the rapper.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, these are usually sampled from other records too,

but they can also be programmed in MIDI and then sampled and subsequently

reduced in bit and sample rate to add the necessary ‘grunge’.

As always there are no deﬁ nitive rules as to what instruments should be

used as a lead, or indeed, how they should be programmed. But, as always,

there are some guidelines that will at least help keep you on the right path.

Fundamentally, hip-hop tends to stay with real instruments rather than go for

synthetic, and a proportionate amount of tracks will use Rhodes pianos, old

‘ electric’ pianos, bells, orchestral strings or orchestral ‘pizzicatos’. As with the

bass, these are kept quite simple so as not to take the focus away from the rapper.

What’s more, they’re not quantized and are commonly recorded live to help

keep the instrumentation sounding real rather than as if were generated by a

machine. As a very rough generalization, these instruments – but particularly

the piano – tend to follow the da capo sequence with the ﬁ rst bar asking the

question and the second bar providing the answer. Typically, this ‘answer ’ plays

the same melody as the question but rises in pitch by a few semitones (try

semitone shifts of 3, 5 or 7) ( Figure 15.6 ).

If more than one ‘lead’ instrument is used in the track, only one of these fol-

lows the da capo sequence, and any other instruments tend to remain the same

throughout the bars ( Figure 15.7 ).

Of particular note, even if the elements of the record are not sampled, they

should nevertheless sound as though they are. This means gratuitous use of

bit reduction, sample reduction along with sampling the vinyl crackle and hiss

from a record. This is the preferred approach to using a vinyl plug-in as these

rely on generating random noise or cycling a sample every few bars of music

which often doesn’t sound particularly realistic. However, by sampling vinyl

hiss from a record, you can place it into a wave editor and begin cutting up,

looping and creating a good 6 bars of hiss to sit in the background. If an audio

sequencer is being used, this crackle can be laid on an audio track, and each 6-

bar segment can be overlapped at different points throughout the arrangement

to create more realistic crackle.

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FIGURE 15.6

The piano rhythm using

the da capo

FIGURE 15.7

The pizz rhythm

ARRANGEMENTS

The arrangement of hip-hop differs from most other genres in this book in that

it doesn’t follow the dance builds or the verse and chorus structure. Instead,

the music generally repeats the same bars over and over throughout the track

and relies on the rappers to provide the movement of interest. In fact, if you

were to strip the rappers away from most rap tracks, the backing would quickly

become tedious to listen to since there are so few changes implemented. On

occasion, some tracks will ‘drop’ the beat close to the end of a bar while the

rapper rhymes. This not only accentuates the rapper but also creates a rush of

emotion as the track returns on the next bar. As ever, if you’re unsure about

how to produce a typical rap arrangement, listen to other similar tracks and

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physically count the bars, making note of where new instruments are intro-

duced and then implement this same structure in your own music. This isn’t

stealing, it’s research and every musician on the planet does it. In fact you’ll

ﬁ nd that many rap tracks follow the very same arrangement principles (and

remember that arrangements cannot be copyrighted!).

The data CD contains a full mix of a typical Rap track with narration on how it was

constructed.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING

Ultimately, the purpose of this chapter is to give some insight into the pro-

duction of hip-hop, and there is no one deﬁ nitive way to produce the genre.

Indeed, the best way to learn new techniques and production ethics is to

actively listen to the current market leaders and be creative with processing,

effects and synthesis. Chorus, delay, reverb, distortion, compression and noise

gates are the most common processor effects used within rap music, so experi-

ment by placing these in different orders to create the ‘sound’ you want. While

the arrangement and general premise of each track is similar, it’s this pro-

duction that differentiates it between all the others. With this in mind, what

follows is a short list of some of the artists that, at the time of writing, are con-

sidered the most inﬂ uential in this area:

■ Africa Bambaataa (often seen as the original godfather of hip-hop)

■ Eminem

■ Dr Dre

■ Public Enemy

■ Run DMC

■ El-P

■ LL Cool J

■ Cyprus Hill

■ Ice T

Trip-Hop

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Trip-hop is, in the context of dance music, a relatively new genre that evolved

out of Bristol in the early 1990s. During this time, American rap was the pre-

dominant musical style that was taking Europe by storm. Since this genre of

music requires a heavy involvement in the entire hip-hop scene (hip-hop is

actually a culture of which rap is only a part) British DJs and musicians con-

torted it further. The principle elements behind the construction of American

hip-hop were fully embraced, with the emphasis remaining on slow, laid-back

heavy beats mixed with the gratuitous sampling of old records, but the vocals

were left out. This resulted in a genre that was termed British hip-hop by the

media, but at this stage it lacked any real diversity, consisting mostly of slow

‘ tripped out ’ beats and bass lines mixed in with samples of old jazz records.

In 1991, the release of Bristol-based Massive Attack’s Blue Lines album marked

the ﬁ rst serious release of British hip-hop and also revealed its close connec-

tions with American hip-hop (the single One Love displaying a remarkably

similar feel to its relative). It wasn’t until 1994, however, that British hip-

hop was coined as ‘trip-hop’ by UK’s Mixmag magazine with the release of

Massive Attack’s second album entitled Protection alongside the appearance

of Portishead and Tricky. Portishead deﬁ ned a new style of trip-hop music

labelled ‘lo-ﬁ’ through a mixture of Beth Gibbon’s brooding vocals mixed

among samples of 1960s and 1970s jazz music which were, in the most, left

with a predominantly ‘raw ’ feel.

In fact this raw approach to music was deliberately encompassed by Portishead

as they made an effort to record all their instruments into old analogue tape

recorders rather than straight to digital media. Tricky’s style was somewhat differ-

ent again, branded by low-pitched singing and an overall cleaner sound but like

Trip-Hop

CHAPTER 16

’ Trip-hop is British hip-hop that lacks the lyrical skills

of the U.S. counterparts, but British kids have got the

musical

side … ’

James Lavelle (Mo ’ Wax label)