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Hi.. So I've been getting into some 2-step lately, namely..



I'd just like to know, how could I produce the main percussion beats for future usage?

Off the top of my head...

• Kick on the 1 & 6, snare on 3 & 7 (basic suggestion for beat programming, NOT to be taken as a hard rule)
• Lots of swing
• Use triplet programming on the hats/percussion hits
• Adjust the end points of your samples to give shorter drum hits (apply a fade if this gives you an unwanted 'click' at the end of the sample)
• Double up your snares with claps & again shorten them to give some snap
• Use ghost snares (same or different snare sample at a lower velocity) in between hits to give extra movement
• Shorten a snare down to a 16th and fade it out halfway. Program so you've got a double time ghost snare shuffle to provide counterpoint to the existing rhythm
• Light compression on the beats bus (assuming you're using busses) to gel everything together

Cheers.

wub wrote:Off the top of my head...

• Kick on the 1 & 6, snare on 3 & 7 (basic suggestion for beat programming, NOT to be taken as a hard rule)
• Lots of swing
• Use triplet programming on the hats/percussion hits
• Adjust the end points of your samples to give shorter drum hits (apply a fade if this gives you an unwanted 'click' at the end of the sample)
• Double up your snares with claps & again shorten them to give some snap
• Use ghost snares (same or different snare sample at a lower velocity) in between hits to give extra movement
• Shorten a snare down to a 16th and fade it out halfway. Program so you've got a double time ghost snare shuffle to provide counterpoint to the existing rhythm
• Light compression on the beats bus (assuming you're using busses) to gel everything together

Nice tips!

wub wrote:

• Lots of swing

^^ most important part imo, you really need it for the 'shuffle'. Make sure you're programming a 16th note swing and not an 8th note one

wub wrote: [*]Adjust the end points of your samples to give shorter drum hits (apply a fade if this gives you an unwanted 'click' at the end of the sample)]

How is this achieved in FL Studio? I noticed a lot of Ableton/Logic vids that show people altering the attack or release of a kick, but I don't think you have the same level of control over samples in FL. Is there an external VST out there that can do the job? I'm aware of Battery 3 and the like but would prefer keep to the FL sequencer.

Pitching hi-hats and snappy rimshots as ghost snares also.

You can adjust the outpoint via the sampler.

Check this out, a good read:

http://blackdownsoundboy.blogspot.com/2 ... -jazz.html

^^^Nice link promise one

Cheers all. Much appreciated.

The swing is the hardest part to grasp in 2-step.
But once you get it down, it's pie goodluck mate

The swing is the hardest part to grasp in 2-step.

Its worth noting that you can't swing ALL of the drums, the main kicks and snares need to be bang on beat. Usually any high hats on the downbeat as well. But percussion, off beat ghost snares, and offbeat hi hats can be swung.

Light compression on the beats bus (assuming you're using busses) to gel everything together

Or just have the best of both worlds and use some parallel compression

How do I use swing properly in Reason? (I am on version 5).

MikkiFunk wrote:

The swing is the hardest part to grasp in 2-step.

Its worth noting that you can't swing ALL of the drums, the main kicks and snares need to be bang on beat. Usually any high hats on the downbeat as well. But percussion, off beat ghost snares, and offbeat hi hats can be swung.

you don't really need to worry about that, swing quantize settings should keep your main beat and backbeat square. If every note was swung, then you'd just have the whole beat playing straight, but a bit late. All swing is is a short delay on every other 16th note (for the UKG syle stuff anyway, a more conventional swing is 8th note)

The thing for me is that I used to try and replicate some 2-step beats, and all I could get on time is the kick and snare.
The hats were the hardest piece to get down.

1point5 wrote:
you don't really need to worry about that, swing quantize settings should keep your main beat and backbeat square. If every note was swung, then you'd just have the whole beat playing straight, but a bit late. All swing is is a short delay on every other 16th note (for the UKG syle stuff anyway, a more conventional swing is 8th note)

So, here I drew up a little example of a 16step drum pattern. Is it true I would want to slightly delay either the red or the green dots but not both?

skyhigh wrote:

1point5 wrote:
you don't really need to worry about that, swing quantize settings should keep your main beat and backbeat square. If every note was swung, then you'd just have the whole beat playing straight, but a bit late. All swing is is a short delay on every other 16th note (for the UKG syle stuff anyway, a more conventional swing is 8th note)

So, here I drew up a little example of a 16step drum pattern. Is it true I would want to slightly delay either the red or the green dots but not both?

just the greens

okay, sweet. I'll give that a try.

skyhigh wrote:How do I use swing properly in Reason? (I am on version 5).

regroove down in the bottom right.. but now that i think about do you mean how to achieve it or like what value to use because that it is different for each track imo

I can apply swing with regroove but it always sounds like shit. So, I guess I technically know how to use it but just not correctly... at all.