Victoria Isom

ISM-7

Letang, Shaun. "Rap and Hip Hop Beat Making Theory." Independent Music Advice.
Independent Music Advice, 23 June 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.
<http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2012/05/rap-and-hip-hop-beat-makingtheory/>.

Hip hop, rap and R&B beats are easy to find on the internet
Beats are musical arrangements without the vocals which large ranges in qualities
Equalization is the process of adjusting the balance between frequency components
within an electronic signal
Humans can hear frequencies between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz
Timbre is the different characteristic and frequencies that result from an instruments
Low frequency instruments: kick, sub bass syth, bass synth, bass guitar, lower piano
keys, bass strings
Mid-low Frequency Instruments: snare, cello, organ, piano, guitar, electric piano,
synthesizer
Mid-High Frequency Instruments : violin, viola, trumpet, upper piano keys, flute,
synthesizer
High Frequency Instruments: hi-hats, cymbals, chimes, synthesizer effects
Knowledge of different frequencies are helpful in separating each other for equalization
Instruments can be further separated by panning them and adding reverb
Panning music is when sounds interchange from speaker to speaker
Panning with surround sound can make a beat sound as far to the left or as far to the right
as the producer desires
Lows such as kick and base need to be in the middle of the mix
Clasps and snares need to be out of the mix so that there is sound for the singer
Not too many instruments can be placed in the middle that have the same frequency as
the vocals
Reverb is used to make instruments sound farther away from the listener
A compressor takes the peaks out of the mix by selecting a threshold and then leveling
out sounds that exceed that threshold
The way a track is mixed is very important to the way a finished song sounds, so it is
very important that sound engineers are fluent in the way frequencies, panners, reverbs
and compressions can alter the music.