Make Your Own Beats
Sequencing drum sounds is very important, but of the same high importance is panning them for palatability in a music scene where packing instrument upon endless instrument is becoming the trade of many seasoned producers and amateurs. If you want to know how to make your own beats the right way, read on.
When going through any mixing book or tutorial series, you’ll quickly notice that panning is quite near the top of the food chain if you want to make your own beats. Applying the concept to beats can seem quite easy, but there is a lot to think about when making bigger, track-wide decisions later on in the music production process.
At the very basics of panning is the philosophy of sound distribution. In essence it’s about changing the volume of sound, but not evenly. The sound is distributed unevenly among the left and right channels, and this effectively changes the location of that particular sound in the stereo field. To make your own beats, this can be done with drum samples, with a string section or an electric bell, the creative part is left up to you, the mixer. When used with drums, a complicated piece is easy to achieve with a bit of practice.
Some things to keep in mind will follow, but you must remember to experiment a little bit as nothing is set in stone. Having said that, you should try not to pan the kick and snare drum samples beyond a little bit, and I will show you why in a minute. An example would be the center including the kick and snare and supporting sounds in the left/right channels – not directly in mid-point.
Why would we not want to pan the snare and kick drum samples beyond a few percentage points if you make your own beats? Well, the reason is all about centre frequencies. What do I mean? Have you ever been in a club where they play popular music, like rock, RnB and hip hop? Yes, I’m sure we all have. Now those clubs have a weird speaker set up. Hardly ever are there stereo speakers all around the place in pairs. To achieve some good energy, the managers often put the left speakers on one side and the right on the other side. What this achieves is a sweeping effect across the floor. If you panned the snare hard-left and the right hard-right, one half of the club would only hear the snare through their speakers and faintly hear the kick on the other side. If you’re wondering how to make your own beats, this is not really ideal for dancers and patrons.