BY RCA MILES HIGH

rcamileshigh.110mb.com

Tutorials
-Making Drum Loops in the Sequencer

©2008 RCA Miles High

-Before you get started make sure you have some good sound samples to work with. If you don’t have any, or don’t want to use the default FL sounds, go to my downloads page and grab some WAV packs.

-Choose a Tempo(BPM) for your beat, select 8 bars, and right click on the first sound bank—Load sample...If you’re already working on beat, and just need to add drums then leave the Tempo alone. However, choose 94 BPM as your Tempo just for this tutorial, but know that with each beat you create this will change, and so will your drum patterns/bars. Load your Kick/Snare/Hi-Hatt sound sample into your sound banks. You can also load any percussion or effect sounds you want to use as well.

-You should now have a Kick/Snare/Hi-Hatt sound sample in their own sound banks within the sequencer just like in the first picture below. Highlight each slot by clicking it in your sequencer with the same pattern I have below, and press play. You should hear a basic 4/4 drum beat.

-Try adding more flavor by clicking the other two slots I highlighted in the second picture below. This will “double up” the second kick and add an extra kick at the end of the bar before it loops back over. You can also play with the hi-hatts or add more snares.

-Each slot counts as one beat(1-2-3-4, 2-2-3-4 etc.) so with 8 bars there are 32 beats or 32 slots that you can highlight. I make Hip Hop so I use a 4/4 pattern(4 beats & 4 bars) so I count my bars a little different. I count my first 4 bars as 1 bar as shown in the picture below(in blue). Unless I’m using 5/4 pattern, my 1st beat(slot) will always be a kick, and the 5th slot will always be a snare. I’ll add flavor to it by adding extra kicks or snares, but the “foundation” will stay the same.

-In the second picture below is an example of what I mean. I added an extra snare to my beat, and moved the kick following that snare two beats(slots) over. This gives it a little break towards the middle of the beat. Experiment by highlighting other slots or removing/moving currently highlighted slots to see what you come up with. However, make sure your first beat(slot) is a kick drum and your 5th slot remains a snare. This is a good method to practice whenever making 4/4 beats.