BUILDING BEATS WORKSHOP LEADER & MUSIC PRODUCER MISHA “SILKY” SAVAGE HAS SOME TIPS TO CREATE A REGGAE BEAT, USING THE FREE BROWSER-BASED MUSIC PRODUCTION PROGRAM SOUNDTRAP. YOU CAN ACCESS SOUNDTRAP ON YOUR LAPTOPS, PHONES, AND IPADS USING THE CHROME BROWSER.

Today we’ll be going over how to recreate a reggae riddim using Soundtrap. A riddim is the instrumental or beat component of any reggae tune. Its intention is to be used by MCs, singers or toasters in a variety of different ways. The producer of the riddim expects the same beat to be used many different times, much like the mixtape style in hip-hop.  

Let’s break down each component in Soundtrap. As you can see, Misha only has four main tracks in Soundtrap and three special effects or dub tracks.

First off, the drums. The reason this beat is called “Steppers Beat” is because of the specific pattern Misha has created with the drums. “Steppers” is a popular style of riddim that most of you probably are familiar with through Bob Marley’s song “Exodus.” It denotes a four-on-the-floor drum beat, with a rim shot on beat 3, and one on the “and” of 4 for effect and eighth-note hi-hats. Throughout the pattern, Misha has a couple effects that he has created using a snare as well as some crashes. He usually likes to do this at the end of every four or eight phrases. And then at the end, Misha has the drum copying the rhythm of the bass and the organ.

Misha is using a Soundtrap acoustic drum kit called Seventies. All he has is a little bit of reverb on them using the Room Reverb.

Next up, there is a piano track. This is just a grand piano and it only occurs during the two choruses. We have the “skank” or the “chop,” which means that it has the piano skanking on beats 2 and 4, and the chords are F major to Eb major. This is a pretty typical I to flat-vii progression, and it just happens during the two choruses.

The only effect Misha has on this piano track is a little reverb, a Filter to take off some of the high end, and a Dynamic Compressor so that the chops are a little punchier.

Underneath that Misha has a Clean Sub, which is the bass track. The bass track in the beginning is doing a call-and-response with the organ melody. Then once it hits the chorus, we have a fairly busy bassline, which is cool in reggae. Misha uses that pattern again during the verse, except with two notes chopped off. 

The beauty of this is that in reggae bass, you want it to be sub-heavy, beneath 110Hz. You can see Misha has an aggressive cut — he uses the filter effect to do a high cut at 764Hz. He cuts out a little bit of the lows so that it doesn’t rumble and sound too muddy, focusing on the 40Hz to 100Hz range so when it’s played out on big speakers, people feel it in their chest.

The last rhythmic component that we have at play is the organ sound. In the beginning the organ is playing a melody in response to the bass. It has a similar rhythm to the piano, except that the root notes of the chords are on the offbeats, which in reggae is referred to as the “bubble.” It’s doing exactly what the piano was doing during the choruses, just creating some difference in dynamics. You’ll also notice that Misha has some automation on the panning.  

Now for the effects or dub tracks — Misha has three. He has one track with the same piano chords but with Slapback and also Stereo Delay. Another track contains a melodica, or hand piano, which was made popular by Augustus Pablo. This second track is doing the same thing, with just a bit of delay, just for ornamentation.

In reggae, we use these elements to create an atmospheric effect. The last effect Misha has is the SFX sweep, which he took from the Soundtrap library, which is a sweep effect with a little bit of delay on it.  

And that’s how you can make a layered Reggae Beat!

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