Building Beats

View Original

How To Build a Rap Beat With La Scratcheuse’s Beat Maker Online

Yacine, La Scratcheuse’s CEO, shows us a beat that he made for his rap using the beat making program La Scratcheuse.

La Scratcheuse is an app where beginners get to focus on creativity and make cool beats in no time. Read how to use the easiest beat maker online available on laptop and mobile.

1) Choose a vinyl (pack of sounds) 

Go to www.lascratcheuse.com to open the beat maker. 

Once on the website, you must choose a pack of sounds to open the music studio. A pack contains  a complete set of sounds (melodies, basses, chords, drums) to build a beat. The sounds come  from hip hop producers who use La Scratcheuse as a channel to share their music. They are  mostly Hip-Hop packs of sounds varying from Lo-Fi, Trap, R&B and other hip hop genres. 

In the library of vinyls, you can filter them by mood (i.e, Sad, Gangsta, Happy, Energetic) or  use the playlists to help you pick sounds corresponding to your current mood.  

2) Play live on a Music Pad 

After selecting a vinyl, the music studio opens loaded with the sounds that you have just picked.  For this tutorial, Yacine picked the vinyl called SAD which contains 12 sounds. Play with this vinyl

On the screen you will see a vinyl that works like a sound pad. Click on a section to activate a  sound. Click on the same section again to stop the sound immediately. After launching the first  sound, every other sound you launch will be activated at the beginning of the next loop. There is a  circular timer at the center of the vinyl telling you when the next loop begins.  

All sound patterns last the same portion of time, follow the same rhythm, and are on the same key,  so that any combination you try sounds good to your ear. Yacine’s advice is to listen to each  sample individually in order to identify all the instruments, especially the drum patterns, the  melodies (leads), the chords and the basses.

Read this post to know more about BPM and different categories of sounds for a beat

3) Think and structure your beat beforehand 

Yacine’s technique to structure a beat as a beginner consists in taking a piece of paper and  drawing a long arrow which represents the song’s progression. Next, you need to segment the  arrow into parts that outline the different moments of your beat (verse, intro, outro, hook, etc.). Then, decide on a duration for each part.  

For example, Yacine applied the following structure to his beat: 

  • Intro (8 bars, 1 loop)  

  • Verse (16 bars, 2 loops) 

  • Pre-Chorus (8 bars, 1 loop) 

  • Chorus (8 bars, 1 loop) 

  • Bridge (8 bars, 1 loop) 

  • Outro (8 bars, 1 loop) 

  • Total (56 bars, 7 loops) 

4) Compose and record each part of your beat

To record a beat, click on the red button at the bottom of the screen. From that moment, each loop  you play on the vinyl pad is recorded separately on the timeline. At any time, you can stop your  recording, listen to it, rewrite loops and resume recording new loops. To polish his beat, Yacine  recorded each loop separately. Here are some of the composition decisions he made: 

  • For the intro, he launched a melody and added chords and a hi-hat past the middle of the loop. 

  • For the verse, he added drums and a bass. Some variations in the drums are applied at the  end of loops to avoid monotony during 2 loops. Still avoiding monotony, there is a slight  change of melody during the last 4 bars of the second loop.  

  • For the pre-chorus, all drums are withdrawn to give way to a more ambient and surrounding  sound. 

  • For the chorus, almost all samples are activated to create a beefed-up moment. 

  • For the bridge, as for the verse, Yacine removed the hi hat to create a more relaxed and fluid moment. 

  • For the outro, only 3 sounds remain to finalize the beat. 

Read this post to read advice on how to compose each part of a beat on La Scratcheuse

5) Add your voice 

When you finish your beat, before you export it, you can decide to add your voice to it. For this  matter, click on the microphone button next to the controllers at the bottom of the screen. 

For this tutorial and example, Yacine plays the game until the end. He scribbled some lyrics and  recorded them on the platform for you to see how the “Add a voice” feature works. 

6) Publish your beat 

When it’s over and you’re satisfied with your result, you can publish your beat. You will be able to  listen to it and download it from your profile page where it will be kept forever (unless you delete it).  Besides, your beat will be accessible to the whole website’s community, for them to like, share and  comment on it. Also, your beat will be accessible from a unique URL address that you can share. If  you don’t have an account, you can still listen to your beat for 48 hours. 

7) Develop your beat making skills with Building Beats 

For beginners, La Scratcheuse recommends Building Beats' Toolbox. You can find many tools  helping you compose beats, arrange sounds and learn about Beat making. In case you want to  deepen your knowledge, you should also check out Building Beats’ How To videos and more