Top 5 K-Pop Music Production Tutorials
Music producer and DJ PlayPlay rates and reviews these top five YouTube videos on making K-Pop in digital audio workstations such as FL studio, logic pro x and more.
5. How To Produce A BLACKPINK Type Beat with FL Studio | K-Pop Tutorial 2021
At #5 we have FREMADETHIS’ tutorial in FL Studio in the style of K-Pop supergroup BLACKPINK. In this tutorial, he shows us how he has his Serum plugin set up for the synth melody, how he layers the melodies together, how he mixes down the drums, and much more.
FREMADETHIS also provides a lot of resources in the Youtube description for this video, including a K-Pop Sounds drum kit and links to his preset pack! It places at #5 largely because his voice is a bit quieter than the beat he’s walking us through, but don’t sleep on this one because the beat itself is fire.
4. Make K-pop R&B Type Beat, with Logic Pro X 🔥
I really like this Prod. UHERO tutorial because, although it says “Logic Pro X” in the title, this video is largely showing how UHERO makes this beat live using the MIDI keyboard - it’s nice to be remaining screenless most of the time. There is also a really cool Tremolo effect in Logic too called “Alchemy” that UHERO is using. Really, this video is just straight up cute.
3. How To Make A K-POP Chorus Topline + Vocal Arrangement
Anna Timgren does an incredible job on her channel of bringing us along in her process of recording and editing vocals. While a lot of Youtube channels on music production focus on the beat, it is refreshing to see a video devoted solely to the vocal arrangement.
In this tutorial, Anna is using Logic Pro X and Logic's built-in EQ, Compressor, De-esser, Multipressor and Valhalla reverb for the effects. She’s super attentive to people’s questions in the comments, and as someone who works less with vocals and more with beats, I’ve personally learned a lot from reading the comments + watching the video. She’s also really funny when she documents her mistakes live and restarts the recording - we’ve all been there :)
2. The Making Of BTS' 방탄소년단 "Euphoria" With DJ Swivel | Deconstructed
This is probably the most high quality production of any tutorials, likely because BTS collaborator and producer DJ Swivel worked with Genius for this one. What’s great about this tutorial is that instead of going through a “type beat” this is a literally deconstruction of a popular track by BTS, “Euphoria.”
DJ Swivel moves through the history and context of K-Pop before bringing us into his session to show us how he came up with and arranged his many tracks. K-Pop has a ton of epic transitions and switch-ups, and DJ Swivel does a great job of walking us through each section of the song, describing how he created movement in this project. The pop-up tips and fun facts on this one are also great.
1. 10 Minute K-pop beat challenge by joony
This one comes in at #1 for several reasons. First, JOONY is an experienced K-Pop producer, having placed around 20 songs in the K-Pop market for artists such as Super Junior, Babylon and more. Basically, he’s the real deal.
Secondly, we are able to see JOONY create a beat live, on the spot in exactly 10 minutes. Most of the K-Pop tutorials I see online are deconstructing pre-made beats but I’m a big fan of this “Against the Clock” style of tutorial.
Hopping into this video, you get an inside scoop on how he creates the intricate melodies you hear in K-Pop music, with a clear shot of his gear setup and DAW of choice (Cubase). He creates his melodies using the digital wavetable synth Serum, and you also get a clear view of how he is creating his drum patterns, playing each percussive element live, and then quantizing them in Cubase.
For any questions unanswered in the video, he does a great job of addressing them in the comments. We’ve learned a lot from this video and JOONY covers a lot of ground with a 10 minute time limit!