| ActiveDen | Flash Marketplace |
| ThemeForest | Web & CMS Themes |
| GraphicRiver | Graphics, Vectors & Icons |
| VideoHive | Motion Graphics & Projects |
| AudioJungle | Loops & Effects |
| FreelanceSw | Freelance Jobs & Community |
| Rockable | Books & How-To |
| Creattica | Design Community |
| Mac.AppStorm | Mac Apps |
| Web.AppStorm | Web Apps |
| WorkAwesome | Be Awesome At Work |
| Envato | About Us |
| More Coming Soon! |
In 2008, perhaps no song has dominated the charts more than Lil’ Wayne’s Lollipop. Produced by Jim Jonsin, Lollipop is a prime example of how a hit song does not have to be complex; instead, it is a perfect blend of simplicity and catchiness.
In this tutorial, we will look at how to go about recreating this track in Reason 4, and also what helped make it such a successful song.
Let’s start by analyzing the track.
It has a short introduction that features the main melody without drums for about 12 seconds, before picking up the beat.
Then it follows the typical chorus-verse-chorus-verse-chorus style of most songs. The melody is a simple synthesizer pop sound, over some typical hip-hop drums, with bass and a synthesizer pad.
Overall, it’s rather straightforward, and there are no little tricks to get caught up on. You can download the samples that I used for this tutorial in the Play Pack.
As I’ve done in previous remake tutorials, the easiest place to start is with the drums. The drums are automatically quantized to the tempo (if you’re using Redrum). This helps us set up our backbone of the song, and it helps us set our project tempo to the proper number.
Open up Reason 4.0 (or equivalent DAW), and set up the basis for the track as follows:
Pretty similar to how we did it last time, so now let’s load up some drum samples. Load up 808-KICK2 into sample slot #1, and Hitsongclap into sample slot #2. Leave the rest of the samples in the Redrum machine—we’re not going to use them.
Now, let’s program up our drums. We need 32 steps, so use the little “Steps” lever to increase the number of steps to 32. Change the “Resolution” dial to 1/32 (this makes it so that each ‘step’ in the sequencer is a smaller increment of time).
Our kicks are going to be on steps 1, 7, 13 and 15 for the first 16 steps. Now, using the slider that says (1-16, 17-32, 33-48, 49-64), select 17-32 to edit the second set of 16 steps. For our second 16 steps, our kick drum is going to be on steps 3 and 5. This gives us our drum base.
Now, put a clap on step 9 on both the first 16 steps, and the second 16 steps. If you hit Run, you should hear the familiar drum beat. It’s not yet perfect—we need to tweak our drum samples.
Settings for the kick drum:
Settings for the clap:
This gives the drums a similar feel to the original song.
Onto the ever-famous melody. Go to Create -> Combinator, and load up the Lil Jon Whistle.cmb patch into your combinator.
I’ve gone to the work of creating this patch for this tutorial, so I won’t walk you through all the tedious details of getting this synth to work right. Instead, you can download it from the Play Pack and use it as you see fit.
The notes for the melody are shown below, it’s a very simple melody line.
The key here is to make sure the notes are being quantized, as this melody has a very programmed feel to it. Also, try to make the dynamic levels even (you can do this using the pen tool and just clicking across the dynamic range (the vertical bars).
This is probably the hardest part of this song, because the bass changes quite a bit. For this bass sound, the closest sound I could find was the LA Riot Bass, so go Create -> Subtractor Analog Synthesizer, and load up the LA Riot Bass.zyp (included in Play Pack).
The notes are shown below. The bass is a bit of a rolling bassline, but note how the bass notes change on the drum beats. This is how most hip-hop producers give their kick drum some melodic value. In reality, the kick is monotone, but the bass creates the movement. Also, the bass does utilize the pitch bend (I’ve included an example in the screenshot, and it should be rather prominent in the production).
We now have our drums, our main melody, and our bassline. The core elements of the song are now essentially complete. However, if were were just to loop this track over and over again, it would be rather dull (and probably not a hit song).
Therefore, we need to add some more instrumentation. In Lollipop, the instrumentation that is added is a synthesizer. So, just like with all our other instruments, let’s load up our sound patch.
Go to Create -> Combinator, and load up Fast Pad 02. It’s a rather simple pad, and while not the exact sound that Jim Jonsin used, it’ll do the trick.
The notes are shown below. It gives it a more coherent feel. Note that this is the difference between the album version of the song and the video version of the song. The video version has replaced this synthesizer with an electric guitar synthesizer. The concept is the same.
Well, we now have pretty much the entire track done. However, we’re missing the hi-hats that are rather prominent in the song. We could add them in our other Redrum drum computer, but I don’t like having several patterns all on one machine.
Let’s create another Redrum. Go to Create -> Redrum, and ignore all the patches except for channel/slot 8. Load up our club hi-hat (CH.wav) into this slot, set the Level to 110, and Length to 124. Now, program up the pattern seen below (note the dynamic level change for the hi-hat roll).
Now, the only other drum components on this track are:
I’ll let you guys and gals mess around with it (try the stutter effect in Reason tutorial). The project file is included in the Play Pack for your experimentation and enjoyment.
Just another note on this subject: most of the snare rolls and clap stutters were probably added after the vocals were recorded. Because of the way that the song is structured, I presume the engineer for the studio session did most of the post-production work on the track.
The reason that these additional drum components are so effective is because of their placement in relation to the chorus.
We almost forgot the infamous little drum pops on the intro, so let’s go ahead and add those now. Interestingly, it’s actually a conga sound that is used. Now, the congas are self-contained in the Reason file, but I can’t distribute them separately as they are embedded in a separate sound set.
Load up the 808 CONGA sound into slots 1 and 2 on our second Redrum (same one we used for hi-hats).
For slot 1, Pitch should be 5. For slot 2, Pitch should be 63. This will give us the sound that we want.
Now, using the pattern selector, select pattern A2 and put our first conga sound on step 11. Then select our second conga sound, and put it on steps 13 and 15.
Have your dynamic set to soft, as this should give us the appropriate levels without having to mix separately. Now, just use the same pattern automation method as before to add a small A2 pattern.
We’ll deal more with this below in the song structure.
Right now, we essentially have a repeating loop going throughout the entire song. In the actual instrumental, the whistle plays alone for the first 13 seconds, before the drums kick in (excluding the hi-hats), and then the synth and hi-hats come in.
So, we need to setup our song structure. The way that I usually go about this starts with the drums. Hit record, and then select a different pattern on Redrum (such as A2). This will set up a pattern automation lane, so we can select our drum pattern (there are multiple ways of doing this, although this is my preferred method).
Now, resize/edit your patterns so that a blank pattern (or simply don’t select a pattern) plays for the first bar, and then the A1 pattern (the pattern with the drums) plays from then on. Also, create a new pattern A3, and put only a clap on step 9. This will give us the small clap just before the drums start.
Do the same thing with the other Redrum computer (the one with the hi-hats), except make it silent for the first 2 bars. Then, make sure pattern A1 is selected from then on.
We need to do this with our other instruments too (refer to the image below to get the proper setup).
Well, now we have the instrumental done for the song Lollipop. Hopefully you didn’t find it too hard to replicate, and as always, the Play Pack is below with the Reason Project File, as well as the various sounds I’ve used for this tutorial.
This song is a pretty good example of how simplistic hip-hop is these days, and literally, anyone with a keyboard is (theoretically) capable of making a high quality instrumental. A note to all the aspiring producers out there: being able to vary the track is very important, and so is having connections within the industry! Making an amazing beat won’t get you very far if you can’t get it on the desk of someone who can do something with it.
Until next time, happy beat-making.
My final instrumental:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
And, for your comparison, the actual instrumental.
Download the Play Pack for this tutorial (440KB)
Contents
Keep reading with more great tutorials and articles!
We'd love your vote!
Source Files, Bonus Tutorials and
More for $9 a month for all TUTS+
sites in one subscription.
We pay $150 for user submitted tutorials and articles that we publish. Anyone can send in a contribution
Community Link Feed
Oh Long John
The effects and techniques demonstrated in tutorials on the Tuts+ network can be used in whatever manner you wish without attribution.
The text, images and tutorials themselves are copyright their respective owners.
You cannot copy whole tutorials, either in English or translated to another language.
Writing a tutorial or article for the site is not only a great way to get exposure and give back to the community, but we'll also give you $150 cash to boot!
This is YOUR site, so if you have suggestions or feedback on how we can improve it for you, please let us know! We do our best to keep up!
User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Max November 22nd
Wow, that beat is spot on. Great work!
( )MarcusFromPhilly November 22nd
Thanks for adding some really practical ad relevant uses for Reason 4. I love seeing tutorial updates on Reason. I’m a newby to this software and trying to learn as much as I explore the many facets of Reason. Cool updates!!! Thanks! Also, in the near future could you include some tutorials on THOR!!!
( )Eric Shafer November 22nd
Marcus,
You’re welcome! This tutorial outlines more of the simplicity of Reason 4, but I know I have another tutorial coming that has two somewhat more advanced techniques that are useful to know.
As far as tutorials on Thor, I honestly haven’t messed around with it too much simply because I haven’t found a use for it. It just seemed like ‘just another synthesizer’ with a different synthesis method when I first started messing around with it. However, I know that it is supposed to be quite powerful.
If you want a quick video tutorial on the subject, I would recommend http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWi-07Ov-IE
Hopefully that helps, and if I find a practical use for it and actually bother to sit down and figure out what I’m doing, I’ll try to make a bit of a tutorial on it (unless Mo beats me to the punch)
.
( )L1 November 22nd
the sounds arent quite right. but its a good tutorial. still waiting to see if my Jay Z – Dead Presidents II remake gets approved.
( )JoshB November 22nd
This is a great tutorial – informative and practical. I would love to see anything about the vocals for the track. I’m sure it’s as simple to achieve as the rest of the song but I’m having trouble getting it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
( )Alex C November 22nd
Nice tutorial! I found that in Reason the “Amazona Bass” patch (when played at higher octaves) sounds almost identical to the “whistle” lead in the song. Just another way to play it from a preset. I love using Reason, so its good to see more tutorials focused on it.
( )Mike November 22nd
Awesome post!
I am also a new user of Reason and am constantly supprised with the potential. You can get really amazing quality if you use it right. I probably would of given up on learning Reason if I hadn’t found this site lol.
Great Tutorial!
Mike
( )Eric Shafer November 22nd
JoshB,
For vocals, I would personally either ReWire Reason into ProTools, or export the wav audio into ProTools.
Then follow this tutorial ( http://audiotuts.com/tutorials/production/how-to-autotune-your-vocals-like-t-pain-cher-or-daft-punk/ ) to set up Antares AutoTune, and start recording your vocals onto a seperate track in ProTools. Then mix and master it, and you should be good to go.
Glad everyone else liked the tutorial, and thanks for the tip Alex, I didn’t notice that patch.
Spread the link around to anyone you think will find it useful.
( )loungelizard November 22nd
Who the F*** is Lil Wayne??
( )WIZARD July 9th
WOW! U CANT B SERIOUS
( )Onyx November 24th
Very scary to think these people can lop this off as a commercially viable tune.
Great work on the tut however! , but the original “song” is appallingly and shockingly crap.
This is the type of stuff i delete when producing, its one of those tunes that pop up 3am in the morning when your too tired to care.
There is nothing that rescues this limp meaningless meandering.
simplistic and minimal are too greatly varying affairs. Clearly they were aiming for min, and got simple……… which effectively equals, a failed attempt as “cool minimal” .
This applies to min tech as well , and again same rules apply.
min can be absolutely compelling and powerful if DONE! right.
I have very little exposure to hip hop, but this hardly constitutes what i remember hip hop being.
( )whatdafuck November 24th
nice tutorial, BUT: the kickdrum is too dirty detuned and doesnt match with the musical scale of the other parts..
you could bounce your kick after detuning into melodyne or something else to analyze it,then adjust it to the current song scale..
( )some cents of detuning are still ok..but more then 30 cents, destroy the whole harmonic of the tune and sounds not really good
Eric Shafer November 24th
Onyx: You are definitely correct. With these kind of tutorials I have two major goals:
1. To demonstrate various techniques that are used on hit songs these days.
2. To expose the modern day ‘producer’ as little more than a fraud, as most songs can be remade in as little as 30 minutes.
wdf: Unfortunately, Reason does not have VST support so using Melodyne would involve ReWiring into other software. It would probably be a bit easier to just find a different kick drum sample. I went with what I perceived as sounding correct on my recording setup, but obviously results will vary.
( )Validimir Poopen November 24th
I have some serious problems with EQ’ing low end in any DAW. Would love to see tutorials on getting a solid bass sound without it fighting with a kick. Sure.. we can also place the bass around a kick but in some instances you want a track where both the bass and kick hit at the same time. I don’t use a sub woofer at home because I think it gives an inaccurate representation of “generic” speakers (headphone, sitting in your car, listening on the home stereo).
( )Universal Indie Records November 25th
Great tutorial. I learned a few new things in Reason thanks to this tutorial. I was upset that I couldn’t open the files because I’m using Reason 3… but it’s all good.
How about a tutorial on how to get the autotunes effect without actualliy purchasing Autotunes (if that’s even possible)…
( )Universal Indie Records November 25th
Hey..
( )How about recreating a Just Blaze and 9th Wonder song as tutorials…
Eric Shafer November 25th
Well Just Blaze tends to use samples for creation of most of his productions, so check out the sampling tutorials that are already on this site. I know 9th Wonder also samples, but I’m not sure what other techniques he may use.
You can get a halfway similar effect to AutoTune by using a vocoder, but it won’t be as true sounding.
( )Nick November 25th
@Onyx: Haven’t you noticed that most pop/rap songs these days have very, very basic melodies? Listen to Soulja Boy’s album…listen to “It’s Goin’ Down” by Yung Joc, listen to any of Lil’ Jon’s beats.
That style is what’s big now. If I was in the business and I wanted to get my production popular and make money, would I make an extremely in-depth and complicated beat? No. Not many of the current rappers would want that. You can’t hate on the producer for making a beat that sticks in your head and is played on all radio stations worldwide. Plus, the simplicity fad will go away eventually.
( )Dj cuqui November 25th
Is being a long time for me to fine something in the net that I can say is good,on the contrary this is real good, great tutorial even if you don’t copy exactly this beat, that in my taste is wonderful hip hop making,because is not just about the music it is I think in my humble opinion about what you have to say that is how everything stared simple is good as the matter of the fact is great. Thank you keep up the good work, hope that in the neared future you guys do something with gangsta rap west coast style .
( )Eric Shafer November 25th
DJ Cuqui, when you refer to west coast gansta rap, are you referring to the Dr. Dre and Scott Storch style? Or are you talking about more underground styled music?
For example, the production the The Game’s “Doctor’s Advocate” primarly relies on strings layered over piano chords. It’s sort of a trademark west coast style, because when it’s combined with a sort of ‘rolling’ bassline, it gives it the familiar g-funk style.
( )Document02 November 25th
Nice on. concerning Thor, its filters really make it a nice synth…. Even just getting the same parameters in a thor as in a subtractor will give better results.
Note that your sample files use non-included Refills…
( )insic December 2nd
the result is very nice. i love it. good job Eric.
( )Everestmindz December 5th
Thank you very much, This tutorial was awesome and I want to also thank Alex C. The high octave Amazona Bass cmb was lovely.
( )djfunkymatt December 5th
Great tutorial save one crucial omission. The original layers a snare sound
(classic 808-ish) with the claps for a fatter 2 and 4. Many thanks for your post regardless.
To the haters: Stop trolling forums and put your own music out there. Be the artist you want to hear. Please, get famous so we can hear YOUR crap beats over and over.
( )Freboi December 8th
Very good tutorial , Thank !
( )Jeremy Comitas December 12th
i’ve been afraid to use my copy of reason 4 for a long time. i have no idea how to use it.. however.. now that i’ve read this, i’m gonna try to lay this track down. seems fairly simple, and becasue you made a step by step tut, i can learn the basics as i follow your direction. thanks eric!
( )fred December 14th
Yo i can’t find the 808-kick2
( )Q.Blaze December 14th
I’m having problems with Step 7
( )It’s not really clear of how to set things up with the Congas and the Hi-Hats.
Could somebody clear this up for whoever is lost too?
Eric Shafer December 15th
Q.Blaze,
If you’re lost, try opening up the .RNS file provided with the tutorial and see if that clears things up.
If not, let me know what your specific issue is and I’ll try to answer.
( )Roland (Kuwait) December 23rd
WOW! this is just INSANE!! Great work there!
Thanks!
( )joomlapanel January 1st
Awesome Tutorial. great work..
( )Eric Shafer January 1st
Thanks for all the feedback everyone! Be sure to check out my other tutorials.
( )byron! January 2nd
ay mang the tempo should be 75
but whatev
other than that good work, it’s a nice recreation.
( )byron! January 2nd
just kidding…. i wasnt paying attention that close
( )the tempo should be 74… aha
Bronson Pilgrim January 2nd
Eric…great tutorial…novice question, in trying to load the Fast Pad 02 in step 4, is the ‘SR Synths 1 R3′ come with reason or is this refill something I’d have to purchase?
( )Mike January 3rd
DO you make your own beats cuz i would very much like to hear one?
( )Sukhii January 3rd
thank you very much for this tutorial , duz any1 know how to add the lil wayne vocal in the project i want 2 hear the instrumental with the acapella can any1 please give me any advice on how to insert the vocal so i can listen 2 the beat n the vocal at the sme time ! thanx
( )Eric Shafer January 4th
Bronson: It should be in the Play Pack for this tutorial. Let me know if it’s not.
( )Eric Shafer January 4th
Mike: Yes, I do, but I tend to stick to remakes for demonstration purposes as that’s what people are more familiar with.
Sukhii: What you can do, is download the acapella for the song. Then, in Reason, export the file as a WAV file. Then open up your favorite DAW (Logic, Audition, Pro Tools, Cubase, etc). Create 2 new tracks, one for the instrumental WAV and one for the acapella.
( )Sukhii January 10th
Thanxx man! ur a legend lol keep postin mre tutorials man u 2 sik !
( )Josiah January 23rd
Hey Mr. Shafer,
I’m currently having some ideas on a project, and
I’d like to contact you about your music,
at the moment, this beat in particular.
Is there any ways I can email you,
or you email me
[that way our emails aren't out here for others to spam]
I’d really appreciate it!
( )Eric Shafer January 24th
Josiah, you can use the AudioTUTS contact form located under the “About” page, and they will forward the email to me.
( )Josiah January 24th
Alright, I sent one.
( )Thanks for the information
and again, thanks for sharing your talent to everyone.
Great skills you have – I’d like to hear some of your own beats.
Marc February 1st
Great tut… I love the melody
Can the melody of this song be created in another synth apart from Reason ?
I use Cubase and dont really want to start using Reason…
Thanks
( )Eric Shafer February 1st
Marc: Of course, there are various VSTs out there that would work with Cubase. I’m not sure of any right off hand that have that particular sound, but I’m sure there are a few.
( )Marc February 2nd
Eric:
Thanks… If you happen to find out just let me know, I would appreciate it.
I was thinking sylenth1… ? But im no good with sound design so no idea really
Keep them great tuts coming !
( )COREY -MOETALLY- February 5th
COREY FROM NASHVILLE BEEN DOING OLD HARD WARE AND NOW ON THE PC AND MAC .THIS REASONS IS THE SH#T FORREAL THANKS FOR THE T.T. AND WHERE YOU AT ON YOU TUBE WOULD LIKE TO SEE YOU IN ACTION . AND THE BEAT MAN YOU SHOULD HAVE GOT PAID FOR IT.. HOLLA CASH VILLE, TN
( )JDH February 15th
Hey thanks for all the tutorials, but yeah I am having the same problem when trying to load the fastpad, and that missing file is not in the play pack.
( )Eric Shafer February 15th
JDH: The file was likely removed because its from a larger refill library that is for sale. Try the various polysynths in the Subtractor and see if any of them are similar.
( )ben April 4th
wher can i get the .rns please help
( )Eric Shafer April 6th
At the end of the tutorial, it says “Download Playpack for this Tutorial”. That is where the .RNS file is located.
( )carlo April 12th
dude can you send your final instrumental of lollipop by lil wayne to my email? raycarlo17@yahoo.com
thanks!
( )Floris May 12th
When ik want to do step 4, i try to load Fast Pad 02 but he asked for a cd or something like that… can you help me?
( )Ben May 14th
hi i was reading these comments and was just thinking if you could help me to make a funky house kinda sound because i cant reli get that right sound plz help , . benge_101@hotmail.com
( )Adam L May 15th
i cant seem to be able to add the lil jon whistle to my track through the combinator. i cant hear anything with the bass or the whistle through my speakers. im still new to reason id love it if you could help me out….thanks
( )Eric Shafer May 16th
Make sure you have a mixer created first, and make sure the combinator is connected to the mixer.
( )jawwel May 17th
where can i get all the samples from especially that lil jon whistle sample.
( )Eric Shafer May 18th
The playpack has all the tutorial files, you can download it using the link at the end of the tutorial.
( )Tavo August 26th
Awesome tutorial, thanks for sharing. But I gotta ask, why did you leave out the extra claps and snare rolls? Thats actually what I was looking forward to! Most of lil wayne beats have those kind of rolls and they seem complicated. They’re played at different velocities, it seems like they even overlap at times, and they pan around alot. If I try to recreate those effects it seems like I would be at it for a LONG time. Any suggestions or other tutorials around that can help with that??
( )Eric Shafer August 27th
Hey, the reason I left those out is because they are the same concept as regular drums, its just a tedious process of adding them in, which would have made the tutorial excessively long without teaching anything more.
( )