Make a Crazy Drum and Bass Breakbeat by Slicing and Dicing in FL Studio
Tutorial Details
- Program: FL Studio
- Difficulty: Intermediate
- Completion Time: 1 hour
Twice a month we revisit some of our reader favorite posts from throughout the history of Audiotuts+. This tutorial was first published in August 2008.
You may have witnessed Drum & Bass’s dramatic evolution over the past decade. From it’s Jungle origins Drum & Bass has now matured into a genre that overflows with adrenaline, excitement, strong production values and an intensity rarely found in music today. To think all of this began with the a spark of inspiration and some drum-solos (breakbeats) sampled from black soul and funk recordings of the early 1960′s.
In this tutorial you will learn the time honored techniques of manipulating one of these famous breaks and fashioning it into Drum & Bass sensibilities.
Note: this tutorial contains embedded audio that will not display in a feed reader. Click back to the site to read the tutorial with audio or download the Play Pack at the end of the tut.
Step 1
In this tutorial we will be using FL Studio, but the principles would be the same in any DAW.
We will be working with a reproduced version of one of the most famous breakbeats in history: “Amen, Brother”. The original live drum solo was preformed by Gregory Sylvester, and the beat was sampled from the 1960 Soul/Funk Song “Amen, Brother” preformed by The Winstons. It has been used extensively throughout early hip-hop, and many would argue it is the reason why Drum & Bass is with us today.
So, go grab yourself a cookie, ignore your boring neighbours and let’s get down to business.
amen.wav [Right-click to download]
Download the ‘Amen’ sample provided here. This loop is entirely royalty-free and you can use it anywhere, anyhow and in any which way you like! Copy it to your sample library in FL Studio.
Step 2
Drag and drop the Sample directly into the FLS Step Sequencer. We will be usings FL’s standard Slicer as opposed to Slicer X, which is tailored for triggering samples on the fly using its integrated filters.
FL Studio will conveniently load up the loop, pre-sliced and ready to roll.
Click on the miniature piano-roll display alongside your new sample channel. This will open FL Studio’s Piano Roll. From here we can now take a closer examination of our beloved breakbeat. Trigger Playback at the default tempo of 140 BPM.
Ah yes, there she is, ain’t she just glorious! Of course, for this loop to begin to sound a little more Drum & Bass like we need to up the tempo accordingly. Select the tempo and choose 160 BPM.
This is sounding a little better, but let’s move right into the nitty gritty and teach this break a lesson!
Step 3
Let’s drop the tempo back to 120 BMP for a moment. This allows us to observe a clear distinction between the individual elements that comprise the loop.
BAR 1
Slices 1, 2 and 3 are essentially the “core” or the “body” of the break comprising of a simple kick, kick snare. Believe it or not—and you soon will—it is these three little innocent sounding slices that make up the majority of the loop’s structure.
Slices 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are a mix of open hats, closed hats and a secondary snare (PERC section for short.)
BAR 2
The second bar of the loop is essentially the same as the first but with a single rhythmic variation on the initial kick. You can highlight and delete this entire bar now.
This simple structure not only makes this loop incredibly robust and re-usable, it also makes it a lot easier to work with. In effect, it almost becomes an instrument in itself—and over time this has indeed been the case.
It’s prudent to name your individual slices to avoid confusion and to generally make working with the slices more enjoyable. You can do this by bringing up FL Slicer and left or right-clicking the upper Slice Properties menu.
Go ahead and name slices 1, 2 and 3 “Kick 1″, “Kick 2″ and “Snare”. We will deal with the latter perc notes further on.
Rename your slices by left clicking here.
Step 4
Firstly, it is imperative that you familiarize yourself with Cut, Copy and Paste commands and also using the Pen Tool + Shift key to highlight notes as groups and to drag and drop chunks of notes. These are both very simple functions and absolutely essential. If you are new to FL Studio, now would be a good time to take a quick squizzy through the supplied documentation.
Of course, if you’re really keen you purchase a copy of the FL Studio Bible.
“Thy solemnly swear my allegiance to FL Studio” (and AUDIOTUTS too!)
Step 5
Highlight and select our first three notes: Kick 1, Kick 2 and Snare slices using Copy and Paste. Select the Pen Tool, hold down Shift, and drag the three-notes as a group across, duplicating them once. Repeat the process and duplicate the same three notes again, this time deleting the last snare so it fits nicely within the first bar (look at section one in blue).
From here, Copy and Paste this section we just created and duplicate until we have an 8 bar loop.
Now set your tempo to 180 BMP and trigger playback.
Luuuuvley Jubbly!
What we have now is a seamless loop, which not only sounds great, but is the basis for the rest of our editing and malarky.
audio_1_seemless_loop.mp3
Step 6
From here we can begin to build-up the body of our break via edits and adding various rhythmic variations. One excellent way to do this is to incorporate the use of FL Studio’s event editor. Automation clips have been incorporated in recent versions of FL Studio, but for the purposes of this tut we will be sticking with the inline event editor and piano roll, which in my opinion offers a far more intuitive way of working.
Through the event editor we can now automate various effects, including pitch, filters, velocity and all sorts of goodness by drawing-in automation events via the Pen Tool.
The following are some popular break manipulation techniques commonly employed by contemporary breakcore and DNB artists. Each technique that follows will employ only our prepared break and we will progress one technique at a time.
Down that caffeine!
Step 7
Time for pitch adjustments. This may seem obvious to some, but unfortunately it is very often overlooked and many an aspiring producer will fail to recognize its potential as a major creative tool.
Here are some examples of effective Pitch Adjustments:
Right-click on the mysteriously blank grey box to open up the contextual menu. From here select Note Fine Pitch. Remember this menu as we will we be referring to it later.
Draw-in the event manually using the Pen Tool. Right-clicking and dragging while drawing makes it easier to create straight lines.
Select our Kick and Snare notes beginning just prior to bar 2, and ending thereof. As highlighted below, proceed to drop the pitch by 300%. This will create an “ask” and “answer” decapo rhythmic structure.
audio_2_pitch_adjust.mp3
Step 8
Here we’ll create a pitch adjustment with simple ghost snare variation. Let’s start with the rhythmic variation. We’ll achieve this using both the Note Fine Pitch event and introduce our first ‘ghost snare’.
Select Slice 5 and rename it ‘ghost snare’.
Proceed to add the snare notes as depicted above.
By adding a simple doubling of a ghost snare we have given the break a new groove. Exploring this technique is a fantastic way to make fresh and arresting rhythms.
audio_3_pitch_and_snare.mp3
Step 9
While we’ve explored some interesting techniques so far, this loop will quickly get boring if we do not begin to add and build-up rhythmic edits. Let’s start by creating a filtered snare roll to nicely tail-off our 8 bars. Highlight and select the last 5 notes on the 8th Bar. It’s these that we’ll be working with. Select the Snare and dupe it 6 times, then draw-in a cut-off freq event and drop the value to 90%
Now we have a cool glitchy snare roll that ends the 8 bars nicely. Incorporating this technique and using the cut off frequency at sporadic intervals can help create interest and inject lifeblood into a loop.
Any DJ or producer worth their spit always know how to drop, alter, mix, edit, glitch up, mash up, smack up anything at unexpected intervals! A skilled beat-master will focus on the off-beats—and never eat freakin’ jellybeans! EVER!
Step 10
Let’s add even more rhythmic variation. We will achieve this using both the note fine pitch and our new ghost snare. Above the first 2 kicks on the 2nd bar, add 2 ghost snares as shown below.
On the 3rd and 4th bar let’s draw-in a Note Fine Pitch Event, again using the Pen tool and selecting Note-Fine-Pitch. From that mysteriously unlabeled large grey rectangle, bring up the context menu.
Draw in one pitch adjustment event at 600% on the very beginning of the 3rd Bar. Draw in another pitch adjustement event beginning just after the first Kick on the 4th Bar at 300%, and on the 4th Bar, if you feel like it, delete the kick at the end. This gives a “tighter” sound to the edit.
If we play back our entire 8 bar loop, we should have…
audio_4 ghost_note_pitch_and_roll.mp3
Hell yeeah!!
Step 11
As you can see, the Amen break used alongside a simple toolset can be a highly expressive instrument. The most important aspect of this, in my experience, is the body of the break, which underpins the whole structure. Remember: it only takes a very limited toolset to achieve great results.
Don’t be seduced by all the frilly extras until you have your foundational techniques mastered. Sit down, get yourself in the right mindset and explore mixing these techniques together to create new and interesting rhythms.
From here on out it is a matter of exploration, and in all honestly this is the best advice I can give you. To give you a number-by-number account of notes, which were placed by ear to begin with, would only lead you to recreating my exact edits. This is not something you want.
Instead, think along the lines of using this loop as a instrument. Here are the techniques that I employ to play it.
- Pitch
- Cut-off Filter
- Velocity
- Ghost Notes
- Delay (occasionally)
Knowing where and when to drop in the perc sounds is a creative process. There is no one set of rules for you to follow every time. This doesn’t mean there isn’t a formula that must be followed—there is!—but it does mean that the only true way to discover what works and what doesn’t is to immerse yourself in as much of the music as possible. And if you love it, this is hardly a challenge!
I am sure there are numerically inclined perfectionists cursing me right now. But if you take a numerical approach to producing beats, it will often show. To capture energy and expressivity requires personal inspiration, and a little bit of skill.
Although these are basic tools they are the bread-and-butter of understanding Breaks. The more you limit yourself to a particular discipline, the quicker you will discover your creativity has no choice but to flourish. Beginning by learning how to mangle the crap out of the Amen Break and other select breaks is a path some of today’s biggest names have walked, and you too can follow this in this time-honored tradition.
Below is a little snippet of what using only the techniques explored in this tutorial can do (with a bit of patience and a lil’ bit of lurrrve…)
Listen to the finished product:
amem_edit_final.mp3
Mostly importantly, keep your ego at bay! Allow yourself to listen. Let the music speak through you.
Please be aware this is my first tutorial on behalf of AUDIOTUTS. If you’ve enjoyed it, feel free to drop me a comment about this tut or anything else you might interested in knowing (mixing theory/EQ/Compression/Effects/Tricks/Programming Beats/Gnarly B-Lines/Analogue and FM Synthesis).
Thanks to Skellie, Collis and all those associated with the Envato Network—and very special big-ups to a very special girl… Kuyan.
Amen, Brothers!
Download the Play Pack for this tutorial (6.5MB)
Contents
- Amen Break .WAV loop
- Audio files
- Printable PDF tutorial
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Not bad, however the Amen break sample you’ve started with is already heavily processed and has been rearranged. The original 4 bar drum solo, which includes the cymbal splash/open hat, is available here: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=24940
Very cool tutorial!
Kewl Tutorial…. Its really interesting to work in FL.
Even I want to share my knowledge of producing music using FL.To write tuts I should have paypal account. Can anyone please tell me whether I should posses Personal Paypal Account or Premier Paypal Account.
Thanx in advance!!
Hi Felon,
Thanks,
Yes , it is one of serveral versions of the Amen break which do the rounds.
To the best of my knowledge, they are all Copyright Safe.
Great tutorial and loving this site.
Thanks.
Wow….
Thankkk youuuu!!!!
You enlightened me with your tutorial.
I don’t know how people make break beats until I landed on this page.
Again, thanks!
Dean,
Yeah, interestingly enough you can’t copyright drum loops, so The Winstons have missed out on all the royalties… even mainstream pop & TV theme tunes (listen to the intro to Futurama), etc have used the Amen.
Interesting tutorial but contrary to what everyone seems to believe, this “break” is protected by copyright.
It is true that you cannot copyright a drum beat but you CAN copyright a recording of a drum beat and this recording’s copyright owner is Richard Lewis Spencer. The break was performed by Gregory C. Coleman of The Winstons in the song “Amen, Brother”
Using this loop, edited or not, is like ripping the Mona Lisa into shreds only to glue it back together in some “artistic” form and calling it your own work of art. It doesn’t make it yours and it doesn’t make it right.
Except, that it is not.
I was pretty excited to receive this tut from Dean. It’s on of my favorite so far, and definitely one of the most comprehensive. Great work! :)
@Felon – Even though no one technically owes them royalties for it, I think the entire D&B community (and related electronic music communities) should get together an make a huge donation to them, or at least to that drummer. :-) That loop has done remarkable things for electronic music.
Its a very interesting situation with the Amen break.
Nice little tutorial there!
Ive mashed with the amen break alot, but that tutorial was still pretty killer. First time i have read something that has brought all of these elements together in the one tutorial – highly enjoyable reading and a must for any aspiring dnb artist :) Keep rocking yours stuff.
If anyone is reading this and hasn’t yet used dblue glitch on a break, you don’t know what your missing out on. Google it now, its free :)
pretty cool, actually inspired me to go into fruity loops and mess with the slicer, which i almost never use. instead of the slicer i prefer to chop beats up into individual drum hits with cool edit (can be done in FL or anything really) then save them into drum kits in my samples folder. that way i can load each individual sample and in my opinion i have full control over what the drums sound like, because i can run each individual hit through whatever filters i want to, and clone channels to reverse hits or stretch them or tweak the pitch and volume… unlimited possibilities. good guide though. if you are new always remember u can do something exactly like this to learn from, but this man was just kinda doin his own thing. for you to have YOUR UNIQUE sound you kinda need to do your own thing too. just be creative and try doing things you dont do routinely when making beats and you might just surprise yourself. (try new things, new vsts, new programs new samples etc to keep it fresh) good luck and thanks for posting this.
i think it sounds crazy hippi man, lol
I had some problems, can I download the .flp file somewhere?
Great Tutorial! You’ve covered a lot of basic tools that I’ve overlooked and now I’m excited to explore them!
Which Sotftware is this ?
Fl studio
love the tutorial man! it’s so awesome! really gave me a kick start and inspiration!
Dblues Gltich is so generic, yeah its fun for a couple secs but theres no real skill behind it, just put in a loop and fuck with some knobs. It’s really obvious when people have used glitch. making your own glitchy beats is much more satisfying, as this tutorial will teach you. Awesome tutorial, not really fan of drum and bass but this is practically the basis for like idm or breakcore or whatever.
thanks so much…..
thanks so much for this guide, but i do have one request.
would anyone be able to link me to this specific amen loop edit seen at the beginning of this tutorial:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7151113034799368505
i’d really like to start out by playing around with that loop in perticular.
anyway, thanks again for this. cant wait to use it :)
thankssss….. great tutorial..
REally great tutorial, i would love to see a tutorial on doing this with the West London style of broken beat music.
thanks again!
pretty tight tutorial. Followed it through, had to google a few things though, only got me hands on a copy of FL studio a coupla days ago, still gettin my head round the layout. But i got it figured in the end.
The sound ur making is very jungly, I’m more of a darkside DnB man. Nice tutorial though either way :Thumbsup:
hi Dean Kelly.
I have some questions and stuff.
Well there’s my e-mail…could you message me and later we could talk about some making music stuff???
Absoloutley amazing
Good tutorial, however i dont understand how to rename the slices. I managed to do everything else
Really good tutorial !
But, i can’t find “Cut-off freq” in Note properties. Can someone help me ? Please.
Thanks again !
Wow! eversince i wanted to know how those breakbeats were made! never figured out! but know it seems so clear to me! Thank you very much got some more skills to try out now! I really cant wait to get back in the studio to make an awesome new Beat! Regards!
It’s just To Learn
cool tut and finally found out wht tht grey box was for,, how do ou auto set to say 600%, 300% i can only drag the noobs (not set)
a very nice read mine sounded somewhat like urs lol but i get the jist
I would also like help with this
I can’t manage to do step five – the notes aren’t pasting. Can you help?
Hi Joe,
Sometimes Fl can be a little iffy particularly in cases of using Copy/Paste shortcuts.
Make sure the notes you are wanting to duplicate are highlighted first.
Alternatively, highlight select notes, and hold down shift…
Hope this helps.
PS: You can find these instructions plus more within the included documentation.
some shortcuts are subject to change across versions.
This is really a great tutorial for drum&bass slicing.
For a great tutorial on how to make a pattern yourself, open the following link:
http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/news/654/
Great tut. I learned a lot.
Hey, Thank you so much for this wonderful tut, it was just what i needed to get started.
could you do a tut for the making of a whole song? (tips order of makeing stuff ect)
best tutorial ever red :D.
it gave alot more insight 4 me on how to manipulate drums for more effictiveness.
i gave it a mess about on my own.. applying the basics of your tutorial, and at the the first four bars i’m already like ”WTF!? i’m making this!?” ghaha thx a million man.
do you have more tutorials?
Hi Michiel. I’m glad you enjoyed the tutorial. It was published over two years ago, so I don’t think it’s likely Dean will answer. We do have another tutorial written by him, which you can find here: Getting Started with Creative Compression in Dance Music .
Hi Michiel.
Really glad you found it useful!, and helped spark your creativity.
In the future i hope to have some new tuts on the way, so watch this space!
Thanks for the tutorial! I don’t really mess with making beats anymore but got bored tonight and decided to look up how to make DnB beats. I was able to take your beat and make it my own! Now I realize all the samples fruity loops comes with are useless.
I liked learning how to use the tools through this totu.
Though I’ve there’s something I didn’t understand.
1- The fruity slicer is only to slice and drag stuff from an audio file right ?
The thing is I try to makeout my own dnb beat from scratch, though with the basic instrument it does sound cheap or fake. So now, I’m unsure on how to edit thoses basic kick snare hat instrument without “breaking” them and make them sound as somekind of fake note on a guitar. ( Not sure If i’m beeing clear here )
2- Making beats outta my mouth and vocal cords is really easy for me, but I can’t manage to translate what’s coming outta my mouth and transcribe it in this program. I don’t know if any of you have tips on how to respect the sounds/beats you think of and recreating them in FL.
Dean Kelly, I suppose you’re the one who made this tutorial.
If you wouldn’t mind I’d need further help and I think through facebook it’d be easy with the chat box or message box.
I really need some help, I want to create dnb tunes !
-Eric Lagarde
great tut!
i don’t have the same slices as you, and sometimes some steps in the tuts could be more precise but i succeeded in the end ^^
Thanx again for sharing this great help
I found this to be very helpful. This is just like Pro Tools to me. Even though I went to school to learn more about Pro Tools I still always find new things out about it as well as my favorite production software which is FL Studio. I just keep finding out new things about it. I can say that one could never learn enough!
Been looking for a tutorial like this, I don’t have any formal musical training but I know what sounds good and what doesn’t and until finding this I had virtually no idea how to assemble a decent sounding Amen, or for that matter, any mashed-up break.