There are lots of free hip hop production videos on Youtube but here’s a particular stand our video featuring 2x Grammy-winning producer and mix engineer Focus (Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem). In this hour long video, Focus shares some of his personal hip hop production and mixing tips.
If you want to pick up some quality hip hop production tips and techniques then sit back, relax and soak up the wisdom of a Grammy award winning music producer for free!
4:10 – An introduction to Grammy award winning music producer Focus
6:10 – Starting things off with a synth (Codex)
9:06 – Auditioning Drums in Battery
10:00 – Laying down a drum beat
10:40 – Duplicating the drum beat and separating each drum part onto its own tracks
11:20 – Quantizing the drum hits
12:01- Adjusting tempo
12:20 – EQing the snare
12: 54 -EQing the hi hat to remove low end
13:20 – EQing the kick
15:20 – Introducing a piano part
21:30 – Layering drums discussion
22:48 – Kick + snare discussion
24:11 – The importance of feeling
24:40 – Introducing ‘The Contribution’ track
26:00 – Deep dive into the track
46:45 – Using Waves Torque plugin on snares
49:45 – EQing the snare
54:00 – Using Waves Smack Attack plugin to make bongos hit harder
55:00 – The importance of texture
58:00 – Making space for lead vocals – everything has its place in the mix.
What you want to do is always challenge yourself. Don’t be afraid to try new things. A lot of people are so afraid because when you put your neck out on the line and the audience doesn’t love it, you feel like you’re not worth anything. But then, think about how many records Prince put out that people couldn’t creatively comprehend until he created Purple Rain!
Grammy award winning producer Focus (Producing music with Focus, Waves Blog May 2017)
Getting started with hip hop production and beatmaking? Check out my guides to the best hip hop sample packs, best hip hop expansions for Maschine and how to make beats with a drum machine.