How to Make a Boom Bap Beat in Ableton Live

Boom bap is the sound of classic hip hop: a fat kick, a hard snare and a loop that sounds a bit dusty. It's simpler than trap, but that's exactly why you hear every choice. In this guide you make a boom bap beat in Ableton Live, from tempo to a loop a rapper can write to.

What makes a beat boom bap?

• A calmer tempo, often around 85 to 95 BPM.
• The snare on beats 2 and 4. No half-time like in trap, but a straight backbeat.
• Swing. The drums sit just off the grid, which makes the beat slide.
• A sample or loop with soul, jazz or piano chords.
• A warm, slightly dirty sound instead of a smooth, modern one.

Step 1: set the tempo

Set the tempo of your Set somewhere between 85 and 95 BPM. More tempos per genre at what BPM is hip hop. Want to know what tempo does to a flow? Read what BPM means for your flow.

Step 2: pick a sample or play chords yourself

A lot of boom bap is built on a sample: a few bars from a soul or jazz record, chopped up and put back together. How to do that in Ableton with Simpler is in how to chop samples in Ableton Live.

Be careful with samples. If you use part of an existing song, you need permission from the rights holders before you release or sell the beat. Also read what a Content ID claim is. Safer is a royalty-free sample, or just play the chords yourself. With the free chord progression generator you pick a mood and download the MIDI.

Step 3: build the drums

Put a Drum Rack on a MIDI track and drag your kick, snare and hi-hats onto the pads. How that works is in how to make a trap beat in Ableton Live.

• Kick and snare: put the snare on beats 2 and 4. Put the kick on beat 1 and then play with a few extra kicks between the snares.
• Hi-hats: start with eighth notes. Make a few hits quieter with velocity, so they don't all tick equally hard.

Step 4: swing with the Groove Pool

Swing is what makes boom bap slide. In Ableton you do that with grooves. According to Ableton, you drag a groove from the browser onto your clip, and that clip instantly gets the timing of that groove. It works on MIDI clips and on audio clips with Warp on.

Then you adjust the groove in the Groove Pool. According to Ableton, you open it with Ctrl+Alt+6 (Cmd+Option+6 on a Mac). The most important controls:

• Base: the note value the groove is measured against, like 1/8 or 1/16.
• Timing: how strongly the groove shifts your clip.
• Random: a bit of random timing. According to Ableton, handy to make tight loops a bit more human.
• Velocity: how much the groove also changes the loudness of your notes.

Ableton gives a nice tip itself: play your hi-hats in time and place your snare slightly behind the beat. That gives a laid-back feel. Because a groove works on the whole clip, you move the snare out of your Drum Rack to its own track and give it a different groove.

Happy with it? According to Ableton, Commit writes the groove into your clip. With MIDI, the notes actually move.

Step 5: add a bass

A bass that moves with the kick fills out your beat. Mainly play the root note of your chords. Don't let the bass and kick work against each other. Read how to mix 808 and kick. The tips there work for a regular bass too.

Step 6: make it dusty

• Filter your sample with Auto Filter. Take out the low end, so your kick and bass have room.
• Saturator on your drums or your whole beat makes it warmer.
• Vinyl Distortion adds the noise and distortion of vinyl, according to Ableton. It comes with Standard and Suite, not Intro. Don't overdo it.

Step 7: from loop to beat

A 4 or 8-bar loop isn't a beat yet. Give it a structure a rapper can work with. Read from loop to beat. Beat done? Read how to export a beat in Ableton Live.

Common mistakes

• Too much swing. Then the beat wobbles instead of sliding. Start subtle.
• All hi-hats equally loud. Vary the velocity.
• Too busy. Boom bap lives on space. Let the rapper breathe.
• Releasing a sample without permission. Sort that out first, or use something royalty-free.

Working in FL Studio? Read how to make a boom bap beat in FL Studio. Rather make trap or drill? Read how to make a trap beat in Ableton Live or how to make a drill beat in Ableton Live. Or browse all beats right away.

FAQ

What BPM is boom bap?

Often around 85 to 95 BPM.

How do you get swing in Ableton?

Drag a groove from the browser onto your clip and adjust it in the Groove Pool. Timing sets how strongly it works.

Can I put a groove on just one drum?

A groove works on the whole clip. So move the drum you want to swing differently out of your Drum Rack to its own track, as Ableton itself suggests.

Source: the Ableton Live manual and Ableton's Live editions comparison.