Newbie Guide 001: Making UKG Beats in Fruity Loops (FL Studio)

[Tempo]

To DL a demo of FL Studio 4 CLICK HERE and select your Operating system from the right to begin the download.


This is the first in a few guides i'll be making up to help newbie producers who use Fruity Loops (FL Studio)
This guide shows how to make UKG beats in fruity loops.

Ive included soundclips of each beat and a screen shot of how it was made.

Other guides may include how to make grimey and old skool styles baselines using the 3xOsc Plugin, how to use the piano Roll and get a better deeper sound from you melodies.

If this is of help to anyone or you have any fruity loops related questions drop them in this thread.

Hope this helps some people out

[Tempo]

4x4 Beat

The main thing that makes a garage 4x4 beat different to house is shuffle (swing).
What shuffle does basically is it triggers the samples slightly faster and makes them "roll off" each other.

For 4x4 the shuffle should be set to 100%.

To change the shuffle, alter the slide bar labelled "swing" at the top of the step sequencer window

In a 4x4 garage beat you need to have elements that make the shuffle noticable.
The main ways this can be done is by using closed hats on the beat before open hats.
Also you can add snare drums that are different to your main snare drums, and arrange
them close together to give them that rolling feel.


4x4 beat audio sample

[Tempo]

2-Step Beat

Shuffle is also quite important when making a 2-step beat. Usually between 75% and 100%.

There are many variations of the 2-step beat, this example uses an extra snare near the end to give more
of a rolling feel. This is enhanced by the use of the shuffle.



2-Step beat audio sample

[Tempo]

Soca Beat

Soca beats arent used that often in UKG but where they have been used, they've been used to pretty good effect.

Main examples of UKG tunes that use Soca beats, it "Decoy" by Agent X,
"Bouncin' Flow" by K2 Family, and "Making Love" by USL.

Note: NO shuffle is needed for a soca beat. You may add a bit if you wish but dont add too much otherwise it wont sound right.

Soca beat audio sample

[Tempo]

Grime / 8-Bar


Grime/8bar beats are quite hard to explain as there are so many variants.
Usually the beat will sound quite slow although its at around 138BPM. this is because
the first snare or Clap sound, is moved a bar forward to the normal place that the first snare would go.
It usually goes on the 1st beat of the 3rd bar as apossed to the first beat of the second bar.

Note: NO Shuffle is needed for a grime beat.



Grime / 8-Bar beat audio sample

[Tempo]

Breakstep Beat


Breakstep is basically a cross between garage, and drum and bass. the basic pattern is a simple drum and bass pattern,
but the BPM is usually between 135 and 140.

Pioneers of this sound include DJ Zinc, DJ Hype, and Zed Bias.

Note: NO shuffle is needed for a breakstep beat.


Breakstep beat audio sample

[supersimmo]

nice to see someone help out like this, ive been using fruity loops for about 4 months now, and still dont know half of its functions, i was wondering if any of today's well known producers was using FL, also which version of fruity loops do you need for dxi plugins?

[EB tha beatboxa]

savage tempo! your sorting people out!!

[Tempo]

Originally posted by supersimmo
nice to see someone help out like this, ive been using fruity loops for about 4 months now, and still dont know half of its functions, i was wondering if any of today's well known producers was using FL, also which version of fruity loops do you need for dxi plugins?

To use Direct X Instruments you need FLstudio 4 (Pro Edition) as far as im aware. (thats the version ive got and i havnt tried DXi on any other versions)

Im not sure if any other versions support this but you could check out their website... www.flstudio.com

[jawn_blazey]

yeh, nice one for the tutorials tempo. good work!

[Tempo]

No probs mate

[J.K.]

Good stuff there Tempo, nice to see you taking your role as mod seriously!

[Tempo]

Of Course

[Shermon Jones]

good stuff mate!!

made me look bad! lol

[Sugar J]

nice one bro... waht is the main difference between fruity studio and the older fl versions?

[Tempo]

There isnt much difference, just better support for VSTi's and DXi's, and a slightly different interface.

To be honest ive been using FL Studio for ages now, and i cant remember what version 3 is like!

[Sunstep]

so dubstep ?

[Tempo]

To be honest i havent really listened to that much Dubstep. If you give me a tune name that you'd like the beat to, i'll see what i can do. I wont make it exactly the same though as that'd be cheating

[Sunstep]

http://www.dubplate.net/
http://www.ukmusic.com/forum/search....der=descending



http://www.discogs.com/artist/Plasticman
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Benga
http://www.discogs.com/release/119417

benga - skank
plasticman

[Tempo]

i'll get on it. Give me a day or 2. (aint got time at the mo)

It might be the case though that there aint a set beat pattern for this genre though like grime