Hey fellow producer! Have you ever worked super hard on a beat, and made sure to add so many little details, and been so excited to deliver that to your rapper friend, only to hear from them: “I don’t know man, can’t see myself hoping on this beat, feels like there isn’t enough room….”

Probably one of the most frustrating experiences, especially when you know you’re going to have to remove all your personal little details that gave that special flavor to your masterpiece. But in this article, we’re going to see how you can make a very detailed beat and keep your personal touch on it, while leaving enough room for your rapper/singer friend.

Use the right number of instruments, and the right instruments

One of the most tempting things for some us (including myself) is to add as many instruments as we can to make the most original beat ever and hopefully have your super creative rapper Bob write a masterpiece on top of the masterpiece you just made!

While that might be pretty cool if you’re really trying to make something experimental, or influenced by Jazz, in most modern cases, Bob will not be able to see where he can fit. This is why you need to make a good instrument selection.

I personally tend to classify instruments between 3 categories: the necessary ones, the heavy ones and the “candy-ish” ones. The necessary instruments are those that you must have in order to have a coherent result. That includes: drums, bass, and one main lead instrument (like a basic piano chord progression). You need them no matter what.

The heavy ones correspond to the main lead instruments, and the other loud instruments that you will have along this one, to add something more interesting to the song. So, in addition to the basic piano chord progression, you could add a few guitar notes that are clear and distinguishable. This will create more depth in the melody.

Finally, the “candy-ish” ones: the little tiny instruments and elements that add depth and beauty to your track. For example, this could be light string open chord progression following the main melody and/or a few music box notes, that you will not want to stand out too much, but rather fill in the gasps. You could do that by (almost) hard stereo panning them to one side each, and adding effects such as a lowpass filter and a strong reverb, reducing volume and many others.

This technique personally helps me put my jazzy touch to songs, without filling them too much like if it was just an instrumental.

Improve your mixing to make the vocals stand out more and easily

So, after finishing the beat, you will maybe record Bob’s vocals over it. And now, you realize it doesn’t sound so well, everything seems stacked together…. You have to mix the song.

For this, I suggest to, first, spread the heavy and candy-ish instruments throughout the stereo panoramic (remember that hard panning can work well with candy-ish instruments). Then you will have to play with the volumes of each instrument.

Same goes for the necessary instruments. You may keep the kick (and bass) in the middle, but it’s interesting to slightly spread the rest of the drum kit between left and right.

And last but not least, you can make the vocals dominant by EQing them, and cutting the lowest frequencies and the mid-low ones too (a little bit), while slightly lifting the highs.

Conclusion

Now you know how to make a detailed beat without leaving 0 room for Bob to sing or rap on. Perhaps, you might want to also want to do more research on mixing and using effects such as compressors, to make your music sound even more listenable. Good luck in your journey!😊