Once you’ve laid down a melody, counter-melody, and a few harmonies, you’ve created the start for your own intensely dramatic hip-hop song. Cole have utilized the intensity of strings, horns, and big percussion throughout their careers to create intensely moving music time and time again.įollow in the footsteps of the greats - introduce some of these elements into your own tracks using ARCADE. Artists like Kanye West, Timbaland, and J.
Orchestral elements are a key staple in cinematic-sounding hip-hop. The only thing missing is a driving drum Loop, which you can add with ARCADE lines like Drum Machinery or Drip. Then, a counter-melody is added with the bittersweet timbre of a Chinese violin.
String ostinato mimics percussive elements and establishes tempo and groove. It starts with a simple string pad that creates movement and solid progression. In this video, we created the skeleton of a hip-hop beat with orchestral samples pulled from the Overture, Passport, and Distant Voices Lines in ARCADE to create emotional Loops. Ideally, your listeners have both a rapper’s lyrics and a tight melody stuck in their heads. If you’re making a hip-hop track, creating melodic loops is a giant step in the right direction.
