Groove 3 Making Trap in Reason

Sample Video

What's Inside?

After a quick introduction and running down all his Reason settings and preferences, Al gets to work on the all important Trap drum beat. Al builds up his kit in Kong, programming his drum track in distinctively complex rhythms that are the hallmark of Trap music. Moving on to the sub bass, Al shows how to use Reason's Subtractor synth to create a simple but devastating Trap baseline.

Once the beats and bass are created, Al focuses on introducing musical elements to the composition, and quickly builds strong melodic parts in the Trap fashion. Next up are vocal elements that are heavily processed short vocal clips, enhanced via time stretching, pitch shifting and ultimately resampling all in an NN-XT.

Now it's time for the drop! Al builds some filthy lead synths from scratch using techniques such as FM synthesis, oscillator syncing, pitch modulation and filter sweeps. After putting together the final arrangement, Al creates a few FX sounds like noise sweeps and pan risers to close out the track and the series.

How Does It Work?

After buying this online course, you will receive your personal Groove 3 access code and a URL that takes you directly to the Groove 3 site. Just click the link and enter the code to start learning!

• For all beginner to intermediate Reason users
• Simple to use video control interface for Mac & PC
• Watch Online, Download, Stream to iPad, iPhone & iPod

Tutorials

Introduction (08m:40s)

In the last year or so Trap music has exploded on a global scale, it's popularity has grown to the point of even rivaling that of genres like Dubstep and Drum'n'Bass. As a multi genre producer and DJ I've produced a lot of original Trap tunes as well as Trap remixes for other artists. In this series of tutorials I'll be teaching you how to use Reason 7 to create all the characteristic genre tropes of this hugely successful genre of bass music. This introductory video shows a brief run down of my settings and preferences.

Making Trap Beats Pt. 1 (18m:59s)

One of the most characteristic aspects of Trap music is the drum beats. Over these next two videos I'll demonstrate building up a great kit in Kong and how to get the most out of our drum hits with further processing in Kong. I'll also demonstrate how to program the distinctively complex rhythms that are the hallmark of Trap music and how to make your beats even fatter with the use or parallel compression now more convenient than ever thanks to Reason 7's new parallel channels feature. All the drum hits I'll be using in this video come directly from Reason's own factory sound bank.

Making Trap Beats Pt. 2 (19m:20s)

This video shows how to program Trap beats using the kit created in the previous video.

Sub Bass in Trap (10m:27s)

This is a very simple element of Trap music but it's arguably the most important. Heavy sub bass is the driving force behind Trap music and is essential if you want your track to sound huge on a club system! In this video I'll demonstrate how to use Reason's Subtractor synth to create a simple but devastating trap sub bass.

Composition in Trap Pt. 1 (14m:18s)

We've got our beats and our bass. Now it's time to look at things from a more compositional perspective. In this video I'll demonstrate how by putting together some simple musical elements you can very quickly build the basis for a strong trap tune. Advanced music theory knowledge is not required, two chords will do, as it's more about building up a rich timbre. Along the way I'll also be demonstrating some of Reason 7's fantastically handy new features such as the new spectrum EQ and bus routing. I'll also demonstrate how to make the instantly recognizable trap "riser FX" sound!

Composition in Trap Pt. 2 (10m:50s)

In this video we add a few more elements to the song as well as some effects such as reverb.

Processing and Resampling Vocals Pt. 1 (16m:52s)

In this video I'm going to demonstrate some techniques for mashing up vocals in Trap music. One of the key characteristics of Trap is the use of heavily processed, short vocal clips. The first technique we'll look at, involves taking a short rap line, time stretching, pitch shifting and ultimately resampling it in an NN- XT. The second technique involves sampling a female a capella and using the powerful tools of Reason's NN-XT sampler to turn it into a unique lead sound.

Processing and Resampling Vocals Pt. 2 (10m:50s)

In this video we add more glitchy processed vocals to the song.

The Drop Pt. 1 (11m:22s)

In this video we're going to major on the filthy lead synths which will populate the part of the arrangement, often referred to as "the drop." We'll be using four instances of Thor to create four unique synth patches. The sound design techniques we'll be using to achieve these patches include FM synthesis, oscillator syncing, pitch modulation and filter sweeps.

The Drop Pt. 2 (14m:49s)

We continue to building the drop section of the song.

The Arrangement and FX (19m:05s)

In this video I'm going to talk you through the final arrangement of our Trap tune, as you heard it in the introduction video. Having put together a killer arrange, we'll need to populate it with a few FX sounds like noise sweeps and pan risers.We're going to use Thor to create three unique FX sweeps to be the icing on the cake of our song!