What's The Tempo of Most of Your Beats?

[Sa'id]

Being this is the drums forum, I wanted to get an idea of what each beatmaker's/producer's "usual" tempo.

What tempo do you find that your beats are usually in?

What tempo do you feel the most comfortable making your beats?

For me, I know I'm on to something when I carve out something in the 94.5 to 97.5 range. I can do 98 to 102, but that's for limited situations. Anything from like 89 to 92, I primarily use for interludes and such, not beats meant for rhymes.

- Sa'id

[dkelloway]

My beats are usually in the 90-94 range, but one of my weaknesses are my drum programming skills. My drums sound mechanical, and even though I use the "swing" function, I am practicing making my beats at a higher tempo so I can really hear the drums swing through, which makes the beat sound more complete, motivating the MC to rhyme

[uhohbeats]

there for awhile my beats were weither dead set at 85 bpm or 90.

but for the past 4-5 months ive been all over. i think my fastest paced beat was like 94 bpm but i dont know i never feel right working in that fast an enviornment. the 80's is where its at for me. but basically anything from

85-93

is where most my beats are at. but it all depends on the sample and ima sucker for slower samples. i can never flip fast paced samples right so i go for the slower smoother ones and i can pitch and speed them up if needed. doesnt seem to work the other way around very good without distorting it.

a little tip on swing tho. i use swing functions. anywhere from 50-100 on fl depending on tempo and how ima lay it out. but you wanna also humanise your drums. if you got that constant hihat going on every half beat lower the velocity of every second hat, if you got two kicks right next to eachother, the one hittin before it lower that.

anytime two drums are hit together in a real situation they are not being hit with exactly the same velocity so taking that into consideration it really helps the realism of your drums.

at least for me.

[DetinatorF]

Normally around 87-96 BPM but i have done up to 100 BPM

[uhohbeats]

actually tho. if i get technical with it. i work in the 160-180 bpm range sometimes

let me explain lol.

in fl studio the time stretching funtion is set with presets like "1 beat, 2 beats, 1 bar, 2 bar, 3 bars, and 4 bars" those are all you can accurately timestretch with.

now when i wanna get technical with my chops and cut a 2 bar loop into 16 pieces so i can put a chop to each pad on my mpd, that makes each chop on each pad a half beat. or more like instead of chopping with kicks and snares as guidlines, im using the hats as guidelines.

but yea since there only a half beat long each chop, i go into double time. so instead of my beat being 90 bpm, ill make my beat 180 bpm, doubling the tempo i double EVERYTHING. so if my half beat chop is a half beat in 90 bpm, ill time stretch it to 1 beat at 180 bpm and it will sound the same and now fit perfectly over every 1 beat section on the step sequencer. so every chop i take would be doubled, a 2 bar loop from a song would now be timestretched as a 4 bar loop cause im working in double time. so like lets say you have an 8 beat sequence on the step sequencer. the snare placement is changed, while in normal time 90 bpm i mean, the snare would be layed on the 2,4,6, and 8 beats. but in double time, the snare falls on the 3rd and 7th beat

if that makes sense

probably just confused you guys but yea thats ust another way i get down lol

[thedrumknockerz]

My bpm templates are mostly 88-97. If im feeling moody i'll dip to 76 (it'll wind up being a double time joint) or happy 101 and it'll have some jump to it.

[d.C.]

A lot of my older beats were in the 94-100 range but recently a majority of my beats have been in the 89-94 range. I think a lot of it has to do with the samples that have been catching my ear. I've been going with more laidback type of beats as of late.

[Castro Beats]

I don't know, maybe I'm misinterpreting the question, but generally speaking, I don't let the tempo come into play until after the beat is done. Sometimes the beat will sound good, but not great, and all that needs to be done is a minor tempo adjustment to get it dead on. Really no preset tempo other then the 120.0 already on the joint. It's whatever feels right, ya know

[TheBackRow]

Hard to Say

I like going from 70 to 88bpm regular time for RNb and even South. 88-110 for East Coast. But overall i like 88 -160 whether its doing double time or not. Thats where We shine and have the most fun.

[Jegie]

i'm all over the place, i try to not limit myself, from 60-160 doing double time when im over 110

[Cary_Clark]

88-97 and 91 is where I call home.

[Segundo]

lately i been doing a lot of 90-93. But the way i chop my beats(even the chops that "sound" like straight loops) i can just change the tempo with ease if an mc wants it faster or slower, but i'm a fan of the 90-95.

[krazyfingaz]

anywhere from 78-92

[bk2nati]

I usually start with a sample or a main melody and go from there. My tempo ranges from 65-150. I feel best around 95bpm.

[arise257]

83 to 110 - I go everywhere...

I don't know if there's any avid beat-boxers here, but I do that too. I've noticed that if I'm beat-boxing, coming up with ideas, my tempos are consistently 83, 87, or 93 BPMs, no exceptions. I just think that it's weird that my natural flow comes out at 3 precise speeds, you'd figure it'd be as random as the idea.