Make a hip-hop beat for your vocals
To make a hip-hop beat for your vocals, upload or record the vocal in Lyro Music, choose Hip-hop as the style and press Generate. Lyro reads the tempo and key of your voice in the browser, and its studio tools write a dusty swung drum break, a warm bassline and chopped soul keys around your phrasing, returned as an instruments-only track. Your vocal stays untouched on its own track, and the two open together in the mixer.
It costs one credit per started minute, with a minimum of 2 credits, on every plan.
What should the beat sound like?
Sign up and Lyro builds on your vocal.
Write a hip-hop beat around this vocalNo file at hand? Start from a description, or generate a prompt.
At a glanceHip-hop
| Tempo (BPM) | 80 to 100 for boom bap, most often 85 to 95 |
|---|---|
| Keys | minor keys, often G minor or D minor; the sample sets the harmony |
| Feel | swung sixteenth notes, kick and snare slightly behind the beat, head-nod groove |
| Signature sounds | a dusty swung drum break with a fat snare, a chopped soul or jazz sample, a warm round bassline and a rapped vocal with clear diction |
| Song form | usually a 4 to 8 bar intro on the sample, then 16-bar verses alternating with 8-bar hooks, arranged by muting and unmuting parts of the loop |
Lyro follows your vocal’s own tempo and key, so the usual hip-hop range is a guide to how it will feel, not a setting.
How it goesThree steps
- Upload or record your vocalUse a WAV, MP3 or M4A file, or record from your microphone in the browser. Record it dry: no reverb and no music in the room.
- Pick Hip-hop and describe the soundCheck the tempo and key Lyro reads, choose Hip-hop, and add style words, for example: Hip-hop beat: dusty drum break, fat snare, upright bass, filtered bassline, chopped soul sample.
- Get the beat, then mixThe instruments come back as their own track beside your vocal. Balance them in the studio, master and export WAV.
Style words to pasteIn English, as the Style box reads them
Hip-hop beat: dusty drum break, fat snare, upright bass, filtered bassline, chopped soul sample
Tips for this genre
Hip-hop is recognised by a dusty swung drum break with a fat snare, a chopped soul or jazz sample, a warm round bassline and a rapped vocal with clear diction. Describe it the way you would brief a producer:
- Describe the drums as dusty, swung and hard-hitting, and mention the fat snare, because the drum sound defines boom bap.
- Name the kind of sample you want, such as chopped soul strings, a jazz piano loop or a horn stab, without naming a record.
- Avoid: Asking for hi-hat rolls and sliding 808s gives you trap, which is a different drum language.
Where the limits are
- Free-tempo singing, with no steady pulse, is hard to build a beat around; sing to a click or a simple loop.
- Tempo detection can land on half or double the real value, and key detection on the relative key: check both before you generate.
- Background music, room echo or noise in the recording confuses the detection and the model.
- The instruments are new and written for your vocal; Lyro does not copy an existing beat or an artist’s sound.
Questions
Will Lyro change my vocal when it makes the hip-hop beat?
No. Your recording is the input, and it stays on its own track, untouched. The beat comes back as a separate, instruments-only track, and the two meet only in the mixer, where you set the balance.
What tempo is a hip-hop beat?
The usual tempo of hip-hop, in BPM: 80 to 100 for boom bap, most often 85 to 95. Its keys: minor keys, often G minor or D minor; the sample sets the harmony. Lyro builds the beat on your vocal’s own tempo and key, which it reads in the browser and you can correct, so sing at the tempo you want the song to have.
What should I write in the style box for hip-hop?
Name the sounds, not an artist. For example: “Hip-hop beat: dusty drum break, fat snare, upright bass, filtered bassline, chopped soul sample”. Lyro does not take a real artist’s name as a style, and describing the drums, bass and one lead instrument gets you closer than a name would.
What does a hip-hop beat for my vocal cost?
One credit per started minute of your vocal, with a minimum of 2 credits, so a three-minute vocal costs 3 credits. It is on every plan, and mixing and mastering in the studio cost no credits. Failed generations are refunded in credits automatically.
What if hip-hop is not quite the sound?
The neighbouring genres differ in clear ways:
Related
More for this genre: A vocal for your beat, Mix and master
Other genres: Pop, R&B, Trap, Drill, Afrobeats, Reggaeton, Amapiano, Lo-fi, Rock, Acoustic folk, K-pop