Creating a Kanye West-style beat

Yo! I'm up with my first beat-creating tutorial so far. This tutorial is based on creating beats like Kanye West's - the ones he did in College Dropout, Late Registration and Graduation. NOT 808s & Heartbreak.

In this tutorial, I'll mostly concentrate on explaining how Kanye makes his beats and tell you some basic facts about the beats and by that give you a hand on creating them beats.

The number one thing you need to know about 'Ye's beats is that he uses samples. Kanye's samples are from all kinds of music, 'Stronger' contains the famous vocal samples from Daft Punk's 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger' and 'Good Life' samples the Michael Jackson classic 'P.Y.T', so the range is wide.
What Kanye usally does is that he takes a vocal sample and either slows it down (like in Stronger & Good Life) or pitches it up (The Glory, Jesus Walks, Gold Digger, for example) and uses it to build up a melody. He also uses much instrumental samples (Everything I Am), or both (I Wonder). To get a basic view, check out the following video:



Now, you wanna know how.
Pretty much the most difficult thing in sampling is finding the sample.
But that's not that hard neither: just go through your parents'/grandparents' CD collection, or if you listen to soul/blues or whatever you want to sample, it's even easier (just remember, for Kanye style beats soul samples are the key).
If neither is possible or doesn't give good answers just go to YouTube and search for songs from The Temptations, The Emotions or whoever you are thinking for.
Another, easier, option is just checking a sample for a Kanye song and take another song by the exact artist to get a sound like 'Ye.

Other thing that you'll notice about Kanye's songs are drum lines.
Listen to the beginning of 'Heard 'Em Say' or the break on 'Stronger', you'll notice that the drums aren't that simple.
Yes, Kanye uses live percussion, but with a proper Kanye drum kit you can easily create something similar enough.
Keep the tempo to 100-110 BPM (beats per minute) - that's how Kanye usually does it. Stronger runs 104 BPM.
Use kicks that hit often, add percs, and (important) - feel free to try a unique snare sample. That's really Kanye-ish (Good Life, We Major).

I'm pretty much done on this tutorial, but I'll give you a small summary on what I have explained:

- Use samples. Soul samples and rock samples. And don't forget vocal samples
- Keep the tempo to 100-110 Beats Per Minute
- Use fast drum lines

I'll drop a link to this good Kanye West drum kit by HHS.
It also includes a couple drum and melody loops sampled from his songs/productions.
It's not perfect but it is a really good one to start with.
Download kit.

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Peace out!