Busy Works Beats

How to Make Modern Boom Bap in FL Studio

Modern Boom Bap is all about time stretch, darker sound design vibes, and drum one shot samples.

Time Stretching for Precision

Time stretching is the backbone of modern boom bap. Back in the day, things were a bit loose and off the grid, which gave the music its character. Today, we use tools like Sorado sample to lock everything in place while keeping the vibe intact. Modern beats are tighter, but that doesn’t mean you lose the soul.

Sample Selection: Old Records, New Vibes

You don’t need a “modern” sample to make a fresh beat. It’s all about how you manipulate it. I used an old record sample but treated it with modern techniques, isolating parts of the sample and cleaning it up. The magic comes from how you chop and layer it. Don’t be afraid to get creative with removing or emphasizing certain elements.

Drums: One Shots Over Breaks

The classic boom bap sound used drum breaks, but modern boom bap tends to favor one-shot samples. Modern Boom Bap usually uses one shot samples because we have more drum kits now in days.

Quantize

Modern boom bap can be quantized to MPC swing. Quantizing locks your notes in place and gives your beat that polished feel. I made sure every chop and sample was perfectly timed with the grid, which adds a level of consistency that old-school boom bap didn’t always have. It’s all in the details.

Mixing Hard Drums

You can mix your track darker but in Modern style Boom Bap, it's about density. You can get density from plugins like Genome and using NAM profiles.

Overall

If you want to make your boom bap beats sound more modern, it's a difference in the swing amount and how we time stretch samples, using plugins like Serato Sample.