Improving my beat orchestration?

StanleySteamer

New member
Hey guys, I accidently posted this in the wrong section a few days ago so I am posting here in the correct one lol, so as the title says I am trying to improve my beat orchestration. My favorite producers right now are Murda Beatz, MetroBoomin, Nav, etc that kind of wave and basically when I listen to their beats they are only playing 2 or 3 instruments at a time and they switch up of course and sometimes they keep the same keys or chords but change the instrument. Pretty standard stuff but as far as their orchestration I am trying to get better as far as understanding the octaves and what not. So basically I am curious how they are orchestrating their stuff as far as which instruments play in which octaves. Are they playing different instruments in the same octave? Like strings and pianos in 2nd or 3rd octave or would they only play 1 instrument per octave?

Also, how many octaves do you guys try to fill up? Assuming that on a standard daw I normally use 1-4 and sometimes it leaks into 5 but I try to always use like 4 octaves worth of instruments but maybe I am over complicating things lol. Feedback always appreciated thanks!
 
Well, if you're trying to do what they do then simply listen to their music.
It's definitely not even close to being complicated.
 
Try to focus on the frequencies of the instruments, rather than the octave. Each instrument will thrive in a specific frequency range, and orchestrate them as such. I recommend googling "Instrument Frequency Chart" for something to reference. Hope that helps.
 
Yeah, you just got to use your ears. Changing the octaves isn't going to be an exact science (certain numbers of instruments playing in certain octaves). Instead just listen to see if anything sounds cluttered in the low mids or highs. If so, consider taking something out or switching octaves on a part. Not every space needs to be filled with an instrument, those guys you listed are all really good at creating space within their mix through minimal instrumentation.
 
Hey thanks for the responses guys! So what if I'm making a beat and I only use instruments in like 1 or 2 octaves? For good production do they tend to try to fill up most of the basic 4 octaves that I listed or can you sometimes only really need to use 1 or 2?
 
For good production do they tend to try to fill up most of the basic 4 octaves that I listed or can you sometimes only really need to use 1 or 2?

In my opinion, it's best not to write music according to a checklist. Start whichever way you start i.e. drumbeat/melody/chord progression then add to it as you feel necessary. Sometimes (often IMO) less is more.
 
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I don't pay any mind to which octave is something on.. generally the only reason for me to do that would be to map them across my keyboard.. but every sound simply plays at the octave it sounds best at.
Coming from a very sample heavy workflow, I get a lot of mileage out of heavily pitching stuff up and down. When I was still making hiphop (kinda) my style used to revolve around heavily downpitched and chopped percussive/groove loops, backing pitched up drums. It was a cool sound, dubby but tight and chunky. I intend to revisit that one of these days if I can find some cool vocalists for them.

Especially if you make hiphop-beats.. don't go to deep on theory. Be utilitarian.. I don't know those producers, but I'm pretty sure they go by vibes, not theory ;)

Anyway, once you have a melody or groove you're happy with, just pitch it up or down 4 octaves, see what you get. Run the midi through a different instrument.. or record it to audio and chop it back up.
Just get creative.. 50% will be useless noise, 80% of it won't end up in your final track at all.. but that's kind of the point.

Getting a full, thick sound isn't so much to do with instrumentation, remember there will be an emcee on top, taking center stage... having all kinds of melodies bouncing in and out in the background is just gonna
distract and sound messy. Unless that's what you're aiming for of course. It's much more impactful if you're using it to accent the performance. For a rapper I wouldn't even give him the entire song.. just a loop to perform on, then go back and build the song around the performance. It ends up coming off much more organic and musical that way and the lyrics take center stage, which what it's all about with rap.
 
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