How do you guys determine what bpm to use?

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Gouryella91

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Simple question, tried to search for it but coudln't find it. How do you guys decide what bpm to have for your track? by ear, have a preset one at the beginning, or just have it at a standard that's normal for whatever genre your making?

My bpm is always set to 120, so most of the time I just trying to learn how to create tracks/melodies and finding 'nice' sounds and my songs always end up at 120 bpm... then when i try and move it, it only sounds good with a 2/1 bpm increment... so I was wondering how others deal with having that 'rightly set bpm' setting.
 
well as for me i kinda use preset bpm... for example if i'm doing a hip hop track i stay within 90-100 bpm (usually 100) R&B i tend to go to 80bpm... and dirty south, techno, pop i tend to stay around 140-150... (althought i would like to know how dirty south music gets this 140 bpm... i remember its something with the hi hats...) but i usually hum a melody or beatbox a drum pattern i want to do.. and hit the little tempo button in protools and get my bpm and go on from there.. you can try that... hope that helps any..
 
some people use bpm of a sample, typical genre bpm or whatever feels right at the time
 
There's usually only about 3 BPM ranges that sound good.

You can go around 79-96 for most tracks which is best, I've seen some go as low as 69 and as high as 111. I've had my faster paced rnb joints at 120 a couple times also.

Then for your faster tempo dirty south tracks you can do 140, going as low as 130 and as high as 150. Those are your typical range.

As for the best method, this is what I find is best to do to find your tempo. Once you lay down your melody, insert your claps or snare at the typical spots wether that's 2 claps per 4 bars or 4 claps per 4 bars.

Then just spit a little something in your head or out loud to get a feel for the pace (it doesn't need to make sense you can just spit jibberish) and if it sounds like the claps hitting to early then lower the BPM speed. If the claps feels like it's hitting too slow then increase the speed a little. Eventually it will sound right, and that's when you feel your freestyle isn't being rushed or you have to slow your rap down. After all you have to remember that a rapper has to be able to spit something on the beat.
 
Generally I would go by feel to hear what might be the right speed for the track. There may also be other factors as well and i might just set it to a speed popular for the genre and see if that sounds okay - similarly I might just go with the speed of the sample if I start with that.

Nothing wrong with just copying the speed of another song either.
 
Well. Depends on what your doing.
- if im making rnb, i would go like 86 or 92? maybe 100 if its a fast one.
- old skool, then im going slow.. around 76 - 82 or something, with a bit of swing on it.
- Scary.. Creepy music, i actually go ULTRA slow, and using some insanely hard kicks at around 55 - 60

- But right now im creating alot of piano/guitar music, just instrumentals with those.. and yea, its between 57 - 64 now.


honestly, i play around with the speed while creating my music, until i find something i feel comfortable with.
- i would suggest you to do that.
 
this is a good thread because tempo bpm and the 4/4 and all that stuff is what i dont really get. i just take a tempo and then do what i want.

you can set the bpm to 80 and set a kick every 1/2 bars or you take a 160 bpm and do it every 1/4 bars .. its the same but there have to be some differences.

just checked some tracks out in ableton to show what bpm they have and you guys are right the Dirty south hiphop has sometimes 140 bpm, i didnt know that.. so you have to have at least a 2 bar drumtrack do get a full pattern.. in EDM most of the time you have a 1 bar loop but i figure you don't in other music genres, right?
 
Just hear the song in my head a little, then beat box a basic beat behind it, then adjust the BPM to what I'm singing.
 
Pick a tempo, tap it out, then calculate the BPM from the tap using a BPM calculator program or stopwatch and calculator. Then set project to that BPM and stretch samples to match that.
 
i normally just let it come out as i make the beat...sometimes ill switch the bpm...but i normally start off at 130 or 140...to me the bpm isnt a set thing as im normally focused on the overall sound
 
The way I see it, generally anything with a half-time feel will have quarter notes of 90 bpm or less. 100-115 or so is a relatively slow "full-time" feel, and 120-150 is more like a "dance" tempo. With quarter notes set to 150+, you're getting pretty quick and when you hit 200 or more, you're into the limits most people can perform at unless you "cut it half" with your kick and snare every half note and go back to the half-time feel.
 
Depends on what type of song I'm doing but normally I just start around 130 or 140 and work up or down from there.
 
BPM is based on the type of music for example electronic music:

House (electro, acid, old-school, contemporary, progressive, etc.) = 128-135bpm
Hardstyle = 150-180bpm
Hardcore (happy, progressive, etc.) = 160-200bpm
Trance = 130-150bpm

For hip-hop tracks it varies based on what type of track you're going for. I've noticed a lot of heavy-hitters like club-poppers (lil jon beats for example) are more up-tempo'd at like 140+bpm but then slower tracks like lil wayne and drake beats range from 98+ it all depends on the setting of your track and you have the right idea by figuring out if that tempo sounds good for your track by speeding it up or slowing it down.

To give you a better idea, 120bpm is marching band speed. Hope that helps.
 
Always use a different BPM, scale/mode, and chord progression for each new song
 
Often I start just by tapping a tempo in FL. When I do this it depends on the mood I'm in on which tempo I will end up.

When I sample I speed up or slow down the sample to a tempo where I think it sounds good.
 
I go by the good ol' 1 2 3 4 method...i usually have a melody in mind already and as i sing whatever melody i nod my head to it and set the bpm to how fast my head nods...the 1 2 3 4 method works best when u r sampling...always works
 
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I wonder what is the difference in what tempo you set? I mean it's up to you how fast you will hit the pads or play the melody right? What tempo has to do with it? You can only speed the beat or slower it down when you got your melody and drums, right? How do you use it in different way?
 
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