How To Make A Trap Beat In 5 Simple Steps (full tutorial with demos)

In recent times, trap beats have been dominating the music industry. Artists like Travis Scott, Lil Baby, Future, Gunna, and Drake have been topping the charts with trap hit after trap hit. In this guide, you’ll learn the strategies out multi platinum team has used to produce top beats.

We’ve worked with Drake, Future, Lil Baby, Snoop Dogg, and many more! This is definitely not a guide you’ll want to skip. Now let’s get into it.

While making this trap beat, we’ll be using some of these royalty free drums samples, drum sequences, and melodies. Those packs are free, so make sure to check them out!

What makes a beat a “trap beat”?

Trap beats are known for their mysterious dark melodies, bouncy drum sequences, and hard-hitting mixes. Some of the most popular trap beats include:

Goosebumps - Travis Scott

Mask Off - Future

Started from the bottom - Drake

If you listen to these instrumentals, you’ll notice that they all have a dark sound chord progression, sporadic sharp drum samples, a thick sounding bass, and a punchy mix.

What is the bpm for a trap beat? Trap beats usually 140bpm, but range between 130-160bpm. For example, Mask off by Future is 150bpm. On the slower side, I Don’t Like by Chief Keef is 132bpm.

What do you need to make a trap beat?

If you don’t have the right recourses, you’re going to be on the back foot before you even start making the trap beat.

Here’s what you need to produce a trap beat:

• A digital audio workstation (DAW)
• Plugins and virtual software technology (VST) to generate and mix sounds
• Music samples and loops to boost inspiration and make drum beats with
• An audio interface and speakers/headphones to listen to your music with

With that out of the way, let’s jump into the steps.

1. How to create a trap melody:

A trap melody is a fairly simple melody consisting of these key layers.

• A chord progression
• Supporting melodies
• Counter melodies

Common sound selection choices for these melody layers include:

• Flutes
• Pianos
• Synths
• Guitars
• Violin

How to make a trap chord progression:

The first thing you need to do is pick a scale to create your chord progression. In trap, the minor scale is the most popular. For example, we’re going to pick C minor. If you don’t know scales off by heart, you can use scale highlights tools, like this one in FL Studio.

 

Click the drop down > view > scale highlighting.

You can also use chord tools like this one in FL Studio to instantly generate a chord progression.

If you choose to manually create a melody, start by creating the root notes for the melody. Do this by following the ghost notes in the background, and follow the rhythm and mood you want in your melody.

Once you have these root notes, turn them into chord by placing notes above or below. In this example, I’m going to place 2 notes above each melody turning these root notes into triads.

You can get create in this step and invert the chord by moving the middle notes up or down an octave.

You can also turn chords into suspended or diminished chords by lowering or raising the top notes.

How to make a trap-supporting melody:

A supporting melody is a melody that follows the root notes of your melody. It tends to make it feel warmer and more full. Doing this is as simple as grabbing another instrument, and place notes following the original melody.

I recommend lowering or raising this melody an octave, so as to keep it separate from the main melody. This is going to make mixing easier because there won’t be lots of clashing EQ ranges.

You can also create a trap arpeggio by copying the chord progression and using an arpeggio tool like this one in FL Studio (ALT + A).

If you want to make an arpeggio manually, grab a tiny note, and follow the ghost notes.

How to make a trap-counter melody:

As opposed to a supporting melody, a counter melody is more mysterious and adds unpredictability to your melody. One of the easiest ways to do this is to do the opposite of what a chord progression does. For example, while a chord progression is going up in pitch, the counter melody goes down.

 

Trap counter melodies often use bells and flutes as these mysterious-sounding melodies are a perfect addition to a chord progression.

How to take a trap melody to the next level:

 

Now you have a great-sounding trap melody, but how can you take it to the next level? Here are some tips and tricks our multi-platinum production team uses when creating our world-famous melody packs.

Adding a reverse effect:

Double speed:

 

Half speed:

Melody chops:

Your melody is now ready for a beat, follow us in the next section to see how to make a perfect trap drum beat.

2. How to create a trap drum sequence:

 

You’re going to need some drum samples to make your trap beat. This includes:

• 808s
• Claps
• Hi-Hats
• Snares
• Open Hi-hats
• Kicks
• Percussion
• Crashes
• Risers and transitions

If you need high-quality, royalty-free drum samples and drum kits, check these out.

Once you’ve picked your drum samples, it’s time to create your drum loops.

We choose to create the drum beats in a piano roll, but you can also use the drum sequencer or playlist. Personally, we think usually the playlist is insanity, but you do you…

Creating a trap hi-hat sequence:

The hi hat sequence is what carries the bounce and rhythm of your trap beat, so you don’t want to overlook this step.

The easiest way to create a trap hi hat sequence is to start with a 2 step hi hat sequence like this. In FL Studio, you can right click on the hi hat sample in the drum sequencer and click “2 step”.

A lot of trap beats leave the hi hats there, and that is usually enough…

But if you want to add some more bounce and energy to beat, it’s time to get out the slice tool.

Chop up hi hat notes into smaller notes to add more bounce, just like this.

You can also add low-pitch notes and fill notes to take things even further.

Creating a trap clap/snare sequence:

Start by placing a clap or snare on these notes here.

I also like adding snares fills to get more bounce.

Creating a trap kick sequence:

I like to add kicks that follow the chord changes, while also adding some other kicks inbetween to add bounce and fill in the gaps.

I recommend lowering the volume of the kicks that aren’t on chord changes, to reduce “kick fatigue” which is where a punchy kick comes in too often. Yes I made that term up, but if you listen to most hit beats, the kicks are never the same volume.

Adding percs, crashes, and transitions:

This is the ear candy that will make your beat stand out. I often bring these layers in later to add evolution into the beat.

3. Create your trap beat 808 bass sequence

The easiest and best way to do this is to copy your kick sequence onto your 808. Then you simply follow the root notes of your melody.

 

You can now add extra 808 notes, 808 slides, or 808 fills to make your 808 sequence sound more interesting.

I personally like delaying some 808 notes so the kick comes in first. It’s a really cool effect to have the kick hit then the 808 come in slightly later. It’s like seeing lightning then hearing thunder right after.

Now that your beat is ready, it’s time to mix and master it!

 

4. How to mix and master a trap beat:

This is arguably the most important step. If your layers don’t blend together, it will sound like a mess and be hard for vocalists to use, or listeners to listen to.

This is a long process, so I have written this full guide to mixing beats here, and also have one of the highest-ranking tutorials for how to mix beats:

 

 

But here are the basics...

How to mix your trap beat:

First, send all of your layers to a mixer track:

Then turn your stereo separation on your master to 100% merged.

This will temporarily make your mix “mono” meaning your left and right ear hear the same thing. This will make it easier to mix, but don’t forget to turn it off at the end.

Start by muting all your layers, and bringing them in one at a time. I recommend starting with the melodies first, and you want to mix quiet a bit quieter than you would expect. As you’re bringing each layer in, set the volume of that layer so it blends nicely into the mix.

There’s no rule on what volume each layer needs to be, you need to play it by ear. If you need to go and repeat this process a few times, it’s worth it.

While you’re setting the volume, it can also be helpful to add an EQ to certain layers and cut out harsh frequencies and cut out clashing EQ ranges.

How to master your trap beat:

When mastering your beat, you can use a compressor, soft clipper, or maximiser. They are going to boost the volume of your beat, while stopping it from clashing.

 

Mastering a trap beat with a soft clipper:

For this example, I’m going to use fruity soft clipper. It’s as easy as turning the gain up until the mix starts to sound distorted

 

Mastering a trap beat with a maximizer:

I’m going to use iZotope Ozone 9 maximiser. I’m going to drag the character down to 1, and lower the threshold slider to increase the volume of the mix.

If you’re sending this beat out for placements, the artist will often have their own engineer who will do their own mix anyways. The main thing to keep in mind is how your mix sound on another listening device.

Try doing “the car test” and listening to your mix in a car. It’s also worth trying phone speakers and cheap earphones.

It’s likely the bass will be too loud and these cheaper speakers won’t be able to keep up. “Audiophiles” with fancy speakers and subs will often increase the bass manually. To make your track

5. How to arrange your trap beat

First, drag your trap beat into your playlist, and split it into separate patterns. You can do this in FL Studio by right-clicking on the pattern and clicking split by channel.

I like to start with an 8-bar intro with just the melody, then have a 16 bar verse, and an 8 bar hook.

 

The most common ways to arrange tracks:

• 8 bar intro, (16 bar verse, 8 bar hook)*3, 8 bar outro
• 4 bar intro (16 bar verse, 8 bar hook)*3, 4 bar outro
• 8 bar intro, (12 bar verse, 8 bar hook)*3, 8 bar outro
• (16 bar verse, 8 bar hook)*3
• 8 bar intro, (12 bar verse, 8 bar hook)*2, 12 bar verse, 8 bar bridge, 8 bar hook, 8 bar outro

I like to cut out lots of the melody layers and drums to make the verse sound “raw” then bring them in for the hook.

Now it a good time to add a crash, riser, and and transition effects.

Now your trap beat is done!

In summary…

Here’s how to make a trap beat:

1. Create a trap melody using a minor scale and mysterious melody layers
2. Create a bouncy drum sequence using punchy samples and “off beat” drum sequences
3. Create an 808 sequence by following the root notes of your melody
4. Mix and master your beat by leveling each layer, and adding a compressor or maximiser
5. Arrange your beat to give it an intro, verse, and hook

I hope you use this guide to produce amazing trap beats.

If you want high quality royalty free samples, check out wavgrind.com

If you want to learn even more about music production, watch these free music production tutorials

If you want to read more blog posts and guides, check out all of our blog posts here. 

~ Luke from WavGrind