How to Make a Lil Tecca Type Beat (New Jazz + Free Loops)

What BPM and key is a Lil Tecca type beat?

Most loops sit between 120 and 140 BPM. The newer new jazz cuts run slower than the old Ransom era, so a lot of producers start around 120 to 128 and let the swing carry it. Pick the tempo that reads as calm but still bounces under the hats.

The key is mostly minor, but kept bright rather than dark. C minor and F sharp minor come up again and again. Take the key straight from your loop and put the 808 and the melody on the same root.

How to make a Lil Tecca type beat in 6 steps

The loops in step 1 stream right here and the mp3 is free. Then work through the six steps.

1. 1Pick a sample▾

   Take a bright loop built on a Rhodes-style electric piano, pluck synth or bells in minor, 120 to 140 BPM. Grab one from the list below with a figure catchy enough to be a hook on its own.

   • ▶
     Aftersun
     120 BPM · G#min
     AmbientVirtual
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Barely
     120 BPM · Fmin
     AmbientSynthVirtual
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Burst the Bubble
     140 BPM · F#min
     ChoirHappyVirtual
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Easily
     120 BPM · Emin
     AmbientHappyHyper
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Doorbell
     140 BPM · C#min
     GoofyHappyVirtual
     @ndacompany
     ↓
2. 2Lay the 808▾

   It is the foundation. Trace the root notes of your chords, keep it plain, and remember that a revoiced chord still roots on its original bass note. Set the envelope so the 808 cuts itself the moment the note ends, give it some saturation, and it pushes without clashing.
3. 3Hi-hats on top▾

   A lively two-step, open hat in the gaps, a few fast rolls in front of the changes with the snap set to a half step. Drop a short triplet bounce at the end of a bar by snapping the grid to a third. Nudge the hats a hair off the grid for swing.
4. 4Clap and kick▾

   A soft clap or snare on two and four, plus a quieter counter snare panned to one side. Layer a kick on the same note as the 808 at the same time to add punch, since the kick is not melodic.
5. 5Try the pitch▾

   Only once the drums sit. Move the whole melody group one or two semitones up or down and hear which position fits a vocal. Pull the 808 to the new root afterwards.
6. 6Arrange▾

   Keep it simple, less is more. Build it like a pop song, a hook that comes in early and stays catchy, a verse with one layer gone, a bridge with a new sound or a bassline switch up.

The new jazz melody is the signature

The Tecca sound came up through Nick Mira, Taz Taylor and the Internet Money collective, the same camp behind Ransom, and the album cuts keep Taz and that circle on the boards. Their trademark now is a new jazz progression over booming percussion and 808s.

Build it from seventh chords in the natural minor scale. Set scale highlighting to your root in minor, then stack a chord by taking the first note, skipping one, adding the next, and so on up to the seventh. Minor seventh and minor ninth chords are the whole new jazz vocabulary. Revoice a chord by selecting the top one or two notes and dropping them an octave, which gives the jazzy colour without changing the chord. Owa Owa even flips a loop from the Buggles over that formula.

Keep the lead clean and in the upper range so the auto-tuned vocal can float on top. A monophonic synth with glide turned on, set to slide between overlapping notes, works as the lead, and a bell or second layer playing the chords broken, one note after another, fills it out. A pad with a slow attack sits behind everything for ambience. Busy, muddy melodies fight the voice, a clear figure invites it.

Which sounds do you actually need?

For the melody a Rhodes-style electric piano carries the chords, a monophonic pluck or square lead takes the top line, and a wood hit bell or soft pad fills the gaps. Stage 73, JV-1080 and Analog Lab style Rhodes presets all land in the pocket. Keep the loop dry and bright and let it breathe instead of burying it.

Humanize the chords: nudge the velocities with the randomize or humanize tool and drag the start times off the grid by holding alt, so the keys do not sound stiff. A touch of vintage colour from something like RC20 Retrocolor, a little chorus to widen it, and a short reverb is all the processing it needs.

The 808 carries the low end. The Spins 808 is a generic go to and sits in a ton of trap. A second 808 handles the gaps and 808 slides on the switch ups. Set it to cut itself and give it saturation, then it pushes without a long chain.

Clap and hi-hats hold the grid. A soft clap or snare on two and four, a counter snare for texture, and bright busy hats as a two-step with gaps for the open hat.

Mixing and the glue

Sidechain the 808 to the kick so the 808 ducks when the kick hits and swells back in. Push the release up and it comes back slowly, which gives that pumping new jazz low end. On the album records the sample and the kick get sidechained too.

Route all the melody tracks to one bus, cut the lows with an EQ so they leave room for the 808, bring up presence, and even them out with light compression. Automate a ShaperBox style reverse effect every other bar for movement, add chorus and a short delay to widen, and set reverb per layer so the pad sits furthest back.

Pitch the sample up and down

The position of the loop is not fixed. Merge or consolidate the melody into one audio clip, then pitch it. Many producers render the full melody and pull it down two or three semitones for a heavier key.

Up the melody gets brighter and thinner, down it gets heavier and darker. If you pitch a vocal in to match, move it by the same interval, so an E minor vocal goes up two semitones to land in F sharp minor. The key moves with it, so pull the 808 to the new root afterwards.

Common mistakes

Too much stacked up. A few clear sounds carry the whole beat, every further layer after that only takes up room the vocal needs.

A dark, heavy melody. The Tecca sound is bright and poppy new jazz, so keep the lead in the upper register and resist dragging it down.

Flat, basic chords. Plain triads sound stiff. Revoice them, saucing them up with minor seventh and ninth extensions, and humanize the timing.

Only other type beats as a reference. Those are built to rap on, the originals sound different. Put on Ransom, plan A and Dopamine first.

In FL Studio and in Logic

Nothing in the steps above depends on the DAW. You need a sampler for the 808, an EQ and a reverb, nothing else.

FL Studio: the 808 goes in a sampler channel with the envelope set to quit as the note ends and some saturation in the channel effects. Change the snap to grid to a half step for hat rolls and to a third for the triplet bounce. Draw the hats with the paintbrush instead of slicing them.

Logic: Quick Sampler for the 808, set to mono, and pull the hold up in the amp envelope. Step Sequencer for the hats, one bus for all melody tracks with a Channel EQ cutting the lows plus a reverb.

Using the loops from NDA Company

Every loop here is played by hand, no AI, and free as an mp3. Load one, trace the root notes under it with your 808 and you already have the new jazz foundation.