How to Make a Ronis Goliath Type Beat (+ Free Loops)

What BPM and key is a Ronis Goliath type beat?

The loops here run 110 to 140 BPM, with the bulk sitting around 123. Afrobeats usually lives around 100 to 118, so this lane is on the upbeat, danceable end.

Tempo is less about a single number than about the feel the drums carry. If a loop sounds a touch stiff, nudging it up two or three BPM often makes the shaker roll; if the melody feels rushed, slow it the same amount and the guitar breathes. Lock the tempo before you commit to the key so you are not fighting both at once.

The key is mostly minor, but the mood stays warm rather than sad. Take the key from your loop and put the bass and the melody on the same root. If the loop was not labelled, hum the lowest held note, find it on a piano and build the bass line from that, then double check by playing a simple minor chord over it.

How to make a Ronis Goliath type beat in 6 steps

The loops in step 1 stream right here and the mp3 is free. Then work through the six steps. Do them in order, because each one leans on the groove sitting under it.

1. 1Pick a sample▾

   Take a warm loop built on guitar, choir or piano in minor, 110 to 140 BPM. Grab one from the list below with a simple, singable figure that already moves before any drums.

   • ▶
     Caretaker
     122 BPM · G#min
     AmbientBeautifulEpiano
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Lässig
     110 BPM
     AmbientGuitarVintage
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Moonflip
     140 BPM · A#min
     AmbientPianoVintage
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Jede Nacht
     105 BPM · C#min
     AmbientDancehallGuitar
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Bitter
     117 BPM · Amin
     AmbientSad
     @ndacompany
     ↓
2. 2Build the Afrobeats groove▾

   This is the engine, not a trap pattern. A syncopated kick, a rim or side-stick on the backbeat and a shaker driving the offbeats. The classic feel is a three-against-two bounce, so place the kick off the strong beats as often as on them and loop it until it moves on its own.
3. 3Lay the bass▾

   A round, warm bass on the root, bouncing with the kick rather than droning like an 808. Keep the notes short and plucked, walk it up to the fifth or the octave between phrases, and leave gaps so the voice has somewhere to sit.
4. 4Add the percussion layers▾

   Congas, a second shaker, a log-drum accent, a handclap. African percussion stacked in loose layers is what gives Afrobeats its roll and its swing. Vary the velocity of each hit so no two bars are identical.
5. 5Try the pitch▾

   Only once the groove sits. Move the whole melody group one or two semitones and hear which lane fits a vocal. Pull the bass to the new root afterwards.
6. 6Arrange▾

   Keep it simple, less is more. Let the groove ride, bring the hook early, and drop the drums out for a bar before it returns so it hits harder. A good Afropop beat stays warm and open so a melody in any language can sit on it.

The Afrobeats sound is the signature

This is a melody-first, percussion-driven genre. The guitar line and the vocal carry the song, the drums give it the roll, and nothing needs to be heavy or dark.

The groove is built on syncopation and swing, not on a straight grid. A useful starting frame is the kick landing on the one and skipping to the offbeats, the shaker running steady sixteenths with a little shuffle, and a clap or rim marking the backbeat. Once that pocket locks, everything else is decoration.

Ronis Goliath came up as a street performer before the Waldbuehne and Lollapalooza stages, and sings in several languages, so his songs are built to travel. The hook is simple on purpose. Treat the beat the same way: a few strong parts played well beat a busy arrangement.

The warmth is the point. Round bass, live-feeling guitar, stacked hand percussion. Resist dropping a booming trap 808 on top, it kills the bounce that makes it Afrobeats.

Which sounds do you actually need?

For the melody, guitar, choir and piano carry it. A clean, warm guitar is the heart of the Afropop sound, so keep it dry and let it ring. Short, repeating figures in the highlife style, picked rather than strummed, sit better under a vocal than big chords.

Double-track the guitar and pan the two takes a little left and right for width, and add a short slapback delay or a touch of plate reverb rather than a long wash. That keeps it feeling live without smearing the groove.

The bass is round and melodic, bouncing with the kick, not a long droning sub. It should feel played, not programmed to sit on one note. Keep the lowest octave clean with a high-pass on everything else so it has room.

Percussion is the engine: shaker, rim, congas, log-drum accents and a handclap. Stack them in loose layers so the groove swings instead of marching, and spread them across the stereo field so each one has its own space.

Groove and swing are everything

The single biggest difference between a beat that sounds Afrobeats and one that sounds like a stiff loop is swing. Pull the shaker and the congas slightly off the grid, add a global swing of ten to twenty percent, and let the hits land a hair early or late instead of perfectly quantised.

Vary the velocity of every repeated element. A shaker that plays the exact same volume every sixteenth sounds like a machine; a shaker that breathes, louder on some hits and softer on others, sounds like a hand. The same goes for the clap and the congas.

Give the parts call and response. Let the guitar answer the shaker, let a conda fill drop in where the bass rests. The groove should feel like several players listening to each other, not one grid firing everything at once.

Pitch the sample up and down

The position of the loop is not fixed. One or two semitones change the whole mood.

Up the guitar gets lighter and brighter, down it gets warmer and fuller. The key moves with it, so pull the bass to the new root afterwards. Big jumps start to sound artificial, so stay within a couple of semitones and let the groove, not the pitch, do the heavy lifting.

Common mistakes

Treating it like a trap beat. A booming 808 and straight hats kill the roll. Afrobeats lives on a bouncing round bass and stacked hand percussion.

Stiff, quantised drums. The groove has to swing, so nudge the shaker and the congas off the grid and let them breathe.

Overcrowding the arrangement. Too many melodic layers at once leave no room for a vocal. Mute parts until only what the song needs is playing, then bring elements back for the hook.

A melody that crowds the voice. Keep the guitar figure simple and leave a clear lane in the upper range for a sung hook, in whatever language.

In FL Studio and in Logic

Nothing in the steps above depends on the DAW. You need a sampler or a bass instrument, an EQ and a reverb, plus a set of percussion one-shots.

FL Studio: program the groove in the Channel Rack, bass on a plucked or round bass preset. Draw the shaker and congas with the paintbrush and add a little swing in the piano roll. The Channel Rack swing knob and per-step velocity are your fastest way to loosen the feel.

Logic: the Step Sequencer for the Afrobeats groove and the percussion, a bass instrument or Quick Sampler for the round bass. One bus for the melody tracks with a Channel EQ and a reverb, and the region-based Quantize Strength and Swing sliders to keep the drums human.

Using the loops from NDA Company

Every loop here is played by hand, no AI, and free as an mp3. Each one is tagged with its BPM and key, so you can drop it straight in, build the groove around it and start pitching without guessing.

The loops are free to download and use while you write. They are not royalty-free: if a track built on an NDA Company loop goes to a commercial release, it runs on a 50/50 split.