How to Make a Yeat Type Beat (+ Free Loops)

What BPM and key is a Yeat type beat?

Most beats run 140 to 150 BPM and 145 is the value two tutorials set independently of each other. Upwards it goes to 160.

The key is minor, often D minor, B minor or C sharp minor. Build the chords from root and fifth and leave the middle voice out.

How to make a Yeat type beat in 6 steps

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

Synthetic, who produces for Yeat, builds the complete drums first and the melody after that. Here it runs the other way round, because the loop is already there.

1. 1Pick a sample▾

   Glassy or gliding synth in minor, 140 to 150 BPM. Take one of the loops right below, rather one with little going on and a lot of character.

   • ▶
     Monkeyball
     140 BPM · Bmin
     DarkHardSimple
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Maiskolben
     140 BPM · Bmin
     DarkHardSimple
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Nasty
     140 BPM · Cmin
     DarkHardVirtual
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Landing
     140 BPM · F#min
     DarkHyperVirtual
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Mosquitos
     140 BPM · D#min
     ChoppedDarkDistorted
     @ndacompany
     ↓
2. 2Lay the 808▾

   It is the foundation, and it is two or three of them at once. Find the pattern with one, then clone the track and only swap the sound. Every single one on cut itself and limited in polyphony.
3. 3Hi-hats on top▾

   Triplets are the base, under them a second hat sound as a running roll with uneven velocity. Then the bell, tuned to the root, on every second hat.
4. 4Clap and kick▾

   Clap on 2 and 4, either plain and unremarkable or two layered, one low and one high. A small perc right in front of the 808. Kick sparingly, out completely in one section.
5. 5Try the pitch▾

   Only once the drums sit. Halftime on the melody bus with single tracks left out of it, plus a reversed copy on top.
6. 6Arrange▾

   Keep it simple, less is more. The beat lives on sound changes, not on new melodies: another 808 in the verse, small glitches at the transitions, hook early. That keeps it catchy and easier to place.

Which sounds do you actually need?

Not one 808, two or three at the same time. One long distorted one as the carrier, one short hard one for the accents, plus a sub 808 pitched up by several octaves and mixed underneath. Every single one has to be on cut itself with the polyphony limited, otherwise they fight each other and the bottom turns to mud.

Envelope on each 808: hold all the way up, everything else at zero. Then the note stops exactly where you put its end, which is the whole trick.

The bell is the signature. Tuned to the root, on every second hi-hat. That one move is what makes a trap beat read as a Yeat beat, and it came out of a suggestion on the song Yaya.

Hi-hats start as triplets, that is the bounce. Then a second hat sound underneath as a continuous fast roll with deliberately uneven velocity. Randomise panning, velocity and a little pitch in one go so nothing sounds straight.

Clap on 2 and 4, and the tutorials disagree here: either a plain unremarkable one, or two layered, one low and one high, so it hits hard. Kick last and sparse, muted for whole sections, because several 808s already fill the bottom.

For the melody one glassy or gliding synth is enough. Serum is named in four videos, Vital is the free alternative. A multiband tool like Shaperbox makes more difference than any preset folder.

Arrangement in bars

The beat moves through sound changes, not through new melodies. Two patterns come up again and again.

First: glitches and stutter. Cut a small piece out at a single spot, duplicate it and drop it back offset. Four to eight bars apart is enough, more and it stops being a surprise.

Second: start very plain and only add elements later. Another 808 in the verse than in the hook, and passages where half time is switched off again. Keep the first 8 bars simple and open up at the end of 8 or 16 bars with rolls and a pitch automation.

Pitch the sample up and down

The position of the loop is not fixed. A few semitones change how hard the synth hits.

Up the synth gets sharper and cuts more, down it gets wider and slower.

If you pitch, every 808 and the bell have to move with it, otherwise the key falls apart.

Common mistakes

One melodic layer too many. One solid idea is enough, everything after that builds on it.

Melodic where it should be dark. The first semitones above the root sound friendly, so start at the second pair.

Not enough time in the synth. The sound decides more than the pattern, so stay in the plugin until it sits.

In FL Studio and in Logic

All the videos run in FL Studio, but the DAW matters less here than the synth and one sampler setting.

FL Studio: every 808 in its own sampler channel, cut itself on, hold envelope at the top and everything else at zero. Find the pattern with one 808 first, then clone the channel and only swap the sound in the copy. Randomise velocity, panning and pitch straight from the piano roll.

Logic: Quick Sampler in mono for every 808, hold up in the amp envelope, one track per 808. Step Sequencer for the triplet hats and Humanize for the velocity. Tune the bell to the root in the sampler, not with a pitch plugin, otherwise it drifts when you transpose.

Using the loops from NDA Company

Every loop here is played by hand, no AI, and free as an mp3.