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How to Make Hip Hop & R&B Beats with Roland ZENOLOGY Pro Roland sounds have been part of hip hop and R&B for decades. From lush pads and digital keys to synth basses, bells, leads, strings, and atmospheric textures, the Roland sound fits naturally into genres built around memorable melodies and mood. Roland ZENOLOGY Pro … Read more
Roland has created some of the most recognizable synthesizers in music history. From vintage analog instruments to digital workstations and modern production hardware, Roland sounds have appeared across hip hop, R&B, pop, electronic music, trap, and countless other genres. ZENOLOGY Pro takes a huge portion of that Roland DNA and puts it inside your DAW. … Read more
Roland TR-808 Sound Design: How to Create Custom 808 Drums The Roland TR-808 is one of the most recognizable drum machines ever created, but its familiar sound doesn’t mean every 808 beat has to sound the same. One of the biggest advantages of using the Roland TR-808 Software Rhythm Composer instead of relying entirely on … Read more
How to Make Hip Hop & R&B Beats with the Roland TR-808 Few drum machines have had a bigger impact on hip hop and R&B than the Roland TR-808. Its booming bass drum, snappy snare, unmistakable clap, metallic hi-hats, and quirky percussion sounds helped define entire eras of music. Decades after the original hardware appeared, … Read more
Roland TR-808 Review: Is This the Best 808 Drum Machine Plugin? Few drum machines have influenced modern music as much as the Roland TR-808. Hip hop, R&B, trap, pop, electronic music, and countless subgenres have all been shaped by its booming bass drum, crisp handclaps, metallic cowbell, snappy snare, and instantly recognizable hi-hats. The problem … Read more
How to Make Hip Hop & R&B Beats with Native Instruments FM8 This article may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, Pluginera may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Native Instruments FM8 may be best known as a deep frequency modulation synthesizer, but you do … Read more
Native Instruments FM8 Review: Is This Classic FM Synth Still Worth It? This article may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, Pluginera may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Some software synthesizers stay relevant because they are constantly redesigned. Others survive because their sound never … Read more
SoundID Reference for Beginners: How to Set It Up and Improve Your Mixes If you’ve ever finished a mix that sounded great in your headphones but completely different in your car, you’re not alone. Maybe the 808 suddenly became too loud. Maybe the vocals sounded thin. Maybe your hi-hats were painfully bright. Or maybe the … Read more
How to Mix Hip Hop & R&B on Headphones with SoundID Reference Mixing Hip Hop and R&B on headphones can absolutely work. The challenge isn’t necessarily the headphones themselves. It’s knowing whether you can trust what you’re hearing. Your headphones may exaggerate the bass, making you turn your 808 down too far. They might have … Read more
Sonarworks SoundID Reference for Headphones Review: Is It Worth It? Mixing on headphones is convenient, affordable, and sometimes unavoidable. But there’s one major problem: your headphones have their own sound. Some models exaggerate the bass. Others push the upper mids or treble. And even expensive studio headphones aren’t necessarily perfectly neutral. That means you can … Read more