Make A Beat In The Style Of KiNK’s ‘Perth’

Build a beat inspired by Bulgarian producer KiNK’s dancefloor-filling track ‘Perth‘.

Bulgarian DJ and producer KiNK is known for his high-energy live shows and high-energy dance floor tools.

Working in the realms of house, techno, acid and more KiNK has been on the scene since the mid-2000s. In 2017 he released his Playground LP on Gerd Jansons Running Back Records, featuring the ever-popular ‘Perth’.

‘Perth’ is a prime example of KiNK’s feel-good, dancefloor-filling production style. In this Beat Dissected we’ll be creating a beat inspired by ‘Perth’ using the samples and effects that come as standard with Ableton Live.

Here’s what we’re going to be making:

And here’s the beat with some music for context:

Want to follow along? Download the session below.

As ever click any image to enlarge!

Step 1: Kick

The kick drum in ‘Perth’ provides much of the bass weight so be sure to find a suitably hefty kick sample. ‘Kick Big Sine’ from the Ableton core library is fit for purpose. 

Create a new MIDI track, load Drum Rack on it and drag the kick sample onto one of the pads. Pitch it down four semitones and trim the sample down to make it tight. Add a slight fade out at the end of the sample to avoid clicks.

Program a standard four-to-the-floor kick pattern.

Step 2: Click

For this Beat Dissected we’ll be using a click in the traditional place of a snare drum. In the original track the click sample has a reverb tail. The sample ‘Snap 16’ from Chop and Swing has a nice reverb tail baked in. Pair it in Drum Rack with ‘Solid Snap’ from Skitter and Step for a bit more of a weighty thud.

To make Snap 16 tighter, trim the start of the sample. Now program both clicks to hit on the second and fourth beat of each bar.

Step 3: Hat and Ride

Load the samples ‘Chop Hat MSX’ and ‘Ride 707’ in the drum rack. Trim the hat sample so that only the first hat hit in the sample is triggered and pitch the sample up by one semitone. 

Use Redux, Saturator and EQ Eight as shown below to add grit and air, and to remove the low and to cut the lower mid frequencies.

Load Auto Pan after the ride sample, set the rate to 1/16 and the amount to about 35%.

Program the hat and ride as shown below. Notice the variation in velocity of the ride MIDI notes (highlighted blue).

Step 4: Tom and Rim

At the end of each bar, KiNK adds a bit of rhythmic variation with some 16th-note toms. We’ll be recreating this with two instances of the mid 505 tom and the 606 rim shot from the Ableton Core Library.

Load them in Drum Rack. Trim one tom so it’s very short, be sure to remove the transient of the sample. Pitch it down six semitones.

For the other tom keep most of the sample’s tail but add a short fade in at the start of the sample. Tune this tom down by seven semitones. Place it in the same choke group as the kick in Drum Rack so they don’t clash.

Tune the rim shot down by five semitones. Program the rim shot and the two toms as shown below.

Step 5: Shaker

The final element of our ‘Perth’-inspired beat is the shaker. Load ‘Shaker 134 BPM’. We don’t need to edit the sample but add Auto Pan with a rate of 1/16 and an amount of 63.5% to the channel.

Step 6: Processing

Finally, let’s finish the beat off with some effects. Load Drum Buss on the Drum Rack channel, add some subtle drive and compression to glue the elements together. You should notice this adds a nice movement to the ride as it ducks every time the kick hits.

Now group the Drum Rack and Shaker channels together and load Glue Compressor and Drum Buss on the group channel.

Set the Glue Compressor to about 5dB of gain reduction with a medium attack and release. Activate soft clipping. 

With Drum Buss add some soft distortion, crunch and damping.

Here’s the final beat:

And here’s the beat with some music for context:

If you like KiNK check out our YouTube videos for a behind the scente interviewer and a workshop on his live performance.

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