Making lo-fi hip hop beats:
the essential guide for beginners

You might remember when Lofi Girl hit the internet. It was a landmark cultural moment. Perhaps in a time when things felt chaotic, we needed this kind of music to slow ourselves down.

Whatever it was that was so compelling about Lofi Girl, it was part of a movement that made lo-fi hip hop one of the most iconic and laid-back genres for beatmakers. Dusty textures, mellow vibes, and a nostalgic feel are the foundational elements that make lo-fi hip hop what it is. With a sound that’s both soothing and raw, the genre works perfectly as a background listen and is somewhat of a 21st-century answer to 20th-century ambient music.

In this guide, we’ll go through how to make a lo-fi hip hop beat, step by step, using tools from the 360 Plus subscription. It will end up sounding like this:

Follow along with a free trial of 360 Plus, the ultimate music production subscription with everything you need to create your sound.

Start free trial

Jump to these sections:

• What defines lo-fi hip hop?
  • What is the structure of lo-fi hip hop?
• How to make lo-fi hip hop beats
  1. Set your tempo
  2. Find your sample or chord progression
  3. Create a laid-back drum groove
  4. Add melodic elements
  5. Arrange your beat

What defines lo-fi hip hop?

Lo-fi hip hop gets its name from the term “low-fidelity,” meaning low-quality sound. The genre embraces imperfections that were originally created by malfunctioning pieces of gear. Perhaps the lo-fi movement is a response to a digital era where all sound can easily be “perfected”.

Because of this, the genre leans heavily into detuned samples, vinyl crackle, wobbly tape sounds, and relaxed drum grooves. Unlike polished hip hop, lo-fi doesn’t aim for sonic perfection. It rather thrives on texture, warmth, and a sense of nostalgia. The genre often features jazzy chord progressions, simple drum patterns, and melodic loops that feel more like background ambiance than a club anthem.

You’ll also notice that lo-fi beats often sit around 60–90 BPM, with plenty of space between the drums, leaving room for a minimalist groove. Effects like reverb, delay, chorus, and bitcrushing are used generously to up the nostalgic ante.

Lo-fi is a subgenre of instrumental hip hop, and generally lacks vocals apart from the occasional reverb-drenched sample.

What is the structure of lo-fi hip hop?

Structurally, lo-fi hip hop is simple and repetitive, and that’s exactly the point. It’s meant to loop smoothly and create a vibe rather than a progression-heavy song. A typical lo-fi hip hop beat might have an intro, a main loop that builds slightly over time, and sometimes a breakdown where elements drop out before returning to the core groove. But there are no hard rules — lo-fi has more of a sound palette than a general structure.

Most lo-fi tracks are short — often around 1 to 3 minutes — but producers often focus on making each section feel cohesive and consistent, rather than building towards a dramatic climax.

Perhaps the reason for the simple structure of lo-fi tracks is that they mostly exist in the context of mixes. While individual songs are certainly popular, lo-fi playlists and compilations dominate the scene, like those from the exceedingly popular Lofi Girl:

How to make lo-fi hip hop beats

Let’s jump into how to make a lo-fi hip hop beat using some of the tools available in the 360 Plus subscription. For this tutorial, we’ll use instruments like Kontakt, Battery, and effects to give our beat that signature lo-fi feel.

1. Set your tempo

As we mentioned earlier, lo-fi generally sits around 60-90 BPM. For this beat, we’ll choose 65 BPM for a very relaxed vibe on the lower end of the energy spectrum.

2. Find your sample or chord progression

Many lo-fi hip hop beats start with a sample, often from old jazz records. These can be tricky to license, so if you’re not digging through vinyl crates, you can create your own rhythm sections and chord progressions.

For this track, we’re going to use a looping VI – i –V7 or in the key of A minor: F major – A minor – E7. We’ve added some extension notes as well to make the progression feel a bit more soulful and jazzy. The trick here is to keep it minimal and evocative – lo-fi leans into mood, not complexity. You can use any other chord progression you like.

We’ll play this on Electric Keys: Phoenix to get that essential smooth sound.

Once we’ve got the chords down, we can add some subtle bit-crushing grit with Bite. We’ll go with the Muffled Grey preset here for some downsampling and saturation.

Here’s how our chord loop sounds:

3. Create a laid-back drum groove

Next, we need to build our drum loop. Lo-fi drums are muted, with soft kicks, snappy snares, and swinging hi-hats that aren’t too bright.

We’re using Battery 4 for our drums, loading up some dusty kits from the factory selection. We’ve chosen a soft, thumpy kick, a loose snare, and acoustic-sounding hats that add groove without being too tight.

Here’s the basic pattern:

Here’s how the pattern sounds:

It’s cool already, but let’s get the drums sounding more authentically lo-fi.

Firstly, let’s add iZotope Vinyl straight onto the track with these settings:

Next, we’ll add some basic filtering. Add a low-pass filter with a gentle curve from 3.12 kHz to take out any crispy highs from the kit. We can also remove the deep sub noise from Vinyl with a sharp high-pass filter at 20 Hz.

With all that done, we’re left with the kit sounding like this:

4. Add melodic elements

With the chords and drums in place, it’s time to add some melody. Let’s layer a simple, repetitive phrase that complements the chords. We’ll play the melody with the Funhouse preset on Lo-fi Glow.

Lo-fi is all about feel, so let’s not quantize everything perfectly. The “janky” moments that sound out of time add to the feeling.

Let’s also lay down a counter melody that fills in the gaps left by the melody. We’ll play that using Dirty Output on Stacks.

To glue everything together and add some space, we’ll send both of these to a Raum reverb and Replika delay.

5. Arrange your beat

As mentioned earlier, lo-fi beats don’t need complex arrangements. Just bring in one element at a time for four or eight bar phrases, remove things when they feel too repetitive, and bring them back in when it feels appropriate.

A bit of “ear candy” like a reverse crash here and there to introduce sections is a good idea.

This is what the very simple arrangement looks like:

And more importantly, this is how it sounds:

This arrangement is by no means definitive. You should experiment with your arrangement patterns and styles. Arranging will be limited only by your creativity.

You might be asking yourself, “what about bass?” For this track, we’re relying on the warm tone of the keys and kick to cover the lower end of the frequency spectrum.

Many lo-fi hip hop tracks don’t have a dedicated bass. If you want to include one, use the root notes of each chord with a gentle, warm sub bass patch.

Start making your own lo-fi hip hop beats

If you’re producing lo-fi hip hop, you should prioritize feeling over perfection. It’s a genre where imperfection becomes character, and every element serves to create a feeling of warmth, nostalgia, and calm. Using the tools from 360 Plus, you have everything you need to dig into this style.

Start experimenting with your own lo-fi hip hop beats using a free trial of the 360 Plus music production subscription, and don’t be afraid to let your tracks breathe. Sometimes, less is more – and in lo-fi, that’s where the magic happens.

Start 360 Plus free trial