G-Funk

What it is

Los Angeles from 1992, when Dr Dre stopped chopping samples the way New York did and started having players re-perform Parliament and Funkadelic instead. The Chronic and Doggystyle set the template: slow, wide, sunlit, with live bass and a lead synth doing the melody that a sampled horn line would have done on the East Coast. Because the parts were played rather than looped, the arrangements change over four and eight bars instead of repeating a single bar, and because the tempo dropped to the low nineties the whole thing sits back behind the beat. It is still the sound most people hear as West Coast rap.

What it sounds like

Wide, slow and clean. The kick is round and the snare cracks hard on 2 and 4, but the pulse you actually feel comes from a tambourine on the offbeat eighths rather than from a hi-hat, which is why G-funk beats sound open where boom bap sounds dense. Over that: a portamento lead synth in the top octave making a thin whining line, a played electric bass with real finger noise, sustained Rhodes or string chords, and a female vocal hook. Everything is tuned, in time and mixed to be loud in a car.

Key elements

• The whineA monophonic synth lead in the fifth octave with heavy portamento, usually a Moog or a Minimoog emulation, playing a simple minor figure. It is the single most identifiable element of the style.
• Tambourine instead of hatsThe offbeat eighths carried by a tambourine while the hi-hat only marks the beat, so the top end is airy and open rather than a wall of sixteenths.
• Played, not sampledBass, keys and lead performed by session musicians replaying the feel of a P-Funk record. That is why the parts develop over eight bars instead of repeating every one.
• A snare that cracksTight, bright and short, sitting well forward on 2 and 4, usually a snare and a rimshot layered so the attack is sharper than the body.
• Laid-back placementNearly everything sits a few milliseconds behind the grid. At 94 bpm that lag is audible as a lean, and it is the reason the tempo alone does not reproduce the feel.

How to get them

• Lead synthOne oscillator, sawtooth, glide around 80 milliseconds, filter mostly open with a touch of resonance. Play it high enough that it sits above the vocal, then thin it with a high-pass at 400Hz so it stays a whine and not a pad.
• BassElectric bass with a pick or fingers, compressed at 4 to 1, with the mids around 700Hz pushed so it reads on small speakers. Play it a hair behind the kick rather than locked to it.
• TambourineOn every offbeat eighth, high-passed at 800Hz, panned wide with a short slap delay on one side. Alternate two velocities so it breathes rather than rattling flat.
• SnareLayer a tight acoustic snare with a rimshot about 8dB down. Gate the pair at around 180 milliseconds and add a very short room, under 0.4 seconds, so it cracks and then leaves.
• FeelSet swing to 55 percent, then drag the whole drum bus 8 to 12 milliseconds late against the bass and keys. The lean between the two is the sound; swing alone will not get you there.
• MixKeep the stereo field wide and the centre uncluttered: kick, snare and bass in the middle, tambourine, keys and lead spread out. These records were mastered for car systems, so check on one.

Reference points

Dr Dre, Warren G, DJ Quik, Battlecat, Above the Law and the Parliament and Funkadelic records all of it points back at. Named as reference points for the sound, not as endorsements or as anyone to imitate.