Beat Making

When it comes to beat making tutorials and information, it’s important to get good advice. This page has been set up to show you how easy it is to make powerful music, whether that be for rap, hip hop, pop or RnB. First, we’re going to take a look at the two essential ingredients to beat making: host programs and sounds.

Programs

Beat making software comes in many flavors, but you should remember that it is not the software that makes the music producer. No, quite the opposite! Dr. Dre could make a killer beat with FL Studio or another low-priced package, while a lesser producer would still struggle with the most expensive set up, such as a full-blown Pro Tools system.

However, there is something to be said for work-flow and inspiration. The very best DAW (digital audio workstation) set-up could be hindering your creativity and work-flow. (Work-flow can be described as the ease and comfort with which you flow from task to task as required.) So the most important task is finding the program that sports the ideal work-flow for YOU. Not for your favorite producer, but you.

Your beat making software is the host, because it plays host to all the virtual instruments you will be using, and also hosts all the audio and MIDI tracks for your project.

A quick warning: online hip hop beat maker software such as Sonic Producer is terrible. You should always purchase software that runs ON your computer and not in your web browser, or you will be frustrated and find yourself struggling to make any progress because of the ridiculous limitations. FL Studio is a great low-priced option, and is even used by many experienced beat makers and producers.

Sounds

While a less restrictive work-flow is always welcome, true inspiration comes from sounds. A higher price tag can sometimes mean a larger sound library if we’re talking about virtual instruments and such, so sometimes paying a bit more can be a good thing. Once you have your ideal music production host (your DAW), getting additional virtual instruments may be on the cards.

Revisiting our earlier example: while Dre could make some sweet tracks with FL Studio (formerly Fruity Loops), he may not be as inspired by its preset (default) sounds as he is by his home set-up, and therefore some of his energy may be drained during a longer beat making session with the same set of sounds. A lot of people right now are probably screaming at their PC screens right now, “you bloody idiot! You don’t need the presets to be good! Just modify and tweak until you have something amazing!” and this is a valid argument. But for those just getting their feet wet, tweaking the hell out of the same samples over and over isn’t really fun and can kill the creativity that doesn’t always strikes every day. I am all for maximizing those creative moments.

So having good, usable sounds from the get-go is very welcome. And anyway, presets are supposed to showcase a plug-ins capabilities, so not having very inspiring sounds can really drain your energy during beat making. Check out a virtual instrument’s product page and preview the sample sounds to get a good idea of what you’ll be getting. And read the reviews!

Video tutorials and more articles coming soon.