There are loop libraries made by some very famous musicians, and a whole horde of producers.

Ok now you know what they are, you are asking what are they for.

Well…you can use them to make your own songs, with nothing but loops. You can also use them to add touches to songs you have recorded. Since using them to add “color” to songs is common in music production, im not going to focus on that. Im going to talk about producing loop based songs.

The pro’s of making music based on loops:

First is that you dont need to learn all the instruments or hire people to record with. You do need to learn how to make them into something people will listen to, in essence the computer and your software becomes your instrument.

Second is comparative cost. You can buy loop collections for as little as 10 dollars, all the way up to a couple hundred for the superior quality collections. That may seem expensive; especially since there is a tendancy to collect loops, but compared to the cost of hiring musicians, its far cheaper.

Third is that it gives you a whole world of sounds, styles and effects to work with, right on your computer.

Now the con’s

Mainly the problem with loops is they are repetative. All the tricks in the world wont make up for the fact, that you cant really improve with loops the way a real musician can. With a little laerning, and some tricks you can fake it pretty well, but it still removes the wonderful human element, and the chance for happy accidents during jam sessions.

It can also become difficult; even impossible, to get the sound you want. You might have an amazing drum track lined up, you found a bass loop that is killer, you even found an awesome rhythm guitar loop that works. You spent hours cutting, pasting and tweaking it to get a realistic rock sound, and arrangement. Only one things missing, and its the one thing loops cant do. Give you lead guitar that matches everything else perfectly.

The same can be said of any genre of music.

So making songs with just loops is fun, its cheaper, it makes a great hobby and its got a pretty smooth learning curve, but not having any skill with an instrument, or musicians to work with limits what you can do.

I still would recommend using loops as a way to learn music production. Then you can increase the scope of your knowledge over time to include instruments, recording other people, and all the other fun stuff producers do.

Note: Buying Loops involves a license to use them for YOUR purposes. A person can NOT pass on this License. DO NOT BUY USED LOOP COLLECTIONS! The same goes for the Production Software. Buying used means you DO NOT have a legal license to use either, and you can be sued for stealing if your music starts making sells.

However I; personally, separate sounds you have bought or recorded yourself, from what is typically thought of as sampling. Probably born from early hip-hop artists, the act of sampling is taking parts of other peoples songs and using them to construct your own. There are several reasons to do this, the most obvious is that if you have no way to make your own songs, sampling lets you get around it. Another reason is that all recordings have a unique character, depending on the instruments used, and where they were recorded. Sampling lets you get a piece of that character.

Near as I can tell, those are the pro’s of sampling other peoples work. The con of sampling; in my opinion, far outweighs the pro’s. It’s copyright infringement. If you want an idea of how that can cause you trouble look up Vanilla Ice, and The Verve. In the case of The verve they had permission to use the sample, but the owner decided they had used too much.

This is why I distinguish between anything you buy, or record yourself and Sampling. I just call the first loops, and anything taken from someone else’s song is a sample. For obvious reasons I don’t ever use samples. Unless it’s something in the public domain, and even then I don’t make it available for sale.

So now you know more about sampling and why you might want to do it, but really shouldn’t. There is a whole world of sounds around you to explore, so why risk the potential trouble of a copyright lawsuit.

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Start Your Own Successful Music Company And Get Funding From Investors With A Professional Record Label Business Plan Template. Free Bonus Offers Included Such As The Musicians Upload Directory + A Big Music And Entertainment Business Contracts Package.

The Business plan is a sweet deal. When it comes to getting a new business going, the plan will guide you every step of the way. Rest of the time you would have to spend months researching this info, they give you a step-by-step plan to get your music label running, how to promote it, and most importantly with the bonus legal documents, how to protect it and yourself.

Lots of useful info in this. Lots of Bonus Materials. The best part is it contains every single form, legal file, contract, and resource you could possibly need to start up your own label. The time it saves you from finding all that stuff is worth the cost on its own. Not to mention the saved lawyer fees from having to have someone write up these docs for you to make’em air tight.
Learn how to Start your Own Label by clicking this link

Many Essential Parts That Should Be In Your Music Business Plan Including…
A Mission Statement, Executive Summary, Company Description, Personnel, Recording of the music, Manufacturing, Distributing Off-line, Distributing Online, Marketing and Promotion, Music Videos, Distribution For Other Labels, Merchandising, Concert Promotion, Industry Analysis Of Independent Labels, Music Industry Sales Volumes – CD Versus Digital Sales, Marketing Goals And Objectives, Marketing Promotion Strategy, Radio Promotion, One Year Sales Campaign, Dance Club Promotion, Public Relations, Print Advertising, Charity Involvement, Internet Music Marketing Strategies, Marketing Summary, The Management Team, Marketing And Sales, Publicity, Promotion, Artist Relations Department, Artist And Repertoire Department, Creative Services Department, The Financial Plan, Project Balance Sheet Yearly Totals, Music Project Protection Costs, Projected Statements Of Cash Flow, Projected Balance Sheets, Break Even Profit Analysis,  Use Of Funds Statement, And More…

This is a full plan for starting your own record label. It covers everything you will need to know about the music business. It’s not quite cut and paste, but the time you save with this will give you even more time to work on getting your artists, and doing the things you think of when you dream of starting your own label.
Less time learning to run things, more time in the studio and having fun. Sounds like a good idea to me.

If you have any desire to start your own label, and want to be taken seriously you will need a lawyer, and maybe even a business manger at some point. Chances are you can’t afford them right now.
With this you can at least learn enough about the inside of the music industry to get things started, and most importantly you will be able to know if someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

The Music industry can be a cut throat business at times, be sure you have the knowledge to give you the keener edge.

Learn how to Start your Own Label by clicking this link

Well…that’s really a good thing because it means someone with a fresh new sound can sometimes hit a home run without a huge label backing them up. So that’s what I want to help you with, how to make some killer beats, and make them yours, rather than cookie cutter.

Lets start by breaking down the beat. Drums, Bass, Back up and Accents. Drums and Bass are easy enough, the Back up and Accents are the keyboards, strings and noises used to keep the drums and bass from getting annoying. When you start making beats you need to do each of these separate.

Step One: What kind of beat do you want to make? Seems like a simple answer, but sometimes you might need to sit down and really think about it. Depending on the style of Rap you want to make beats for decides what elements will be used, and how they should be put together. It is a big part of starting a new hip hop project.

Step 2. With or Without vocals? With-out vocals you need to spice up the beat more, than if you have someone spitting some rhymes. The reason for this is pretty straight forward. If you have someone putting down some vocals for you, that will make the track less annoying than if its the same beat over and over by itself. You need to be the judge on how much spice your beat needs when you start making it.

Step 3. Choose your drums. The drums Drive the track, so be picky. Now I have made tracks with the drums dominating, and ones with the bass dominating. It doesn’t matter which way you choose to go, but you need a solid percussion to set the pace. Making beats is all about the rhythm, so spend more time on your drums and bass.

Step 4. Your Bass. You can either rely on your kick drum for bass, or funk things up a bit. It depends on what style you want to work with, and your own sense of taste. I come from a rock background, so I like to make things funky with a hot bass line. Sometimes when I’m making beats I break the rules, and use the Bass to drive the track, but that’s what gives my beats a unique, funky style.

Step 5. The Back Up. The hardest part of making beats for me, you might find it easier. This is simply where you find some nice keyboards, strings, synthesizer riffs, funky guitar or some other instruments that help bring out the beat, while also keeping it from getting annoying.

Step 6. The Accents. This can be Instrument stabs (quick notes or riffs), DJ scratching, guns cocking, shots fired, spoken word elements, screeching tires, and anything else you can think of. These quick elements are used to break up the repeating nature of beats, and also help tell the story.

Step 7. Putting it together. This is the part I can’t help you with much. You need to put together your beat in a way that you like, it is yours after all. Here are some tips. Try laying down a basic drum and bass, then work it over till you hit on something that really screams, USE ME! Once you have the drums and bass, you can work on some Back up and Accents to compliment them. Before you know it you have a sweet new beat.

Step 8. Laying Down Vocals. Since the style of the vocalist determines how you need to arrange the track, the easy way is to get your beat down, and loop it so your rapper can bust out his rhymes. Once you have a couple of verses down, come up with a chorus. A free style rapper might not need the track arranged, just let him spit a while and see where things go.

Step 9. Arrangement. The easy way is to lead into your beat, and let it ride a moment. Then bring in the first verse. You can use a variation of your beat for the chorus, then drop another verse. You can repeat for however many verses you ended up with. Try stopping your beat, and using a variation of your Back up track for the bridge (part before the last chorus), then repeat the chorus. You might throw in something for a big finish.

Step 10. Production. Okay, now you need to set things up so they pop. Often called the mix down, this is where you go in and polish the song. Use you EQ (equalization) to shave out any disruptive noise. Check your volume levels and make sure you are staying in the green. If you let your volume levels spike into the red, your song will distort and sound messed up. You need to make sure the vocals stand out from the beat when they should, and that the beat comes back to the front of the track in between vocal parts.

Step 11. File Format. For the net the best format to render it out in is either a WMA or an Mp3. WMA’s are good for low quality hand outs on you website. Mp3’s should be at least 192kbps for good quality, but higher is better if you have the space. For CD go with a High quality Mp3, or better a Wav file.

Step 12. Promote it. Visit rap forums and pimp yourself off, use Myspace and do whatever else it takes to get the word out. Having a Website of your own is a good idea.

Now you have the basics of putting together your own hip-hop and rap beats. Remember your drums and bass are the key, the rest is just decoration. Master the drums and Bass, and you will be a king.

Beat Software

Awesome new Production Software for Beats. It wont take the place of a real studio and Pro software, but if you don’t have a few G’s to drop down on the gear, you wont find a better program than this one.

You can be making some great sounding beats in minutes. This software is an affordable alternative, and a time saver. If you’re looking for some nice beats to rap over, this will let you make your own, and not break your wallet to do it.

If you want to make great beats on a budget click this link

When you play a CD, the reason each track sounds the same volume, the reason some tracks fade out, and others move into the next, is mastering. Its the finishing process of making music. When you put together a mix CD, with songs from different albums, you no doubt notice they often change volume, this is because every CD is a bit different in how its mastered.

You see, different types of music need the emphasis to be on different parts of the sound spectrum. Once everything is ready, the volume of the whole CD is made consistent, and its then burned into a master. The master is then duplicated to make the CD’s that are sold.

Also; contrary to popular misconception, commercial CD’s are not burned like a computer burns one, the information is actually stamped into the back of the disc, and a protective layer is applied, this is why damage to Commercial CD’s can be buffed down. As long as the backing layer (the top of the disc) is undamaged, the information is still intact.

Mastering is an expensive process, involving complex programs and years of learning. Since each album will need to be mastered differently, there is no template, no one size fits all. That is the where the real skill comes in. It is also why most of the mastering for all music albums is handled by a relatively small community of professionals. Another misconception is that’s its part of the studio process, in reality the music is sent out to be mastered, after its been finished.

Musician MasterMind:
A Five Month Program That Teaches Musicians How To Get Their Own Website, Set Up A Marketing System And Make Music Sales From Their Website. Ive been using his system for awhile now, and have gotten some good results from it. If you want to get your sounds out there and dont want to get ripped off by corp-rats, this is the way to go. Its rather pricey but this will teach you everything you need to go from 0 to Big Fucking Star.
Musician MasterMind
Self Promotion Resources to Boost your Music Career:
Myspace guide.
201 Self-Promotion Tips For Songwriters, Musicians And Bands On A Budget.
Lots more about getting your music out there to potential fans.
Musician MasterMind is High end, this is Bargain. Dont get me wrong, the tips in here can take you a long way down the road. If you cant afford MasterMind, these guides will let you pick a subject and master it. The Myspace Promo guide is kickass.
Self Promotion Resources

In this article I’m going to go over how useful a computer actually is. I’m going to compare old-school analog equipment to modern computers, and the programs used by them. To start off with the absolute essential analog recording device, a multi track tape deck. A multi track tape deck allows you to make multiple recordings and play them back at the same time. This lets you take two, three, or more recordings and combine them into one. This lets you record vocals, drums, guitars, keyboards and whatever other instruments being used as separate tracks. Then using the recorder you combine them into one. These multi track tape decks are expensive, and can take up a lot of space. They are also limited in the number of tracks they can use at once. Acid music studio has a number of tracks only limited by your computer’s ability to handle them. The same tracks you would use for loops can be used as a multi track recorder.

Next I’m going to go over effects. There is a vast amount of effects available. In old-school analog recording you needed a rack full of various effect modules. These effects can cause lots of different changes to your music, or the sounds that you use to make it. I will go into all the various effects in a different article. Let me simply say that there are dozens of effects used both with instruments and recording. From the pedals guitar players use, to the reverb effect there are many available. And with traditional hardware each one takes up room, lots of room. If you’ve ever seen footage of the band recording studio you have probably seen what I’m talking about. All those shelves of black boxes with the knobs and switches, with cords leading together. Furthermore most of these effects would be used while recording. Taking away the freedom to apply them later. And on top of all that you have the massive equalization control panel. That’s the big desk with all the sliders and knobs.

A home recording studio using the computer combines all of this equipment into one tool. As long as your computer can handle them it can use as many effects as you want. Including all the traditional effects as well as plenty of very weird ones that you will only find for computers. Including EQ panels. Best of all you can apply these at any time. While the best effects processors do cost money plenty can be found for free. Most of these will plug in directly to your program. Acid music studio has built-in effects. I have also found a number of free ones I have downloaded to use.

The same thing that can be said about effects can be said about MIDI and drum machines. Hardware versions of these machines, and old-school synthesizers which were also modular take up a large amount of space. Certain models would have their own sound just like any instruments, and with any enthusiasts there would be a tendency to collect them. A computer takes all of these tools and gives them to you in a single package. Again the best ones do cost money. However many very nice MIDI, drum machines, and synthesizer programs/plug-ins can be gotten for free.

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Need help to learn the Keyboards? This Unique program will help you learn how to play in months rather than years. What ever the style you want to play, you can learn it with this program. Gives you the wisdom of a teacher, without the high cost and time to find and hire one.
Another program I thought deserved to be on here. They came up with a way to train you to play that’s efficient, but not boring. It actually helps you want to play, rather than discouraging you.
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Online Print shop. Pro-Printing for Lots of the things a band needs printing done for.
Sometimes you need stuff printed up. They do it at great prices.
These folks have a solid rep, i trust them.

In this post I am going to give you a list of the things you need and have Amazon ads that should both give you an idea of what to look for, and easy access to one of the best places to look for bargains online.
I will also assume you are building a digital workstation, because you cannot make a cheap analog (old-school) music studio.

Lets get started.

The First thing you need is a Computer that can handle a decent amount of abuse. Most home computers can handle Software like Acid Music Studio without much (if any) problem.
I recommend at least a 2Ghz processor, 2 gigs of ram and duel (two) monitors.

Next is Storage Space. No matter if you are going to be recording your own stuff, or using loops, or a combination you are going to need plenty of room for your recordings, and backups, least you lose anything.
A larger hard drive, burnable dvd’s for extra back-up protection and even an external hard drive are all good ideas.
The best thing to do is set up your computer for RAID. With this system (not all computers can do it, but most can nowadays) if one Hard Drive fails it loads a back-up onto a spare drive in the system thus protecting your data.
However this is about a cheap set up, so a single larger drive to give you space, and plenty of DvD-Rs is your best bet on storage and protection.

Next you will need a soundcard. Okay, this is where we get into specialized gear. If the computer you already have checks off, and you already have plenty of storage that gives you an all clear on the hardware front right? Wrong.
Does your machine have a sound card?
I don’t mean built in software and ports for plugging speakers into. I mean an actual sound card that plugs into a slot on the machine.
If not, you need one, because you will never get great sound quality, or control from the software based “Soundcards” most computers are sent out with.
Now I am not going to go into a long speech on Sound Cards but some cards are built for audio production work, and most aren’t. Since we are talking cheap, just get what you can afford.
Do not go with USB sound cards, you need a real card that you plug into one of the white slots on the motherboard of the computer.

Got a SoundCard? Even if you do you still need speakers. There are speakers called studio monitors that are built for audio production work, but any decent set of computer speakers will work. I advise you get more traditional style speakers. The more standard, and “old school” the build the more general the sound production from them will be.
That is what studio Monitors do. Give you play back with as little “hard ware color” as possible. By which I mean, the speakers don’t affect the sound playback much. All speakers playback sounds different to some degree, try to find ones that don’t too much.

Right, I hear you say… I’m no noob, I got game, and I play them. I’ve got sweet gear, tell me about something I don’t already have.

Right then. Do you have a Microphone? If you game, then you might have one for chatting. Believe it or not that will work just fine to get you started. This is one place you can spend an arm and a leg on, but you don’t have to right away. I get decent results with a 10$ chatting mic. You just do what you can with it.

If you want higher quality, try something like this.

So now you have the Hard Ware you need to get started. Next you need recording software. That’s easy. Just go here Sound Engine”
It works and it’s free. Can’t get cheaper than that.

Next you will need your production software. Please read through this page to decide what software you want to use. For a beginner, I recommend Acid Music Studio based on an easy learning curve, a good price, and the fact you will have all of the instruction videos I am/will be putting up to learn more about the program, and my tricks for it.

Those are the things you need to get started. Lets get more involved.

Next is where to put it. Obviously space is an issue, as is sound control, both incoming and outgoing. Neighbors or your Mom might not care for you blasting your creations at 3 in the morning while you try to figure out just what is off in that one part of the song.
There are many ways to go about sound proofing. From remodeling your home to just putting up home made baffles. Baffles are objects that catch sound rather than letting it through or reflecting it.
A card Board box with pieces of other boxes stapled to it to form spikes , maybe with some cheap carpeting stapled onto that, is a cheap way to create a baffle.

They also come in handy when recording. Letting you do your thing without as much bleed over from what’s playing.
Another trick is to record in a closet that you have packed some blankets and other soft stuff into.
The idea is to get as pure a recording as you can, without the environment interfering.If you have a nice space, letting the ambiance of that space work it’s way into your work is never a bad thing.
There is a reason why some of the best Studios in the world attract so many musicians. The space you work in can be very important to how your work ends up sounding.

Steps Two and Three are all on you. Give your computer a good look over, even if you think you have everything you need. Look around to see what you have to work with as far as space goes. Your imagination is your best tool, use it well.

Things you might want. Loops. When you are just starting out loops are your best friends. Even if you plan to record a lot, or even most of your own material, having a selection of loops to play around with is never a bad idea. Just keep in mind they can get expensive, and take up space.
Below is selection from what Amazon has available. Just do a search on Acidized loops, or Sound Loops and you will find a whole universe of sounds and samples to play with.

Getting a pair of nice headphones is also a good idea. You can work away and not have to worry about bothering anyone. They also come in handy while recording. Allowing you to hear the playback, and record without getting bleed over.
A good sound card is a must for doing that.

1. Acid Music Studio: My Program Of choice and the best one I have used. Interface is smooth and user friendly. Makes it easy to work with my loops, and third party loops. Acidized loops have Pitch and BPM information directly in them, allowing for incredible precision. I honestly feel its the best bang for your buck. I will use it as my yard stick for the others.

2. Garage Band: Since it comes with most Mac’s you cant beat the price. It has many of the same features as Acid, but lacks some of the better ones. Its also pretty user friendly. The main draw-back is that you need a Mac to use it.
GarageBand Adds

3. MAGIX Music Maker 14. MAGIX has some good products. Its a bit more expensive than Acid music studio, but it has some nice features. Its a bit better for people looking to make their own loops. It has really good built in instruments, and effects.

4. FlexiMusic Kids Composer: A cool program for kids. Its bare bones, but it helps kids compose music with colorful Images and a very easy to use interface.

5. Logic Express: At $199 its a tad pricey. However If you can afford it, and you have a Mac, Apples Logic Express is a prince amongst Home Music Making Software. It has some of the best features, for one of the best prices you will find.

6. Sequel 2: Simple to use and fun. At $99 its affordable for the beginner, and doesn’t have so many features it will set your head spinning. The features it has a perfectly suited to producing music at home. Its particularly good with Electronica styles, and also features a large library of free loops.

7. Sonar Home Studio: At $139 its a bit high for a beginner, but CakeWalk produces some great products. If you want something that gives you incredible features for a great price, Sonar Home Studio is good. I still prefer Acid Music Studio, if for no other reason than the better price.

8. Honorable Mentions:
Pro Tools, Reason, Logic, Fruity Loops (FL studio), and Acid Pro all get an honorable mention from me.
Pro Tools is the Mack Daddy of Music Production Software. However even the seriously cut down versions of it are expensive, with the full program requiring it’s own hardware to run and costing thousands.
Reason and Logic are good if you really like making your own sounds, and working with full digital synths and stuff. I personally find them frustrating, and too involved for my taste. I will eventually move on from loops, but not any time soon.
Fruity Loops is also a good program with a lot of nice features. It’s prices are in the same arena as Acid, and it actually is a better program for getting into more involved audio production. I will likely start using it when I feel Acid Music Studio has become too limited for me.
Acid Pro is the full version of Music Studio. It has more functions, and a lot more to offer. It also costs around 400-500$