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Your effects will be very important to you, as will be your synth tools. Focus on creating the feeling of going someplace through nothingness. Once you have taught yourself to create that atmosphere, then the rest becomes much easier.

Once you have figured out how to create that feel of moving around in space, the rest is up to you.

Minimalist Techno

ryan murphy — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:32:38 +0000

The basic principle of Minimalist techno is getting people moving. Its pure dance music.

When you set yourself on making a Minimalist techno track, work your drums and bass first and arrange everything else around them. Don’t worry so much about not being repetitive, use pitch and processing to work the drums into something that you could dance to without anything else. Then you can go back through and add some other small elements to show off your style, and flair.

You actually want it to be repetitive. The idea is to get the listeners so zoned on the beat, they dont even care about the rest of the song. Keep the beat strong and heavy. It can be fast, slow, or anything you want. It just needs to be something that keeps them moving.

I personally find it to be an annoying style to make. Its not easy, the precision needed to make the drums, bass and hooks ride true is tiring. I just don’t like music that’s so repetitive.

However I will often work a track as a Minimalist song to start with, then work it to where I want it to go. I figure if its a decent sounding minimalist track, it’ll make a great foundation to base something else on.

Really if you make a good enough Minimalist song, you could base an entire album on it. NEVER WASTE A GREAT BEAT!

If you are working on your beat skills, I suggest working with some Minimalist techno tracks for awhile. Once you have down the art and science of making a good Minimalist song, you can make beats for anything.

As inspiration try listening to some tribal music. The drums are the drive, the other instruments (if there are any) are just there to add color. You are looking to make beats that dig into peoples minds and hearts and grab them, and don’t let go till the songs done. Master that and any dance style is yours for the making.

A little help to spark your creativity
One of my little helpers. If you’ve ever wondered how I can pop out new songs and videos so quickly (the odd ones), this is my secret. Its affordable, and full of cool little tricks to help you boost your creativity.
Unleashing The Creative

Hip Hop and Rap Beats in 12 Steps

ryan murphy — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:06:28 +0000

The nice thing about Hip Hop and Rap is that its a pretty open area of music to explore. The only problem is that most of the top vocalists use a lot of the same producers, so most of the top players have beats that sound alike.

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

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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.

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