First off what you plan to record determines a few things. As does your environment. If you have a studio that’s great, I’m interested in talking to people without a studio. Since we don’t have the benefit of sound booths, professional wiring, and all the other fancy equipment and Microphones Pro studios have, we must use a little ingenuity and imagination.

Lets start with isolating what you’re recording from the backing track. Now unless you have a savant singer, or instrument player, they will need to hear the rest of the track to get their cues. So how do you do it?
The easiest way is to play the track over headphones on a separate computer or player, then record with your main system. If you cant, try isolating the recording mic instead. If you really have no way of keeping the live sound from bleeding into what you’re recording, try your best to position the mic, where it wont pick up as much of the backing track.

I have found that using an amp, and a recording Microphone works best. If you don’t have a USB Mic that plugs into the computer, or an adapter for plugging a standard mic jack into a computer, I have never seen a computer that doesn’t have a plug for an online chatting mic. They don’t pick up sound as good as a real mic, but they get the job done when you can’t afford anything else.
You can use a mic to record directly into the computer if you don’t have an amp, but you lose whatever ambiance the room adds when you go purely digital.

For electric instruments, place your mic about a foot or two away from the amp, for instruments like woodwinds, and strings, set them up close to the recording mic or the amp, and play with where you put the mic till you hit a sweet spot. For recording vocals, you need to differ for the vocalist. Some like to hold onto the mic when they record. For clean singing the mic they sing into should be slightly higher than their chin.

As you can tell there are a lot of variables to deal with. The most important thing to do is try to get the purest recording you can, with what you have. Don’t waste time worrying over what you don’t have, and do your best with what you have on hand. With a little experimentation and trial and error, you can make even the worst equipment work for you.

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

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$

You can take up Music production for the same reason some take up painting. You dont need to be great, you dont even need to be good. Its more about the personal satisfaction of having made something yourself. With the vast array of loops available, and the ease at which you can record your own, there are limitless possibilites for making something fun to please yourself. You never know, you might create something super catchy that can make you lots of money, and all for doing something fun. I highly recommend buying a copy of Acid Music Studio, and learning to use it. The simple fact you can spend a few hours blowing off steam in a productive manner, is reason enough.

If you do have room to store them on your hard drive; or hard drives, put them in easy to remember folders. The best way is to have a loops folder, then subfolders for a style of music or for each loop library. Arrange them the best way for you to keep track. Just remember that loop 00005.wav tells you absolutely nothing on its own, keep them organized! Lastly once you’ve used the file; if you move it, the program will complain and want to know where it is the next time you open a project. To save yourself a good deal of hassle be as organized as you possibly can with your loops.
If you plan on mainly using loops; to begin with at least, this is a must do task. However this also applies if you will be using your own instruments or doing any recording of your own material. Save them as names you’ll remember, and keep them organized in easy to use folders. This will save you a great deal of headache with searching. Acid music studios loop selection window, which you will be using for all track selection uses a simple folder, subfolder, subfolder etc. file selection method. Just dumping all of your loop files into one folder will be a massive headache when trying to find anything; one last time, keep it organized.

Back it up, back it up, back it up, back it up, back it up on DVD, CD, external hard drive, internal hard drives, anything you can. Hard drives can fail. Removable media like discs can be damaged. So in case you didn’t get it the first time back up your work or risk losing it!

Next is acidized loops. An acidized loop has beats per minute and pitch information right in the file. This allows you to use the loops at any beats per minute or pitch acid can handle, which is a lot. This turns even a small collection of loops into a massive library of potential. For example altering the beats per minute by roughly 20 is enough to give it a significantly different sound. With Acid MS thats roughly 7 steps you can change any one loop. You can also change the pitch of any of those seven steps within a loop giving you a great deal of flexibility. By using a special FX, you can easily turn even a very small number of loops into a coherent track simply by using the same ones over and over again just changing them in small ways.

Now creating your own loops may seem like a hard thing to do, trust me it isn’t. If you have a microphone and something to make noise with you can make loops. I have used my keyboard and a neck chain to create a nice little spooky chain dragging effect, also been a rather versatile vocalist I can use my voice to make lots of interesting noises also. These are very simple examples of how you can make your own loops easily. At first it may seem like there would be no reason to do this with all the loops available, but the simple fact is that even with the millions upon millions of loops out there probably none have never been used. The better the loop sounds the more likely it has been used a great deal.

You can also use existing loops and cut them up to create your own. You can use drum sequencers to craft your own drum loops. Tons of synthetic programs are available, many for free. You can also use your mic to record anything. In addition to the samples already given, you can record the guitar that you play with now and then, you can record dripping water, stomping feet, claps, outdoor noises, anything can be recorded into a loop.

Sampling is the act of taking an existing sound or piece of music and using it in your own tracks. All loops technically are samples. I personally draw a line and say that using loops is not actually sampling however. To me; and this is purely my opinion, sampling is taking bits and pieces from a song somebody else recorded and using them in your own. Rap was born from doing this.
Early rappers could not afford actual instruments, recording time or to put a band together. What they did have was early tape recorders and record players. By sampling other peoples music, mixing it to create beats, they were able to create a new genre of music. This was originally called hip-hop. It was originally used for dancing. It was not until the 90s it became associated with criminal activity or what is commonly known as gangsta rap. The problem with sampling, is by sampling someone’s song you are breaking copyright law. That’s it; no arguing, nothing will save you if you get caught and they want to sue.
The only way; and reason, you would sample song is if you intend to change the sample. This allows you to continue using the already recorded ambiance of the track, while not ripping off the artist who did originally record it. However the changes must be significant. For you to be able to say that you have truly taken that piece of recorded material, sampled it, and made it your own, you must truly change the original recording. Your best bet is that if you do not feel comfortable with taking the chance with using samples, don’t do it. I don’t use samples because I don’t feel comfortable with them. Otherwise you must get permission to use the sample from the owner of the song. Even if you do get permission, it can still be risky.
The case of The Verve’s song Bitter Sweet Symphony is a prime example. They got permission to use a sample in the song, but when it became a hit the owners sued citing they had used too much. The owners won the case, and The Verve never saw a dime of the money that song made.

In a related matter when you buy a CD or DVD with loops you do not own the rights to those loops. The copyright of those loops remains with the original maker. What you do have is a user license. Basically a contract allowing you to use the loops for the creation of your own material. You should always make sure you are buying royalty-free loops.

Royalty-free means you do not owe the company anything for using them as long as you are the one that rightfully bought them. Any loops that do have royalties will require you to pay the company anytime you sell any song with one of them and it. Be it by CD or download. You can buy of loops, or you can get them for free, some sources for free loops are sample downloads and magazines.
Once you have your royalty-free loops be they free; or bought, you have made a contract with the owner to be the only user of those loops. You cannot give them away, or sell them, nor can you buy used loop libraries. Doing any of these things voids the contract and your right to use them. So don’t do it. You cannot buy used loop libraries because you are not the original licensee of the loops. You can use your loops on other people’s work if you are a credited creative name on the product. This means that you are part of the creative process in making the work. By doing this the work becomes partially yours, and therefore you can use your loops. You would normally do this if you are a producer working with a group. This is why a good deal of rappers have similar sounding beats.