How to Make Hip Hop Beats - 10 Easy Steps

Hip Hop Beat Programs :

When you're just starting out how to make beats it can be fun and frustrating at the same time. Trust me I was there. But it really is easier then you think. If you're making a beat here are 10 tips that will get yo stated.

How to Make Hip Hop Beats - 10 Easy Steps

1. Pick a style- Know the style of beat you want to make before you start making it. Like rnb,rap,pop, etc. There have been plenty of beats that I made and could not figure out what style it was.

2. Pick A Major Artist- Think of a known artist that you would want to make the beat for. Like if you chose a style a rap, think now what rap artist do you want to make the beat for. Try to imagine that artist on your beat. This will make your hip hop beat-making experience a whole lot easier.

3. Listen To Their Song- Take a listen to the rap artist you are making the beat for songs. See the style. Get a feel for the kind of hip hop beats the artist raps over.

4. Formatting The Song- Very important. formatting is, the intro, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, etc. That's all it is but basically you just change the order around however you feel like it. Turn on the radio and see how your favorite artist formats there song. When instruments come in, when they drop out. The most basic form to start with is, 2 or 4 bar intro, 16 bar verse, 8 bar chorus, 16 bar verse, 8bar chorus, 16 bar verse, 8 bars chorus. This is the most basic beat-making song format. This is very common in rap. If you want an even simpler way, you can create an 8 bar loop and keep it the same throughout the whole song. I have seen this done a lot.

5. Laying down the beat- I have learned that for starters, it's easier to start with the drums. Kick, Snare, Hi hat, are always a good start. Record a pattern for four bars with those first. Then layer that with maybe some toms, cow-bell, symbols, etc. Whatever you want to use. THE DRUMS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT IN MAKING HIP HOP BEATS! Your drums must hit and hit HARD. The best way to get your drums hitting hard is by not using "pitty pat" free kits you downloaded from the internet for free. If your drums are weak, then your beat is going to be weak.

6. Laying Down A Melody- This is where most hip hop beat-makers have the most trouble. Because most eat makers can't play the keys. For starters, you might want to learn basic keyboard skills. The major thing you need to learn are, major and minor scales. After you learn that, try and do different combinations and patterns with the drum beat you have made. Use an instrument like, a lead guitar, horns, clav, something that will stand out. Your melody can be however you want it, but for starters, you could do a 4 bar melody, or an 8 bar melody.

7. Layering The Beat- What is done a lot in beat making is layering. If you have your whole beat finished. You can go and make it sound bigger by layering. All you do is fill in some gaps, do the same pattern you did with one instrument with another instrument. Do this throughout your beat. This will make you beat sound a lot fatter.

8. Pan- Panning is basically having an instrument all the way to the right, all the way to the left, and anywhere in between. You pan for all kinds of different reasons. It gives each track its own little space in the stereo field. There are no rules for panning, put you have to do it. So just try it out and see what you like best.

9. The Mixdown- Very important! Very Important! Very Important! If you have a poor mix on your beat, then you have pretty much wasted your time. When mixing a beat, start with each track individually. Solo each track and make sure it sounds good by itself. EQ it if you have to, but if each track sounds good by itself, the whole beat will sound that much better. DO NOT DISTORT! If your master levels are in the red before you bounce to disc or .mp3, your distorting. Don't worry about if its not loud enough. You never ever ever want to distort. If you are distorting, check any instrument that has boom or low end, Like a kick, bass, sub, etc. these tend to distort more often.

10. The Bounce- Now that you made you're beat, Its the hottest hip hop beat ever, you want to put it on cd or upload it to the internet. When you're exporting a beat for cd, Use .wav file. 44.1 16bit. If you want to upload to the internet use, 320kbps (the highest .mp3 quality) or 128kbps. Most websites wont accept 320kbps because the file size is too big. So go with 128kbps.

These are all just guidelines to help you get started. There are millions of ways to make a beat, But this is just to help you get your feet wet if you don't know where to start.

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Free Software For Music Production

Hip Hop Beat Programs :

Free software for music production is a great way to get started in composing your own music. However you'll quickly find that as you delve into creating more and more beats the limitations of these free software applications will become apparent.

Free Software For Music Production

Getting into the music industry is extremely difficult, given it is a highly competitive market place. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of people trying to get in every day, and sadly a lot of them fail, for a number of reasons, but primarily for the poor quality of their beats. So producing quality beats is one simple step in the right direction. If you get a name for yourself as a quality beat maker then, you could potentially have producers head hunting you.

However, before you are able to mix-it-up with producers you will first need to get your beat making skills up to a reasonable level. One of the best ways to do this is to teach yourself how to use various types of computer based beat software programs. You can find some free and paid software solutions online.

A major benefit when getting into computer based beat programs is that they do not take up additional space in your music studio, like a drum machine, keyboard or musical instruments. In fact if you have a laptop then your studio becomes instantly portable, which means you can be creating beats where ever you are.

Another major benefit is that a lot of these applications come with a huge library of pre-recorded beats and midi sounds, which in some cases can replace bulky instruments like the drums, keyboard and guitars. Of course there is one proviso here, the quality of the sound depends on the software application you choose, and the capability of your sound card.

Take time to learn how to use a beat maker software application correctly. Understand how to use the features properly, and then you'll be producing the high quality music that you hear on the radio and television everyday. You'll find that you can create quality sounds in no time at all with minimal cost and a lot of fun.

A really good way of learning how to use a beat maker software program is to try to reproduce the music of one of your favorite songs. This will help you to get an appreciation for the instruments involved; how to differentiate the sounds and how to reproduce the sounds of each instrument. I've found this to be one of the best ways to learn how to produce your own beats, because you can use ideas from songs and modify them to create your own unique sound.

There are literally hundreds of different software applications available online and the rule of thumb I always use is you get what you pay for. If you don't have much cash to buy a beat making program then you could use a free audio package like Audacity. Audacity is really basic in features and does not come with pre-recorded beats, however you can create multiple tracks and save them in mp3 and wav formats. Fifty dollars will give you a reasonable software product that will come with pre-made beats and midi sounds. So start out with a free product first if your budget doesn't allow for it, then upgrade and buy a product that offers you more features. As you get good at creating music you will need to upgrade to a better software product to be competitive in the music business.

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History Of Hip-Hop

Hip Hop Beat Programs :

Hip-hop music or rap music is an admired and famous style or genre of music in the USA. This well-known music genre is made up of two components, rapping and record scratching. Rapping is also known as MCing and DJing, which comprises of audio mixing. These two main components combined with graffiti and break dancing form the four core elements of hip-hop.

History Of Hip-Hop

Hip-hop was initiated as a cultural movement by inner-city youth, mostly Latinos, Hispanics, and African Americans in New York City, in the early seventies. The word "rap" was derived in the sixties, from a slang word that meant conversation.

Hip-hop has two main historical eras, the old school hip-hop era from 1970-1985 and the golden age hip-hop era from 1985-1993. The golden age of hip-hop began only when it entered the mainstream of music and it consolidated the sounds of the West Coast and the East Coast.

The origin of hip-hop music is from African American and West African music. Contributions of griots like The Last Poets, Jalal Mansur Nurriddin, and Gil Scott-Heron were significant in a big way for the advent of hip-hop in the 1960s. Hip-hop had originally begun in the Bronx. Funk and soul music were played a lot in block parties. In the beginning, the DJs at these parties began separating the percussion breaks from hit songs. They started realizing that these breaks were more entertaining and groovy. This technique had become widespread in Jamaica and had spread considerably in the New York community via the Jamaican immigrants.

Kool DJ Herc and Grandmaster Flash were the pioneers in the hip-hop industry and other DJs had extended the short percussion interludes of funk records and created a more danceable sound. As a result, remixes had become popular with the advent of mixing and scratching techniques. Many styles of hip-hop had developed in the golden age of hip-hop.

At present, hip-hop is enjoyed all around the world. In spite, of all the controversies created by hip-hop artists they are still growing in number. Hip-hop music is sold all over the world in stores and even online.

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Easy Steps on How to Make Hip Hop Beats

Hip Hop Beat Programs :

The fantastic aspect about hip hop and a major part that makes it popular is the basic rules laid down when making a hip hop beat. This creates space for creative expression due to its flexibility. Despite the fact that it can be fun making the beat it can also be cumbersome at times. Here are few steps you can follow on how to compose hip hop beats.

Easy Steps on How to Make Hip Hop Beats

The first step is picking the style of the beat. You have to know what you want before making it. These styles are like rap, rnd, pop, etc. after determining your style is when we go to the actual making of the beat. You should start with creating a drum beat which is the most fundamental part of this beat. When creating the drum beat you can opt to use pre-recorded midi - drums, drum loop or just produce your own drum loop with a beat making software. To make a solid base you are required to produce a drum beat that is four or two measures long.

After laying down the drums, the next thing you need to do is creating or picking a bass grove. The bass line you decide to use should rhyme with the drum beat, catchy and loop-based. You should know that the bass groove is also important. Using your program you can produce your own bass line or just go online and download a free bass groove. Now you have the bass and the drums now it is when creativity comes in.

The subsequent step is adding an orchestration. An orchestration is basically any element or musical sound that is at the top of the basic beat. At this point you can decide to use an instrument like a harmonica, violin or harp. You can also add any sound as long as it complements the hip hop beat. Once you are through with this step, you now can add some samples. Sampling is usually included in all hip hop beat. This is simply a snippet of the pre-recorded song by an artist. To avoid getting any trouble with the copyright laws you should get permission from the artist. Once you are through with that hurdle you can now add the samples to the beat.

After that, is the part where you add effects. These will help in adding originality to the beat. There a number to pick from and it is up to you to decide what you want. These effects range from delay, compression and re-verb.

It all comes down to just a mere fact of understanding the current trends by most hip hop artists and then letting your imagination run the show. Listen to the all times greats and apply the basics and the question of how to make hip hop beats won't need an answer. All you need to do is train your ears to pick out the trends and know what the hip hop industry is craving for. With all this you will make bit in the music world.

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Downloading Hip Hop Samples 101

Hip Hop Beat Programs :

So, you have an idea for a new track, or you're new to Hip Hop production, but you don't know where to get the samples you need to produce your banging beat? I've been in that position numerous times.

Downloading Hip Hop Samples 101

When downloading Hip Hop samples from the web you only have two options. You can download free samples, or you can pay for them.

Free Samples

We all hate spending money. Free is good. But, when we are talking about free audio samples there are some major drawbacks:

Pros:

• Samples don't cost anything.
• Free to use

Cons:

• Samples can lack in audio quality making them unusable.
• Usage rights can be unclear when using samples from unknown authors or sources.
• Samples are used by thousands of other producers making your work unoriginal.

If you are trying to build a name for yourself, and establish yourself as a credible producer you want to avoid using free samples. Chances are every man and his dog are using the same samples and your productions will never sound original.

Paid Samples

I can hear you grunting at the thought of having to pay for audio samples. Don't worry, I'm the same. But, there are huge benefits to using professional samples in your productions:

Pros

• High quality samples.
• Available in many different formats i.e. Wave, Rex, Reason Refill, ESX24, Akai Programs, Kontact etc.
• Royalty free.

Cons

• They cost money.

Using paid samples is obviously the best choice for any Hip Hop producer that wants to succeed. I can bet Pete Rock, JDilla, Dr Dre and other big name producers all purchased samples, or sample packs at some point in their career.

Where to find Free Hip Hop Samples

Over the years as an experienced Hip Hop producer I've found various sources to download free Hip Hop samples. Some I've listed below:

• Use Google and search for terms like "free hip hop samples.wav".
• Purchase music magazines. On the cover of most magazines are CD's or DVD's that often come with large collections of royalty free samples.
• Join music production forums that are aimed at the genre you produce in. I am a member on a number of Hip Hop and Dubstep production forums, and constantly see threads where members share their samples.

It's very important to avoid downloading from file sharing websites, or using P2P software. People often share music and samples that do not belong to them, such as commercial sample packs. Using copyrighted material can get you into serious trouble. It's not worth the risk.

To conclude, it's safe to say there is nothing wrong with using free samples when you are starting out. But, in the long run at some point in your career you are going to want high quality, professional sounding, samples that can be used on tracks fit for artists like Lil Wayne, Drake or Eminem. Free samples lack in quality and depth which will ultimately have a negative effect on the overall sound of your productions.

Have fun with your music, and I wish you success.

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How to Make Beats Online

Hip Hop Beat Programs :

So you want to make beats on your computer but you don't know where to start. Or perhaps you feel as though you don't have the skills to produce professional level beats. If this is the case, then you are going to love what I am going to say next. Anyone with a computer and some time on their hands will be able to create hip hop beats. In fact, making beats on your computer is very easy. I am constantly surprised even by the simplicity of the professional beats heard on the radio. With the tools and resources available, the option of creating your own beats is more available than ever before.

How to Make Beats Online

The first step is to find a beat making program that fits your needs. The best advice I can give is to not be fooled by some of the high-priced production tools. There are various solutions that will allow you to make beats on your computer for a fraction of the price. If you must, then read a review of various beat making software and see what fits you best.

Your mind is the main tool in the hip hop beat making process. If you're the type of person who hears beats in their head, then making beats may be easier than you anticipated. The program is just an outlet to express, alter and tweak your creative ideas. For this purpose, it is important to find a program that is easy to learn and simple to use.

There are two words that sum up the path to making beats: patience and practice. No one becomes a professional producer in a day. If you start off with beats that sound a little different than what you had in mind, don't be discouraged. In fact, you're on the same track that all producers take. You will find that every time you make beats on your computer, the process will get progressively easier. Now get out there, and produce some killer beats!

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Beat Makers For Easy Music Composition

Hip Hop Beat Programs :

Advancement in technology has taken our world of music to a new level. In this new age of hybrid technology things are more simplified for those who are born with a natural sense of music. You need not own an entire studio or purchase costly musical instruments to generate your own tunes and beats. Yes, we are talking about computerized music composition. There are musical softwares available in the market that can help you generate your own music.

Beat Makers For Easy Music Composition

Now, there are different types of softwares available in the market and each one specializes in different instruments. For instance, there are guitar tuner softwares, piano softwares, tabla software, flute software, drum software etc. There are thousands of artists who generate their own tracks and remix by using music mixing, editing and sound engineering softwares. You don't have to be a professional to compose your own beat. You can now generate beats from different species of music like rap, pop, techno, hip hop, trance etc. Different types of beat maker softwares are used by many artists to create different kinds of beats in contemporary music.

A beat maker is programmed to compose music based on the technical inputs fed in by the user. The application generates instant result (within minutes) with utmost clarity. And you can guarantee that the tunes produced are 100% original. The software can save you thousands. All you need to do is to craft your tunes and arrange the beats.

If you want to commercialize your talents and market your original tunes, a beat maker is the best option to begin with. Using a software might seem to be a shortcut, but trust me, once you use it, you will realize its true potential. By using beat maker, you can invest more time in fabricating and polishing your tunes rather than worrying about handling instruments, musicians and producers. In simpler words, a beat maker can give you all the flexibility in the world, from a musician's point of view.

Before buying any beat maker software you should learn about its utility. You will get more information about such softwares through online sources. Through various online sources or forums you can even come across musicians who use these softwares on a regular basis. Sharing ideas with real time users can give you a better insight into these softwares and their specialized features. As I said before there are different types of beat maker softwares. They are released by different software companies. So, I would suggest that you search for one which suits your composition needs. Some softwares offer a trial period. Take advantage of such offers to learn about the output and working of a software before investing on it.

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