Ok so you wanna make beats, well first your gonna need to find a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) to work with.
Ok so you wanna make beats, well first your gonna need to find a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) to work with.
There’s quite a few to work from, DAW’s like FL Studio (recommended) and Reason are quite popular because they are less expensive and can put out the same quality music as to something which is more on the expensive side. The main difference will be that some some DAW’s are easier to use. Ok so now you have your DAW ready (I assume) you go and start it up. Nothing on the screen will probably make sense to you right now, so you’ll have check out some tutorials online to help you get started. It’s easier than it looks most of the time so don’t worry if it looks complicated, everything will be a piece of cake once you’ve mastered it.
So now you know how to use your DAW, your gonna want to create your music. If you have any experience in music you may not need much help here, but for the newbies your gonna want watch tutorials online. Make friends with other producers they may be able to help you. Check out beat making websites, the Hip Hop Makers forums can help find the answers your looking for, just don’t be afraid to ask. Listen to industrial music, this is probably the best way to get your ears trained which is important if you want to make quality beats which stand out.
For the basics of making a beat your gonna need, some drums, a bass line, melodies. Adding hats, percs, sound effects, will add a lot to your beats but in some cases you might not need them. Arrangement, know the different parts of a beat, intro, verse, bridge, chorus, end. It’s better to have switch ups/downs in your beat so people can tell that this is the chorus, verse etc. Eventually your gonna need to learn how to mix and master your tracks properly. Your may have a great drum pattern but if those drums ain’t banging your track will sound boring. Again listening to industrial music will help you out a lot here, listen closely to how loud every instrument is, or how thick an instrument is etc.
And that’s about it, just keep…
…making beats, and you’ll improve every time!
I headed over to this site via a recommendation from audiotuts and have to say that this was severely disappointing. Not one scrap of technical know-how was parted in this article….To make a beat you’ll need drums….obvious…..bass and….ummmmm maybe bass but not necessarily…….melody……back to year u music class my friend
interesting read..
Great post. There are many great DAWs out there. Also, it is a plus to learn some music theory. That will help with making great beats.
im making rnb and hip hop beats do you think i’ll get better sounds from buying drum samlpes oline or downloading it for free
Stating the obvious sure. But it’ll definitely help those who are starting from ground zero with no knowledge of making beats.
Nice post Mafz!
Hey A couple weeks ago you guys had posted some books that would help beat making beginners, can some one re post that or point me in the direction that page might be on?
very nice! i also started that way and now i found pretty easy to make a beat.
paz! ANGOLA beatz
Good starter post. But there is a lot to be said for making beats that get people’s head bobbing. That’s really the main ingredient: the head bobbing factor. You can get to know your DAW, even become a master at it, but if you don’t know understand things like rhythm, dynamics, gate times, compression, side chaining, limiting, etc you’re going to be stuck using other people’s loops. Not to say that’s a bad thing because we know half the people on the charts –if not more– do that, but the point remains. If you want to make original stuff, you really have to dig in and extract grooves and figure out what happens in commercial beats you really like it. That is the best way to learn and always has been: copying the greats.
Right?
Mark
Well I’m gonna have to agree with the first guy nothing new really here just stating the obvious. you should tell the differences between the different DAW’s, the Pros and Cons of FL studio, Logic, Reason what appeals to different types of styles and people and prices.
Good post
Lol, fair enough Ibn Yasir, but there are some people who don’t know where to start, this was aimed at them.
@ibn yasir the writer of the post Mafz has no fingers on either hand, he typed this whole post using the eraser of a pencil he was holding in his mouth. I think thats pretty impressive!
I like it! Good job Mafz!!
Kind of stating the obvious, to be honest.
Excellent post, this is a great beginners guide, thanks!