Instrumental Beats Hip Hop

As so much of cheating goes on in the business, the free styling that is the result of originality are very valued in the field. Listening to rap freestyle beats of this type would be more enjoyable and worth the while, not that the others are nonsensical, yet originality is always the color of the day. The cliché is that, rap musicians always use inspiration that is always in the immediate surrounding to prove that they have produced authentic music.

Listening to rap freestyle beats of another form, known as the battle rapping is pretty interesting as it normally a sort of "battle" of music between two rappers taking place in front of an audience. This kind of insulting one's own acquaintance in the form of rhyme is not new to hear. It was in fact used by lots of people in the past. Muhammad Ali, in his boxing matches for instance. The winner of this sort battle is selected by either selected judges, or the general public. It is believed that, in these battles, the rapper focuses on his competitor's flaws, rather than on one's own strength. This kind of music was mostly famous in the African-American community and could be watched in certain weekly TV programs.

Listening to battle rap in the freestyle form would make one realize that these are the most strongest type of battles. In this kind of music, one rapper can comment the other on his looks, clothing, speaking, eating, etc. thus proving it to be one of the strongest among battle rapping. And in this type of rapping, the second rapper is also entitled to reverse the line used on him to insult the host commenter.

Throughout the whole history of hip-hop as yet, there has always been the production of new styles of music in rap form. These are the form of freestyle rap beats worth listening. The total group of music styles, such as the rapcore or hip house, have all been originated from freestyle rap and its fusion. A lot of music styles, with the aim of producing music that can be made by playing a musical instrument by shaking or striking it, have also contained rap at some or the other point.

And this can be contained in music of any type. Typically, this is proved by singers who produce music written without any key. A form of Celtic fusion created by a California group, has received a lot of attention because it fuses hip-hop with Celtic music. In a form that is so different from that of hip-hop artists, it produces music live without the help of any musical machine or instrument.

When it comes to hip hop music, all we have is a singer and some beats playing in the background. The vocalist has to spit words and try to rhyme them together so that the vocals fit with the music or the beats. This genre is a difficult one for the vocalist as he has to work out a lot on the sounds and how he sings the lyrics. Rap beats are equally important for the singer as they are the ones that set the musical background for the vocalist to perform on. These beats can either be created or you can also find them online.

If you are thinking of buying a hip hop beat online then there are a lot of web music stores that can help you with the requirement. All you need to do is search the right type and you will have hundreds of rap beats listed on the screen. Then you can pick the one that suits your lyrics the best and pay the site for the service. Most of the beats available online are jazzy and created by music professionals. You can also be sure of the beat that you are going to buy as you can hear the demo of all the beats that are available for you.

Unlike the music stores wherein you get beats at super expensive prices, the beats available on certain hip hop sites are extremely affordable. You can get a superb hip hop beat for just five dollars as well. Once you have bought the beat you can use it in any way you like, you can use it for one of your songs or you can share it with your friends. So if you are thinking of becoming a big rapper someday, better start with beats of your choice and fill the lyrics accordingly.

You Don't Need Equipment

One of the biggest misconceptions people have when they are interested in getting into beat making is that you need a lot of money to buy fancy equipment. Over the last few years software has pretty much replaced hardware in the current digital revolution. This is an exciting time because for the first time in the history of music, the playing field is finally evened out - you don't need a lot of money and fancy equipment for you music to sound professional. A common myth is that software doesn't sound as good as hardware - this is simply untrue. I've had a huge rack of hardware worth thousands of dollars only to all be replaced by my laptop. All you really need is a computer, a midi keyboard, and a solid software program to make solid tracks.

I highly recommend starting out using either Propellerheads Reason or Fruity Loops. I say this for a few reasons. The first is that these aren't difficult to get started and start using. The learning curve for these software isn't bad so you can start making beats immediately after you download the software. The second reason is that these programs are extremely powerful in the music you can potentially make. Reason and Fruity Loops are easy to learn but very challenging to master. You'll have the peace of mind that you have the power at you fingertips to make tracks just as hot sounding as a Timbaland or Dr. Dre beat. With these software, you'll have all the resources to make great music - you're only limited by your creativity and the work you put in.

Important Points to Note

One of the most important things in perfecting your craft is having a deep understanding of music. You need to know where music has gone, where its presently at, and where its going. If you ask any great producer what its going to take to be great. In a recent interview, Timbaland was asked what advice he would give new producers on the come up. "I would tell them to go back and listen to real music, 70's and 80's music, something that ya'll young people don't know nothing about. Notice I said ya'll young people. Ya'll don't know nothing about it. Go back and study the art of where real music comes from. Feel me?" I hope you guys take this information to heart and have fun listening and making music - that's what it's all about.

Stepping is a form of dance that was originated by African American college students. With this percussive dance, the entire body is used as an instrument to create various intricate rhythms and sounds through a combination of foot stomping, clapping, and spoken words. Its roots could be traced way back to songs and dance rituals performed by African American fraternities and sororities in the early 1900s.

Stepping as an art form emerged from a long and rich tradition of African American communities that communicated allegiance to a group through movements, words, and sounds. Though this dance may be performed by an individual, it is generally performed by groups of three or more, often in arrangements that resemble military formations. The influence for this dates back to when Black veterans of World War I enrolled in colleges. Because of their military training, they brought to their dances a highly rigorous, drill like component and combined it with elements from other Black dances.

This dance is partly rooted in the experience of African-American men who were made to work as slaves on the railroad. As an outlet to keep up their morale and esteem and to forget about the pain, they stepped. It was a tune that they marched to, a tune about a story and pain. Stepping served as a sort of code for African Americans to tell their story since speaking out was often times too dangerous. Since then it has grown and evolved into the art form it is now.

Although Stepping is directly associated with college fraternities, it is quite popular with younger people. Children and Teenagers across the U.S. are practicing this art form. Churches and community-based organizations are also getting into it. Stepping is also being done by Latino and Asian American Greek-letter organizations.

With the African centered movements of the 1960s stepping started to flourish with the addition of some traditional African ritual dancing and the incorporation of other elements like cheer leading, tap, gymnastics, etc. Over a period of time, stepping has become very elaborate and demanding incorporating props, high levels of gymnastics and other elements found in team sports. Today, practitioners of this dance add hip hop and other current trends. Just like with modern languages, Stepping is continuously growing and being added to. It also originally drew heavily from the stage routines and movements of popular R&B groups such as the Temptations and The Four Tops.

During the mid-20th century, traditionally African American fraternities and sororities on United States college campuses traditionally sang and chanted to celebrate "crossing over" into membership of their respective organizations.

According to Jacqui Malone, the author of "Steppin' on the Blues", stepping is "one of the most exciting dance forms to evolve in the twentieth century."

One of the most common looping numbers of bars is four. This is usually enough to develop an indicative portion of a song, and then four bars can give groove, tempo and feel to a song, and so is great as a foundation or 'skeleton' sample. The drum samples in the four bar loop can be organized as one total unique sample, with each bar being totally different from the last. However, most music producers in rap and RnB prefer to keep some element of comfort with the listener, and variance is the keyword. Varying drums from bar to bar using changes towards the end or velocity is much more effective at not inducing stress into your listener.

Sixteen bars is another common loop number, usually because in hip hop, 16 bars is a typical vocal verse length. So if you can develop the 16 bar loop, complete with pre-chorus introduction and an 8 bar switch-up (just an example), you can give a good example of the way the song would be structured. Using drum sounds and patches over these 16 bars will give see you test your creative limits, especially if you make a few beats every day. Introducing the hi-hats starting at bar 8, for instance, gives the song a great motion factor.

Looking beyond drum samples can expand your horizon a little bit and it actually opens a whole bunch of doors. One common switch-up in a 16 bar loop, for example, is the introduction of a new instrument after 8 bars instead of anything drum-related. However, at this point - or anywhere else in the loop - you could mix up the drums to coincide with this change, and this can be very powerful.

Looking outside instruments and drum sounds, vocals can also be a great trigger tool. A singer or rapper may perform the first four bars in a very monotonous tone and then simply explode with emotion. This is a wake-up call on its own, but coupled with the other techniques, you could really run wild in your listener's mind.

Drum samples are one of the easiest ways to introduce variance, as it requires no extra input on the vocalist's part and can accentuate vocal parts and instruments without anything being different in those departments.

Part of my activity is entertainment related, especially with gaming, clubbing music and hip hop. Fortunately, now, there are extremely many resources for getting started in becoming a music producer, and if you have this dream, pursue with it, don't leave it away:

* Now we have internet where you can search for finding almost any tune, video you can think of;
* There are also game like DJ Hero, Guitar Hero and others where you can start practicing and gaming in the same time. Many successes in entertainment business begun in a joke so it is OK;
* There are available hundreds of e-books - free and paid where you can find useful information about becoming a successful music producer;

Due to these resources and many others it is easier than before for anybody to get started. For becoming a successful rap music producer I recommend 5 steps:

1. I don't think that you can become successful without knowing very well this music so study its roots, listen the most interesting albums released and also study the actual trends;

2. Invest in the minimum resources: a PC, keyboard, music software, a set of turntables - there are many electronic scratch resources but I recommend the vinyl classic turntables;

3. Search for new ideas. The competition is tough and you will be most likely to succeed if you will bring something new in the market;

4. Find other persons which share the same passions and desires like you and create together beats, songs, develop ideas. Most of the times, two or three minds together produce extraordinary breakthroughs. Find them between your friends, forums and social networking.

5. Use at the beginner instrumental rap beats which can be found on the internet in collections as the pictures can be found in clip art. You will be able to modify them in the future but at least you will have a solid place to start.

And the most important, create your mindset for success, don't think at the failure at all and you will succeed.

First of all, the number of layers and instruments needed can be deduced down to this: if you have gotten your point across, it's probably a good time to stop. And this is wise talk. A famous mixing engineer once said: if you can't hear it, it shouldn't be in the mix. And I think we should really live by this saying. Another thing I regularly tell clients is this: if it adds nothing unique to the song, does it really need to be in there? The weakest component of a track is the track. That means that the last thing you add could bring the whole thing down unless it's absolutely magnificent sonically and emotionally.

Simple and plain music can be very attractive. It also forces you to make better music. It forces you to treat each track like it was the only track in the song. Hell, maybe it is! That should be your mindset.

At the end of the day, however big you want to make your track is up to you. You should always listen to your audience, though, so get feedback and look it over closely and without any anger if it's negative. Just take it in and consider the points made. If you get nothing but positive feedback, then you know you're going in the right direction.

Some instruments stack better than others, as well. Let's take the piano for example. You would in no case want to stack 2 pianos playing the same notes, and even playing different notes, it's going to be tough to stack these harmonically. If they sound the same, it will be extremely tough.

However, some artists have experimented with having two pianos playing simultaneously; they just make sure they have different character and so are distinguishable. If you're going to attempt this, apply some reverb to one piano to achieve the far-away and close-up effect. The listener will hear one off in the distance and another very close. To make it more realistic, apply about 5% of the same reverb on the close piano and choose a hall patch. To your audience it will sound like both pianos are in the same environment.

I hope you have thought a bit about stacking and layering your instruments. Remember that your decision is yours to make alone.

Make Beats Online

Truth be told, it doesn't actually take thousands of dollars worth of equipment to make killer rap beats. These days, you can make beats online, thanks to beat making software that you can get your hands on. In fact, you can be knocking out beats in a matter of minutes. It's really simple!

With that said, here are some of the benefits of making your own instrumentals online:

- No expensive gear to buy. You don't have to load up a room in your house with a bunch of recording gear that will take you months to learn how to use!

- Perfect for beginners who don't have the patience to try to spend months learning how to use once piece of equipment to only end up making beats that sound like garbage.

- Cost effective. Why waste money on something that you don't know how to use? Making instrumental tracks online keeps money in your wallet!

Beat Making Software Online

Software to make beats really takes the learning curve and difficulty out of making beats. By being able to make beats right out the gate with the right beat maker software, you'll be able to bang out killer sounding beats that your friends will ogle over in no time.

What are you waiting for? Get yourself a software program to make beats online now. You'll be happy you did!

Your first option would be to by a Garageband Jam Pack, specifically Jam Pack 2: Remix Tools. This will add much more Hip Hop oriented loops to the loops library and instantly give you more ideas of how to utilize them. You might even hear some familiar-sounding loops used in recent hits. Remix Tools also adds more software instruments. Among these software instruments are the classic 808 and 909 drum machines to name a few. The 808 drum machine sound has made a huge comeback in recent years and will definitely add some old school flavor to your beats.

There are also tons of third-party loop-packs available on-line. Some free and other not so free. The third party loop packs available span multiple sub-genres of Hip Hop including West Coast, Crunk and more traditional sounding hip hop. These loops are usually made by DJ's and Producer's with some music industry experience and some are pretty good. Just check that they are royalty free before purchasing.

Another option would be to use the existing tools available to you in Garageband such as the software instruments. You can select one of the Hip Hop drum machine software instruments and compose a beat using a MIDI controller hooked up to the computer or just the computer keyboard. All you need to do is play the beat on the keyboard and record in Garageband. These can be saved as loops or in mp3 format for later use. What you can also do is use existing loops and manipulate them using the edit function in Garageband. This can be done only with loops that we're made using the software instruments. All you need to do is load a loop you want in Garageband, click the edit (scissor button) and from there you can manipulate the drums sounds. After doing this, a neat trick is to slow the tempo of the beat to make it more rappable. To make a loop more rappable by changing the tempo, select project in the LCD and change it to between 100-110.

The new haven for those interested individuals is the computer soft wares intended for beat-making to music editing and production. If you are dead serious with your goal regarding creating your own beats, make the most out of these tools. Seriously consider all the trainings provided and apply it in beat-making. Some training have free videos so you can visualize the step-by-step procedure on how to make your own beats and what instruments or effects to use. You should also take advantage of the hands on practices on beat-making. This will give you the feel of creating your own music. Every track should be memorized by heart if possible. Sure it takes time, but if you love what you really do, then any amount of time is worth the investment.

These soft wares will guide you on what to do and how to create your beats, track by track. First to apply is the kick using the drums. Especially with hip-hop songs, drum kicks play a major role in tempo, beat and rhythm. After the kick track, you will be guided to add the snare. These are basic sounds. Of course, you are entitled to experiment with the tracks to come up with a perfect creation. Usually, closed and open hit-hats are also added within the snare or just after the kick to get a livelier tempo. Other effects are to be used as well, and they play a significant role in the over-all presentation and sound of your music. You can add claps and stomps for more danceable beats.

Never be too easy to be satisfied. Always outdo your work. Apply self-criticism in every beat that you made. Keep a burning desire to exceed what you just did. All you need is a little creativity and a huge amount of patience and voila! The next popular beats that will hit the air waves could be yours!

This is probably the most important piece of equipment to make beats. Your choice of software could have implications in the style you develop as a music producer. But for somebody starting from zero I would recommend to not pay too much for this yet.

Most of the peripherals needed to make beats come with light versions of popular music software. Even though the purpose is to temp you to upgrade to the more expensive versions, these light editions have more than enough sounds to keep anyone going for a long time.

If you have absolutely no experience you could check something like Sonic Pro, a very popular online program that for only .00 USD offers a sequencer, sounds, instruments and more important, video tutorials on how to make your own beats.

An Audio Interface

One of the most important reasons why to get a decent audio interface is their handling of a common problem with computers and music, latency. This is the amount of time that it takes the computer to process an incoming signal.

Latency can create very annoying issues when making beats, like playing a midi note and hearing the sound a second later. It would be extremely difficult to record live that way. Also if you want to connect instruments, external synths and drum machines, audio interfaces feature the proper inputs.

A Midi Controller

Most of today midi controllers plug to the computer via USB and are recognized automatically by most music software, requiring almost no technical knowledge to get them going.

The most popular midi controllers come in 2 flavors, keyboard or pads. The keyboard is the most popular and the most practical, but rubber pads can yield more rhythmically interesting beats. Even better is the new breed of controllers that blend both together.

Monitors

It might seem like the least important feature for someone getting started, but this depends on how much you enjoy making music. The issue lies in the reproduction of the entire frequency spectrum. Small computer speakers by default mess with the audio content, hyping up frequencies because of their inability to fully reproduce them.

Even though the monitors at beginner prices are not the full solution, as you go up in price you start to get a more realistic image of the sound you're working on. At lower prices most monitors still hype up the sound a little, but in a way that compliments music making and not video game playing.

Making your own free beats has taken the net by storm. Networking for amateur beat makers is turning out some great talent that may never have been heard otherwise.

Before laying down your own beats, it's a good idea to listen to some professional beats. This will give you some insight for putting together the beats that are in your head and translating them better when laying your own tracks.

Some people buy beats online, then take parts of those beats and use them in their beat instrumentals. A caution - be sure to get 'royalty free' beats if you don't want to pay out any cash, otherwise you will be trying to use a copyrighted work which is illegal-so don't do it!

Music producing is fun, and can also be lucrative. Choosing software correctly for making your beats is serious. There are plenty out there, both expensive and inexpensive that you can take advantage of. Be sure you match your style of music with the software that it calls for.

Use samples. Then add, twist, and create it into what you want it to be. Some good sample CDs can be had at 'Loopmasters', 'Sample Magic', and 'Modern Beats'. Plenty exist, but these are good. These tips will kick off your knowledge of how to make your own free beats instrumentals.

Technology has paved way to a lot of thing that we cannot do on our own. If you cannot create the beat yourself, it would be beneficial on your part to make use of the options available online and make use of it to your advantage. Getting access to software that will allow you to make your own rap beats is not that difficult. All you need is a computer with enough free space to install the software, and access to the Internet where you will be able to get to a source link to download the software from.

The software is manly concentrated on allowing you to produce and create your own music digitally with the help of your computer. Having the software installed on your computer, you have to familiarize yourself with how to use it so you can pick the right instruments that you will make use of, and let the sequencer allow you to create the notes as well as the beat for the rap music that you are creating.

If you are new at this, first thing that you can to make your own rap beats using a software is through downloading a demo version of it. Most of these software providers online allows you to download a demo version or a free trial version of the software so you can evaluate if it truly works for you.

Let's say that you are now satisfied with the features you have learned regarding the software that you are going to use to create these rap beats, you may now opt to purchase the full version of the software so you can maximize its use.

Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and culture records and communicated with the audience over the music. At the time, the DJ's comments weren't as important as the quality of the sound system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool Herc grew up in this community before he moved to the Bronx.

During the late sixties, reggae wasn't popular with New Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to speak to his audience as he had learned to do in Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and then he pumped the volume back up on the record. This call and response technique was nothing new to this community who'd been reared in Baptist and Methodist churches where call and response was a technique used by the speakers to get the congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call and response performed by Jazz musicians and was very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during the renaissance in Harlem.

Herc's DJ style caught on. His party's grew in popularity. He began to buy multiple copies of the same albums. When he performed his duties as a DJ, he extended the breaks by using multiple copies of the same records. He chatted, as it is called in dance hall, with his audience for longer and longer periods.

Others copied Herc's style. Soon a friendly battle ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the game by giving shout-outs to people who were in attendance at the parties and coming up with his signature call and response. Other DJs responded by rhyming with their words when they spoke to the audience. More and more DJs used two and four line rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved and hyped at these parties.

One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap as we know it.

Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of hip-hop. The guy who creates the beat is still the heart of the track. Now, we call him the producer. Even though some DJs work as producers as well as DJs (quite a few start out as DJs before they become producers), today's title "DJ" doesn't carry the same connotative meaning it did in the eighties. Today's hip-hop producer performs the same tasks as the eighty's DJ.

Essentially, you do not have to spend so much if you are going to buy software to make beats. There are a few things that you need to remember, though, to ensure that the basic things you need are there. First off, you need to make sure you have the complete buttons in the control dashboard. Some programs or machines do not include fast forward and rewind buttons. It is best that you check that you have the record, play, fast forward, rewind, and the pause buttons.

Next, you need to check if the program has a sound bank. This means that there should be a wide collection of sounds that you can choose from. These sounds should include sounds and beats from guitars, bass drums, percussion instruments, and what have you. If the sound bank does not contain a lot of files, forget it. It is very important that you have access to hundreds or probably thousands of beats and music selection because this is the very reason you are buying the software to make beats.

The last thing you need to check for when buying software to make beats is the effects section. You should have the ability to automatically put effects such as the fade out and all that instead of having to manually do it by cutting and recording. One the program has all of these, then the machine is said to be worth your money.

As far as I can look back, music has always been full part of my life. Growing up with classical music with some openings towards jazz and pop music, I have extended my interest to black music including gospel, soul, blues, and of course, hip hop. I am usually open minded about music, as long as it pleases my ear. However, I am very picky when it comes to define somebody as a real artist. Only the Great who influenced music history deserve to be classified as real artists.

Johann Sebastian Bach is one of those real musicians. His music is an example of hard work. His incessant quest for perfection and harmony characterizes his music. Among the Great, you can count people like John Lennon, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington , James Brown, Eazy E, Nas-and yes- Eminem, whatever his haters might have to object. (This list of artists I mentioned here, is of course, non exhaustive)

Despite the fact RIP Proof was less known from the public than other famous artists, he had all the qualities that make a real artist.

So what is the definition of a real artist?

A real artist, a plain artist is a person who makes music for the love of it, not for the money only, even if he is perfectly conscious that he has a family to feed. A true artist must be inspirational to the listeners. Whatever his message is, people must be able to feel the music and to acknowledge the feelings expressed through the voice, lyrics and instrumentals.

A true artist usually has high requirements regarding the quality of his beats, instrumentals and recorded voice. Never satisfied with himself, he keeps working hard over the years in order to satisfy his public.

A true artist will always put his passion for the music, the will of sharing it and to satisfy his audience before the material aspect of the show biz.

A true artist definitely manages to generate a genuine enthusiasm among his audience.

While being on stage, he becomes the music. He and the audience are one and that's the full beauty of the musical fusion created by dedicated artists and a very receptive audience.

When you hear the song, you must be able to feel the artists' feelings and to forget about yourself, because during such moments, there is only place left for the music. Yes, this can happen if the artist is a real, dedicated person towards his art.

When you heard a person like James Brown tell their audience: « I feel so good I want to screeeeaaam », you perfectly know that his words weren't made up. There is a wonderful chemistry between such artists and the public. Good vibes are in the air and they penetrate into the mesmerized audiences.

Real artists usually stay humble in front of other great artists. Not only do they possess a good musical culture, but they will never mind quoting other legends. I heard James Brown paying homage to Ray Charles, for instance. So did Nas.

I do consider Eminem as a plain artist, because he changed the face of the rap game. He dared to use different themes than the usual themes used in hip hop and proved to be an astute word acrobat, playing with syllables and foolishly putting words together that you would never see side by side in real life. Moreover, his music touched a lot of people from different backgrounds all over the world.

RIP Proof never failed in naming big influences of his like Kurt Cobain, Jerry Garcia and John Lennon numerous times. One can consider D12 's Proof as a rhyming genius too. He had an amazing sense of realness and more importantly, a great passion for hip hop that won't die away since his
murder on April the 11th, 2006.

The Great in the music have the power to influence generations and usually make history. Even their deaths will never erase their contribution to the music history.

Entire artists are the ones who deserve your respect, because you know, deep inside of you, that they are the ones who live and breathe the music for your ears greatest pleasure. Only those guys will live on through their music over the centuries.

Copyright ©2007 by Isabelle Esling
All Rights Reserved

Stage 1: Right choice of the software or the hardware to use

Whether you are making beats for hip-hop, R&B or even pop music, you need to understand the software or the hardware you are using in order to translate your ideas to sound. Things to consider include user friendly interface, all the necessary functions that you need (VST, Sound Editor etc). You also make sure you have all the necessary hardware (including your computer!) to be able to run the software properly.

Stage 2: Drum Pattern

Especially for hip hop and r&b the drum pattern is an extremely important part of the beat. Typically you will find a kick, a snare or clap, high hat in these songs. What is important is that you get creative and create your own patterns BUT you still need to ensure that the sounds compliment each other instead of clashing. It is also important to change up the patterns throughout different parts of the song. Why you may ask? Because like any human being we tend to get bored of the same thing, so by switching the patterns up at different parts of the song it would highly benefit the song

Stage 3: Bassline & Melody

The bassline adds depth to your song and the melody of course is a large factor in the overall beat. In this section you have a lot of room for creativity. You can use electronica sounds and compliment it with strings, the combinations are endless. Having said that, sometimes keeping it simple goes a lot further than just overwhelming the song with all sorts of instruments. This comes with practise and the more you do, the better you will get out of it.

Stage 4: Effects

Depending on the type of genre you are working, sometimes less is more when it comes to effects. For many of today's top audio production softwares you have highly flexible functions such as re-verb, echo, delay that can drastically alter the song. Of course like I mentioned throughout the article, sometimes too much is bad thing so it is important to judge through your own ear and your peers.

I hope these things will help, happy beat making!

Panning: What is panning exactly? You may have heard this as well from people who tell you that you need to pan your sounds in the mix. In layman's terms, panning is the shifting of an audio channel either more to the left, or more to the right. So now that we know the simple explanation of it, when you're told that you should pan the sounds in your mix, you'll want to make some of the audio channels balance more to the left side and others to the right. My tip for panning is to keep your kick drum dead center, and usually your bass instrument as well. You can pan your hats more to one side, and the snare more to the opposite side, but don't overdo it. Try to visualize a drummer playing a drum set. Usually, the kick drum is the drum dead center, while other hats and snares and other percussion instruments are usually set up around the drummer, some more to the left side, and others to the right. However, they are still close to the drummer, so panning a snare all the way to the left for example, wouldn't sound too realistic. Panning helps to eliminate clutter directly in the center of your mix.

Compression: This is another term that you may have heard of also. Compression acts as a tightening up of audio on an audio channel to amplify it more. Compression is an effect that can be used sparingly in your hip hop beats on certain channels. Some people use way too much compression and cause their instrumentals to sound distorted. My tip for compression is that you use it on your kick drums, your bass instrument, although this can vary with the type of bass used, and lightly on your final mix. Using compression on these channels will bring out the thump of your kicks further, and on the master channel, when used lightly and correctly, will bring out the overall mix as well without overkill.

Equalizing: Another quality effect that can bring great results (or horrible results when overly used) is the EQ, or equalizer. Equalizing is simply the elevating or decreasing of certain parts, of an audio channel so that you bring out more of the desired area in that channel. On an equalizer, regardless of the type you use, the parts, or bands as they're referred to, on the left side are your deeper bassy bands, and more so to the right are your treble bands. So if you had a bass instrument, but had slight hiss, you could use EQ to decrease the higher bands of your audio to eliminate the hissing some. In comparison, you could use EQ to decrease the lower bands of an audio channel so as not to hear slight bassy sounds that may be present. This can be effective for string instruments, or especially brass ensembles if you are wanting to create a nice, crisp sound for them. My tip when using EQ is to use them to decrease undesired areas of your audio more so than to use them to elevate desired areas. By this I mean, if you're using an EQ on bass for example, decrease the higher bands further, rather than to elevate the lower bands, as this can sometimes cause problems on a mix also.

In short, these three effect plugins are always of great use in creating hip hop beats, and can bring your hip hop beats from sounding weak and lacking, to sounding more powerful and impacting! The tips I provided above should get your beats sounding hotter in no time. Of course, another tip I advise is always to experiment to see what sounds best to you. Happy beat making!

1. Work on assignment. I call this technique going to the well instead of waiting for rain. Sometimes I work free form, just letting the music happen. Other times I work on assignment. A client will ask for a specific style, genre, or sound. In those cases I have a destination in mind and a basic framework for what the end product should be. For me that's much easier. I find that once I get going on this type of assignment, my creative forces take over and I eventually end up with a hot track.

The trick you can use is to create the assignment for yourself. Who says you have to have an outside client to challenge yourself. You can give yourself an assignment within a genre, style, and sound and get to work. The key is to get the assignment mapped out before you step into the studio to work on it.

Get the idea as fleshed out as much possible in your mind. Detail what the end work will sound like and the feeling it will bring when you hear it. If you go that far with it, you push your mind to call up those creative juices to create that feeling. Now when you hit the studio, you have the energy and path to run down.

2. Don't start from scratch. Another trick I've used is almost like remixing my own work or creating variations of a previous work. Start by calling up an old project in the studio, giving yourself access to a ready made pallet of sounds, tempo, song structure, etc, then scrap everything you recorded except for a few elements. If you work using a midi sequencer, this is as simple as creating a copy of the project under a new name and deleting everything except for a simple element like the snare pattern.

At this point, you're already a third of the way down the road to creating something new. You've got a pallet and a tempo and a snare pattern to build from. By the time your done, you might have ditched the original snare and found the session has pulled you in a new direction. And that's what you wanted in the first place. Something new.

3. Call on The Masters. Some days, for me at least, the above two methods don't get me going the way I want and the energy level still needs a boost. This is when I like call on The Masters. Depending on the genre I'm working in, I'll play a few of the masterworks that convey the type of emotion or energy I'm after and also some tracks that are completely different.

For example, if I'm working on an R&B balled and nothing hits the mark, I might throw on some of the classic Janet Jackson joints produced Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and something instrumental like a passionate cello piece by Yo Yo Ma where the emotion is there without lyrics at all. Or some Billy Joel or Debussy, or Missy Elliot, or The Roots, or... you get the idea. Whatever you play, make sure it's material you consider to be excellent, that sets the bar in your mind for what you want in the end from yourself. Throwing in some varied styles points your brain in new directions away from the roadblock you'd been facing and gets you shooting for the stars.

So there you go! 3 ways to get your creative juices flowing toward your next musical masterpiece. Have fun with it see what your get.

To get clear vocal effects, it is better to manage the beat and the vocals separately. If you create separate groups and provide a separate group bus in the sequencer for the beats and vocals, you could connect all the instruments into the beat group and make a separately recording for the instrumental tracks.

A fine-tune setting for the perfect balance between the beat and vocals is possible, if during the recording of the vocal tracks you connect the microphone to the vocal group separately. A wider range of sound effects for your Hip-Hop style is also possible, if you isolate every element separately.The result is clear sound effects for the listeners. You could not get a sound balance, when for example you record all the drums in one track.

For adding interesting sound effects such as a slap back echo, you could record all snares in one track. Good snare sounds are important for a good beat, soul of the music. The snare beat is the main beat that you clap intuitively in the pattern. To program your patterns and make them interesting and danceable, you need to learn the sound of the different drum parts. The hi hats usually keep the timing and add syncopation. For a very unsteady, syncopated style, hi hats could completely change what the beat sounds like.

To create the correct sound effect, it is very important that the bass drum keep the rhythm of the melody and bass line. A tempo of 80-90 bpm is an ideal tempo. You can adjust the tempo until the vocals are added using MIDI samplers and create the drum patterns at a very slow speed. Later you could increase the speed to match the ideal tempo. To learn more about Hip-Hop sound effects, recording, tracking vocals or music mixing always listen carefully to the applied effects of the recording tracks.

A rap song can be pretty boring without the right beat. The beat is in my opinion the element of the song that takes the rap to the next level and makes it stand out in the crowd. Even 2pac and Biggie would have a hard time if their beats were not up to par.

The two most important elements of a rap beat are its depth and its originality. By depth I mean how it makes you feel when you hear it. Every rap song has a message, and the beat needs to bring that message home.

It is also important that the beat stand out in the crowd. This is where originality comes in. In the first seconds of your beat you have to make it unique so the person who listens to it recognizes the song and are ready to join in on it.

A rap beat typically consists of a loop. A loop is a set of bars repeating over and over. So how to you make a great loop?

Begin with your hi hats. The hi hats sets the basics for your rap beat and let you decide the speed of your beat. There is nothing complex with you hi hats so make it simple. You can add more hi hats later if needed.

Second step is to add the kicks and the snares. The kicks are what most people will consider the baseline. These are the deep elements of the base. The snares are the mid and high tones and are usually lighter than the kicks.

After you have configured the speed and your base line you have your skeleton ready. Next thing is to add your instrumentals and vocals.

It is the combinations all these elements that build the feeling and originality in your rap beat.

There is no need to overdo your rap beats

Many newbies does the mistake of working too much on their rap beats. They add layer upon layer of instrumentals and work the beat line to much.

Keep the beat as simple as possible. It is not how many sounds you have that counts. It is how much the rap beats can bring emotions upon the listener. Spend some time listening to the beats of your favorite producer and you will probably notice that their beats are not very complex. They are simply unique.

Also keep in mind that you are not the Star of your rap beat. This is the rappers job. Your job is to make the rapper have an easy day at work and help him or her bring out the creativity inside.