How do I make a beat?
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DPrezd Beggar
Banned
Battle Points: 22
You need a DAW (digital audio workstation) like FL Studio, Cubase and so on, find one you feel comfortable looking at since it makes it easier to stay at it, cuz if you dont like your workspace, you probably wont return.
Lets stay basic and make a standard 90 BPM(beats per minute(speed of the track)) Hip Hop beat.
In HipHop a 4/4 measure is kinda standard, not a must but its the easiest. You ll notice somewhere on the top of most DAWs there is the measure and BPM displayed. Most of the DAWs have standard settings like 130 BPM 4/4 measure. Keep the measure, set the BPM to 90 and start browsing thru the standard sounds of your DAW. Drop a kick, hi-hat and a snare sound into your beat-/pattern editor. I think by now all of the popular DAWs should have a metronome (often found on the top of your DAW UI, close to BPM and measure settings.
Enable the metronome anf hit play, you will hear rhythmic clicks. So, in the 4/4 measure you want to put the snare on every second click. Place them in your pattern editor so they match every second click of the metronome. Now you can try to experiment with the kicks and hats in between those snares. Try to get a rhythmic feel with your drums so its comfortable to listen to. You now have 1 Bar(1 Bar = 4 clicks of the metronone in 4/4 measure) of a drum loop
If you re done and satisfied place your patterns in the song editor, you can clone your first pattern and change little things up, like some extra hats, effects or maybe a extra kick right after the second snare.
After you put together your patterns you can can then hit Export and either export as a WAV file(uncompressed, big af in size, get some huge HDDs, if you re serious about music)
so you could use that loop in other projects or you fiddle around with it more and maybe add some extra sounds and export it as a MP3 (compressed, use only for finished stuff that doesnt need to be edited anymore).
Congratulations, you made you first beat/drumloop.
Now upload it to all platforms like SoundCloud, YouTube, hell even go beatstars and so on.
And diss everyone saying your beat sucks, they dunno shit, i mean you re like the next Dr.Dre, who tf these clowns anyways? Tzzz sheeesh....
Lets stay basic and make a standard 90 BPM(beats per minute(speed of the track)) Hip Hop beat.
In HipHop a 4/4 measure is kinda standard, not a must but its the easiest. You ll notice somewhere on the top of most DAWs there is the measure and BPM displayed. Most of the DAWs have standard settings like 130 BPM 4/4 measure. Keep the measure, set the BPM to 90 and start browsing thru the standard sounds of your DAW. Drop a kick, hi-hat and a snare sound into your beat-/pattern editor. I think by now all of the popular DAWs should have a metronome (often found on the top of your DAW UI, close to BPM and measure settings.
Enable the metronome anf hit play, you will hear rhythmic clicks. So, in the 4/4 measure you want to put the snare on every second click. Place them in your pattern editor so they match every second click of the metronome. Now you can try to experiment with the kicks and hats in between those snares. Try to get a rhythmic feel with your drums so its comfortable to listen to. You now have 1 Bar(1 Bar = 4 clicks of the metronone in 4/4 measure) of a drum loop
If you re done and satisfied place your patterns in the song editor, you can clone your first pattern and change little things up, like some extra hats, effects or maybe a extra kick right after the second snare.
After you put together your patterns you can can then hit Export and either export as a WAV file(uncompressed, big af in size, get some huge HDDs, if you re serious about music)
so you could use that loop in other projects or you fiddle around with it more and maybe add some extra sounds and export it as a MP3 (compressed, use only for finished stuff that doesnt need to be edited anymore).
Congratulations, you made you first beat/drumloop.
Now upload it to all platforms like SoundCloud, YouTube, hell even go beatstars and so on.
And diss everyone saying your beat sucks, they dunno shit, i mean you re like the next Dr.Dre, who tf these clowns anyways? Tzzz sheeesh....
OGBama
Big Clit Energy
I'm a total beginner but my philosophy is don't make "beats," make music as music is an art form but it is one with established rules that can't be broken until one makes an effort to understand the rules. "Beats" are "Beats Per Minute." Music theory contains these rules but they are prescriptive, not descriptive.
Listen to what you listen to! I feel music's ultimate use of many is to entertain, so know what you like and don't like, know why you like or don't like what you listen to or don't listen to, and know how you like what you listen to as all music serves a purpose in the broader culture. Context is everything. Don't blindly consume anything in life. No genre(s) is/are mindless entertainment.
Everything has a lineage. If you have inspirations, and you should, no music is created in a vacuum. Everyone that has ever created and does create music has someone who influenced them. Think of it as connecting musical dots. This will keep it fun, and if you're like me, think of it as musicology.
I think of instrumentals as aural canvases while voice and lyrics are dual brushes.
I value music as a form of communication and not solely as an escape from anything.
Listen to what you listen to! I feel music's ultimate use of many is to entertain, so know what you like and don't like, know why you like or don't like what you listen to or don't listen to, and know how you like what you listen to as all music serves a purpose in the broader culture. Context is everything. Don't blindly consume anything in life. No genre(s) is/are mindless entertainment.
Everything has a lineage. If you have inspirations, and you should, no music is created in a vacuum. Everyone that has ever created and does create music has someone who influenced them. Think of it as connecting musical dots. This will keep it fun, and if you're like me, think of it as musicology.
I think of instrumentals as aural canvases while voice and lyrics are dual brushes.
I value music as a form of communication and not solely as an escape from anything.
Last edited:
DPrezd Beggar
Banned
Battle Points: 22
Musicology...too complex thinking for me. Just do and if it bangs it bangs.
Imo ppl should be less afraid of releasing "trash" music since it can be gold to someone else.
Connecting the dots...and when you re done you got yourself a nice cage, imo.
All those rules n shit, just start being creative. Thats what my 2 cents are.
Imo ppl should be less afraid of releasing "trash" music since it can be gold to someone else.
Connecting the dots...and when you re done you got yourself a nice cage, imo.
All those rules n shit, just start being creative. Thats what my 2 cents are.
Watch and listen how other people would do it, and try things out for yourself. There are a lot of tutorials about it on YT.
Recreating only the drums from one of your favorite beats can be a good starting point to understand the rhythms in hip hop.
I would recommend not to worry too much about mixing yet, as long as the levels are decent and nothing is out of tune (be gentle with low frequencies).
Also a lot of free plugins can be found, google is your best friend.
Most important thing is to use your ears when listening and making music, and above all having fun doing so!
Covering/remaking beats. It's like a hands-on, super in-depth study of making beats. You get tons of insight, practice applying things, start building libraries of presets etc. If you do your due diligence it's a good amount of work. You end up going through a bunch of effects presets etc and start familiarizing yourself with things. It's also good because it's objective, when you're done your beat either sounds like the song or it doesn't. And how good you are determines how close you can make it sound to the original.