Music producers most often learn to make music by creating simple beats. Beat-making can be your entire career—especially in the world of hip-hop. For beginners, however, creating a simple beat can be challenging.
Mastering the essential aspects of a standard beat will need training and experience. Here’s how to construct beats using different techniques and exercises.
The Right Beat-Making Software
Pick the right beat-making software. They often have virtual musical instruments and presets for drums, voice, guitar, and other percussion sounds. Beginners are recommended to buy cheaper software since they are easier to learn. Moreover, it only includes the most important features to get you started. A beat-making software may also offer a complete set of video training tutorials to guide you through using the software.
Instruments in a Beat
Generally, music is based on two concepts—variation and repetition. Without them, music sounds unstructured and boring. A composer finds the right compromise between variation and repetition to create an interesting beat. Repetition can be overwhelming since it’s quite prevalent in beat-making. Instruments help maintain the balance between variation and repetition.
- Kick drum: Gives the heart-pumping edge to your beat but delivers the lowest frequencies.
- Snare drum: The main companion of a kick drum and has a higher pitch.
- Hi-hats: A pair of extremely expressive cymbals.
- Melodies: Played over the drums. The instrument can be a piano, guitar, bass, or more.
Arrange a Beat
Music producers can spend anywhere from 20 minutes to 20 hours creating the desired beat. Arranging a beat is the most challenging part of music production. Since each song is different, you may end up cutting various parts. This happens if there’s too much build-up before the chorus or if the transition doesn’t cut.
Draw a picture of your audio with sound effects, mixing, silence, or chord progressions. Consider the following points when arranging a beat:
- Catchy intro
- Adding and removing specific instruments
- Using transitions to paint a picture of your song for listeners
- Chorus’ chord progression
Tips on Beat Making
- Pick a program and master it. Trying to learn everything at once can be stressful.
- Study your favorite music producers and their beats to understand the composition of their beats for inspiration.
- Analyze various songs to avoid making your beats sound like others’.
- Collaborate with other artists to build a community around you.
- Keep your beats under 3 ½ minutes.
- Import MIDI. If you can’t play the keyboard well, import MIDI files and edit notes in your music software.
The process of learning beat-making can be simplified and made accessible with a perspective of modern trends. Get your hands on the best music software at Recording Software. We provide all types of beat-making software to help you create unique sounds. We also offer bundles at affordable prices. Get in touch with our team to learn more about our offers.