One of the hardest parts of making beats is starting. There are no definite rules on how to start a beat and there is no right or wrong method for making beats. Making beats is only one process but it is done using hundreds of different methods. Beats are comprised of sounds made from different sound equipment and beat making software. This article features sounds for making beats, tips on making beats, and how to monetize beats.
Where to find the sounds to make beats?
There are websites that offer beat samples and downloads that are helpful for producers as well as beginners. The downloads include thousands of hip hop samples, hip hop loops, and beats. One good website for sounds for making beats is P5 Audio. It offers instant downloads of over 1 Gb of beats, hip hop loops, and more for free and available in different formats such as WAV, Apple Loops, REX2, and more.
The website is known for having the largest and most current professional quality music loops used for music production. Another good website is Bangin Beats. It is a good sound catalog for beat samples, hip hop drums, FX sound design, and more. It offers mostly free sounds but some high quality sounds are for purchase.
Different sounds for making beats
If your beats are boring and flat, you should examine the factors that might be affecting them. This section discusses more about sound fonts, mixing and mastering, orchestration, music theory, and arrangement. If you have good quality sounds and are able to mix them together, you can definitely come up with hot beats.
Sound fonts
Sound fonts are file formats and technology that utilize sample based production to play MIDI files. The word Sound Font is also used as a brand name. Today, the present version of Sound Font file format is 2.04 which is based on RIFF format. To have good sound for making beats, use a modern version of Sound Fonts. They may be expensive but using the mid-90s version isn’t going to cut it.
Music theory
Knowing more about music theory makes you sound like a pro even if you are just starting out. It may be a lot of effort because you need to revisit your class lessons and open your textbooks, but it will definitely pay off. Understanding more about music theory will enable you to manipulate sounds more effectively by constant chord changes and having more song sections.
Parts of music theory are orchestration and arrangement which both play big roles in bringing your beats to the next level. Orchestration is done by hearing enough music and familiarizing with the main frequency ranges of different sounds and instruments. Do not smash all instruments together; instead, make soft bass while you kick the drums a bit higher in frequency and the all the other sounds and instruments in different frequency ranges.
Mixing and mastering
Mixing and mastering is usually done by professionals but knowing a little about it will help you make attractive beats. Mixing sounds make beats organized and prevent the beats from sounding like a mess. Do not mix sounds by kicking drums and bass lines into each other and avoid other instruments to collide into disaster.
Do a little bit of mixing with compression, EQs, and panning to avoid these issues and come up with good sounding beats. Mastering is another sound category for making beats. It is where beginners usually fail. They tend to blow a mastering plugin on their master out and finish it; then they become confused when they get comments on clippings and distortion of sound. Increase a little amount of compression on individual sounds when needed.
It is essential to determine the sounds for making beats and mixing them perfectly to make a good sounding beat or an almost perfect one which can attract potential buyers. These techniques or methods are done by practicing and keeping the enthusiasm alive.
One way to improve your beats is to pick up one of your instrumentals. Apply all the knowledge that you learned from this article or from other resources. Then, forget about the beat or sound that you came up with; leave it for about one week. And then get back to it and listen to it.
Does it sound like a new and improved version of the original? Keep on doing using method and you will eventually start making high quality beats that producers and music artists will enjoy.
