You might have already heard the hot beats that are played in theatres, bars, movies, and more. Some of them sound like they are easy to make because they use the same default sounds. But when you try to make your own beats, they sound disastrous and your instruments bang with each other. One bit of advice: keep practicing. To customize your own beats, here are some things you should know.
Why customize your own beats?
Some beginners are so excited about making beats that they fail to properly prepare. What should they know about beat making? What is the equipment that they need? Why it is important to customize your own beats? There is a vast library of beats and sounds that come with beat making software. Some of them are free and you can use them as templates or samples.
Make sure that you truly customize them so it’s obvious that the resulting sound is yours. When you are able to customize your own beats, you will be able to build your own library of beats and even music. You can also sell them to producers and artists.
How to customize your own beats?
To customize your own beats, you need to determine the sounds, musical instruments, and beat making equipment that make up beats and music. Then learn how to make them work together. One of the most common failures of beat makers and beginners are they tend to bang the instruments together resulting in boring and disastrous beats.
Beginners also tend to immediately purchase all the equipment at once. What they do not know is that they don’t have to buy everything in the beginning.
Basic equipment you need
Begin with beat making equipment that is most important in beat making. You can actually start with the computer you are using now. Make sure that it has the minimum system requirement including 8 Gb RAM, high quality dual core processor, and a large internal storage. You can choose between Mac or PC depending on which you are most comfortable with.
Wondering whether you will use desktop or laptop? Desktop is a good choice when making beats because it has more power compared to a laptop. But you can’t bring them anywhere unlike laptops. Laptops are great for beat makers who are always on the go. If you want to customize your own beats in a coffee bar or on a park bench, use a laptop.
Aside from a computer, you also need good quality headphones. But it doesn’t mean that you buy $500 headphones. There are much cheaper headphones that are good quality and they work even if you don’t have an acoustically treated room.
Another important piece of equipment is beat making software which is installed in your computer. It is where you will store your templates, samples, and sounds. It is also where you customize your own beats, create loops, mix, record, and master your track.
There are different kinds of beat making programs and some of them are free. As a beginner, start with free beat making software to practice and get the hang of it.
Determine your sounds
Identify where your sounds are coming from. They may come from the sample or templates that you choose, the instruments that you play, and the software that you use. You should be able to customize them and know their frequency range.
Make them work together
Once you have the basic beat making equipment and sounds, you can now make them work together. To customize your own beats, you should know the different techniques on how to smoothly play the instruments together applying musical theories such as orchestration and arrangement.
When you hear the word “orchestration”, you might begin to imagine a literal orchestra where the maestro waves his stick around to signal a certain group to play or stop the musical instruments they have. The same principle goes with how you should customize your own beats.
Learn how to manipulate sounds and instruments by making the drums kick a bit higher in frequency, the snare higher, have a bass, a good human voice, and some other sounds. Avoid the sounds banging in to each other. Mix and match the sounds by having a good ear and judgment.
Once you successfully customize your own beats, you can show them to your friends or fellow beat makers. One way to customize your own beats is to get feedback from others.
