The Beat Making Process pt. 1 (Getting Setup)

Okay, after much deliberation, you have decided to start making beats. For me it was simply the fact that I hated stealing beats, and didn't know anyone around my area that made them. So I knew I was musical, had played in several bands, been in several bars playing. I began crafting myself to be a producer, and I haven't regretted it not once.

The benefits of making your own beats, are limitless. Not only do you get the chance to make the EXACT beat you are looking for. But You also feel more proud of the song as it gets finished. This is completely you, your baby from head to toe.

So most of us are lost on where to start. Do I hop on the drums? Get on the melody? Rhythm? Where? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, don't put your horse too far ahead of your carriage there. Lets first check our equipment and go at it one step at a time here.

Okay so lets assume, for reference sake, you've never made a beat in your life....Fair enough. Instead of saying that you need millions of dollars of equipment like most tutorials will have you believe. I am going to say you only need a few things, all which you can probably get for free...The first thing you are going to need is a sequencer type software to make your beats in. Now if you are planning to do every instrument with real instruments, (real mic'd drums, real guitar, real bass...). You are going to only need a form of recording software, and a ton of money for instruments...So lets keep it cheap to start.

So the sequencer type software. There are several you can choose from, now these aren't free, although I'm sure there is always a torrent for either of these. You pretty much have your choice of the type of software you wish to use. The popular and norm amongst producers today are:

FL Studio, (Which I love and use, easy to follow and learn, and has a ton of sequence type benefits).

Reason, (Which is a bit more advanced, if you are used to using analog plug in type things. This is great software. Some of the best plug ins in my opinion are found in reason, which I have used a time or two).

Others are Logic, Pro Tools, and who could forget the old Akai MPCs....

Now for sake of reason, my tutorial will cover FL Studio for now, I will branch off and show you guys Reason. But for now lets stick with this interface....

Now notice this interface. Quite complex to the inexperienced, but this is where we will learn. Okay so first lets get started on getting what we need to make our beats.

Beats are formed from samples. Samples are recordings of anything from a crash, to a kick, to vocals..Pretty much anything can be a sample of a sound. Another type of sound is called a soundfont. These are used in FL Studio as sort of multi-sound samples So in further explanation, there are samples for each note you will play. Now the internet is littered with these. Search google for free drum kits or soundfonts and see how many you come back with. You need these samples and soundfonts to create beats so start stacking up.
You can save them in your FL Studio, also called a DAW, like so....

First open windows explorer...

Then open your C: disk, or which ever volume holds your program files...

Now open your program files containing FL Studio..For me its Program Files (x86), if you have a 32-bit operating system, it will just be Program Files....

Now open the Image-Line folder....

Now open the FL Studio folder, for me I have the 10th edition, So it is FL Studio 10...

Now open the Data folder and save it in the Projects folder. I have created a folder called production sounds where all my sounds are stored....

Now a lot of you producers are flipping out on me right now and I can hear you man, I hear you. You are saying, this is stupid why would you save all your valuable sounds on the computer and not on an external hard drive. Well I agree and disagree with you.

It is good to have an external hard drive and keep a back up there of all your sounds in case anything happens to your computer. I highly recommend this practice for just owning a computer actually. However, this is merely showing you where to keep your files for use.

Now once we have our files here, you can pull them up in FL Studio like so...

This is located, in the projects tab in the browser of FL Studio, and then simply open the production sounds, or whatever you name the folder that contains your beats. Then you get this view of all  your awesome samples that you need for FL Studio.

Now that we are through we this, we can finally get to something that actually has to do with beats....

Okay we have our software, we have our samples and soundfonts. Quick note: If you'd like you can also purchase vsts. A VST is Virtual Studio Technology, which simply put, is software that is composed of different sounds.

Now lets get started in making a beat. What do we start with first? Melody, Rhythm, Bass, Drums? None of these. First we need to get it in our head of what kind of beat we wish to make. Are we going for a club track? Dirty South? Pop? It doesn't matter which one you choose, and it can always change directions later. Its always good to get an idea.

Now that we have decided what we are going to make lets play around. If you have a midi keyboard you can synch it to your FL Studio as so...

 

Simply click options in the upper left hand corner of FL Studio, then go to midi settings. You can shortcut it all by pressing F10. 

Now we are faced with this...

The keyboard you have hooked up by midi or USB will be shown in the input window. If not, hit rescan MIDI devices at the bottom and it should show up. Then simply click the enable light, which is right below the input box. You are now set up to use your keyboard.

If you don't have a MIDI/USB keyboard yet, don't fret. You can still make beats, Lex Luger used no stinking keyboard and look what he did!

To set FL Studio up for use with your computer keyboard, in the center you will see the above interface, simply click the light next to the keyboard. (Which is the only one illuminated here).

Now you are set to go, you can actually pull up any VST or soundfont and use your computer keyboard to play it. Try it....Nice right?

Okay feel free to play around a bit, this is unfortunately, the end of part 1 of our Beat Making Process. But hey, we at least have everything setup. From our program, to our instruments. The only thing left to do now, is to make a hit!

Remember guys, I share this information with you for free. Please subscribe, comment, and share.I love to get feedback on how I can better the blog for you guys.  

Also, please check out my beats, this is some examples of some of the techniques and some of the stuff we will cover here eventually. 

G-Rage Productions Inc. Beat leases only $20.00

Also, feel free to drop me an email, and I will get back to you asap.

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