beatmaking 101 (advice rel)

pcmr · January 2014

So after years of putting other things first (charity,school,work,kids)
I am finally taking the plunge and want to start beatmaking

I got a MPD 26 and will be upgrading my computer, printed the manuals

So what are the first steps? I have musical training (classical,sheet music) and a bunch of sample ideas

I need some advice and perspective from when you all got started fiddling around with the loops

Forums? tutorial youtube channels ? any things you wish you would have known..any essential gear to add?

thanks

Jonny_Paycheck · January 2014

this or that piece of gear or software doesn't really matter, just learn what you got until you're good at it. and have fun.

don't get too caught up in the manual/technical aspects, there's no wrong way to do stuff if the sound coming out is to your liking, everyone has their little tricks and hacks and it makes sense to them even if it's ass backwards (me too)

just make music and have fun man, if you try something and it doesn't work just move on and come back to it.

JectWon · January 2014

Jonny_Paycheck said:
this or that piece of gear or software doesn't really matter, just learn what you got until you're good at it. and have fun.

don't get too caught up in the manual/technical aspects, there's no wrong way to do stuff if the sound coming out is to your liking, everyone has their little tricks and hacks and it makes sense to them even if it's ass backwards (me too)

just make music and have fun man, if you try something and it doesn't work just move on and come back to it.

Yup...

dj_cityboy · January 2014

^^ i completely agree with all of this except READ THAT MANUAL!!!!! it will help..some people with "previous gear knowledge" may not need to read it, but every piece of gear is different, it was only a couple of years ago when i got my first MPC and although i have been fiddling without board gear for years, i couldnt figure out for the life of me how to sample or geting my samples into the MPC..read the manual once and never looked at it again..although its within arms reach ALWAYS!! like Jonny said there is no right or wrong way to do things.

i dont have an MPD, but recently used an MPK and after 2 hours of friggin with it, i had to reach for the manual to figure out what/where i was going wrong... simple things like set up and configuring devices can also be confusing..

not to mention there is sumthin suspect about a person who owns gear and cant use it/understand it..just my opinion.

most importantly HAVE FUN...dont let it be a chore to read the manual, or try sumthin different...

dukeofdelridge · January 2014

In my illustrious career arc from sqratchnoid to aspiring Bedroom Cut'N'Paste Masterpiece Producer, I have learned a couple things. The most important is to look for smaller and heavier gear. Not because of durability or build quality, but because heavy means it'll make a better paperweight and smaller is less surface area to dust.

Now go forth and fiddle! Spend a few days with patch cords, a couple not naming samples, and a week deciding on how to pronounce MIDI.

God DAMMIT!

DJ_Enki · January 2014

Jonny_Paycheck said:
this or that piece of gear or software doesn't really matter, just learn what you got until you're good at it. and have fun.

don't get too caught up in the manual/technical aspects, there's no wrong way to do stuff if the sound coming out is to your liking, everyone has their little tricks and hacks and it makes sense to them even if it's ass backwards (me too)

just make music and have fun man, if you try something and it doesn't work just move on and come back to it.

Yeah, this.

I learned by doing, and so over the years I figured out some shortcuts and whatnot to refine my workflow. I also found it was good to just go step by step. Like, first, I learned how to just make a loop. Then I learned how to put two loops together. Then I learned how to use multiple loops, and by the time I was doing that, I had figured out the best ways to vary how tightly-locked the loops were (I like things to be a bit sloppy sometimes). It was constant noodling, really, but you learn from that a lot.

Then again, I started off on software (shitty software, but software nonetheless). When I finally got a sampler, I read the manual just so I'd know right away how to get samples into the machine and how to truncate them. After that, though, it was right back to experimentation: Learning how to loop, learning how to chop a loop into a bunch of pieces and put them back together, learning how to lock up multiple loops in the machine, etc. Software vs. machine can be very different, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, but I liked that because it made me approach beatmaking in different ways.

The other great thing about the learn-by-doing approach is that you will make all sorts of happy accidents--you're trying to do something, but you don't do it right, but what you end up doing is really cool in its own way.

Delay · January 2014

If you're trying to make music with samples, I would recommend making a loop and going through records with headphones on with the loop playing in the background. Things will present themselves, and you'll waste a lot less time trying things that aren't working.

If you can play instruments, I would recommend going that route. Get a Shure 57, a pre-amp, a multitrack interface, and a midi keyboard. Those drum-pad interfaces, are so limiting. Nothing will discourage your efforts more than endless files with no end in site. Being able to create the sounds in your head quickly is the best.

dukeofdelridge · January 2014

Delay said:
Nothing will discourage your efforts more than endless files with no end in site.

Okem · January 2014

The MPD 26 is pretty basic and easy to use, I'd doubt you'll need the manual much. It's only a midi controller and I don't know what software comes with yours, but you'll probably need to familiarise yourself with some kind of DAW (digital audio workstation) like Logic, Ableton, or a free app called Reaper. Something that will act as the sampler/sequencer that a full MPC has built in. Learning the ins and outs of that will take more of your time, in fact it's a constant learning curve pretty much. but these days there's plenty of great online info & YouTube videos to help guide you through from set up to mastering. Don't get bogged down in it, but picking up good practices at the start can save you a hell of a lot of time in the long run.

I've been messing with Ableton the last few years and think it's great, very user friendly. You can put a loop into ableton, select 'chop to midi', select the size of the chop 1/16 ect, and it will put your samples in an MPC style 16 pad sampler ready for you to play.
I know several people on here use Logic. Don't know if anyone's ghetto enough to be rocking Fruityloops, but I'm sure whatever one you choose someone here will be able to guide you the right direction.

I'd look into getting a cheap midi keyboard. You can pick up a decent one pretty cheap, you're more constrained by how much space you want it to take up. They go from the full range with weighted keys, if you want that piano feel, to some pretty good portable ones the size of a qwerty keyboard, which will work fine if you're playing in basslines or simple melodies.
Lots of midi keyboards try and sell you on the fact that they have extra knobs and sliders, but you already have those on you're MDP (which can be midi assigned to control pretty much parameter in your software, like filters, volume levels, delays etc) so you don't really need them on keyboard too.

As you've started with a midi controller, for now I'd recommend staying 'in the box' (using your computer for everything), you can get a very professional sound with digital these days anyway. Once you start trying to incorporate hardware synths, effects, etc things can get complicated and expensive pretty quickly.

Software can get expensive as well though, unless you're down with pirated software. Either way there is a world of music production software out there. You can also get a pretty good set up going the freeware route, especially if you're on a PC. You'll probably want multiple soft synths, effects, meters and mastering tools ect ect. A good DAW will come with a lot of it's own though and you can build on that as you learn and grow.

Jonny_Paycheck · January 2014

also, don't try to reinvent the wheel. just make some shit that jams. or provokes emotion in you. don't overthink it. if it's one single note repeated at 1/4 note intervals, cool. if it's a big 8 bar loop, cool. throw a donk on it. cool. nobody can see the steps you took, or didn't. there's no extra credit. either shit slaps or it doesn't.

I used to have so many rules for myself, but nobody cares if you used a factory hi-hat instead of sampling a rare record. shit, I chopped these drums off Truly Yours by G Rap

Beatsoup · January 2014

Accept that your music is gonna suck for awhile when you are first starting out. Be okay with it, learn to love it and experiment don't get discouraged by your shit learn from it and move on to greater things. Never give up, they say it takes 10,000 hours to master any craft so get to it and try to prove that wrong.

Listen carefully, study productions that you love more closely. Listen to every individual element in the mix that makes up the track. Understand there purpose and how it all fits/ why it works. Structure, tension and release, dynamics, harmony and rhythms.

Also focus on melody, it's the only part people remember. A lot of songs especially recently are forgettable cause they have weak melodies. They are hard to write/ find.

my 2 cents

dukeofdelridge · January 2014

Every beat I ever made ended up sounding like either the one hip-house or rock'n'roll song on a 1989 rap album.

Big_Stacks · January 2014

Beatsoup said:
Accept that your music is gonna suck for awhile when you are first starting out. Be okay with it, learn to love it and experiment don't get discouraged by your shit learn from it and move on to greater things. Never give up, they say it takes 10,000 hours to master any craft so get to it and try to prove that wrong.

Listen carefully, study productions that you love more closely. Listen to every individual element in the mix that makes up the track. Understand there purpose and how it all fits/ why it works. Structure, tension and release, dynamics, harmony and rhythms.

Also focus on melody, it's the only part people remember. A lot of songs especially recently are forgettable cause they have weak melodies. They are hard to write/ find.

my 2 cents

Also, be patient and wait until have the kinks ironed out before presenting any beats in public. Too often, cats rush to play a beat on here (or some other forum) that's not even sequenced properly (I.e., the samples or parts aren't synchronized). As The SOS Band said, "...take your time, do it right..." Making the hot shit takes time. Enjoy!!!

Peace,

Big Stacks from Kakalak

Controller_7 · January 2014

Lots of good tips. One way to learn things would be to pick a beat you really like and try to recreate it. It's less about you being creative in terms of originality, but more about learning how things work. You'll never be able to do it exactly the same, but it'll get your mind thinking like "what steps would I take to do _______." You'll end up doing stuff that you may not ever think to do when making your own beat. Then after you've learned some new tricks and the results, take those and apply them to your own beats.

pcmr · January 2014

This is amazing advice and truly appreciated
both for creativity, leaening curve and workflow
ill be listening to a lot of instrumebtals and trying to bewak them down
ill rry to get a key board that my girls can play with as well (microkorg?)
the headphone advice was great and okem ill take it step by step as suggested
i have a lot of producer friends including kaytranada (who suprisingly use fl studio btw)
so i am motivated to step my game up and i will have a forum to exchanhe and even perform when i am ready
it moght take a while but you guys have given me the confidence to follow through
altjough as a former professional signer ill be hard on myself
the ultimate objective is to add vocals to the beats so we will see
in the meantime i think i will choose ableton because of the dj factor
is pirated risky (crashing)
I am in a strick budget these days

pcmr · January 2014

Also i would be one to follow some rules i havw to justify keepimg these persuasive percussion records all these years and i feel like the flip it to make it tours in certain preused samples will apply

But i will most likely get jake unos snare jordan bank

Any other packages to be recommended?

rain103 · January 2014

Save often.

and

Experiment with different sounds in different orders (if that makes sense). What you think might be a mistake can be a gem. Sometimes the funkiest vibes come from something you weren't necessarily trying to do...

and then

Save again.

The_Non · January 2014

What better way to break in your gear than making a Hot Buttered beat!

mickalphabet · January 2014

if you are just starting out maybe keep an eye out when your diggin or moochin around
for old synths or keyboards, something to tinker with that doesn't involve looking at
a computer screen, and you'll be surprised how much you can learn about recording
and mixing by incorporating even the simplest bits of gear into your settup

Okem · January 2014

What computer do you have? If it's a Win PC then what kind of soundcard does/will it have? If you plan on incorporating live vocals and hardware synths you need to be able to input and output midi and have a decent digital / analog audio converter to pass audio in and out of the machine (the standard outs/in won't be good enough quality). If you're building a PC for music production get a quality dedicated soundcard, if you're using a Mac you'll need a separate device, something like the Native Instrument Audio6 Komplete is a good entry level device. Like most other things, going the Mac route is going to be more expensive.

Pirated music software should be as reliable as the paid for versions as they are identical. The drawbacks are that they can sometimes be a real pain to install and you run a slight risk of picking up a virus. Downloading from a dedicated audio sharing site should guard you somewhat from that, try Audionews forums or Audioz.info. Get a decent virus protection program, although they will often wrongly flag things like key generators as malicious software. Lot's of people try and keep their music computer offline as a precaution, either from malicious software or from the pirated software dialing out to contact it's creators to try check you've paid for it. But these are issues to simply guard against, not worry about.

It is possible to go the more Khamic free/cheap route, it depends on your needs. Often hardware, like your MPD or a midi synth, will come with free lite versions of expensive software, but I would still recommend getting a cracked full version of the latest Ableton though, unless you can afford to pay for it or maybe have a friend with legit version you can install. Ableton offers you plenty of inbuilt vst's to get you started, there's no point in filling your harddrive with hundreds of soft synths, samples and effects, Korg collections, Waves bundles, Lexicon reverbs and the like, as you probably won't have use for them in the beginning.

Goldbaby have some nice free drum/drum machine samples, including a good quality 808.

I've gotten into N.I.'s Kontakt lately, it's a soft sampler created more for synths than drums but it can do both. You can get a free version from their site and there are a lot of free user created samples/synths that you can find online. If you want to synthesise your own sounds it's not quiet as flexible as a soft or hardware synth but if you want the authentic sound of an older synth or keyboard the emulated Kontakt instruments are constructed using recorded samples from those synths, so they sound pretty good. Using samples has the advantage of going easy on your CPU, but they will quickly eat up room on your harddrive. Checkout bedroomproducersblog for plenty more free samples and Kontakt kits.

Okem · January 2014

Dbl.

vintageinfants · January 2014

it would probably be an understatement to say you've already listened to enough music in your life to shape what you would make, so at this point just screw around and make some bleeps and bloops and have fun with it. eventually someone will come along and tell you one of them is a masterpiece.

Electrode · January 2014

I too was one of those bedroom jocks who screwed around with Cool Edit Pro and a pirate copy of Fruity Loops back in the day; you know, ten years ago. I bought an MPC cheap for ~$400 last summer and it's one of the best purchases I made in a while, even though I had to get some stuff repaired (but met local expert Bruce Forat in the process). It feels weird using Zip drives in 2014. Anyhow, don't be intimidated. I'm obsessive-compulsive as hell to the point where I'm always on a "am I doing this right?!?" thing, but even I could figure it out just by keeping at it and connecting the dots. No one expects you to be Super Producer when you're learning.

Big_Stacks · January 2014

rain103 said:
Save often.

and

Experiment with different sounds in different orders (if that makes sense). What you think might be a mistake can be a gem. Sometimes the funkiest vibes come from something you weren't necessarily trying to do...

and then

Save again.

Also, sample up bits of samples when chopping them up. Then, sequence a beat and play and the chopped bits in various ways . I have made some of my best chopped sample sequences by accident using this method. Hot shit can come from happy accidents!

Peace,

Big Stacks from Kakalak

djwaxon · January 2014

I'd also say check out Abelton if you're on a sample lean, it's pretty user friendly and comes with decent tutorials.

the_dL · January 2014

as the others have said, save, back your shit up
and invest in a good pair of speakers
The biggest gain I ever made in terms of beat making is knowing when to give up (or leave it for later on) on a beat, there were samples I tried for days to get right and after days/weeks of frustration I would eventually give up on them (sometimes I would come back a year or so later and be able to get it to work straight away with some extra experience/different perspective)
use acapellas over your beats, its a great tool to learn how to sequence different parts of a track together to make a song and helps with things like getting levels of instruments/drums and so on right etc.

rain103 · January 2014

the_dL said:
invest in a good pair of speakers

use acapellas over your beats, its a great tool to learn how to sequence different parts of a track together to make a song and helps with things like getting levels of instruments/drums and so on right etc.

Major cosign. Also, louder isn't necessarily better.

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beatmaking 101 (advice rel)

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