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Revision as of 19:57, 7 December 2007

HOW TO MAKE BEATS WITH YOUR PC

I am pretty good at Googling, OK? Making awesome stuff in the 21st century is 5% skill and 95% Google. I'm gonna list some of the awesome stuff I've found and worked out on how to make beats.

In this guide, I'm going to try to stick to the *legal* way to do stuff, at least as far as software copyrights go. I will ignore, as most amateur beat-makers who sample do, music copyright law in regards to sampling. I just want to point out that if you sample and you SELL the results for money, you will get sued and will lose all of that money and probably more but if you don't sell anything and just do it for fun and learning on the internet, people will probably leave you alone if they have an ounce of humanity in them.

There are other ways to do it but here is mine.

HARDWARE YOU NEED

You need a Windows XP PC. Vista sucks, don't ever get it. Linux is out of the question due to complexity and lack of support for most music software. Mac has GarageBand which you might also want to check out - I don't have it but I've heard it rocks and pros use it. But reguardless of what else you have, you need a Windows XP PC.

SOFTWARE YOU NEED

You NEED Audacity. It's Free Software. Everybody should have it. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Make sure to get LAME for encoding mp3s and all of the NyQuist plugins.

You also need FL Studio, which is commercial. It is the best thing to get if you are a noob like me. http://flstudio.com/

You might also want a program called Melodyne, (commercial) which will change the pitch of samples and vocals digitally for you. One of the demo songs in FL Studio actually used Melodyne to edit the vocals before importing into FL Studio. (LOL) You still need FL Studio, but if you have the extra cash, Melodyne proves that any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology. http://www.celemony.com/

MixMeister will try to automatically figure out the BPM (Beats Per Minute) of songs for you. FL Studio, alas, is terrible at doing this automatically, though you can do it by hand with the metronome. It can be convenient to check whether MixMeister has got it right, saving you the trouble of doing it yourself. But still check before you start slicing, just to make sure, because it can be wrong - especially if it doesn't have a strong drum rhythm to follow. A free version is available here: http://www.mixmeister.com/download_freestuff.html

A separate program just for doing drum machine stuff might not really be necessary once you have FL Studio, but I occasionally like to use BeatCraft to do my drums and then I import them into FL Studio. I'm not sure whether there's really anything special about BeatCraft - there's probably a billion different programs like it, and BeatCraft costs money. If anyone knows of a free program that works just as well, please recommend it, but until then, here's the link: http://www.acoustica.com/beatcraft/

VST PLUGINS YOU NEED

Free VST Plugins that actually work! http://www.vstplanet.com/

Magical 8-bit plugin. (Free) Add some old-school chiptune sounds to your beats with this. http://www.ymck.net/english/download/index.html

SXRATCH. It's a virtual turntable in a VST plugin. It sounds like crap but it's legal and free. FL Scratcher (still sucks but) is better. Still, you might work out a way to use SXRATCH to make something that sounds good. http://klanglabs.siliconemusic.com/freebies/Sxratch/sxratch.htm

Kn0ck0ut is a free VST plugin that takes two mono inputs and spectrally subtracts one from the other. It can also retrieve centre-panned material from stereo input. Good for separating vocals from background music. http://www.freewebs.com/st3pan0va/

SOUNDFONTS YOU NEED

Video Game Soundfonts. They're free, they actually sound good and they give you a variety of instruments, so get them. http://www.zophar.net/utilities/soundfont.html

I've got lots of soundfonts that I'm not sure about their legal status or where I got them from so I can't post them but if anybody knows of some good ones then please tell me about them! Try searching google for "free soundfonts".

SAMPLES YOU NEED

You need to register at acapellas4u.co.uk so you can download samples (and they have other cool stuff too) from there. You have to register (for free) to see the download links in their forums. It's worth it. SAMPLE PACKS http://acapellas4u.co.uk/forum40.html DRUM MACHINE HEAVEN http://acapellas4u.co.uk/topic7024.html

DO NOT MISS THE DRUM MACHINE HEAVEN THREAD. It really IS Drum Machine Heaven.

You need James Brown's Funky Drummer break. Every DJ has this. Also try the Amen break and other old-school breaks listed on this site. Get them on your own at the highest possible quality if you can, but if you can't then here is the site that has them: http://www.joejahnigen.com/grooves.htm

Linkin Park / Fort Minor drum samples: Hey, I'm not endorsing these group's lifestyles but they have some awesome drum samples. http://www.xerofocusstudios.com/reflectionist/Linkin%20Park%20-%20Fort%20Minor%20Drum%20Samples.rar

Also from them, I'd recommend the Remember the Name loop packs from ccMixter. They're free and legal to reuse non-commercially. Good drums and strings. http://ccmixter.org/media/files/fortminor/4101

I'd also recommend getting the Ultimate Breaks and Beats series. I have it in mp3 format but I can't offer it for download due to copyright restrictions. But having it will help you learn from the past.

Also for sampling, um, the Beatles anyone?

Listen to some of your favorite songs in other (non-hiphop) genres and try and find places where there is no music - only drums. You can sample those drums and make beats! Come up with a collection of drum samples that is unique to you. Some of my most awesome drum sounds (which other people have commented on how great they are) come from VeggieTales!

Also, sometimes using a sample has a message attached to it if you're rapping about something related to the subject matter of the song you're sampling from. You can make cultural references and reflect on the past by making beats.

Virtual record scratching

I'm going to say a little bit about Turntablism and Vinyl Emulation Software.

Here's a site that describes some of the different traditional techniques: http://www.djbattles.com/turntablist_techniques.htm

If you don't have the money for an awesome turntable setup, there are ways to do it with your PC. Check this site on Fruity Scratcher Mouse Skillz: http://klanglabs.siliconemusic.com/-spyro-/mouse_skills.html

If you've got a little money but still want to stay virtual then I suggest VirtualDJ: http://www.virtualdj.com/

Finding stuff to scratch

I like to use voices from Old Timey Radio. You can download Old Time Radio shows from the Internet Archive. http://www.archive.org/details/oldtimeradio

Also for movie sounds: http://moviesounds.com/ and http://www.moviewavs.com/