Independent Music Advice http://www.independentmusicadvice.com Who Needs A Record Label? Wed, 23 May 2018 17:19:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.7 15 Tips To Producing Music Like A Professional http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2012/07/15-tips-to-producing-music-like-a-professional/ http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2012/07/15-tips-to-producing-music-like-a-professional/#comments Sun, 15 Jul 2012 09:31:46 +0000 http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/?p=2737 Ok, so we thought we’d do something different for you today. As our regular readers will know, we usually have heavily text based posts giving advice. Today though, we’ve got an infographic for you giving 15 tips to better music production.

So if you want to become a better producer, please check the below image. If you like it, please share it via Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networking site you are part of.

15 Tips To Producing Music Like A Professional

This image was supplied by the music event venue Boisdale. You can see how you can submit a music infographic here.

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Rap And Hip Hop Beat Making Theory http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2012/05/rap-and-hip-hop-beat-making-theory/ http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2012/05/rap-and-hip-hop-beat-making-theory/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 11:43:15 +0000 http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/?p=2583 This is a guest post by Marcel van Ling from Hot Beat Store, and a follow up to our beginners guide on how to product music. This lesson is more advanced. You can write for this site too.
Learning To Produce Hip Hop InstrumentalsRap, Hip Hop and R&B beats are important for recording artists, and not hard to find on the internet. If you do a Google search for ‘hip hop beats’ for example, you’ll get hundreds of websites offering them for your use.

Beats, or instrumentals as they’re also known, are musical arrangements without the vocals. Because of their popularity, there are a lot of producers making rap beats. This however doesn’t mean there’s no space for you in the music production market. As you can imagine, the quality of these instrumentals vary very much. Some are at a very high quality, while others are extremely poor.

For a lot of amateur rappers and singers, this is not a big problem. For musicians who are making money from their music and want to take things to the next level though, many require higher quality beats. These high quality beats are often made by professional producers with years of experience who know how to make a decent mix.

The structure of your instrumentals are important. If you want to make your own hip hop beats or just want to know what goes into them, this article is the one for you.

Equalization – The Basics Of What You Need To Know

First of all, you have to understand the basics of equalization. According to Wikipedia:

Equalization (British: equalisation) is the process of adjusting the balance between frequency components within an electronic signal.

In humans, the range of frequencies we can hear is usually said to be 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz (20 kHz). In other words, the human ears are sensitive to sounds in that range. To make it somewhat easier, we can divide this spectrum into four frequency bands: 1: the low end, 2: the mid-lows, 3: the mid-highs and 4: the high end.

As we grow older, we tend to hear fewer high ends. If you’re less sensitive to some frequencies, you should keep that in mind when you’re mixing. Don’t boost frequencies that are already in the mix too much. If you want to make beats professionally, it’s a good idea to test your ears to find out if you have any hearing problems.

Instruments And Their Frequencies

Frequency Of InstrumentsThere are a lot of instruments used in rap and R&B beats, all of which have a different sound. This is because the characteristic sound of an instrument is made out of different frequencies. This is called the timbre of the instrument.

A bass guitar or bass synth has a lot of energy in the low frequency band, i.e. 80 to 160 Hz. An acoustic guitar has most energy somewhat higher, around 200 to 300 Hz. Keep in mind that all instruments have a ground-note with lower and upper harmonics. So a violin has most of its energy around 200 to 400 Hz, but this instrument has a lot of upper harmonics that creates its characteristic sound. Because of this, these upper harmonics are very important.

Take a look at some frequency charts before you start choosing instruments and mixing. These charts are very useful for beginners. A good idea is to pick one or two instruments from every frequency band to create a nice balance. You can use the following instruments for the different frequency bands:

Low Frequency Instruments:

  • Kick.
  • Sub Bass synth.
  • Bass synth.
  • Bass guitar.
  • Lower keys of a piano.
  • Bass strings.

Mid-Low Frequency Instruments:

  • Snare.
  • Cello.
  • Organ.
  • Piano.
  • Guitar.
  • Electric Piano.
  • Synthesizer.

Mid-High Frequency Instruments:

  • Violin.
  • Viola.
  • Trumpet.
  • Upper keys of the piano.
  • Flute.
  • Synthesizer.

High Frequency Instruments:

  • Hi-hats.
  • Cymbals.
  • Chimes.
  • Synthesizer effects.

If you have a frequency chart, you can look up frequencies for all the instruments you want to use.

Now that you know these frequencies, you can use this knowledge to separate them from each other, and properly equalize everything. Try to boost the frequencies that are important for that instrument to get a better sounding instrumental.

Don’t cut frequencies, unless you need to get rid of problems in the mix (But you might instead want to thing of using other instruments instead). Ears tend to be more sensitive to boosting than cutting. By doing some balanced equalization, you will get more definition for each instrument used in your beat. This will result in a better separation of your sounds. A better separation means a cleaner sounding song.

Sorting You Panning And Using Reverb

Now that you have done proper equalization, you can further separate the instruments of the beat by panning them and adding reverb. Try to visualize the beat in three dimensions, and give all instruments a position that fits well.

Panning Music:
Panning music is where you make the sounds interchange from one speaker to the next, or make it only appear in one speaker or the other. For example, if you may only hear a sound in one speaker, but you can make it pan and go to the other speaker. When producing a beat, you can make it so it pans as far left or right as you want. Surround sound systems especially take advantage of this feature.

Panning Music SpeakersYou want the lows, for example the kick and bass, in the middle of the mix. The human brain can’t calculate the direction of low sounds because of its long wavelength, so there is no point panning them left or right. On the other hand, you can place the claps or the snare slightly out of the middle to make room for the rapper or singer.

Don’t place too many instruments in the middle that have the same frequency as vocals. For these instruments, there are some nice doubling effects you can use to create a good stereo image. There are a lot of stereo effects and tricks you can apply, so experiment with them till you get the right sound.

Use reverb to place any required instruments in the back, and further away from the listener. The more reverb you apply, the further away the instrument will sound. You can also use equalization to bring instruments closer or further away. The human ear is very sensitive to speech in the range of 300 Hz to 5000 Hz, so if you cut those frequencies you will bring that instrument more to the back.

Compression

Using compression is very important, as a compressor takes the peaks out of the mix. Sound levels that exceed a certain (Bad) threshold are flattened out by the compressor. You can also use compression as an effect, for example think of the pumping effect which is often used in dance music.

Play around with the settings of the compressor, and listen what it does to the overall sound. You can really make your rap beat come to life with proper compressor settings, so see which levels work best for your mix.

Make Your Own Hip Hop Beats Theory Conclusion

These are some basic mixing techniques you can use when producing beats and instrumentals. Keep in mind though that these are not hard set rules, just guidelines. You can apply it to all different kind of beat genres like R&B, Hip Hop, New School, Underground, and many more. It takes a lot of experience to create masterpieces, but even the greatest producers started with nothing. Have a nice time mixing beats.

About The Author:

Marcel van Ling finished the School for Audio Engineering (SAE) in 2005, and has a lot of experience as a musician. He produces R&B instrumentals and knows a lot about music production software and music theory. Listen to examples of his music on his website HotBeatStore.com, where you can buy rap beats. You can contact Marcel by sending him an email: info (at) mosound.nl.

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Top Music Production Tips http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2011/09/top-music-production-tips/ Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:54:55 +0000 http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/?p=2087 Music Production Tips And TricksToday we thought we’d give you a few music production tips that can really help take your music production skills and technique to the next level. As a producer it can be too easy to fall into a rut, and not really reach the next level in terms on the types of beats you make. This is exactly what you want to avoid, as without always analysing what you’re doing and trying new things, you will never progress as a producer.

In this article, we look at a few things beginner and intermediate producers can do to get thinking about how they make beats. If you follow these tips, you will not only end up being more open in your production style, but also more structured and able to tell what makes a good instrumental. Enjoy.

Note: Image by FdA Music@Weston College on Flickr

Music Production Tips: Copy Established Producers

One of the best things I could advise to beginner producers, is to copy other people’s beats. This is not so you get their style. Nor is this so you can edit other people’s beats slightly and call them your own. The reason I suggest this, is so you can see what goes into making a truly successful beat. This is one of the best music production tips I can give, and one that works across many different creative crafts.

If you can look into someone else’s beat, see what sounds are involved, and recreate it near enough to perfect, you will have a much better knowledge of how individual instruments work together to create a full song. You will see how instruments blend together to made beats and melodies, and how many different sounds are really involved.

A quick note though, I’d advise that you never actually use these beats you recreate for more then learning purposes. On top of that, I’d suggest that you copy a lot of different styles of beats from different producers. This way you’ll make it less likely that you consciously or unconsciously pick up on someone’s style, and produce beats that goes against existing copyrights. You’ll also see how different styles of beats are made, and be able to create a lot more styles of instrumentals yourself.

Music Production Tip: Analyses Your Own Instrumentals

If you want to see where you’re going as a producer, you need to continually take an analytical look at your own music production style:

  • Is there a sound that you always use in your songs? And if so, is that a good thing that you use that sound so much?
  • Are all your productions at a similar speed? And can you make songs that are any faster or slower?
  • Do you only make dark sounding beats? And can you produce instrumentals that have a happier feel to them?

Questions like this and others will keep you on your toes, and get you to think about pushing your boundaries. The more types of different instrumentals you can make, the better all round producer you will be…

Music Production Tips: Randomly Try New Things

If you want to produce more then one type of music, then you should consider starting some of your songs in a random manor. What I mean by this, it not putting to much thought into it. For example, let’s say you want to start a new song. Instead of going through your sound library and seeing what instrument you like the sound of, why not pick one at random (Without listing to it first) and put it down in a random order in your project. This order will be the base of your melody. Next pick another random sound, and either boost the melody by putting the instrument in the exact same order, or create a complementary melody pattern to go alongside it. From here you can make a song that matches this melody. You can continue to use random sounds and / or orders, or you can be a bit more selective as you go along. Either way, you will have made a song that you wouldn’t have made if you thought about your every move.

Not all songs you make using these music production tips will turn out to be your greatest hit ever, but there is a good chance you’ll make something that isn’t your usual style but you like. Again, this comes back to creating your own style and techniques, and seeing what is actually in a song. I have similar tips on music production that involve you making the whole song in a random(ish) manner, but I’d stick to just making part of the melody using this method for now.

Music Production Tips And Tricks Conclusion

The above tips and tricks for music production can really have you thinking outside the box. Without consciously learning and experimenting with your music production, it will be very hard to become a top producer. All the best producers have reached where they are by constantly learning their craft, and improving wherever they can. If you want to become a well respected producer, you will need to do the same.

All of these music producer tips work on any software, even cheap music production software such as the recommended DUBturbo.

You can look here if you want to know more about how to produce music. I hope you found these music production tips, tricks and techniques useful, if so please share this article with any fellow producers you may know.

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Best Cheap Music Production Software http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2011/09/best-cheap-music-production-software/ http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2011/09/best-cheap-music-production-software/#comments Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:24:45 +0000 http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/?p=2079 Buy the best cheap music production softwareIn a continuation of our topics on how to produce music, today we thought we’d look at what the best cheap music production software is. In those articles, we briefly touched on our favourite tool for producing music, DUBturbo. Today however, we will elaborate on why this is the best cheap production software you can get if you’re on a budget, and look at some of the pitfalls you need to avoid when buying cheap software online.

Remember, regardless of whether or not you’re on a budget, it’s still important to get a good quality music production tool. There’s no point saving money if the beats you produce end up being of a poor quality. Thankfully this isn’t the case with DUBturbo, but it’s something worth baring in mind when look at other software.

The Best Cheap Music Production Software

So, what is the best cheap music production software? Without a doubt, it has to be DUBturbo. It does everything a beginner or intermediate producer could want in their music production tools, and will leave you with a instrumental that is good enough to release to the general public. It uses WAV files, so there is no loss of quality at any stage (Unless you choose for there to be). You can also import your own sounds, a feature that isn’t normally present in cheaper music production software. In fact, it has a lot of features you can’t even get when you buy more expensive music production software.

You can check our full DUBturbo review here if you haven’t already (Link opens in a new window).

What To Look For In Music Production Software

So, what should you look for when you’re ready to buy music production software? Here are some of the essential things:

  • Good Quality Sounds.
    As you’re producing music, you will want your final song to come out in the best quality possible. If your music production software can’t export your final beat in a WAV quality of your choice, then it’s not the software you should be using.
  • Importing Sounds.
    Another thing you should look for when you buy any music software, is the ability to import your own sounds and samples. While most cheap music production software these days comes packed with a lot of audio files and sounds, most of them don’t allow you to import your own sounds as well. This is ok for a while, but it’ll come to a point when you’ll be limited with the type of songs you’ll make. No producer wants to be limited in their creativity or to outgrow their software, so it’s best to avoid software that doesn’t allow this.
  • Enough Tracks.
    The tracks are the amount of levels of sound you can put in your song. You will need at least 16 tracks when producing music, although not everyone will need even this much. Make sure you have a decent amount of tracks to use, as you never know when you’ll need to produce that piece that sounds like it uses every instrument in your library.
  • Exporting Your Beats.
    While this may sound like common sense, it’s important to be able to export your beats after you have finished producing it. Believe it or not, some cheap music production software doesn’t allow you to export your beats once you’ve made them, or put them on CD. If you ask me, there’s absolutely no need for any software like this to be in existence. Make sure you software can export your beats or it’s simply a waste of time and money.

DUB turbo has all these features you require. You produce and export at WAV level, meaning there’s no loss in quality during any stage of production (Unlike some other cheap production software, which compresses the files when you’re producing, then compresses them again when you export your beats onto CD). You can import sounds, structure your songs over numerous tracks, and then export your beats in any format you want.

So now that we know what to look for in our software, let’s look at what we want to avoid at all costs:

What To Avoid In Cheap Music Production Software

One thing I want to say, is just because you can’t afford to spend a large amount of money on software to produce music on, it doesn’t mean that you should buy a poor product. More so then money, it’s all about value for money. Even if you could buy a production program for $10, it would be a complete waste of money if you found it impossible to produce beats on it.

Because of this, when I recommend any software, I make sure it can do the job regardless of how cheap it is. Price is important, but the end result is even more so.

Buy Cheap Software For Music Production

If you want to buy the best discount software to get you producing music, then DUBturbo is the one to buy. If you buy through the above link, you can also save 75% on the recommended retail price. This sale price isn’t guaranteed to last forever, so if you’re serious about music production, you might want to buy it now. As there is no physical disk to be sent to you, you don’t have to worry about delivery costs. You basically get free shipping.

Cheap Music Production Software Conclusion

In order to start producing music, you need the correct tools. Music production software is one of those tools. While some of the top level equipment can cost hundreds of dollars, is it possible to buy some cheaper software that also does a good job.

The thing is, often it’s not about what software you use. In reality, it comes down to whether or not you know how to make beats. You can have the most expensive music production software in the world, but if you can’t put a beat together, what’s the point? A talented producer on the other hand may have some discount music production software, and make the biggest hit of the year.

If you’re ready to buy cheap music production software, then DUBturbo is what you need in your life.

If you go on to buy Dubturbo through my link, I will be compensated by the Dubturbo team for this. This will not cost you anything.

As I highly recommend Dubturbo, I’ve become an affiliate for the product. This means that if you purchase it via my recommendation (Link), I will get some money from the maker of the software for this. This will not cost you anything, and in no way influences my recommendation. I first used the software even before I became an affiliate.

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How To Produce Music For Beginners Part Two http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2011/05/how-to-produce-music-for-beginners-part-two/ http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2011/05/how-to-produce-music-for-beginners-part-two/#comments Thu, 12 May 2011 10:31:40 +0000 http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/?p=1844 How To Produce Music At Home For Beginners Part TwoWelcome to How To Produce Music For Beginners Part Two. This is the second of a two part series helping beginners get to grips with how to produce their own music. In part one we looked at why you would want to become a music producer, whether you should use a professional recording studio or produce at home with beat maker software such as DubTurbo (And why), how hard music production really is, and what you need to get started. In this part, we’ll look at what software you should use to learn the ropes, where to get your own samples to makes your songs more exciting, how to arrange your songs, and what you need to do if you want to create beats like a professional.

If you haven’t checked out part one yet, I suggest you read that first to get some background knowledge that will help you come a better producer:

How To Produce Music For Beginners Part One
How To Produce Music For Beginners Part Two (This article)

This guide is mainly aimed at beginner producers that either haven’t been producing for long, or are thinking about getting into the game. It doesn’t matter if you want to know how to produce music on a Mac or a PC, this guide deals with principles, so will help you get started with music production either way. With only a computer and some cheap music production software (We’ll tell you what the best one is in the section directly below) you can get up and running as and start producing your own music today!

Getting The Right Beat Maker Software To Make Your Own Beats

The main thing you need to do when you start out producing, is getting the right beat maker software. This is where many people go wrong, as they try and buy the most advanced music production software thinking they’ll be able to produce music like their favourite producer. In reality however, buying upper end music production software can often do more harm then good for beginner producers.

The thing is, a lot of them have a steep learning curve. You can’t simply install this software and expect to have a good beat by the end of the day, it takes a long time to learn how to use the software and make decent tunes.

This is why I recommend using easy to learn beat making software to start out with. If the software is easy and straight forward to use, you can put all your effort into learning to create good beats, rather then learning how to use software. I personally recommend DubTurbo for beginner producers, as not only is it extremely cheap (Around $30, where other complex software such as Cuebase costs you hundreds), but it is also very powerful and includes everything you need to make good quality beats. You can easily arrange songs using the thousands of different instruments and sounds that comes with this beat maker software (You can also import your own sounds, something we’ll talk about in the next chapter below), then export them as a high quality WAV file ready to bring to the recording booth.

From what I’ve seen, DubTurbo seems to be the best music production tool for both beginner and intermediate producers of music. And for that price, you can’t go wrong.

When it comes to what computer you use however, I’d say it doesn’t really matter. As long as your computer has enough memory to not slow down your audio production software then you’re good. It will of course need to allow you to hear sound as well, but that’s a pretty standard feature on most modern computers.

Stocking Up Your Music Library

As any good music producer will tell you, you can’t just stick to the sounds that already come with your music production software. Using these pre installed sounds if fine when you’re learning how to use the software, as there is usually enough sounds for you to make a number of good songs. But if you want to take your music production to the next level and want to make your sounds sound exactly how you want, there’s a good chance you’ll need to find your own sounds and samples at one point.

In all honesty, this isn’t something you’ll need to do straight away. Most beat making software comes pre installed with thousands of instrument sounds and samples. What’s more, you can edit these samples to your heart’s content, making them sound completely different from before. Having said that, when you want a specific sound that’s not there, this can be quite frustrating. At this stage, you need to import some new sounds to use.
DUBturbo ReviewYou can find these sounds from all over. There are many websites which give away free music sample (Make sure it’s royalty free music so you’re not downloading it illegally), some music magazines come with pre recorded sounds for you to use, and you can buy music samples if you look around online. If you have the means, you can also record your own samples to use, so that’s always an option if you want to truly create your own beats.

Something many producers of music like doing is sampling sounds from their favourite TV shows. I’m sure you’ve all heard those film samples in songs, someone records a line from their favourite film and loops it in their song. This is something you could consider doing, but bare in mine there could be copyright issues you need to deal with first.

Arranging Your Song

Now that you’ve got your music production tools and are ready to go, there are a few things you need to think about when you make your own beats. You can’t simply just put instruments anywhere you want and expect to have a hit on your hands, you need to know what you’re doing and how to structure a song. This is probably the most important part of knowing how to produce music, so pay attention to the below points:

    1. Structuring Your Songs.
      As I said before, you can’t simply put down instruments and sounds in any order and expect to have a quality beat on your hands. All good songs have a structure, and you need to find a structure that balances both your personal style and accepted song arrangements. You don’t want to be too much like everyone else or there would be little point you producing (Although having said that, you can still make money from your songs if your productions have a ‘bait’ sound but are of a high quality). At the same time though, you don’t want to be too different to the extent where people don’t feel comfortable listing to your music.
      I’d advice you listen to already established songs you like, and see how they structure their songs. What speed is the song? How many bars are there for each verse and chorus? Is there any break down, introduction and outro? Do this with a good few songs and you will learn how to structure songs like a professional.
  1. Using The Right Sounds.
    Another part of arranging your songs right, is making sure you use all the right sounds. While there are exceptions to the rule, a typical song has a few types of sounds in it:1. Bass: The bass is the type of sound that really brings the song to life, a strong bass can send vibrations through your speakers. You can also can also use a more mellow or a ‘sub base’ if you wish, it’s really down to you. Either way, use bass to provide a real feel to your tune.2. Melody: This is the part of the song that has people humming along. It is the order of musical notes that is supposed to be catchy to someone’s ears. Singers and rappers often perform in time to the melody, and a good melody can really make a song. The melody is usually made from instruments such as piano or guitar, and goes well with the rest of the tune.3. Beats: The beats consist of the drum arrangements and high hats. This is the part that really sets the tempo of your song; Add a lot and it can sound like the song’s moving along fast, add a minimum amount and your song will sound more melo and slow moving.

If you want to make music and be a successful producer, you need to know how to properly arrange a song. It is important you not only have a good bass, melody and beat, but also that you fit them together so they sound good together. This should be one of the main things you learn how to do, so make sure you study this art until it comes naturally to you.

How To Produce Music And Make Your Own Beats Like A Pro

Producing MusicKnowing how to produce music is worth nothing if you don’t bare in mind one very important thing: It takes time and work to become a top producer! If you want to produce music like a profession such as Dr Dre, you need to put in the work to making it happen. You have to learn your art as much as possible, and put in the time to make those bangers that everyone wants to hear.

If you expect to make your own beats and become an overnight celebrity, then you’re in for a big shock. Like anything else in the music industry, the people who succeed are the ones who both have talent and put the work in. Doing one or the other gives you a chance to succeed, but unless you have both qualities, your chances of being successful in music are greatly reduced.

Professional producers are professional for a few reasons:

  • They have put in long hours perfecting their audio production skills, whether in a recoding studio or at home.
  • They’ve learnt how to produce music beats that a good amount of people will like. If people don’t like your productions, your professional producing career will be a short lived one.
  • They always try new things. While they may have a certain sound which got them big, they usually continue to push the boundaries and try other things. In order to do this you need to know how to produce in a variety of styles, once again leading back to putting in the time and effort to perfect your craft. Practice using different instruments and pattern arrangements in your chosen music production software. This will really get your creativity going, and help you become a better producer.
    Please Note: I recommend you sticking to a style that gets you popular even if you do start making other types of music alongside it. This will keep your original fans happy.

If you want to become a professional producer, remember that it takes a lot of time and effort. Learn from your mistakes, and take honest feedback without getting offended. Use that feedback to step up your game and becomes a better producer of music.

How To Produce Music For Beginners End Of Part Two

And that’s it for our two part series on how to produce music for beginners. We hope you have found the knowledge useful, and can use it to get you started creating your own beats. If you haven’t started producing already and are just researching, I suggest you use DubTurbo to get you started as a producer (You can check out our Dub Turbo review with bonus and discount here). It is easy to set up and use (And not to mention extremely cheap compared to other music production software out there), allowing you to focus purely on learning how to produce music. Once again, here are the articles in this series:

How To Produce Music For Beginners Part One
How To Produce Music For Beginners Part Two

Please make sure you bookmark these articles, and come back to them as and when you need them. If you have any further questions about how to produce music at home, feel free to ask them in the comments below.

Please also state that I’m an affiliate for Dubturbo as I feel it’s a good tool which can benefit many beginner producers. Because of this I will be credited if you get it through my link. This won’t change the price for you but will compensate me for my genuine recommendation.

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How To Produce Music For Beginners Part One http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2011/05/how-to-produce-music-for-beginners-part-one/ http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2011/05/how-to-produce-music-for-beginners-part-one/#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 09:28:34 +0000 http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/?p=1834 How To Produce Music At Home For Beginners Part OneIf you’ve ever wondered how to produce music, you’ve come to the right place. In this two part guide, we look out how to produce music for beginners, and how to do so with minimum funds available to you. Despite popular belief, you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on software to become a good music producer. What you do need however, is practice and a good ear for sounds.

I’ve seen people spend hundreds on music production software and struggle to use it properly. I’ve also seen people spend $30 on simple beat maker software such as DubTurbo, and make good quality beats in a matter of hours. Being a producer is more then just what software you use; it’s how you use it, and how much time and effort you’re willing to put into mastering your craft.

If you want to learn how to produce music, I suggest you read this article from start to finish. As long as you apply what you learn and work on becoming a music producer, there’s no reason you won’t have your first songs complete sooner rather then later.

P.S. How To Produce Music For Beginners Part Two is also out now. If you want to know what is the beat maker software why, how to structure a song properly, and how to get the work levels of a top producer, we suggest you read that as well.

Why Would You Want To Make Your Own Beats?

Depending on what the aim is for your music career, music production could be your ideal job. There are a lot of people who enjoy music, but don’t want to necessarily be up there in the spot light. Becoming a producer means that you can make music to your heart’s content, but stay relatively unknown if you so choose. If you do enjoy the spotlight however, there is plenty of space for recognition as a master producer. Look at Dr Dre and Will.I.Am for example, two very big producers who are known throughout the world. They also make a lot of money.

If you do vocals however, you may you may also want to produce your own music. If you can make your own beats, you won’t have to rely on other people to give you backing tracks. Sometimes producers can be long to give you an instrumental you want, or they may end up giving you no songs at all. Waiting for other people to deliver can be one of the most frustrating things about the music industry, and one you may want to cut out if possible.

Another reasons why you would want to learn how to produce music if you’re a vocalist, is because you can get your backing tracks exactly how you want them. Other producers not giving you the type of backing tracks you’re looking for? No problem, if you know how to produce you can make it yourself.

All in all, music production is a good skill to have. I’d advice you try it at least once, get some cheap beat maker software such as DubTurbo, and see if it’s for you. If you’re after professional music production software however, that guide will give you all the details you need.

Is It Hard To Make Your Own Beats?

DUBturbo ReviewWell, yes and no. It can be if you do it wrong, but if you go down the right path initially then the learning curve should be fine. Don’t worry, we’ll tell you what the right path is. 😉

The thing is, many beginner producers start out punching above their weight. They buy complex software such as Cuebase, and hardware to mix all their music down. Doing this is basically setting yourself up to fail, as you don’t have the basic knowledge to create your own beats yet.

What you need instead is some simple but powerful beat making software such as DubTurbo. This has built with beginner and intermediate producers in mind. It is easy enough to pick up and learn, yet powerful enough to produce good quality music that you’ll be able to get someone to vocal.

Forget about getting all the most expensive equipment you hear Dr Dre talking about, start out with the basics and work your way up. Try jump the gun too early and you’ll be left with nothing but confusion.

Do You Need A Recording Studio To Make Your Own Beats?

A common misconception that many people have is they think you need a recording studio to produce music. While you can produce your own music in studios, it isn’t necessary at all. In fact, I’d actually advice against it unless you’re a professional producer. There are two main reasons for this:

  1. It Gets Expensive.
    As some of you may know, the cost of hiring a studio isn’t generally cheap. While it can be manageable to vocal a few songs here and there, using a recording studio to produce music is a whole other thing entirely.
    It can take a long time to make a fresh beat, hours if you’re a professional, or days if you’re not (You’ll find you’ll always be going back to tweak things and make them better). Now think about it, how much would it cost to make an album’s worth of instruments for yourself or another independent musician to use? Way too much is the answer, so unless you’re already making money from the music industry, it’s simply not worth it.
  2. You Don’t Get As Much Time As You Need.
    Unless you have your own studio, then the time you’ll get in the studio is limited. You’ll have to book your session in advance, sometimes days or weeks in advance. When you do get your booking however, you may only be able to book it for a few hours at a time. When you make your own beats, you don’t want to be stopped in the middle of things and be told your time’s up. You want to keep going and finish your song while you’re in the zone. This is another reason why I’d advice against using a studio to record beats unless you’ve an unlimited budge or your own recording studio.

So how do you produce music if you’re not going to be using a studio? Easy, you learn how to produce music from home

How To Produce Music From Home

So now you know you don’t need a music studio to make your own beats, I’m guessing you’ll be wanting to know how to produce from home? Great question, and one we’re going to show you today. There are a few essential things you’ll need if you want to produce music from home, and they are:

  1. A Computer With Sound.
    If you want to get into audio production, you need a computer. This is where you’ll make all your music, using your mouse to arrange the sounds as you want them. You’ll need a decent computer with sound capabilities, and one with enough power to make sure you can run any music software without having the computer slow down. As long as you have bought your computer in the last few years and have treated it well, it should be fine.
  2. Music Software.
    You need music software to actually create your instrumentals. This will basically give you the power of a miniature studio in your own house, with all the instruments and sound effects you need to produce your own music. I’d suggest going for a cheap option (You can check out our DUBturbo review and bonus here) while you’re starting out, it’s easy to learn and can produce good quality songs for both beginner and intermediate producers.

And that’s it. You don’t need anything else to get started producing your own beats, with just those two things you can start producing music at home right away. There are however some additional add ons you can get such as keyboards, instruments and effect machines, but for now I’ll say keep it simple. All of the sounds you’d want from those instruments you can get in your software anyway, and new sounds can easily be downloaded from the internet if required.

How To Produce Music For Beginners End Of Part One

How To Produce Music For Beginners Part Two is out now, so click that link (<) and check it out!
Recording StudioAnd that’s it for today, we hope we’ve given you some good background knowledge on how to become a music producer. You should now know why you would want to become a producer, why it’s a good idea to start off producing music at home, and what you need to start off producing music. In part two we’ll be looking more deeply into how to become a producer, showing you what beat maker software to get and why, how to get fresh sounds to make songs with, how to arrange your songs, and much more.

If you’ve any thoughts or questions about this article, please leave them in the comments section below. Go and check out How To Produce Music For Beginners Part 2 for more tips and advice.

P.S. The links to Dubturbo in this guide are affiliate links and I will be compensated if you buy Dubturbo after clicking one of them (At no cost to you).

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DUBturbo Review – Beat Maker Software http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2011/05/dubturbo-review-and-bonus/ http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/2011/05/dubturbo-review-and-bonus/#comments Sat, 07 May 2011 10:16:16 +0000 http://www.independentmusicadvice.com/?p=1870 DUBturbo Review - Make Your Own Beats With Cheap Beat Maker SoftwareThis is a DUBturbo review.

Today we’re going to look at DUBturbo, and why it’s considered one of the best music beat makers on the market for intermediate and beginner producers. Dub Turbo is a relatively new piece of music production software, but in a very short amount of time it has gained a large amount of market share. It has been able to do this for one simple reason: It is a lot more powerful, and a lot cheaper, then any of it’s nearest competitors.

In this review we give an honest look at Dubturbo, and help you decide if it’s the beat making software for you. If you decide it is, make sure you get DubTurbo through our link to be able to claim our exclusive DubTurbo Bonus.

Who Is This Beat Maker Software For?

I’ll tell you now, this music beat maker software isn’t for everyone. You should use Dub Turbo if:

  • You’re a beginner or intermediate music producer that wants to create your own beats with minimum fuss and effort.
  • You’re learning the ropes of music production, and want to learn how to produce music (They provide you with free training videos).
  • You haven’t got a big budget, but you still want to buy beat maker software that’ll give you a good quality beat at the end.

You shouldn’t buy DubTurbo if:

  • You already own and have mastered Cuebase, but are looking for an alternative.
  • You’re a professional producer who already has a lot of experience with music production.
  • You have a big budget and are able to buy the best beat maker software no matter what the cost (We’re talking around $500 at least).

If you are new to producing or aren’t a big fan of technology, then DUBturbo could be exactly what you’re looking for. It is easy to use, inexpensive, and gives you quality results without a big learning curve. If you’re in the process of learning how to produce music then give it a try.

Features Of The Music Beat Maker DUB turbo

Click the DUBturbo link at the top of this page for a full list of DubTurbo features.

Pros And Cons Of This Music Beat Maker

Here are the pros and cons of the Dubturbo beat maker:

Pros:

  • DubTurbo Is Cheap.
  • It’s Easy To Use.
  • Perfect Sound Quality (You can import and export WAV sound files, meaning there’s no loss in quality).
  • Import Addition Sounds.
  • Keyboard Compatible (You can plug in your own keyboard, and import and play sounds through that).

Cons:

  • 16 Tracks (Although this is more then enough tracks for the average producer).
  • Lacking Advanced Features (Such as more tracks, advanced mix downs which you’d find on the $400 plus software etc).

Despite the cons (Which could only be rectified if you spent a few more hundred dollars on music software), Dubturbo is still easily the best piece of music software you can get if you want to cheaply make your own beats. You don’t have to compromise on quality, and you can have your first hit beat made in no time. So, what more do you want?

Compare DUBturbo

I can honestly say that Dubturbo is the beat maker software of choice if you want to make your own beats, but sometimes you need to know the alternatives. Below I’ve compared the DUBturbo beat maker to two other similar level of music production software. Have a look and decide which is the best beat maker software for you.

Dub Turbo VS Sonic Producer

Out of the two comparisons, Sonic Producer is the most like Dub Turbo. Both of them have an identical price tag at the time of writing this (Just under $30), and both of them are shipped by the vendor Clickbank. But what make DUBturbo better then SonicProducer?

Well, there are two main things:

  1. Online Or Offline Beat Creation.
    First of all, Dub Turbo is a stand alone piece of software. Once you download it onto your computer, that’s it; You don’t need to use the internet any more. Using DubTurbo doesn’t use up your bandwidth, meaning those with a limited internet connection have nothing to worry about. This isn’t an option with Sonic Producer, it only allows you to make beats online. DubTurbo allows you to make beats online as well, but given that it additionally allows you to make beats offline makes DUBturbo outshine Sonic Producer in that sense.
  2. Quality Of The Beats.
    Another reason why you’d want to buy Dub Turbo over Sonic Producer, is because of the quality of the beats it produces. Because Sonic Producer works strictly online, it only allows you to use MP3 samples. MP3s are a compressed music format, so using this format instead of WAV means that your beats will sound of a poorer quality then it should do. What’s more, when you export your songs, SonicProducer compresses it again in MP3 format. This means you get a double compression, significantly lowering the quality of your created beat.

Because of these two above points, DubTurbo is the music beat maker of choice. Sonic Producer was once the king of cheap make your own beat software, but Dub Turbo has long since out shadowed it.

DubTurbo VS FL Studio AKA Fruity Loops

DUBturbo ReviewBefore Sonic Producer and DUBturbo came along, Fruity Loops was the cheap beat making software of choice. But with this new age of music production software, FL Studio isn’t as cheap as it one was. While the cheapest version is Fruity Loops ‘only’ $99, this is still more then three times the cost of Dub Turbo. What’s more, if you want some of FL Studio’s more advance features, you’ll have to pay quite a bit more.

There is an obvious area Fruity Loops Studios outshine Dubturbo though, and that’s in terms of how many tracks you can use. While DT allows you a 16 track sequencer, FL Studio allows you an unlimited amount of track sequencers. Now in my opinion, 16 tracks in a sequencer is usually more then enough for any producer. When you start having too many things going on in a certain part of a song, it tends to start sounding messy. Having that said, it’s nice to have the option of more tracks, even if the average producer won’t really need them (And if they do, they could probably fit everything into the 16 tracks with the proper beat arrangement).

Overall, while Fruity Loops Studio is a good piece of equipment, I’d still recommend DubTurbo as the software to go for if you want to create your own beats. This music creator is a lot cheaper, and it still has a lot of the same features as FL (And even some it doesn’t).

The Best Beat Maker Software On The Market? DUBturbo Review

So, is Dub Turbo the best music production software on the market? Well, yes and no. For this price range ($0 to $150), it easily is. It’s closest competitors in the price range are Sonic Producer and a low features version of Fruity Loops, but for varying reasons it out shines both of them. If you want to know how to produce music and get started right away, DubTurbo is worth a look.

Buy DUBturbo

If you’re ready create your own beats or learn how to produce music, then I can honestly say there is no better beat maker software then DubTurbo for this price. But WAIT, don’t buy DUBturbo yet. Check below for our DUBturbo Bonus, and see what you will get if you buy DUBturbo through us.

DubTurbo Bonus (Important: No Longer Given)

We’ve got something very special for you today. If you buy DUBturbo through us after reading this DubTurbo review, we’ll throw in an exclusive guide:

Professional Music Production: What You Really Need To Know!

This is a beginners guide on what to expect on your path to becoming a professional music producer. I’ve sold this ebook for $19.99 on it’s own, but if you decide to purchase DUBturbo through us we will send it to you free of charge. Just our way of saying thank you. 🙂

To take advantage of this offer, simply follow these four simple steps:

  1. Clear your browser of any cookies. How you do this will depend on your browser:
    Firefox:
    In your Firefox browser, click ‘Tools’, then ‘Clear Recent History’. Make sure you’ve selected ‘Cookies’ and nothing else, then press ‘Clear Now’.Internet Explorer:
    In your Internet Explorer browser, click ‘Tools’ then ‘Internet Options’. Make sure you’re on the ‘General’ tab, then click ‘Delete’ in the ‘Browsing History’ section.
  2. Once you’ve done that, click on the following link to buy DUBturbo, the best beat maker software around.
  3. Step 3 removed as no more bonus is offered.
  4. Not longer applicable: We will send you your Dub Turbo bonus and you can start creating your own killer beats right away!

DUBturbo Discount

If you decide to buy Dub Turbo through us, you can get a 70% discount on the recommended retail price (RRP). Simply clear your cookies as described in the above DubTurbo Bonus section, and your discount will be added to your basket automatically. Using our link you can get DUBturbo for just $39.95 instead of $120, meaning you save $90 along the way. So if you want a cheap music beat maker, get this reduced price copy of DUBturbo now.

Click the DUBturbo link at the top of this page to buy DUBturbo on sale.

DUBturbo Review Conclusion

In this review we have looked at both the pros an cons of buying DubTurbo and using it to make your own beats, how it compares to other similar music making software in the music industry, and helped you work out of DUBturbo is right for you. We hope this DUBturbo Review was helpful.

Please Note: This is a 100% honest review. If you decide Dubturbo is the software for you and go on to buy it through my link, I will get compensated from the makers at no extra charge for you.

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