MAKE OWN RAP BEATS

Let's start with the drums. Here we have the kick, the snare or clap and the hi-hat. Compare a house beat with a hip hop beat, and you'll hear the difference. In dance music, like house and techno, a kick or snare hits on every beat, so the time distance between the drum sounds is always the same. In hip hop, the sounds are slightly off the beat, which makes the beat sound laid back and slower. The hi-hat completes the sound range of the drums. We have the kick on the low frequency, the snare on the middle and the hi-hat on the high one.

The base line shouldn't be too complicated in hip hop, it just fills the lower frequency, but it should sound good though. In my opinion, the sound-quality is more important than the melody itself, but everyone has his own style. Just be sure it hits on some of the same notes as the main melody.

Ok, now let's talk about the melody. Here, the sounding and the melody itself are equally important. Many producers start with the melody before the drums. And there's a good reason: the melody is the part people remember most after they heard the song. Make sure you have a middle frequency melodic sound and a high frequency one. Like with the drums, the base and melody should fill out the whole frequency range. Then your beat will sound complete.

Last but not least, the effects. Many people underestimate the power of good effects. Producers use their own special sound effects to perfect their beats, and if you hear those, you know exactly who it was. Timbaland, for example uses his background singing and Lil'John shouts "yeah!". It's not exactly a sound effect but meets the same purpose.

I hope you now have a good overview of the structure of hip hop beats. It's easier to explain this on an example when you can hear it. I recommend you viewing tutorials on YouTube and listening to some good hip hop instrumentals to fully understand this. And don't forget: simplicity is the key. Don't overdo it and make your beats too complicated.

Grandpa Max loved butter cookies. He liked his Chivas Regal from a heavy cut-glass decanter, but the little butter cookies with coarse sugar sprinkles just had to come from a can.

His pleasures were simple born from a childhood of poverty, and his need for tidiness bordered on compulsion. Grandpa did all the ironing and packed all the suitcases, each layer of clothes sandwiched between tissue paper and sheets of plastic recycled from the dry cleaners. It was Grandpa Max who would stand in my bedroom like a soldier and teach me how to reassemble my dissheveld sheets and blanket into a proper bed. I had sleep in my eyes and my Barbie nightgown was twisted around me like a frenzied static sock. "Make ya' bed after ya' git oudda it, kiddo." he offered, dressed in his signature starched Van Hussen and perma-press pants. "This, not orange juice, is the way to start the morning." Then he'd show me how to get a brush through my tangled brown hair.

Grandma would have made him Scottish shortbread from scratch, but the man preferred store bought. When the pretzel-shaped contents, with their stiff little paper cups were spent, each container was reused to hold tea bags, Sweet 'n Low, or tiny packets of soy and duck sauce.

When my grandparents moved to Florida in the early 1970's, those blue cans with their little pictures of Dutch villages became the loving receptacles of Grandma's cookie care packages. Opening each lid revealed layers of Linzer tortes, rugelach, and strudel; each separated by a piece of wax paper. Grandma did the baking. Grandpa did the packing. You never knew what would be inside. Half the fun of receiving one of these boxes, mailed immediately after baking and marked no less than ten times with the word "fragile" , was eating your way through each delicious layer. I'd race to cut through all the tape and open the cardboard flaps just to catch that first wiff--a combination of her perfume and a myriad of cleaning products. At that moment I was transported right into their kitchen. I'd breathe deeply into the box and relive a time when my best friend lived down the block and being grown-up was the distant future.
I was to immediately call Miami and report any breakage. Invariably there were a few. Grandma was shrewd and never took the blame for a recipe that went array. She just may have forgotten some intergral ingredient to bind the recipe, but, the drama of the crumbled cookies, fell on Max for not putting enough tissue paper in with the silver trays.

"Ma-ac," she'd start off, not even calling him by his correct name. "Ya' broke the cookies," yelling to be heard over the soundtrack of Flower Drum Song. Rather than continue his umpeeth solitaire game, he'd scramble to the kitchen to defend himself.

"Lily, wud are ya' tawking bout? Cus-ik-sin I wrapped 'em plenty".

I had one set of grandparents that spoke only Yiddish. These two spoke the worst Brooklyn venacular you could imagine. It was a home were teabags were teaballs, Indians lived on reservoirs, and everything to the front of the house was a stoop.
When I came to spend the night, Grandma once said, "It's a good thing I have a cot, or I wouldn't know wheres to putchuz!" I always got to bed early at their house, 'cuz-ik-sin' I didn't want to catch Grandpa without his teeth in. Besides, at six in the morning, he'd be doing his unintended Spike Jones routine with the plates and silverware from the dishwarsher.

When these care packages still came on my birthday, even after I had had children of my own, I would devour all but one cookie, and there it would sit the entire year until the next batch. I just couldn't eat the last one until a new box arrived. There were definite separation issues tied to those cookies. As long as I held on to one of Grandma's treats I was holding on to her, and that this would somehow tempt fate and keep her healthy till the next year.

The Wild Rose Inn Bed and Breakfast was open for business the year that Grandma, now widowed, turned eighty-eight. I had spent years as an itinerant tradeswoman buying, renovating, and selling my homes. This last purchase of a dilapidated Victorian apartment house would be my finest work, and hopefully an end to my non-settled mode of living. I had shuffled my son, Austin, and Jake the dog, through six houses in six years. His toy chests were labeled moving boxes. I got Christmas cards from the storage company. To help make our situation more tolerable we got in the habit of writing a new and simple song for each house, and would sing it as we drove there.

"We're going home to Willow, to put our head on a pillow. We'll meet Jakey on the street. Our little house just can't be beat".

I couldn't change the past. But I vowed to give Austin a home where he could mark his growing height on the threshold of his bedroom door.

The Wild Rose project took all the money I could beg or borrow to be overhauled into upscale accommodations, never knowing that this endeavor was truly "in-my-blood". I had lived in Woodstock for nearly twenty years and finally had a piece of property on "the Monopoly board", and, even though I had spent my teen-age years living on Cape Cod and working the coffe shop and running the switchboard of my dad's motel, I didn't realize that innkeeping was not for the domestically challenged. With the onslaught of guests came the reality of constant laundry, grocery shopping, and baking.

A genetic disposition to the occupation was welcome. When the grand opening came my family arrived from various parts of the country to help create a grand event: a huge Victorian lawn party complete with a chamber ensemble for guests that would come dressed in period costumes. We prepared cucumber tea sandwiches and trays of pretty petit-fours. When the work was done, over a cup of strong black tea and a plate of cookies, grandma shared with me hand-me-down stories of her grand parents inn and tavern in Russia.

In the days of the Russian czars Jewish innkeepers, unlike their gentile competitors in that profession, were compelled to pay exceptionally high taxes, plus additional big fees for the liquor permit, taxes so extremely high that it was utterly impossible for my distant relative to earn but a poor living with the full help and cooperation of his wife. This matriarch, to help out her husband, would bake delicious cakes and tasty rolls, only to attract the eyes and appetites of non-Jewish customers whose wives did not posses the skill or talent for flavorful baking.

Being that I was now a fifth-generation innkeeper I would have to turn in my tool belt for an apron, get into the kitchen, and learn the family recipe for making strudel. Beautiful Russian strudel filled with raisins, candied fruit, and homemade plum butter.

I come from a long resilient line of Jewish mothers, women that utilized homemaking and baking for gains in an era when women were scarce in professional kitchens.

My great-grandmother was known as Bubbe--a woman that stood only four and a half feet high and measured all of her ingredients with a "yarzeit" glass. (This is a glass that was once filled with candle wax and was lit on the anniversary of a relatives passing). In 1916, with six children and a husband that spent more time in other womans beds that his own, Bubbe owned and operated The Spencer Hotel of Saratoga Springs, New York. It was one of many Jewish boarding houses in that upper-crust town where Yiddish was spoken. I love hearing my grandma speak of the sumptuous furnishings, horse-hair stuffed sofas, and oriental carpets with the softest pile she had ever felt. Gamblers frequented the place and her father, Rueben, would dance the night away with their fashionable wives. One day she wandered into the attic of that mammoth rooming house and discovered an antique trunk filled with Victorian ball-gowns. The attic was eventually renovated with smaller guest rooms, rooms for jockeys at the famous Saratoga Race Track.

Boarders paid twenty five dollars a week, which included three meals a day. Friday night dinners were with matzo ball soup, homemade gefilte fish, and roasted chicken. Satuday afternoons featured Cholent, a thick bean concoction with tender beef, barley, and potatoes that was prepared in the hours prior to the start of the sabbath. The symbolic Cholent, a dish that required no preparation or stove top manipulation, making it therefore Kosher, was served with a side of cold stuffed derma. Sunday afternoons saw dairy kugel, potato blintzes, and fresh fruit. Bubbe's strudel was always the finishing touch of every meal served to her guests.

My own mother and grandmother share a relationship that revolves around food and the kitchen. To this day they still argue about who makes the best mondelbrot. Grandma claims their recipes for this Jewish biscotti are identical, but hers are cake-like (and crumble) where my mother's have more snap.

During World War II, when her husband earned fourteen dollars a week for the family doing electronic repairs, grandma ran a luncheonette out of a renovated tool shack at the Idylwild Airport (later to become JFK). When there was no one to look after my mother, she was tethered--literally--to her mother's apron strings by a rope. Grandma cooked breakfast and lunch for the pilots at what was then a little airport. Her menu was a bit more assimilated than that of her mothers. The breakfast speciality was "The Gashouse Egg", a piece of buttered white bread toast with an egg fried in the center cut-out, with a side of homefries. Add a cup of coffee and the bill came to fifty cents. Dessert carried the blood-line. Russian strudel was always the finishing touch. Wrapping it in a paper napkin, grandma would stuff a piece into the pocket of each of her most loyal patrons.

As a young girl, my mother got to watch Bubble Lena bake strudel many times for the reason that after Bubbe was widowed, she would live with each of her six children for a three-month stay. Like most of the coveted family recipes, their secrets were withheld until matrimony.

My mom and dad began married life in a small ground floor apartment in a two-family house in Brooklyn. One day grandma decided it was her daughters turn to learn the family recipe and offered a hands-on strudel-baking lesson. My mother watched as the dough was worked until paper thin. The filling wasn't difficult, but the dough required a certain expertise. The crucial part was in the initial preparation; the dough needed to be pounded and stretched. As they were slapping it against the kitchen table to work it the ladies worked up a sweat. They continued to bang it around until they were almost done. They were waiting for the dough to gain its elasticity when all of a sudden there was a loud knock at the door. My mom wiped the moisture from her face and opened the door to find the landlady, who lived upstairs, looking impatient and frustrated. With her hands on her hips, she expressed wonder at how her tenants could possibly be cold -still. She had turned the heat up several times. My mom was puzzled. What she didn't know was the standard rule of two-family living: If you need more heat, rap hard on the pipes. My mother and grandmother still laugh about that till this day.

I've come to realize that innkeeping and baking cookies go hand-in-hand. The arresting aroma of the freshly baked stuff can not be replaced by vanilla scented potpouri. When my guests follow the wafting scent up the stairs to my kitchen, like Bugs Bunny following the scent of a carrot, I know I've reached their core. When melting chocolate hangs from their lip all pretenses are dropped and they are, once again, at home.

I've pilfored the family vault to acquire recipes. No matter the diet trend, low-carb or no-carb, the cookies get polished off. On the rare occasions when I have the pleasure of baking with both my mother and grandmother, I sit the "girls" in my kitchen with five pounds of flour and, like the millers daughter in a fairy tale, tell them they can't leave the room until it is all spun into strudel-gold, strudel that is now the finishing touch of the meals I serve to my guests.

Strudel

Filling:

1 box yellow rasins

1 box dark raisins

1 (8 ounce) container candied citrus fruit

1 (8 ounce) container mixed candied fruits

Rind and juice of 1 lemon

Rind and juice of 1 orange

2 apples, cored

1 jar strawberry jam

10 ounces homemade plum butter or 1 (10 ounce) jar prune butter

1 ½ pound walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup sugar

1 shot rye or scotch

Additional:

½ walnuts, chopped fine

Cinnamon and sugar

Dough:

5 cups flour

¾ cup vegetable oil

3 eggs, beaten

¼ sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup lukewarm water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Prepare the filling by combine all ingredients in a large bowl, set aside.

In another large bowl, mix the flour, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center.

Into a medium sized bowl, mix the oil, water and eggs - pour this mixture into the well of the dry ingredients.

Mix the dough either by hand or with an elctric mixer using a bread hook until it is well combined. Remove the dough to a lightly floured surface and aggresively knead for almost 10 minutes.

Have no mercy on the dough and bang it against the surface several times. Dough must be smooth, shiny and elastic. Flour a bowl and set dough to rest, covered, for half an hour.

Cut into four potions. Knead each portion before rolling. Roll the dough half way and start to strech by placing your hands under the dough and pulling gently until it is thin. The shape should be a long rectangle approximatley 10" wide by 18" long.

Oil the dough lightly by brushing with a small amount of vegetable oil. Place ½ cup additional finely chopped walnuts on dough, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Add filling ingredients along the width of the dough. Roll up the dough, being sure to tuck in the end edges as you go. Place roll seam side down on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Score roll every two inches - making deep cuts, but not enough to go through the entire roll. Flatten lightly by hand.

Bake at 350 degrees for ½ hour, or until golden brown.

PLUM BUTTER

1 1/2 lbs. (about 9 fresh lg.) plums, sliced and pitted

2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Dash of nutmeg, cloves and allspice

In heavy kettle stir plums and 1/2 cup sugar over lowest heat. When juices flow, bring to boil; cook 5 minutes or until fruit is tender.

Pour into blender. Chop on low speed, 2 seconds. Return to kettle; add remaining sugar and spices. Bring to boil.
Reduce heat, yet maintain active bubbling; cook 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently. Test for doneness -- mixture will "sheet" from spoon.
Ladle at once into hot sterilized screw top jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Seal with clean, dry, metal lids.
Makes 3 1/2 pints.

When you hear how many millions of dollars can be made in the rap music industry these days, little wonder that a lot of people are trying their hands at creating their own rap beats. After all, most of us already have the fundamental piece of equipment required - you computer.

When you start checking in to how to make rap beats you will see that there a lot of software programs that can be used to create rap beats. These range in price from just a few dollars (in some cases for a mere 'donation' ) to very advanced and sophisticated Digital Audi Workstation (DAW), which can cost up to several hundred dollars.

Before you go off spending a lot of time and money on this enterprise though just consider a few things yo need in order to master how to make rap beats:

odo you have any natural ability in this are, such as knowing how to play a musical instrument
odo you feel you have the ability to discern the different notes in your mind
odo a you the creativity needed to come up with various rap beats, and not just the same old same-old
ohow about rhythm and flow - can you put the whole thing together to produce something that really stands out?

In terms of equipment when you are thinking about how to make beats - all you really need at first is some software running on your home computer or laptop. Download some free trial versions to get going initially. Read some reviews first and see what others are saying about ease of use, features and limitations.

Once you have been going through these initial paces on how to make rap beats you will soon get to the point where you begin to out grow the software that you have installed. At this point you may wish to consider an online service so that you can take advantage of more advanced features with having a big outlay of money.

The next natural progression in you quest on how to make rap beats may be to purchase more advance software bringing you to the levels of the DAW mentioned above. But, again, research the products carefully and read the reviews that are available. Check out some retail outlets that may specialize in this and see what they think and recommend. And as usual, try before you buy.

Your next progression will lead you into the realm of adding hardware such as samplers and and keyboards, and as you guessed, these can be extremely sophisticated running into the thousands of dollars.

Just consider us your 9-1-1 Rhythm Responders. With these time-honored solutions, we will have your rhythms resurrected in no time.

Here is a list of questions & problems that I hear regularly.

Musical Rhythm Injury #1: "All my songs have started sounding the same. I keep using the same basic rhythms."

(My answer may seem "dumb" or even impossible for some of you. But don't dismiss it too quickly.)

Stop writing with your instrument in your hands.

Your writing is going to be limited by what you can play. Put it down... sit quietly, and let the ideas develop without your technique leading you around to familiar territory. Make yourself think differently, and when you pick up your axe, try your new ideas.

Musical Rhythm Injury #2: "My band has trouble playing along with me on my songs".

The problem is OVERPLAYING. (The studio version of this problem is similar).

When you play by yourself, you are the drums, bass, guitars & everything rolled into one. It's great that you can do that, but you need a crash course in ORCHESTRATION. The bass player can't compete with your bass lines. The drummer will play, all that "wacka-wacka" rhythm you're playing, on his high hats & cymbals... and you can lose the slap on 2 & 4, a snare drum does it better.

Simplify...Stop working so hard...Delegate...Share the parts with the rest of the team. It's OK. Your one-man-band rhythms just need to be pulled apart and scaled back. Let the other members play some of those notes.

Musical Rhythm Injury #3: "I don't know how to play/write different styles."

Unless you grew up in a household with different genres of music around you, it's easy to have limited tastes and exposure. Just like food!

Initially, I don't suggest the typical, "go out & buy lots of different styles of music...etc." I believe emotional energy is what you should pay attention to.

Listen to TV shows, commercials and movie soundtracks. What gives Tension? Romantic setting? Humor? Competition? Patriotism? Pay close attention to the RHYTHMS involved.

When you make connections between emotional needs and music that expresses those emotions, you'll begin to see certain styles used for certain situations. Your context for learning different styles...should be the emotion expressed, not licks.

For example, everybody can play a "bluesey" lick... but playing the Blues is a lifetime of learning. Don't sell it short. All musical genres require time & commitment to play & write authentically. Get the emotion... the "WHY" of the music first. Then the "HOW" (the mechanics, theory & licks) will come.

Musical Rhythm Injury #4: "I don't know how to change rhythms from Verse to Chorus".

There are no rules here. Only what works.

But an easy concept to grasp is CONTRAST.

A lyric that is very busy/choppy (short notes) in the verses, can open up (smooth out, long notes) in the chorus. The guitar part can be sparse in the verses, and get more rhythmic & driving in the chorus.

Notice that the guitar and the lead vocal will be doing exactly the opposite. One is busy while the other is sparse. This allows each one to have it's own Rhythm Room. (That's kinda like elbow room.)

It works!

Musical Rhythm Injury #5: "I hear these cool beats and licks in the major artists' songs, but I can't seem to write my own."

Truth is, you're often hearing the result of a top-notch Producer, a great Recording & Mastering Engineer... not to mention great Players, Singers and Vintage Instruments...it should sound great! They all bring their technical & creative gifts to the project.

But lucky for us, it still starts with a great song.

When you get the tune as good as you can, little signature licks, riffs and patterns will begin to surface. They're probably already there, you just have to "flush them out".

Find a unique way to say/play something, then improvise with it, stutter it, repeat it... or play just half of it. Elongate (stretch) a vowel sound out longer than normal, and double it on your guitar. See if you're doing little grunts, or phrasings that you can pull out and shine the light on a little. Showcase you doing it your way.

Your Vibe...

If you'll do your part, good musicians can take it up another notch. When you're ready, a capable Producer can take it up again to another level you can't reach yourself. Just do your part.

Musical Rhythm Injury #6: "It just doesn't feel right."

The problem may be as simple as the wrong tempo.

You'd be amazed how the wrong tempo can kill a groove, even if it's a great song. It may be a deeper problem - in the Rhythmic make-up of the song.

Every song needs it's own signature groove. If it doesn't have that, there's a problem.

It may be the wrong basic feel (8ths, 16ths, triplets) perhaps, or wrong stylistic choice for the lyric (i.e. should have been a relaxed 12/8 blues feel, instead of a straight country beat). There is no better teacher than recording it yourself... & walk away. Come back in a few days with fresh perspective and listen. Usually, your instincts can hear the problems.

One thing is for sure. If the tune is STILL struggling, there is no point trying to record it in a bigger & better studio... OR take it out live. You'll just get immunized to its weaknesses.

Musical Rhythm Injury #7: "My style sounds dated. Can you teach me some new rhythms?"

How badly do you want it? A banana tree doesn't grow apples... and it's gonna' be hard for you to lose your vintage stripes.

I've worked with songwriters in their early 20's that had very dated styles. Their listening was limited to older brothers' music, or parents that thought the only "real" music was 60's Rock, Englebert Humperdink, or Glen Miller. Nothing wrong with that, but jumping into the 21st century may be more involved than you think.

If you're determined to change, you've got to hear how things are presented these days.

Contemporary lyrics "get you there" faster, and the FORM has to allow that. Intros can no longer be 30 seconds long and the 7-minute version is best for stage... not the studio. Your drum grooves may sound a little dated too. Rhythms have been computerized and "fixed in the mix." R&B ain't what it used to be.

Rap changed everything... the rhythms have got to be hot.

I'm not trying to get you to chase the latest trend.. I promise I'm not. But today's listeners have infant-sized attention spans and expect great sounding production. From Country to Grunge, if it's on the charts, the rhythm is smokin'. I guarantee it.

These are things you have to address if you want that "newer" sound.

Musical Rhythm Injury #8: "I don't have good rhythm."

Truthfully... you may not! Won't lie to ya. And while music schools won't admit it, you can't fix it.

Know your own limitations, and learn to work within them realistically. There is always a way!

I will never be a math whiz, doctor, lawyer or a star quarterback. All the tutors, lessons and effort in the world won't change that. I can still enjoy the benefits of what those people can do... and I can even play football for fun. (None of the others will I attempt for fun).

This is where a good producer, musical director, and engineer can help hide your weaknesses.

Musical Rhythm Injury #9: "I don't know how to explain to the drummer what I want on my songs".

Hmm...drummers....well I can tell you...

Drummers are very complex people, usually genius (typically off-the-chart IQs), but very humble, understanding and willing to accommodate you in any way possible. They tend to understand songwriters much more easily after you pick up their bar tab several times. :-)

Musical Rhythm Injury #10: "Should you go out with the drummer?"

Yes, I know it's tempting because most drummers are also extremely handsome and sexy.

(It's true, ask my wife!) But I wouldn't advise it. :-)

Check the laws in your state. Some restrictions may apply...

There you have it, a solid list of potential rhythm potholes and how to navigate them for your musical & emotional success. Most of them are spot-on. (The last two may be a bit biased, I am a drummer).

The Bottom Line... Does it feel good? Is the song working? If so, most likely, the musical rhythm is nailed down.

Record it, Listen to it, come back to it and listen again. Experiment until it does.

You'll know it when you get there.

This article will show you the two most popular products on the market: DUB Turbo and Sonic Producer. They're by far the most popular and that's for one reason and one reason only... they are the best!

Dub Turbo is basically a software program that is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), and features everything you need to make awesome rap beats, dance tunes, R&B tracks, you name it, you can create it with Dub Turbo!

Equipment in a studio would be way more expensive and you would get the same quality tracks produced.

This software program is for people looking for an easy and fast way to start making beats & music, without the worry of haivng to learn music theory, study production in expensive schools, or having to get a huge studio.

The software, however, is powerful enough to be used in conjunction with recording studio equipment! Many of the users are studio owners, and love taking beats from DUBturbo into their various other applications.

Sonic Producer is a really amazing new music sequencer that uses the latest cutting edge technology to create pro beats. Tracks can be exported to Mp3 with minimal effort. You can get access to music production tutorials which will help you get started creating beats straight away.

SonicProducer was designed for all ages. In fact, everyone should make beats! Not only is beat making an extremely fulfilling and exciting musical craft, but is easy to begin to do, and great fun to master! There is a reason why most people pursue learning beat making, it's the best musical activity.

Both programs use a 16 track sequencer, they both have awesome keyboard sets, drum machines and synth-sounds, so that you can make a variety of sounds. Beats per minute can be changed very easily and each of the 16 tracks has a volume control of its own.

Both programs are user friendly and you can literally make beats in a few minutes. It will take a bit longer the first few times but once you get the hang of things you will be creating beats in minutes. You get extensive video tutorials and training that will help you get started in both programs.

So what is the price of the two programs? They both go for about . Most other good quality software for producing music is more expensive. Some programs cost hundreds of dollars. But just because these two products are affordable (cheap is not the right word), you shouldn't think the quality is not as good as the more expensive ones. These two definitely give the most value for money!

There are some differences between the two programs. Firstly, the quality of the tracks that DUB Turbo produces is in a.WAV format. Sonic Producer, on the other hand, outputs to MP3. The difference is basically that the quality of.WAV is much better. It is actually broadcast quality which is what the pro's use.

Secondly, DUB Turbo is a stand alone application that can be downloaded and installed on your computer. What that means is you can only make beats if you have your computer with you. That's not a problem if you have a laptop. Sonic Producer is a website to make beats. So to access the software all you need is a computer with an internet connection. This is really great if you travel a lot and you don't have a laptop.

Although a record deal can sometimes come about just by being in the right place
at the right time, there are several things you can do to maximize the possibility of
attracting a major label or production company to get them interested in signing
you.

First and foremost, be ready! Make sure your skills are developed to the point that
they can compete with the best the industry has to offer. A&R, managers, and the
like are subject to hearing some pretty awful stuff. If you can offer something that
sounds amazing, it should greatly increase your chances of getting signed.
Remember if your stuff is not as good or better than what's already out there, the
only thing your demo will have a good shot at is the office garbage can.

If you have to spend money somewhere, spend it on production and mixing. This
can't be stressed enough. It all boils down to having good product. You can do
everything in your power to attract attention to your music, but If it sucks nobody is
going to care. Although some label A&R claim they can hear talent through low
budget production, in my experience it pays to have the best sounding product you
can. Because it is sometimes extremely difficult to get heard at all, it makes sense
not to blow it when you finally do get a chance by delivering the musical equivalent
of nails on a chalk board.

Now that you've got the skills and a tight product, you should be doing everything
in your power to create a buzz for yourself. In order to do this you're going to need
a plan and a team to help you carry it out. You should be doing shows, selling CD's,
trying to get some radio support (even if it's just college radio), and doing anything
and everything else you can to get some kind of following.

It helps to have an established following, a good street team, and some strong
independent sales when seeking a record deal. The more you do on your own, the
less the label has to do, and ultimately the happier they are. In fact, A&R will often
seek you out (eg. come to your show to hear what all the fuss is about) if you've
done a really good job of promoting yourself.

Next you are going to need a manager. Now you might be thinking you want to
manage yourself. Think again. Your buddy that follows you around to all your
shows, again, bad choice. At this point, you should be seriously considering seeking
out a professional manager. The right manager will make all the difference when it
comes to getting signed. What I mean by the right manager is one who digs your
music and will really hustle to get you put on. This manager should also have some
pretty good industry connections; otherwise the help he can offer you will be
limited.

As well as a personal manager, you'll need a good entertainment attorney to
negotiate all your contracts (including the one with your manager) so you don't get
screwed. Also, a good entertainment lawyer (one that actually has industry
connections) will be able to help get your music into the right hands as well. Make
sure the lawyer you retain is working for you, not the label or your manager!

Ok, so let's recap. You've honed your skills, produced a tight product, created a
strong buzz, and got yourself a good personal manager and lawyer. Now what? Well,
from this point on your manager will basically put a plan of action together for you
and together you will carry it out. You should now be well on your way to your first
record deal. This can be a long road, so it's important to keep a positive mental
attitude. Make sure everyone around you (your team) also stays positive. The music
business isn't for the faint of heart! Good Luck!

To make music that will really make people sit up and take notice, you will usually need quality samples and a recording studio, not to mention having to take a course on music production and buy some expensive kit! There is an alternative, and if you've read this far then you'll probably want to know what it is. And guess what, it's not expensive. There are programs out there which will make you great quality music that will really turn heads.

There are complete online audio beat creation solutions that also work as a standalone program. Solutions that come with a ton of samples which you can string together to make the professional sounding music that you've only dreamt of making before.

With tutorial videos, beginners can get started fast. After learning the basics, you'll be making great, complicated, professional-sounding tracks in no time. In the current age of social networking, it's easier than ever before to get your music noticed. Make some tracks, stick them all over your social networking sites and create a buzz. Who knows what might happen next. Every big name artist needs to start somewhere.

So what's stopping you? Create your own beats: http://www.beat-creator.net