Anyone who has access to a computer with speakers can make hip hop beats. Most people who are just starting to get into it do not know where to begin. These 5 steps will help to get you setup and you will be able to make hip hop beats in no time.

1. Access to a computer with USB or Firewire ports.

Every computer these days comes with USB or Firewire ports. These are necessary to make hip hop beats because they will enable you to connect your MIDI controller (piano/keyboard) to your computer.

2. Buy a MIDI keyboard or controller

Purchase a MIDI controller or full MIDI keyboard online or from a local music store. These days, you can get a full-featured keyboard for as little as $100-$150 which will do all that you need it to do to make hip hop beats.

3. Buy music production software.

Purchase music productions software such as Fruity Loops, Reason, Cubase, Logic, etc. This software will enable you to:

- Load sounds which can be played through your MIDI controller or keyboard

- Record these sounds into the program so they can be edited and arranged

- Program sounds into sequencers with the click of a mouse

- Import downloaded sound expansions to keep your hip hop beats up to date

4. Installation and Setup

Now that you have what you need to get started making hip hop beats, it is time to set it up.

First, install your production software onto your computer. This should be a relatively straightforward process, with full walk through instructions provided by the software.

Next, install your MIDI controller drivers. Again, there should be an installation CD which comes with your keyboard that will easily install your keyboard software.

Once both are installed, open your music production software program. Look for the program’s Options, Preferences, or Setup section, and locate the MIDI Controller or Keyboard Setup. Locate your installed keyboard and select it for use with the program.

Your software and keyboard should now work with one another.

5. Load sounds. play sounds, record sounds.

Now that everything is set up, you can begin to make hip hop beats on your computer. Depending on your software, there are different ways to load sounds into it. Please check your manual to determine this, as every program is different.

Once loaded, you will be able to play the selected sounds with your MIDI controller.

When you click the “Record” button, everything that you play on your keyboard will be recorded as MIDI data into the software program. You can then edit it, change it, move it, arrange it, etc.

Once you become good at the recording process, you can begin to make hip hop beats and full songs right in your software program! Add drums, piano, guitar, or anything else you wish. A lot of these kinds of sounds can be loaded into your keyboard from your software program.

I hope this article has helped you to begin your journey to make hip hop beats!

If you are new to producing instrumental rap beats, there are more than likely lots of unanswered questions in your mind. Check out these quick tips to help as you develop as a producer:

1. Draw inspiration from other beats, but create your own style.

Everything we create is a culmination of what we hear, and more so, the sounds that we personally take interest in. It is important that we focus on the things we like about other rap beats, while making our creations unique.

Listen to lots of music. Find the musical elements which really touch your soul. Incorporate these elements into your music by combining everything you like about the music you listen to.

At the same time, do not attempt to directly copy any other works. Learn to draw from these resources without re-creating them verbatim.

2. Practice your rap beats like you would any other skill.

Creating beats is a skill like anything else. The more you work at it, the better you will become.

The more skills you can bring to the creation of your rap beats, the better. Not too good at playing piano? Learn some basic chords and scales. Having trouble mixing your beats? Read articles, and then experiment with equalization, compression, reverb, etc.

Practicing making beats is not necessarily something you can gauge. It is not like practicing your basketball shot, in which you can use statistics to determine your progress. You simply need to keep working at it, gather feedback to gauge your progress, and trust that you are taking steps in the right direction.

3. Begin your beats in the order which you feel most comfortable.

People always ask how to start an instrumental beat. Should you lay the drums first? Or should you focus on the instrumental sections?

The thing I have found to be true is that every producer has their own way of doing it, and no way is wrong. Dr. Dre has said that he likes to make the drums first, and then focus on the instruments.

I personally like coming up with the main instrumental sections first, and then adding the drums. Next, I will add some more instruments (if needed), and work on the final mix.

4. Put great emphasis on mixing.

Lots of times, the difference between a successful beat and a beat which fails is all in the mix.

Learn about mixing. Develop your ear for what sounds good. Mixing is a never-ending learning process, so you should aim to make your mixes better with each beat you create. Find books on mixing, and search online for articles. Do what you can with your resources!

Understand that you may not be able to achieve a platinum-level mix at your home. But you CAN create very good mixes with minimal equipment. Better equipment will always win, but please do not think that you NEED million-dollar equipment to make decent, audible, nice mixes. Learn on what you have, and collect better equipment as you can afford it.

I hope these few tips can help you on your way to creating better hip hop beats!

I know that we would all love to wake up and be “in the zone” everyday. We want to wake up equipped with an incredible source of creativity that enables us to make amazing music with little effort. We would all like to make a rap beat or write a song smoothly and easily, every time we try.

Unfortunately, this is an unrealistic desire.

As humans, our creativity is not always flowing freely and abundantly. In fact, it is often hidden somewhere within us, or seemingly totally depleted.

As mentioned in my Rap Beats Inspiration blog post, there are things which we can do that will better our chances of finding this creative inspiration.

But if we are still unable to get the results we want, please understand that there will be times when you cannot find this creative energy. You may feel hopeless or depressed during these times, but you must understand that it is just a phase.

You will undoubtedly, sometimes during the most unexpected times, rediscover your creativity to make rap beats, write songs, or do whatever you do best.

Do not give up. Your creative energy will return.

Maybe not today. But you will find it.

What do all the greatest songs – in any genre of music – all have in common? They are all driven by a great melody. A melody is a set of single notes in succession that form a musical line. The musical notes in a hook to your favorite song, a guitar phrase, and succession of single piano notes are all examples of a melody.

Melodies don’t have to be “catchy” to be effective. A melody that displays a deep, powerful emotion can be a great piece of music without being “catchy” or “poppy.” For example, if you are producing a deep beat about a death or lost love, it can be driven by dark, emotional melodies that don’t necessarily “stick in your head,” but rather portray the emotion of the song successfully through effective melodies.

So what can you do as a producer to become better at producing great melodies for your hip hop beats?

Well I do believe that some of us just naturally have more of a knack for this sort of thing than others. The best songwriters who have written countless great melodies are creatively gifted people who can do this a lot easier than some of us. HOWEVER, I do believe that everyone has the ability to learn how to become better at creating melodies for our hip hop beats. So I’d like to share with you two very powerful tips that will help you to become a better melody-maker:

Listen to Different Kinds of Music: If you always listen to the same type of music, your minds ability to expand into new creative melodic ideas will be severely limited. Do not be afraid to venture out and listen to lots of different styles of music. This will help immensely in creating rap beats.

Hate pop? Listen to it anyway. Can’t stand classical music? Que up that Chopin piece. In fact, I credit a great portion of my melody-making abilities and musical sense to a band that fits into the genre of “Progressive Metal.” Through my years of listening, my ears have consciously and subconsciously picked up ways of combining note sequences to make melodies that I never would have been able to make had I not been a student of their music.

And perhaps the most important way to become better at creating melodies for your beats:

Learn Music Scales: Ok normally someone would just advise you to learn “music theory.” But I find that people can get intimidated when it comes to tackling the entire subject of music theory. Theory is incredibly important to know, but the single aspect that can really help you when seeking to become better at writing melodies is musical note scales.

Do some research online or buy a book about the different scales used in music. Apply these concepts to an instrument (piano, guitar, etc) and you will really begin to get the feel of how notes are associated with one another, which notes combine optimally together, and which moods are brought out by each scale.

Learn the major, minor, blues, pentatonic, harmonic minor scales….and so on. As soon as I learned this aspect of music for guitar, I became a much better musician, composer, producer, and, well, melody maker. The concepts you will learn can be directly applied to creating melodies in your hip hop beats.

Thanks for reading. I hoped I helped to spark some new ideas for your rap beats!

Leasing A Beat

When you buy a lease license to a beat, you are basically “borrowing” it from me to serve as the instrumental for your song.

You have the right to record your vocals to the beat. Once your song is recorded, you can then begin to distribute it to the masses.

At Adamack Pro, I allow for up to 3,000 profitable or nonprofitable copies of your song to be distributed. These can be distributed via CD, DVD, digital download (iTunes), or by any other physical or electronic transfer of the song.

So, what kinds of things do not count as distributions?

As mentioned earlier, a distribution is defined as any physical or electronic transfer of the song. This does not include streaming video or audio (such as Myspace, YouTube, or Facebook), as these kinds of media do not actually transfer the song file to someone. The song is simply streamed, and there is no recipient of a file. So, please feel free to post your songs on steaming sites without concern for the distribution limit.

When you buy a beat lease, you will need to give me (Adamack Beatz) credit for producing the beat. You can either do this with a verbal “shout-out” on the song (in which you say something like “Produced by Adamack Beatz!” or you can give me written production credit in the CD booklet, song info, description box on Youtube, or as part of a status update on Facebook or a tweet.

When leasing a beat, I retain full rights to it, and may continue to lease it to other artists, until someone purchases Exclusive Rights.

Exclusive Rights To A Beat

Exclusive rights grant the buyer full ownership of the beat they have purchased.

At Adamack Pro, exclusive rights pricing is typically a lot steeper than lease pricing. This is because I will lose my rights to lease the beat, and I am surrendering my rights to distribute the beat in any other way. Here are a few key points pertaining to buying exclusive rights to a beat:

• After your purchase, I will immediately remove the beat from the internet. No other artist may buy beats which were sold exclusively.
• I will then send you a contract which will legally grant you ownership rights to the instrumental.
• Next, I will send you the tracked-out, separated WAV files to every sound in the instrument. This is so that the beat can be mixed perfectly with your vocals.

Please also be aware that my contracts allow you to re-sell exclusive rights to the beat if you no longer need it. This can only be done once. Please do not confuse this with leasing, as I do not grant you the rights to lease the beat.

Exclusive rights licenses are valid indefinitely, so the beat is your property until you decide to sell it.

Conclusion

The decision to lease a beat or purchase exclusive rights will ultimately come down to you. However, I would like to offer a quick word of advice:

I find that a lot of the time it is best to lease the beat first, and create your song. Gather feedback about your song and decide if it is worth purchasing full rights to. If the song is doing very well and you think you would benefit from owning it, then go for it. By the way, I will refund your leasing money if you lease the beat first and end up purchasing exclusive rights!

I hope this helped to clear some things up about the differences between buying leases to beats and purchasing exclusive rights!

-Adamack

Inspiration is what powers our creativity and channels it into our music, art, or any other creative specialization. There are lots of ways to become inspired to make powerful rap beats, and I would like to share with you a few personal discoveries:

1. Times of extreme emotion:

Have you lost a loved one? Break up with your girlfriend/boyfriend? Get a job promotion? Times like these create powerful emotions within us, whether they are positive or negative.

Although these situations can range from extremely unfortunate to incredibly great, there is inspiration to be drawn from them. I personally have created some of my best rap beats as a direct result of personal trauma or enlightened times.

When you learn to channel this inspiration, you can reach beyond your personal limits and create amazing things. It is very important that you do your best to utilize these situations and create rap beats which directly reflect your emotions.

2. Discovery of new, inspiring music:

Today, there is virtually an unlimited amount of new music which comes out every day, and if you have an internet connection, you have access to it.

Open your ears to some new sounds. Listen to music that you normally do not listen to. Discover new artists.

Not only will this increase your chances to be directly inspired by new music, it will also enable your mind to hear new sounds, which will ultimately expand your musical capabilities. You will find that you become a better producer, and it will become easier to create new beats.

3. Going new places:

Getting out, travelling, going on a road trip or a vacation, etc. can be extremely inspiring to your music. You will see new things, have opportunities to meet new people, and perhaps most importantly, have the chance to clear your mind.

Learn to appreciate the sights and sounds of getting out. Even if you are just going to the book store, there are lots of things to take in and appreciate. Think about these things when working on your rap beat.

Vacations and road trips can be incredibly inspiring. Seeing exotic things, especially things you have never seen or experienced before, can all be translated some way into your rap beats.

I hope these 3 sources of inspiration can contribute to your success in producing rap beats. Thanks for reading!

- Tips and Techniques for Producers and Artists
- Personal Thoughts and Opinions
- Artist Spotlight posts for artists who create exceptional music over my productions
- New mainstream song downloads and videos
- Software and Hardware Reviews

Plus more! Check back frequently.

Tim

First off I would like to thank each and every artist out there who supports my music productions. I am incredibly thankful of you, and I could not function as a producer without your support.

That being said, welcome to the site!

I have created this site to serve as a simple, quick, and secure way of browsing and buying beats. The process is as simple as clicking on a song to listen to it, clicking the “Buy Now” button at the bottom of the player, and checking out with Paypal, eCheck, or any major credit/debit card. You will then receive an email link to download your beat instantly. That’s it!

If you have any questions or concerns, please check out the FAQ section. If your question is not answered here, feel free to Contact Me.

Thanks  and best wishes with your music career!

Tim Adamek
www.adamackpro.com