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Archive for the ‘Reason Tutorials’ Category

In order to begin making beats on your computer you will need to at least know the basics of beat structuring, audio looping and the software available that will enable you to create your own beats. Whether you plan to use a computer to do this or not you will still need to know this in order to create your very own Hip-Hop beats.  Here are 4 tips to help you get started:

1: Before you can even start making beats you will need to ensure that you have a decent computer that has quite a good processing speed. It doesn’t have to be anything special; it just needs to be able to handle some simple software. Once you start to create your own beats on your computer we promise you will find it much easier than you ever did in the past.

2: If you are going to learn to make your own beats properly then there are a few technical things you will need to know For example you will need to become familiar with MIDI and learn how to use a sequencer. We would advice that you explore this yourself and within quite a short time you will be able to become familiar with these things. Using a computer to create your beats will allow you to create things much quicker and easier than you could imagine.

3: There are also a few other resources that you will need to become familiar with in order to create your own beats. These include Audio loops, Rex Loops, Rex Drums and also many different beat samples. You will need to mix your knowledge of these resources with your ability to create and structure your own hip-hop beats with the computer software you have.

4: “Understanding music theory usually plays a big part in whether or not a producer becomes a success when creating beats”. The quote above is how a top underground rap producer explains the process of making hip-hop beats.

Once you understand the 4 points we have laid out in this article for you, as well as understanding music theory then you are well on your way to becoming a top Hip-Hop producer. If you learn to understand sampling to a good level then you will find that it will make the process of creating your very own beats even easier.

Almost everyone in the beat making industry has different styles and techniques that they will put into practice. Here is a quote from a leading rap producer concerning the subject:

“If you’re going to be creating your own beats then you had better be using a computer otherwise you will get smoked”

So what are you waiting for? Get a computer hooked up and start making your very own beats today!

In this article I am going to discuss my thoughts on the different sample rates of 96 khz and 44.1 khz and which I believe to be the better one.

Nyquist tells us that to get an accurately sampled wave file then you will need to use a sampling frequency either equal to or twice the frequency you want to sample. With 44.4 khz you are able to sample 22.05 khz bandwidth signals. It is generally given that 96 khz is a more precise sample. Now let’s have a look at an argument that says it is not.

Maximum frequency: Every sample is like a photo of the wave at a certain point in time. All a sound is, is a wave that moves up and down. A lot of people say that with 44.1 khz there will be a lot of unsampled variations. This is true, however the issue is that the human ear will not pick up these sounds, therefore it doesn’t really matter which frequency you use.

Precision: The truth is that is doesn’t matter what frequency you sample at: the precision at 20 hz-20 khz of a sampled signal at 44.1 khz, 96 khz or even analogue is exactly the same.

Pretend for a moment that you have a signal running at 30 khz. As we have discussed the signal is a wave that moves up and down around 30,000 times a second, and this is the problem. Why?

Only 15 thousand, around half of the 30,000 movements of the wave are bound to be sampled erroneously by a 44.1 khz rate. It will not catch the 30 khz wave, although it will pick up parts of it that will sound audible as a 15 khz sound wave. This is what is known as aliasing. The only way the fervent this is to stop frequencies higher than 22.05 khz from getting in the sampled signal to start with. The way to achieve this is by using a brick wall filter, this is where digital has its problems and the precision will start to fail.

So which sampling rate should you use then? We have covered a lot of the technical side of the debate in this article but you are still probably feeling a little bit puzzled as to which one is best. Well the truth is that probably nobody really knows. Therefore unless you are a bat or an audiophile with tremendous hearing ability you will probably never even notice any difference between the two different sample rates. I personally stick to using 44.1 khz as it is easier. I hope this article has helped you understand a little bit more about these sample rates.

by DJ Story

In this tutorial, I will go over some of the tools I use in my home studio, and why I find them useful.  My goal is to share some of my ideas about how to get started putting together a functional recording setup at minimal cost.

Computer

The first thing you will need is a good computer.  It can be a mac or pc.  I prefer mac personally, although I used a pc in the past.  The most important thing is that it has enough RAM and processor power to handle your software.  I use a macbook pro with 2 GB of RAM and 2 GHz Intel duel processor.  This gives me enough power, and it’s also easy to travel with.  You’ll also want to make sure it has a firewire input for your audio interface.  Another important factor to consider when choosing your computer is the amount of hard drive space.  I have a 100 GB drive built-in drive, and several external drives for backing up important files.

Music Software

Once you have your computer, you will need to choose a good DAW (digital audio workstation) for audio recording, editing etc.  I use Ableton Live and Propellerheads Reason.  You can run them simultaneously using rewire which is a feature of Reason which allows you to sync Reason with various other DAWs.  I like Reason’s synths and sound-banks, although you can’t record audio directly into Reason, so I use Live to record and manipulate the sound further with Live’s tools and VST/AU plugins.  Live makes it easy to adjust the timing and pitch of recordings independently of each-other which makes it fun to mix and match samples and loops.  Logic Audio, Cubase, and Pro Tools  are also a great programs.  Propellerheads also just released a new program called “Record” that looks really interesting.  For DJs, you might want to consider Serato Scratch.  The software you choose will depend greatly on your personal preferences and what capabilities you require to work most effectively.

Midi Controllers

I have a Korg microKONTROL, and I totally love it!  It is small, so it’s very portable.  With the octave shift feature, it covers the whole range of notes, so the size doesn’t limit me at all.  It has 8 knobs and 8 sliders I can assign to control perimeters in my software or hardware.  It also has 16 pads I can assign to toggle or momentary triggers for drums or anything else.  The microKONTROL also has a joystick that controls the pitch bend when moved left and right, and it controls the mod wheel when moved forward and back.  It connects to my computer via usb, so I don’t even need to fool around with midi cables unless I want to use it for syncing.  I also have started using my iPod Touch as a midi controller.  There’s a great free application called MMM (midi music machine) that I enjoy using to control my software wirelessly.

Audio Interface

I use the M-Audio FireWire 410, and it works well for what I do.  It has 4 inputs and 8 outputs.  I can record high quality 24 bit digital audio.  It has XLR inputs in the front for microphones, and regular 1/4″ plugs for guitar or whatever.  As far as I know, only 2 of the inputs can be used at once though.  I recommend using a firewire audio interface over usb, because it’s much faster.  One of the biggest issues that you will encounter with recording on computers is latency, which is simply the lagging of the sound signal coming into the software.  Firewire interfaces have less latency than usb.  Also, having a faster computer helps with latency problems as you can reduce the buffer size in your software preferences.

Microphone

I suggest you invest in a good condenser mic.  These are very sensitive, and get the best studio quality recordings.  I use a microphone made by Blue called the Baby Bottle.  It’s a great mic for the money.  I had a professional once tell me that he couldn’t hear the difference between the mic I use and a super high quality $2,500 mic.  Mine was only $500, and it is well worth the money.  You can use a regular performance mic, but it’s just not going to be as crisp and clean.  If you’re going for quality then a condenser mic is a must have.

Studio Monitors

You’re going to need a good way to hear the true sound for mixing and mastering.  You can use regular speakers or headphones to a point, although they are not what they call flat, so the EQ is not precise enough for accurate balancing of levels.   Often, stereos have built-in EQs that will throw you off as well.  You need a set of flat studio monitors to really hone in the sound correctly.  It’s a good idea to test your mix in various kinds of speakers to compare how it sounds while mixing and mastering.  Studio monitors are designed to tell the truth.

Headphones

You will definitely have to get one or two good pairs of headphones.  I have flat studio monitor AKG headphones.  Sometimes, I need louder headphones, so I go with my regular $20 Sony headphones for that.  They’re not the best headphones I’ve ever used, although they’re much louder than the AKGs.

Conclusion

So, if you want to setup a recording studio, that’s basically all you really need to get started.  It’s what I use anyway.  It’s possible to produce music with less gear, although I really find each one of these tools very useful for the kind of productions I like to create.

This article was written by DJ Story.  Check out his website:

http://www.intuitivebeats.com

Let’s start with beats.

First of all you need to decide what sort of beat you want. Do you want a standard club style “Boom” beat or do you want something a little more sophisticated? If you’re not sure what I mean, all music is arranged into a series of different beats. In these blocks of beats 2, 4 ,8 and 16 are the most commonly used.

To make a 4 beat track the process is extremely simple. You will just need to find a good kick drum hit or sample and copy and paste it into your new track for the entire duration of the song. You can also use alternating kicks; this is quite a common process. A lot of people also have some kind of processing on some of the samples.

Now, a ‘break beat’ style track uses a variable beat which means it isn’t just the kick drum all the way through the track as we have previously discussed.

For example, let’s pretend that you currently have a 4 beat track and you want to break beat at a certain point. What you would need to do is put a kick drum on each 3rd beat for the duration of 3 measures and then after that put it on every other beat for just 2 measures. You can then use other synths and noises on any of the other beats on the 6 measures. After this you can copy and paste what you have so far into the entire track. You have now made a break beat track.

One of the pieces of software that makes this process particularly easy is Acid Music Studios, using this piece of software you can edit the track exactly how you want by making use of the programs cut, copy and paste tools. You can use these to copy and paste the 6 measures you have onto the rest of the track.

If you plan on creating a track that only has a steady kick beat all the way through, then you will need other elements to help fill the track up. The most simple way to do this is to add another percussion track on top of what you already have, then simply adjust the volume so that they match.

I hope this explains a little bit more how to start to create your very own dance track. There are just a few things you need to remember in order to become good at this, one of the main things is that you shouldn’t be scared to experiment. Remember to never throw away anything that you have done, there is always a possibility that you might think of something good to do with it at a later date. Secondly, remember to use your instinct, if it doesn’t sound good, it doesn’t matter if it is technically correct, music is all about how it sounds.

There are various ways to sample something. You can record sounds through a microphone or you can use analog or digital sound sources to record from. Anything is possible, and with today’s technology in plug-in effects and software, you really don’t have to miss out on the action.

There are various ways to sample something. You can record sounds through a microphone or you can use analog or digital sound sources to record from. Anything is possible, and with today’s technology in plug-in effects and software, you really don’t have to miss out on the action.

Quality
The quality you record in is very important. Some people might say that they don’t hear any difference in quality between a 16 bit and a 24 bit signal. But if you listen very closely to the 24 bit signal you will hear that it has much more detail. The sounds have more room to move in and very soft sounds come through better. The difference between 16 and 24 bit is that the 16 bit signal has much less levels of volume. The amount of Hz in the signal like: 44.100 Hz is the amount of snapshots taken in a one second time span.

So you can see that when you raise these numbers you will have a much more detailed recording. You can look at it like it’s a picture with 16 bit being something like 800 x 600 and 24 bit being 1024 x 768. The higher these numbers the more smooth the signal will be. Also when you record in 24 bit you can record much louder then when using 16 bit. So you will have even less noize (SNR = Sound to Noize Ratio). Read the rest of this entry »