Rap is a very lucrative business, but hip hop music producers work behind the scenes, creating instrumental tracks for a record label, or just for fun. There are many types of producers, but they all follow the same basic steps.
Steps
Step 1. You have to love hip hop and music in general
The music industry is tough and tough, and ruthless, and without a deep passion for hip hop music you can never become good or famous. You must also love all kinds of music, as this will make it easier for you to stimulate your creativity.
Step 2. Study the music
This is a phase that you will never have to stop keeping in mind, and you will never be able to think that you know everything about music at any point in your career. Study all the different styles of music, not just modern hip hop. Study the origins of any musical genre, theory and great musicians. No musical genre should be ignored, not even country.
Step 3. Choose the equipment you will need
This is a very complicated stage, as there are infinite combinations of hardware and software. You might want to try the demo versions of FL Studio's music creation software if you plan on trying to create content with paid solutions. If you are creating your own samples, consider how to access them (from turntables, computer, etc.). If you are interested in composing with the help of synthesizers and virtual instruments, a MIDI keyboard is an excellent investment.
Step 4. Experiment
Create a simple drum track (eg Kick - Hi-Hat - Snare - Hi-Hat) and play with the notes by inserting them into the beats. This step should help you become familiar with your equipment, it will take you at least a month to acquire some real skills with your equipment.
Step 5. Start perfecting your beats
Read manuals and start using Google extensively to search for information. Learn about the use of effects, equalization and quantization, and start fiddling.
Step 6. As soon as you manage to make your music listeners follow the beat almost involuntarily by moving their head, start promoting yourself
Use sites like rocbattle.com, soundclick.com, givemebeats.net, and cdbaby.com to your advantage. Search for rappers, local or on the web, and try to produce a demo.
Advice
- Make sure you equalize the volume of your instruments correctly. Higher volume does not necessarily result in better music.
- Recommended hardware: MPC series, Korg synthesizers, MIDI keyboards, Technics cymbals, professional headphones and studio monitor speakers.
- Recommended Software: FL Studio, Cool Edit Pro, Logic, Reason, Ableton Live, Audacity.
- Study successful producers. It may seem trivial, but take some time to listen to your best 25 or 50 instrumental tracks, and take note of why they are so pleasant to listen to.
- If you like old school hip-hop, use some vintage sounds like the 808 library, or tune your snare drum to get some lower notes.
- Try anything. Nothing is "wrong". If someone likes it, or even if you just like it, that's "right".
- Make sure you get lots of feedback from kids and teens.
- Collaborate with other producers to develop new ideas.
- Don't set limits: learn about the 4 elements of hip hop. Breakdance, rap, graffiti and the use of cymbals as a tool.
- Don't hate your neighbor. As a producer, hatred will not bring you further respect.
- Mixing and mastering a track are two separate things that need to work well together. So train in both fields to give your tracks a professional flavor.
Warnings
- Don't be put off by criticism.
- Don't ask questions about how to do something without first reading the manual or checking online. Hip hop music producers will be really helpful if you follow this one rule.
- Stay humble; acting like a diva will ultimately only cause embarrassment.
- Keep doing what you do. If you are sure you are developing this passion, make sure to integrate it into your life until it matures enough to be able to insert it wherever you want.
- Don't expect to be able to live on this passion until you are willing to work with it by putting your all into it. Music is not an easy market to enter unless you are really determined and give up early. Remember, you could do it - but it's a really busy market.
- FL Studio's software weighs in at around 200MB, and is worth all the price it costs. A program with exceptional performance, especially for those who use it creatively. You can develop skills to make it a really robust tool.
