Move your Rap beat up a notch!
So now you have created a Rap or Hip hop beat with which you are quite pleased. Still, it doesn't quite sound as good as a commercial release, and you are wondering why? You are happy with the beat and the overall sound but the quality is not as good as the commercial sounds you hear. What is the reason? How do you create beats with the same quality?
If you listen carefully, you will hear that your claps or Hi hats are not as crisp and the volume or space of your sound is a little flat. You don't have that extra sharpness to your sound. OK now you realise this what can you do about it?
What I have done is use a free program called Audacity to manipulate each instrument in my beats.
It doesn't have the versatility of commercial programs but you can still achieve most of the commercial programs effects with a little ingenuity and extra time.
The program I have used to create beats saves the end result as a high quality WAV file, but it does not separate out the individual instruments so I had to save each instrument as a separate WAV file. Then I manipulated each one and then put them all back together in Audacity to create the final file.
The essentials are:-
1. Adjust the stereo of each sound to position your instruments to the right or the left and not just the middle.
2. Use the Compress feature to expand and clarify your sound so it has greater loudness and crispness.
3. Use the Equalizer to push the high, middle or low-frequency parts of your sound up or down individually to prevent sound clashes and improve impact.
Sometimes your individual instruments may all appear to be in the middle of your stereo from left to right. You need to use the stereo control to make them appear where you wish either left or right. Use the control carefully as you want each instrument to have its own place in the stereo positioning. Your Bass and kick should be in the middle so you hear them in both ears. Any voice, i.e. a Rap Song needs to be in the middle. Instruments like piano, strings, flute, bells and synthesizer need to have their own space left or right.
Your mission is to fill the stereo space as well as you can. So if you have a violin sound it might be placed far left, then the flute not quite so far left and then a piano riff closer again to the middle and the same on the right with other sounds you have used. This way you fill the stereo space with your sounds. The ear then picks them up and this gives much more volume to the sound.
The compressor will help make your sound have loudness without clipping and should give it better impact.
Once you have adjusted the stereo then put your sounds through the compressor and make sure it is set with no clipping. You will have to play with the settings to find the sound that you want with power and punch.
Equalising your beats is the last task. This will allow you to adjust your sound bands for High, Mid and Low.
Again you will need to experiment but generally you will want to push the high and mid frequencies up a little bit, although some sounds such as a kick might want lower mid and low-end frequencies. Always adjust your frequencies in small amounts as too much sounds wrong.
My final advice is, when you create beats, be very careful not to overdo the Bass sound, especially when you adjust everything with a sound manipulation program like Audacity. Make these adjustments on each instrument or sound in your beat. When you re-assemble them into your beat and compare before and after beat sound you will be pleasantly surprised at the improvement.
So now you have created a Rap or Hip hop beat with which you are quite pleased. Still, it doesn't quite sound as good as a commercial release, and you are wondering why? You are happy with the beat and the overall sound but the quality is not as good as the commercial sounds you hear. What is the reason? How do you create beats with the same quality?
If you listen carefully, you will hear that your claps or Hi hats are not as crisp and the volume or space of your sound is a little flat. You don't have that extra sharpness to your sound. OK now you realise this what can you do about it?
What I have done is use a free program called Audacity to manipulate each instrument in my beats.
It doesn't have the versatility of commercial programs but you can still achieve most of the commercial programs effects with a little ingenuity and extra time.
The program I have used to create beats saves the end result as a high quality WAV file, but it does not separate out the individual instruments so I had to save each instrument as a separate WAV file. Then I manipulated each one and then put them all back together in Audacity to create the final file.
The essentials are:-
1. Adjust the stereo of each sound to position your instruments to the right or the left and not just the middle.
2. Use the Compress feature to expand and clarify your sound so it has greater loudness and crispness.
3. Use the Equalizer to push the high, middle or low-frequency parts of your sound up or down individually to prevent sound clashes and improve impact.
Sometimes your individual instruments may all appear to be in the middle of your stereo from left to right. You need to use the stereo control to make them appear where you wish either left or right. Use the control carefully as you want each instrument to have its own place in the stereo positioning. Your Bass and kick should be in the middle so you hear them in both ears. Any voice, i.e. a Rap Song needs to be in the middle. Instruments like piano, strings, flute, bells and synthesizer need to have their own space left or right.
Your mission is to fill the stereo space as well as you can. So if you have a violin sound it might be placed far left, then the flute not quite so far left and then a piano riff closer again to the middle and the same on the right with other sounds you have used. This way you fill the stereo space with your sounds. The ear then picks them up and this gives much more volume to the sound.
The compressor will help make your sound have loudness without clipping and should give it better impact.
Once you have adjusted the stereo then put your sounds through the compressor and make sure it is set with no clipping. You will have to play with the settings to find the sound that you want with power and punch.
Equalising your beats is the last task. This will allow you to adjust your sound bands for High, Mid and Low.
Again you will need to experiment but generally you will want to push the high and mid frequencies up a little bit, although some sounds such as a kick might want lower mid and low-end frequencies. Always adjust your frequencies in small amounts as too much sounds wrong.
My final advice is, when you create beats, be very careful not to overdo the Bass sound, especially when you adjust everything with a sound manipulation program like Audacity. Make these adjustments on each instrument or sound in your beat. When you re-assemble them into your beat and compare before and after beat sound you will be pleasantly surprised at the improvement.
My name is William Reeson and I am a late comer to making beats, but am fascinated with the whole Rap, Hip hop scene.
I taught Art and Design for many years, but was never very confident with Music. I have determined to become much more involved even starting to learn the violin (which is a whole other story).
The whole culture of beat making is actually very wide and very diverse. I have made many interesting discoveries and found some unusual techniques.
The main program that I personally use to make beats is amazingly flexible and can produce music from lounge style tunes to hip hop to heavy rock to Jewish music and more.
If you would like to learn more about making beats and selling beats sign up for my free 5 day course. The course is on making beats and you can watch it as a video or read as text using your smart phone or computer. Create Beats [http://aprogramtomakebeats.com] There is a more detailed video on improving your beats under Tutorials.
I taught Art and Design for many years, but was never very confident with Music. I have determined to become much more involved even starting to learn the violin (which is a whole other story).
The whole culture of beat making is actually very wide and very diverse. I have made many interesting discoveries and found some unusual techniques.
The main program that I personally use to make beats is amazingly flexible and can produce music from lounge style tunes to hip hop to heavy rock to Jewish music and more.
If you would like to learn more about making beats and selling beats sign up for my free 5 day course. The course is on making beats and you can watch it as a video or read as text using your smart phone or computer. Create Beats [http://aprogramtomakebeats.com] There is a more detailed video on improving your beats under Tutorials.
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