In order to make music, you are best off having some musical training. You could hire a musician to dictate and record your inner thoughts, but this is pricey and leaves you extremely dependent on the musician that you hire.

There are also some very interesting inexpensive sequencer programs available online. One of these is called Sonic Producer and can do a good job. If you want to take that next step, then you will need some more stuff.

Assuming that you have some musical training, the next step in composing and recording is buying some good hardware and software. Make sure to trust the store that you are buying from. The merchant should specialize in music and have a friendly and knowledgeable staff that can answer technical questions.
Try to get the store to install all of your software, sound samples and your sound card. The less you have to do, the better. Make sure that the store is providing you with a fast processor and a lot of memory, as sound samples are rather large. You’ll also need a mixer and patch chords.

If you plan on using live audio to record directly into your computer, then a microphone is also necessary. As for the hardware, if you plan on recording live in the same room that your computer is in (perhaps you have a small area for your home studio), you’ll need an extremely quiet hard drive.

Midi sound samples are the most economical way of recording, as you have a one time fee of sound sample purchases. Hiring live musicians is expensive, although the sound quality is usually quite gratifying. Many composers use a combination of live and midi sounds to create their sound tracks.

Occasionally, companies manufacture both hardware and software. An example of this is Steinberg, who produces both extremely powerful and quiet hard drives, and amazing recording software like Cubase.

There are many companies that are in the business of supplying great recording equipment. The bottom line here is to really trust both a recommended dealer for your supplies, and a recommended music teacher (if needed) for some reliable theory and keyboard training. Remember that a keyboard or controller is commonly used to play midi sounds.

Mixing it Up

Congratulations. You have made it and you want information on how to make your own beats and how to make rap beats in general. This is the place to not only find the tools and software you will need, but all sorts of information on recording files, working with midi, wav and mp3, plus the music biz in general.

So we can get started now, but first, go on over and sign up for our free 5 day make your own beats e-course and newsletter. Definately worth doing.