Want to make your own beats? Then you’re in the right place. Our colleague will show you how to make your own beats with MUSIC MAKER free.
You can download MUSIC MAKER as a free full version here. The beat program already includes several hundred free sounds & samples, 3 software instruments and various effects. All you need to do is download the program, then you’re ready to get started with us! If you want to see directly in the program how the beat is built, then download the demo project for free.
Make Hip Hop Beats
Before you start your project, you should first define the basic tempo for your beat. For the beginning, it is best to start with a tempo of about 90-92 BPM, at least if you want to build a classic boom bap beat. For trap beats, we recommend going towards 75-80 BPM. The tempo for Lofi Hip-Hop is almost always between 60-90 BPM. Unless they’re working entirely with samples from records, most beat producers start with the drums when making their beats. In MUSIC MAKER there are two different ways to develop your own drums.
Making Beats with Drum Loops
For a start, MUSIC MAKER already includes several hundred free samples - including various drum loops and free beats. You can simply drag and drop them into the timeline and extend them as you like. The loops already contain complete drums complete with kicks, snares and hi-hats.
In this example I used the drum loop "Kitty Compress A" and pitched it down to 91 BPM – as in I just changed the project speed. The hip hop beat already has a nice old school touch and follows the classic boom bap structure of kick, snare, kick, kick, snare. This is accompanied by a simple but pretty tight hi-hat (= tz, tz, tz, tz, tz, tz, tz).
Loop the beat.
If I now drag the outermost right edge of the drum loop with the mouse, I can easily extend the beat from four bars to as many as I want - i.e. loop it.
The beats in the MUSIC MAKER are designed to prevent awkward pauses and jolts during looping, allowing you to create your own beats quickly and easily.
Extra tip: Make your own beats
– Drums via MIDI
Note: This extra tip is NOT part of the demo project. For this beat you really have to do everything yourself. The best way to do this is to use the Vita 2 Sample Player included with the free Acoustic Drum Kit. Change the tab on the right side from "Loops" to "Instruments". Then just drag and drop the VITA into the Timeline and drag it onto the second track.
At this point I simply add the sound of the Acoustic Drum Kit to the drum beat. To do this, I delete the MIDI object that appeared by default, in order to design the beat according to my own ideas. This means that I click on "Edit" and select "Create new MIDI object". Now I have a nice blank canvas of 4 bars that I’m free to design however I want.
Programming beats via MIDI
If you have some previous experience and equipment, you can control the VITA with a USB keyboard or your drum machine. Now I'm just using the mouse and keyboard to create the beat. You can now see a four-four time in the section itself. This means that the simplest rhythm I could create here is a beat with 4 beats. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. But for the hip hop beat I prefer to use the classic Boom Bap structure of kick, snare, kick, kick, snare.
Basically, the kicks are typically found on the hits "one" and "three" - the snare always on "two" and "four". On the VITA you will find the kick at the end of the piano keyboard at "C1", the snare on the white key next to it. Simply draw the strokes with the pen tool. At the beginning, your beat looks totally simple like in the graphic on the right.
This still sounds quite basic for now, but it’ll get a lot better as soon as you use two strokes on the "Three".
Layering while making beats
If you now play both tracks in parallel and tune them to each other, this is called layering. Professionals create separate tracks for each element (e.g. for the kick) and "layer" the sounds on top of each other. The art at the end is to tune the frequencies so that the sound in the mix doesn't sound completely muddy. But mixing is another topic. In the free MUSIC MAKER Store you can buy your own drum machines or your own small "beat programs" especially designed for Hip Hop beats. Check out the fat urban drums.
For the techno makers among you, there are also all kinds of synthesizers and electronic drum machines. But we’re gonna finish the beat here first.
Making Beats with Drum Loops
– tips for more variety
Going back to our demo project, for more variation in the drums, I cut the drum loop "Kitty Compress A" after 2 bars and inserted a short drum break. In bar 3 I gave the kick on 1A a short break. This makes the beat sound much fatter. A nice hip hop board has now been created within the 4 bars.
Now I'm adding some more driving "ride beats" in off-beat rhythm using the VITA and the free drum sets.
Making beats via MIDI is much more demanding, but also gives you much more freedom to experiment.
Making beats: Here comes the bass
For the bass I’m using the free synthesizer “Revolta 2” in MUSIC MAKER. It comes with a cool range of presets while also giving you tons of sound design options.
For the bass, I’m using the preset "Scorpio Funker". It has this beautiful pumping West Coast sound - so it's just right for our Hip Hop beat.
The Revolta 2 can also be controlled via MIDI - so I can really easily draw the rhythm with the mouse.
Most of the Hip Hop Beats have a pretty simple bass and most of the time I stay on one keynote - in this case D2. Only at the very end do I change one tone lower to C2.
Make your own rap beats: The piano
The essence of most rap classics can basically be reduced to three essential components: Drums, bass and a piano sample.
For this, I’m using the Concert Grand LE in MUSIC MAKER. It only has one preset, but it sounds really good. With the knobs and effects for Delay, Chorus, Pitch, Reverb and EQs, the default preset can be rotated in various directions. For the rap beat I’ll now play a few simple chords with my USB keyboard, again using the keynote D2.
As a MIDI file it will look like in the graphic on the right.
Can't be missing in any Hip Hop Beat: "The Bell"
In the next step I’ll add a chime to support the piano a bit. This time I’m using the free Revolta 2 synthesizer with the preset: "SynthAmbient Distant Swirling Bells". In the beat grid, I set the chime to the second beat together with the snare.
Free beats, free sounds & free samples
If making music with a MIDI seems too complicated, you can just work with the Soundpools in MUSIC MAKER. Here you simply drag and drop finished melody blocks into your beats. The 5th track in the demo project already contains several hundred free samples including free strings among others. So for this I’ll choose the Soundpool again – this time “Feel Good”. I’ll then take the sound modules "Rolling Cellos 2 and 6" and place them on tracks 5 and 6. Now all you need to do is cut a little bit and the first raw version of the beat is ready.
You can also buy new sound packages for the hottest music styles directly from the Store in MUSIC MAKER and easily combine them with each other. For guitar beats, simply take a rock Soundpool and combine it with your finished, free Hip Hop beat. If you want, you can also put acapellas from the Hip Hop Soundpools over your rap beat. This was done in the demo at the start.