The best way to mix beats and make songs is to set up your own home recording studio.
The best way to mix beats and make songs is to set up your own home recording studio. This is not as daunting at it sounds. The days of having to fork out thousands of dollars for the latest audio and recording equipment are gone. Your computer takes care of nearly everything, meaning you might already own the most expensive piece of equipment you are going to need. A home recording studio gives you total creative control over your songs, so the only limit is your imagination.
Instructions
1. Buy a computer. If you do not already own a computer, you will need to purchase one. It can be a laptop or home computer, PC or Mac. The make or style is not important. The key thing is memory capacity. It needs to have at least 250 GB of memory and around 1 GB of RAM.
2. Look for a decent music software package. There are several of these available, and which one you choose depends entirely on your needs. Two of the most comprehensive are Cakewalk Sonar Studio (PC) and Apple Logic Pro (Mac). Search online and look at some reviews of the latest packages.
3. Buy a MIDI Interface and a mixer. Both are optional, as you could use the sound card that comes with your computer. However, the sound card won't give you even close to the same recording quality you'd get from buying the separate components. Save money if you like, but the songs you make will not sound professional.
4. Purchase a microphone to record your songs. This is an essential piece of equipment. Go to any audio or electronics shop and you will see hundreds of mics available. Spend as much as your budget will allow. A cheap mic will ruin your recording.
5. Borrow some instruments from friends and use the "Record" feature on your music software to record riffs created by the instruments. Alternatively, you can use the pre-saved music files on the software to create tracks. Software packages have thousands of default instrument sounds to play around with.
6. Select a time signature for your song. Most commercial tracks work off of 4/4, but there are many others. Specify on what beat the audio files you have recorded, or default instruments from the drop-down lists, will kick into the track, and how regularly they will appear. For example, a drum might play every beat for the entire duration of the track, but a guitar riff may only kick in occasionally, and only on every fourth beat. Each time you add a new instrument, use the "Loop" function to play back the track and see how it sounds.
7. Use the "Equalizer" function to make sure all of the instruments sound balanced. This is particularly important if you have recorded instruments or a vocal yourself. Once you are happy with the track, press "Save." The music software package automatically saves your song as an MP3 file that can then be burned onto a CD.
