Sonic Producer - The Future Rap Music Beat Maker

When it comes to making beats for rap music, there's one huge thing I've learned. It's important to stick with what works for you and whatever is as simple as possible. There's nothing worse than trying to make a beat, and all of a sudden your computer gives you some sort of an error message holding you up in your creative process.

Complications with beat making software and hardware have been one of the biggest drawbacks about making beats today. There's many other reasons why hardware has more issues than software, but that's been discussed in an earlier post.

For the most part, software has taken over as the dominant platform to make beats for most producers. But it seems as though there's a new player to the game and it may alter the state of beat making once again just the same way that software took over hardware.

It's a program called Sonic Producer. And this isn't just any other beat making program. This program works fully online. Meaning that you no longer have to install a program on your computer, you don't have to fool with serial numbers, and you don't have nearly as many problems to worry about. You also don't need to have a $2,000 computer which is required by some software, especially Logic or Reason.

The program works on any computer and from any location. So, you pretty much can work from anywhere you want. You can also update your sound library directly online without fooling with an installation process. Everything is also saved online, so no more need for an external hard drive to save all of your beats and instrumentals.

There's a lot of features with this program and it's pretty impressive (especially the price). I'm starting to slowly see more producers that I personally know start to use the program. This beat making software is still relatively new, but I'm very curious about how this could be a potential game-changer. I guess we just have to wait and see....

Beat Making Programs - 4 Signs of a Killer Beat Making Software

With so many different beat making programs available online today, it’s difficult to know which ones are quality and which ones are just trash. Hopefully, with this list you’ll be more aware of which program is worth your hard earned money and which one isn’t.

High price tag does not equal high quality
Don’t be suckered into thinking that only the programs that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars are necessarily the best fit for you. Many of them have features that you’ll probably never use. As a matter of fact, many of the cheaper programs have all the tools you’ll use the most. Software should not cost you an arm and a leg.

Large Sound Library
When you’re making beats, you want as many sounds and instruments available as possible so that you can make the perfect beat and get the exact sound that you want. Good software should come with multiple drum kits, keyboards, basses, guitars, and sound effects as possible.

File Format for Saving Beats
Surprisingly, not every beat making software gives you the ability to save your beat as an mp3. Mp3s are the most dominant file format in today’s music and not being able to save in that format will be a roadblock for you. Saving in other formats like .wav is an added plus, but saving as an mp3 is absolutely essential.

Simple is Almost Always Better
This fact cannot be stressed enough because this is what will determine how productive you are and how many beats you make. Extremely complicated programs take so long to learn and you spend far too much time doing that instead of making music.

So, in a nutshell, make sure that any beat making software you choose has these characteristics. Low price, huge sound library, user-friendly interface, and allows you to save your beats as mp3s. Follow these simple steps, and you’ll be good as gold.

Sonic Producer - Beat Making Video

Sonic Producer is the program that I've been using lately. Here's a video to show the beat making software in action. Enjoy!

Making Beats that Sound Professional

If you're new to making beats, then there's some things you need to know about getting your beats to sound like the one's you hear on the radio with your favorite rapper.

For starters, you need a music making program to work with that you're most comfortable using. This can be software or hardware like MPCs and Keystations. Whichever one works best and is easiest for you, is the one you want to use.

The second thing that you'll need is a good set of samples. For those that don't know, samples are the different instruments and sounds that you use off a keyboard, software, or MPC to make beats with. Most software nowadays comes with really good sounding samples that you can use to make beats. If you feel like you don't have a good set of sounds to work with, you can always sample from other professional records.

The next thing that you wanna do is create your beat one track at a time. I'm the type of producer that likes to start with my basslines and then move on to other instruments. You may work differently and that's perfectly fine. Just remember, that you don't wanna over do the beat either. Every beat that you make doesn't need to have 30 tracks in it. I've heard incredible beats with as little as 5 tracks.

The last thing you need to do is make sure that you get familiar with the effects that you can use to make your beats sound better. Some of the most popular effects are delay, reverb, and EQ. Now, effects are a great tool to make your beats sound better, but you still need to have a beat with a good groove first. Don't think that you can use effects as a crutch. Think of effects as the icing on the cake if you will.

One more thing, make sure that you get into the habit of finishing what you started. When making beats it can be easy to start with a couple of tracks and then move onto the next project without finishing the last. This can lead to a lot of unfinished beats and is a bad practice that I see a lot of producers do.

There's many other things that you should learn about beat making software, but these tips are a good way to get you started.

Beat Making Software vs Hardware

The epic debate about beat making software vs beat making hardware continues today. Now, this is coming from a person who's used both hardware and software to come to this conclusion. Making beats with software is easier than doing it with hardware. For those who don't know, software is a program that runs on your computer (Reason, Logic, or Pro Tools). And hardware are things like keyboard synths, sound modules, or MPCs.

Now, let me explain why. The first and most obvious reason is price. Hardware is far more expensive than software. A couple of years ago, I paid $3,000 for a Korg Triton Extreme keyboard and an MPC1000. Beat making programs can run anywhere from $250 - $600. And these are full blown programs to record beats and includes more sounds than any hardware keyboard does.

Another reason that beat making software is better than hardware is because of the screen size. A computer usually has at least a 13 inch screen for you to work with, but a keyboard and an MPC is much, much smaller, making it difficult to work.

However, some people may argue that hardware is superior to software because it sounds better, which is purely subjective. Just remember, when it comes to making beats, use whatever it is that you're most comfortable with.

Software works for me, but it may not be for everyone. BTW, I eventually sold the Triton and the MPC, lol.

But now, technology is taking beat making to a new level. Now you don't even have to install any beat making program on your computer at all, you just go on the internet and make beats online. It's a program called Sonic Producer and it's pretty interesting. It looks like it might be the future in beatmaking and I'll be talking more about it in the next couple of posts.