Without fail, a few times every year we get a call at our music production studio with someone asking…
“Y’all do beats?”
Since the engineers primarily do music mixing in our spare time, we usually tell them they couldn’t afford our post production rates and point them to a studio that makes a living from that kind of work. While I can see the point of calling into a studio and wanting something professional, professional sounding beats are so easy to do these days from the comforts of your own home.
Electronic beats, real drum beats, real instruments, electronic instruments, can all be done on your home computer.
I mean, the same programs I will open up in a studio will compare to ones you can find online. Now the difference is in the subtleties. There are definitely instruments that are harder to sample then others, like strings and horn sections, and to get those sounding realistic, you’ll probably need to shell out a lot more money.
Being at a studio, we can afford to do buy expensive samples. But would you even notice the difference?
My guess is no.
And as proof, I know many people that have gotten their beats and tracks onto tv shows, licensed by production companies that have done the entire thing from their home computer. The programs they use vary, but if the track is good, mixed well (this is key), and matches the need of the show, it’ll get picked.
I’m not saying that I couldn’t get your beats into a real studio and do them up in a way you couldn’t in your home, the software in professional studios is incredible in that respect, as well as the amount of “tricks” I know.
But do you need that in order to create awesome tracks?
No.
From what I’ve seen, you have everything you need without leaving your house.
What program to use?
Without a doubt, the hottest beat making program out there today is Sonic Producer. It’s everything you need to make great beats online. It’s affordable, and will give you better sounding beats then most outdated software you buy and install on your computer. Check it out.
