The thought must have entered your mind the first time you heard “I Ain’t No Joke” by Eric B. & Rakim or when “The Mission” by Special Ed was banging through your speakers; how do they create those body shaking beats? In order to make thumping rap beats twenty years ago you would need to shell out a lot of money to buy the proper equipment, which is still the case today for the most part. However, if you want to make your own rap beats in this day and age you can turn to technology and look for some software solutions. Specifically, you will need a Digital Audio Workstation or DAW to start cranking out the beats.
There are actually quite a few beat making programs to choose from, some of which you may have heard of before. These programs vary widely in price, from $30 to over $800 and logically the more money you spend the more bells and whistles you get. If you are brand new to the beat making game then you can really start anywhere, depending on how much money you are willing to spend. Take into consideration any potential learning curve for the more complex software, if you are looking to jump right in and start banging out some beats.
These days, new rap producers are using a mixture of hardware, such as an MPC sampler and sequencer with their software of choice. It takes a great deal of money to put together even a home studio, and many up and coming producers just don’t have the ability to save several thousand dollars. If you fall into this category you may want to look at some of the powerful DAWs on the lower end of the pricing scale.
Another reason for starting with DAW software such as DUBturbo (a fully equipped Drum Machine, Keyboard and Sequencer) is to just get your feet wet. Learning how to create quality sounding beats will definitely take some time, and I for one don’t want to put out a great deal of money before I know I can possibly create quality beats.
With the DUBturbo software you will be paying for a top of the line DAW for a small price. There is also a 60 day refund policy if you don’t like the product. However, having personally used it I feel confident saying that you will likely hang on to it. Even if after buying it you are not able to find the time to work on some beats, you can always come back to the program months down the road.
