In this tutorial today, Iâm going to show you how to make a quick hip-hop beat in Garageband.
Hip hop and rap beats are anything urban related with a strong up and down beat in common 4 beat timing. Hip hop and rap beats can be used to providing an urban feel or be rapped over. Typical instruments are synths, electronic drums and big bass. Don't forget those hi-hats and trap elements! Stream GarageBand Beats, a playlist by xXDjSkeeterMusicXx(Archive) from desktop or your mobile device. Download on the App Store Get it on. Lil Yacht Hip Hop.
Will it be the most sophisticated beat in the world?
No, it will not, because, Iâm not the greatest producer, and all I can do is show you how I do things. Hopefully, you can learn something from me.
Assuming youâre an absolute beginner, this tutorial should save you a fair amount of time in terms of avoiding common mistakes, like not turning off the Auto-Normalize function in Garagebandâs preferences.
This is my way of making a hip-hop beat using my own unique individual style. It may not be your style of music, but maybe itâll help you understand how people go about making songs.
Before we begin, Iâll give a brief explanation of what I consider to be hip-hop as well as some of its parameters.
Features Of Hip-Hop
Hip-hop, like metal, rock, and many other genres, has a ton of sub-genres and dynamic differences between each other.
Therefore, in my opinion, thereâs no point in saying that it has to sound a certain way â because it doesnât.
In the past, there were many beats that had kind of a major/happy sound and there are many minor sounding beats of varying stylistic characters such as jazz, soul, funk, country, and even rock.
Moreover, hip-hop utilizes a ton of soul and funk samples from the 1960s and 1970s like James Brown, Funkadelic, Parlament, and so on and so forth.
Perhaps my favorite example is Kanye Westâs song, âTouch The Sky,â created by Lupe Fiasco, which uses Curtis Mayfieldâs legendary soul tune, âMove On Up.â
The great part of hip-hop, like rock music, is that itâs versatile, so as long as you have a melody and a rhythm section, a rapper can probably spit bars over it.
*Before continuing, make sure youâve downloaded all of the available sounds. To do that, just go into the Garageband Preferences, and go to âSound Library,â and then choose the option, âDownload All Available Sounds.â
Without further adoâ¦
How To Make A Hip-Hop Song In Garageband
The first thing that you want to do is open up Garageband.
1) Open up Garageband.
2) Select the hip-hop template.
The first thing that shows up is the Trap Door template, and the drummerâs name apparently is Dez. Personally, I hate the sound of the Trap Door pre-sets, so I avoid it at all costs.
It can be doctored to sound good, in my opinion, by decreasing the complexity of the fills and also choosing the âSimpleâ setting by dragging the little yellow ball to the left, or changing the actual kit of the pre-set.
Around half of the instruments that Garageband gives you sound good, with the âSteinway Grand Piano,â Deep Sub Bass,â âVox Box Lead,â and the âString Ensembleâ being the most important and useful.
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The âArctic Noise Leadâ is definitely a popular choice as well.
3) Go ahead and choose the âFluteâ option under âVintage Mellotron,â the âJazz Organ,â the âScream Leadâ from the synthesizer section, as well as the âString Movementsâ from the Soundscapes option.
Also, choose the âBeat Machineâ drum-kit under the Electronic Drum Kit section.
4) First Melody (Chord Progression) â (Jazz Organ)
For this particular track, âSpaceship Underwater,â the very first thing is that I made the chord progression with the âJazz Organ,â which is just a C Minor with an added 9th and an Eb Major with an added 9th.
You can give the final track a listen here:
Cmin9 = C, Eb, G, D
Ebadd9 = Eb, G, Bb, F
Both of these chords belong to the Key of G Minor.
Here are all of the chords of G Minor (relative minor of Bb Major):
i â G Minor â G-B-D
iiº â A Diminished â A-C-Eb III+ â Bb Major â Bb-D-F iv â C Minor â C-Eb-G v â D Minor â D-F-A VI â Eb Major â Eb-G-Bb VII â F Major â F-A-C
In case you havenât seen the scale degrees before and how they look, know that the lower-case roman numerals., âi,â mean Minor, and the upper-case numerals, âV,â mean Major.
***If you want to learn more about theory, I suggest going over to MusicTheory.net, or pick up Mark Sarneckiâs book on theory, which you read about on my recommended products page (Itâs #15 on the list).
The â+â means augmented and the âºâ means diminished.
If these words are scary donât worry about it. Just pay attention to the letters of the chord, âGBD.â
Check out the diagram I created of the âMusical Typingâ below if youâre totally unfamiliar of where the notes of the Piano lie.
When I build beats, I pretty much always start with the melody and then I build the drums, bass, and everything else afterward.
5) Second Melody â (Screamlead Synth)
Because I know that Iâm in the Key of G Minor, there are certain notes available to me that will sound âcorrect.â They are the following:
G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F.
The relative Major of G Minor is actually Bb Major, which means they are the same notes, just played in a different order and having a different root note or tonal center.
Here is the Bb Major scale:
Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A
asically, after I built the chord progression, I loaded up an instrument that sounded cool and started playing around with it on my MIDI Keyboard.
I usually start with an Ehru, Piano, or another instrument with a sound I love. The reasoning for this, as an artist, is for the inspiration.
In this case, I chose the Screamlead instrument, which youâll find in the Lead subcategory within the Synthesizer section.
Hereâs an image of how the second most important melody of the song looks in the MIDI work-space:
Tip: Always use instruments, plug-ins, arpeggiators, and other tools that inspire you to play.
Thatâs what being a musician is all about, frankly. Itâs the same thing with playing the guitar or another instrument. You have to buy a piece of equipment that actually inspires you to play.
After I built the second melody using the âScreamleadâ instrument, I went into the Software Instrumentâs settings and messed around with it until it actually sounded cool.
At first, as I said before, it was the Pipu, but I couldnât use that because I already made a track using it recently and I didnât want to get too repetitive.
I turned it into a Screamlead, and then adjusted the settings of it.
In the image below, you can see all of the different settings for it, including, Glide, Sub, Shape, Depth, Harmonic, Overdrive, Delay, as well as a bit of Reverb.
The part I changed the most was the âGlideâ option as well as the âShape.â Thatâs what gave it the sound that is completely different from the stock version of it.
Another big change I made was with the âHarmonicâ option. I turned that bad boy all the way down.
5) Third Filler Melody â (Delicate Bells)
For the third melody, I simply used it as a filler, a way of filling out the rest of the track and adding a little bit of âBodyâ or character to the sound.
I used Delicate Bells, and I copy and pasted the track from the Screamlead and dropped it into the Delicate Bells track.
It was a one-two process, and I turned it down fairly significant so as not to take too much attention away from the rest of the more important instruments.
I also EQâd it a little bit as well. For this section, I implemented a Low-Pass, so in other words, I eliminated all of the highest frequencies. This EQ setting looks like this:
6) Fourth Melody (Flute)
Perhaps the most important melody of this song was the flute, rather than the initial chord progression and melody.
The flute is the part that repeats through the entirety of the song, and I loved the way it sounds. I think it was a nice touch.
The funny part about it is the fact itâs simply three notes but played at two different octaves. Itâs easily the LEAST sophisticated part of the entire track.
It goes to show that sophistication is not necessary at all, in fact, this plays into improvisation as a musician as well. Itâs easy to get caught up in all of these incredibly convoluted details, but frankly, thereâs simply no need.
A good question to ask yourself is: does this make the music sound good? Does this contribute to the entirety of the song?
Moving on to arguably the most important part of a hip-hop song: the drums and the Boutique 808 pattern.
I think, perhaps, a crucial detail to add here is the fact that the drums and boutiques are actually the most important part for music producers but not for the listener.
Listeners donât care about EQing the snare as you do, they just want to hear a great melody and beat.
7) Drums (Kick, Snare and Hi-Hats)
Obviously, music producers have different ways of going about this. Many actually âdrawâ their music, by adding individual notes and so on and so forth in the âPiano Roll.â
To begin drawing in the Piano Roll, double-click (right-click) in the workspace and select the option, âCreate Empty MIDI Region.â This will make a file in which you can start dropping notes.
Truth be told, I donât do this.
I find this kind of thing to be, actually, annoying and not that fun.
I played guitar for my entire life before I started using a DAW, so Iâm all about playing from the heart and improvising on the spot.
What I do, is I open up the Musical Typing (Garagebandâs keyboard â Command + K), and I just start jamming on the Kick and Snare, trying to come up with a pattern that Iâve never used before but also sounds very good.
Usually, the Kick and Snare is loaded at the C3 level on Garagebandâs Musical Typing, so I just hammer on the âCâ and âDâ note, or as it says on the actual laptop Keyboard, the letters âAâ and âS.â
If youâre using a MIDI-Keyboard, itâll likely be the very first C and D on the left-side of the Keyboard.
After Iâve built a cool sounding Kick and Snare pattern, I usually begin adding the other details.
8) Shaker
Iâve been actually using the Shaker function quite a bit lately. I feel like itâs a nice touch to the sound.
And for the most part, I either add the hi-hats on every single beat, or I add it about half-a-beat after the Snare Drum. I think it sounds cool.
I use the shaker â and this is a great thing to keep in mind for producing all kinds of drum-centric music â to keep the beat at a more consistent pace.
Many producers use the Kick, Snare, or the Hi-Hat as a way to keep time.
For me, using the Shaker is good for that, because itâs not too intrusive or obstructing. In other words, it doesnât take too much attention away from other sounds, instruments, and melodies.
A snare or kick can be quite aggressive.
9) Bass
This is arguably the most important part of hip-hop production, and frankly, Iâm not the greatest at it, so you may want to check out another personâs tutorial to figure out how to make great Boutique 808s and bass-lines.
As I explained in this article about Boutique 808s, there are many different ways of drawing/playing bass-lines, as well as EQ-tactics and methods for making it sound good.
Make sure to check out the article at the above link to see what Iâm talking about.
For the sake of this tutorial, however, Iâll outline what I did for âSpaceship Under Water.â
The first thing that I do when I build a bass-line is I usually think about the chord progression and melody, that way I can draw a bassline that is actually on-key.
Many producers struggle with building a bass-line thatâs on-key due to the limitations of the human ear. Itâs pretty hard to hear the lowest frequencies, so a good way of getting around it is the following:
Tip: Try making a bass-line with the Bass turned up 1 or 2 octaves, that way you can find out if the bass is truly in the proper key signature.
Another thing that you can do is treat the bass as if itâs a melody of its own, and create maybe a piano melody, but then change the software instrument track into the Deep Sub Bass synth or the Boutique 808s.
Moving onâ¦
I typically outline the notes of the chord in order to create the bassline. For example, I know that in this track there are two primary chords that lie as the songâs foundation: Cmin9 and Ebadd9.
These two chords, as I mentioned above, belong to the key of G Minor, where these are the following notes of the scale, G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb, and F.
Cmin9 = C, Eb, G, D
Ebadd9 = Eb, G, Bb, F
If Iâm going to make a bassline, I would focus on the C note and the Eb note, just as a starter to see how that sounds. C and Eb are the root notes of the aforementioned chords.
After that, Iâd play around with the G Minor scale, whose notes I listed above, and Iâd see if I could make something out of that. However, usually I crave a little more out of the bassline, and most other people do as well.
Most people would argue that the main purpose of the bassline, whether itâs Boutique 808 or a bass guitar, is to hold the rhythm down of the song, so to speak.
Itâs a way of solidifying the groove and flow of the track. Itâs like strengthening its backbone.
Without bass, the song wouldnât have the same âfullnessâ about it. It would sound likely more empty and hollow. Those lower frequencies really complete and warm-up the song.
In this case, I was struggling to come up with a bass-line that fulfilled that role, so I ended up just outlining the notes of the chords and keeping it very simple.
Sometimes, simplicity is where itâs at.
The final thing to note is the fact I copy and pasted the notes of the Kick Drum into the Deep Sub Bass track, that way I had a reference point for when the Kick and Snare hits.
As I wrote about in my Boutique article, if you want your bassline to hit hard, which is arguably the most coveted aspect of hip-hop production, then itâs essential that you line your kick drum with the Boutique 808s or Deep Sub Bass Synthesizer.
You can check out the image below of the Deep Sub Bass to see how I did that:
11) Volume Control
One last final thing to note before we get into the next section: I did a volume fade at the beginning of the song for the flute section.
In order to do that, you hit the âAâ button on the track for âAutomation.â
Youâll notice right away that the yellow automation lines will pop up.
By clicking on the line, youâll drop automation points and then you can drag the line around according to how you want to adjust the volume.
Check out the picture below to see what I did for that particular track.
Moving on to the Exporting, Mixing, and then Mastering stageâ¦
12) Export As AIFF
Now that the song is pretty much completed, we can move on to the easiest stage: the âexporting stage.â
For this part, make sure that absolutely none of your tracks are clipping (going into the red), otherwise, itâll sound terrible later on.
As a general rule, you want your volume tracks to be going into the yellow only during the loudest parts of the song. Itâs cool if the tracks ride in the green the entire time.
Also, turn down the Master Volume to +0.0. I havenât heard anyone say this matters at all, but for me, it absolutely does.
Make sure the Master Volume is at zero, otherwise, your track wonât mix and master properly.
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Make sure there are no plug-ins running on your master track as well.
To do that, go down into the Smart Controls and click on the button that says. âMaster,â among the other two options, âTrack,â and âCompare.â
Youâll see the list of the plug-ins, and make sure theyâre all turned off.
Itâs ok if you have plug-ins running on the individual tracks, but you donât want any on the master channel, from what Iâve been told anyway.
At this stage, your track is nearly ready for export. Listen to the whole thing and make sure all of the instruments sound good, and exactly as you want them to.
Keep in mind, when you go to master the track, some of the other sounds may sound accentuated. For that reason, I typically turn down the sound of the hi-hats, shakers, and other high-frequency instruments.
Explained in another way, If you plan on using compression and an EQ boost, some of the higher frequency instruments, such as the hi-hat or cymbals, tend to make that hissing sound.
For that reason, consider turning the volume down on the individual tracks.
a) Click on the option, âShare,â in Garagebandâs Toolbar at the top
b) and then click the option, âExport to Disk,â from there,
c) hit the AIFF check-box,
d) name your track
e) and then export it on to your desktop that way you can simply drag and drop it into the DAW.
From this stage, we can actually drag and drop the AIFF file right back into the DAW among all of the other software instrument tracks.
f) Hit the âSoloâ button on the track that looks like a pair of headphones to isolate the song.
The reason for this is that weâll check and see that our track isnât clipping it all, and we give it a general test to see what itâs going to sound like after we add a compressor, channel EQ, and so on and so forth.
Now that we can see thereâs nothing wrong with the track and it isnât too loud, weâll move on to the mixing stage.
g) Start a new project.
11) Mixing.
Iâm by no means an expert mixing engineer, so just keep that in mind, but for this stage, I actually donât do a lot to it.
I usually add a Channel EQ, a compressor or Multipressor, and then maybe a Limiter as well just in case.
a) Channel EQ
As you can see by the image below, I cut the lowest and highest frequencies, dropped the 205hz frequency by -3.5 dB, and then gave the song a bit of a boost by 3dB or so starting from the range of 500hz to 10,000 kHz.
I also gave it a small boost to around 35hz.
b) Multipressor
For the multipressor, I just used the âFinal Hip Hop Compressorâ pre-set which dropped the gain by around -3.6dB.
I really like the way the multipressor sounds. I find it gives the track quite a bit of punchiness.
*In the YouTube version of this song, I used a compressor instead of a multipressor, but on my SoundCloud, I used the multipressor version.
c) Limiter
As I wrote in my article about limiting, the limiter acts as a compressor with an extremely high ratio, or in other words, itâs a âbrick wallâ in which no frequencies can pass through.
Using the limiter, weâll boost the overall volume of the track by +3.0dB, and then weâll set the output level at -0.2dB.
The gain is best increased by just 1, 2, or 3 dB because then weâre not pushing it too hard.
Regarding the Output Level knob, technically, the point past 0dB is the point of distortion according to what Iâve read.
If we have it set at -0.2dB, then we donât have to worry about the song exceeding that point and thus, creating distortion.
Because of the way the limiter works, a lot of people like to use it as a volume-increaser at the end of the mixing process.
However, itâs much better thought of as a tool that we can use to ensure no undesirable sounds are heard in the mix. Mixxx adjust beat grid.
12) Final Step
Ensure the volume of the track is consistent with other music youâve created.
If you have an album on your phone and you hook it into a Bluetooth speaker at someoneâs house, you want the tracks to be the same volume as each other.
That way, you wonât have to continuously come back and turn the volume up.
For this point, I would try and match the volume of, not other artists on YouTube or SoundCloud, but your favorite artists and their professionally mixed and mastered hit singles.
If youâre going to try and make a song, you might as well get used to trying to match the amplitude (volume) of their music.
I usually choose the volume to be around +1.6dB on the Master Volume channel. In between +1.6 and +2.0 dB, depending on whether Iâve used a compressor a multipressor.
13) Export
Now, if you want to export your music, thankfully, Garageband comes with a convenient âShareâ function on the top toolbar that allows you to easily export music to either SoundCloud, iTunes, or YouTube.
Before doing this, however, make sure you do this one last thing if you havenât already.
a) Go into the Garageband Preferences.
b) Click on Advanced.
c) See where it says, âAuto Normalize â Export Projects At Full Volume?â
Make sure this box is unchecked, otherwise, Garageband will export your music at a level that is far too quiet, and the competition will just outshine you like crazy.
Moving onâ¦
With that said, try to avoid making your tracks too loud.
Iâm not an expert on this topic, so take notice of this warning, but some people say that making your tracks super loud is a part of whatâs called the âLoudness War.â
Itâs up to you whether or not you want to engage in this. If youâre curious to read more about it, I recommend this article here.
Some people might argue that an artist/audio engineer has to do whatever they can to get noticed, and that includes exporting music at too high of a volume.
Others will hate you for making your music so loud.
Itâs up to you as to whether you want to annoy other producers and audio engineers. I guess you have to ask yourself though, âam I making music for myself, other people, or other producers?â
Anyway, I hope this tutorial was helpful to you. As I said before, Iâm not a Billboard-topping artist, so I canât tell you how to make the illest beat youâve ever heard. I can only show you how I make them.
Enjoy.
Do me a solid and share this on social media.
There are twelve reasons why Garageband is great for making beats, including:
1) Itâs Free (assuming you own an apple product)
2) You Can Install Plug-Ins 3) You Can Sample 4) There are a ton of pre-made Apple Loops 5) The Enable Flex Function 6) The Time Quantizer 7) The MIDI Instruments 8) You Can Use Automation 9) Panning Capability 10) It provides a solid foundation for learning Logic Pro X 11) It has the Drummer Track 12) and also has Pitch Correction/Auto-Tune
Many of the most commonly used production techniques can be employed using Garagebandâs interface. Truthfully, there arenât that many limitations to the software.
In this article, weâre going to explore the aforementioned 12 reasons why I think Garageband is such a great DAW to use for beginner beat-makers, and why you should download it sooner rather than later.
1) Itâs Free (assuming you own an apple product)
The fact that Garageband is free surely carries some significance when deciding on what digital audio workstation to use. Assuming that the user has access to an Apple product, whether itâs an iPhone or a Macbook Pro, Garageband is free to download from the App Store.
Itâs not going to cost you anything to at least try it out.
Even in the case that you donât like it, thereâs no harm done because it didnât end up costing you anything anyway.
Most other DAWs, especially the premium versions, cost at least a little bit of money, including the most popular options, FL Studio, Logic Pro X, Cubase, Pro Tools, and Ableton.
If youâre new to beat-making, Garageband is a great first step to make, because it has many of the same features of the other most popular DAWs, despite the fact it wonât cost you any money at all.
2) You Can Install Plug-Ins
Contrary to what a lot of people on the internet might say about the software, you can actually install plug-ins in Garageband. It uses the Audio Units file-type, and a lot of plug-ins are compatible with it.
If you donât know how to install plug-ins, click the link here to read an in-depth tutorial on how to install plug-ins in Garageband. Also, the very same article runs through a massive list of some of the most popular ones.
Plug-ins are a great way to gain access to features, functions, and instruments, that otherwise donât come pre-installed in the DAW.
For instance, you can install entirely new drum kits, boutique 808s, drum machines, acoustic guitars, saxophones, and so on and so forth.
Sites like VST4Free or AudioPluginsFor Free have a ton of different quality options to try out.
If I were you, I would recommend checking out my article on how to install plug-ins, which was in the link above, in addition to my article on 6 Awesome Plug-ins for Garageband.
Furthermore, there are plug-ins out there that can replace some of the less sophisticated options in Garageband. For instance, if you really wanted to, you could download a new compressor, an EQ with a more accurate spectrum analyzer, and pretty much whatever else you want.
A great piano to install, in case you donât like the stock piano, is the 4Front Piano, which is a little bit better than what comes as default.
Plug-ins are one of the greatest features of being a music producer, especially a hip-hop producer, and if you have access to a little bit of money, you can buy premium versions which are often significantly better than the free ones.
3) You Can Sample
Garageband comes with whatâs called the AUSampler, and it essentially gives the user the capacity to upload whatever type of recording you want and then use it in your music, regardless of what it is.
It can be a bit tricky to step up when you donât know how to do it.
Thankfully, Iâve written an entire article and guide on how to do this in Garageband, so make sure to check that out at the link here.
Sampling is an integral part of hip-hop production. For that reason, it would be insane for Garageband not to come with the function.
Moreover, AUSampler has a few different types of controls that allow you to adjust how it sounds.
Sampling can be used in many different ways, including introductions, outros, entire melodic phrases, speeches in the middle of the song, or perhaps even the main chorus.
Some of the biggest hip-hop producers of all time are samplers, including Kanye West, and Garageband can meet this need.
4) Apple Loops
Garageband also comes with Apple Loops, which admittedly, isnât something that I use on a regular basis.
However, many other users swear by the Apple Loops and use them all of the time. Truthfully, many of them are quite good and worth checking out.
Got a user friendly interface which will let the beginners to work easily. An impressive application which can be used for controlling your PC remotely. Features of TeamViewer Filehippo Download. Teamviewer download mac. Can transfer the files, host the meetings and presentations with various different users. Can take over the desktop of someone and make demonstrations.
Iâve written a whole article on how to use the Apple Loops, including how to make your own and upload them into the Apple Loops library. The Loops interface also comes with a variety of different parameters, including the genre, the instrument type, the mood, and so on.
Each loop has an easily identifiable name, so you know what youâre getting, and on the right-hand side of the interface, there is also the key signature and tempo, that way you know what youâre getting into, and can adapt the loops to a variety of different songs in a more informed manner.
5) Enable Flex Function
The Enable Flex allows you to adjust the time and tempo of a recorded track.
For instance, if youâve created a guitar part and itâs slightly off-tempo, you can actually chop up the audio and drag and drop the track to wherever it needs to be.
In other words, Garageband comes with a more thorough post-production editing software, that way errors can be fixed after theyâve been recorded.
6) Time Quantizer
The Time Quantizer, like Enable Flex, is a timing tool that allows you to snap notes to the grid, that way everything is in harmony.
Moreover, the parameters of the time quantizer arenât overly sophisticated, so itâs incredibly easy for beginners to use.
Read more about the time quantizer at this article here.
An added benefit of the time quantizer is that it streamlines the process of fixing musical errors.
For instance, if you wing it on your MIDI keyboard, you can simply snap some of those notes right back to the grid and it wonât take you that much time.
7) The MIDI Instruments
Garageband also comes with many different types of instruments, especially if youâve taken the time to download all of the available instruments by going into the preferences and hitting, âDownload All Available Sounds.â
Unfortunately, not every single MIDI instrument the software comes with is amazing. However, because you can download new plug-ins if you want, theyâre easily replaceable.
Moreover, if you take the time (and the money) to purchase the Main Stage 3 program, you gain access to many other instruments as well. I believe it costs around $40 a whole new library of instruments.
Surprisingly, Garageband comes with dozens of drumkits, and perhaps the most affluent sub-section is the synth category. It has a synth for nearly every purpose.
I would say that my biggest gripe with Garagebandâs instruments is the guitars, which are not that great, with the exception of the acoustic guitar which is actually kind of fun to use.
8) You Can Use Automation
Automation is self-explanatory. Essentially, itâs the ability to make certain features run automatically, whether itâs a Channel EQ, a fade-out or fade-in, or some type of effect, including volume, phasers, flangers, delays, reverbs, and so on and so forth.
I use the volume automation the most, especially during phrases where there needs to be a push in a particular dynamic, for instance, during the part before the chorus.
You can read more about automation in my article here. I also run through how to properly set it up.
9) Panning
Panning is one of the greatest ways to make a mix actually sound good, because it spreads each instrument or software instrument track across the stereo image, rather than just having all of the sounds located in one place.
Panning is one of the features of the mixing process that makes a world of difference. For instance, you can pan your hi-hats to the left slightly, the vocals directly in the center, and then the guitars panned to the hard left and right.
In the case of hip-hop production, you might have the hi-hats panned slightly center-left or center-right, the snare slightly off-center and then the kick in the center, with the bass or the boutique 808s running right in the middle.
If you want to read more about panning and how to go about doing it, I recommend checking out the article at this link here.
10) Logic Pro X
And finally, one of the greatest parts of taking your first steps into music production with Garageband is its similarity to Logic Pro X.
The two software are quite similar to one another, so in essence, when you finally decide that you want a more sophisticated DAW with even more features, youâll already have a firm understanding of how to use Logic Pro X.
Frankly, people that actually use try out Garageband for the first time are shocked by the number of features and functionalities it has.
For instance, popular music-producing YouTubers will make videos of themselves trying out Garageband, and itâs not uncommon for them to say that it actually has almost everything that one would need.
At some point, you might be ready to move on to Logic Pro X, but until you find yourself actually limited by the features of the DAW, you could probably just stick with Garageband in the meantime, and nobody would even know the difference.
11) The Drummer Track
I was hesitant to include the Drummer Track simply because I find itâs the best for other musical styles, rather than hip-hop production. With that said, Iâve seen many beat-making YouTubers implement the hip-hop drummer track and ultimately come out with something that sounds pretty cool.
For that reason, I chose to include it because some people like using the drummer track. Iâve written an entire article and created multiple YouTube videos on how to use the Drummer Track, so make sure you check out the link here.
Itâs worth mentioning that the Drummer Track has an incredibly useful feature where you can actually convert the Drummer Track file region into the MIDI format.
Garageband Hip Hop Beats Download Pc
This has a number of different uses, including the ability to customize a drummer track as much as youâd like, but also to show you how to program particular sounds yourself, manually.
In other words, if you hear a drum roll in the drummer track and wonder how itâs done, you can convert it into a MIDI file and see how itâs programmed.
12) Pitch Correction/Auto-Tune
It also comes with a pitch correction software in case the rapper youâre working with needs a bit of correction on his/her vocals. The Pitch Correction plug-in is quite simple to use.
The primary thing you need to know in order to use the pitch correction software is the key signature of the song. Once youâve figured that out, you can just move the slider in relation to how much pitch correction you want.
I would argue that itâs the best not to use too much because otherwise, you end up with a vocal track that sounds like a robot unless youâre actually going for a Travis Scott style vocal track.
If you want to read a little bit more about how to use the pitch correction software, definitely check out my article at this link here, which includes a brief tutorial on how to make Travis Scott-esque vocals.
Garageband Hip Hop Beats Download SoftwareYouTube Video TutorialConclusion
Admittedly, Garageband is not the best DAW out there, but it certainly is the best DAW in terms of price: free. There arenât nearly as many limitations as people like to say, and itâs going to work just fine for the first few years of music production.
Garageband Hip Hop Beats Download Free
Like I mentioned in #10, at some point, it wouldnât be a bad idea to update to a better DAW.
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December 2020
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