{"id":44,"date":"2016-05-13T18:14:48","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T15:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/siteblog.tuc.gr\/cpapadopoulos1\/?p=44"},"modified":"2016-05-20T14:42:02","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T11:42:02","slug":"equipment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siteblog.tuc.gr\/cpapadopoulos1\/2016\/05\/13\/equipment\/","title":{"rendered":"Equipment"},"content":{"rendered":"

So you wanna make beats<\/strong>?\u00a0 Here is my top 10 list of things used to make a beat and notice I did not say top 10 things you need.\u00a0 Everything in this list is not necessarily needed, but if you have or are able to possess some of these items, you will definitely be good to go.<\/p>\n

1. COMPUTER<\/strong>
\nThis is a pretty important piece of equipment to have because it pretty much runs everything.
\nThis item like others on this list will require you to make some \"make<\/a>decisions.\u00a0\u00a0Two of the biggest choices you have to make is whether you want a PC or MAC computer and the other choice lies between a laptop or desktop.\u00a0 Everyone has their own opinion between MAC and PC, but I can tell you that PC will be the cheaper of the two.\u00a0 A laptop will give you portabilty while a desktop will more\u00a0likely have a greater performance when it comes to speed, memory, and storage.\u00a0 I would encourage looking at the specs before purchasing.\u00a0 A good rule of thumb is to have at least 4GB.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. DAW (Software)<\/strong>
\n\"makeThis stands for Digital Audio Workstation which serves as your music software \u00a0installed to your computer. \u00a0In \u00a0order to edit and record your beat, you need some type of DAW to perform this.\u00a0 Popular examples include Ableton Live, Logic, Protools, Reasons and Sonar.\u00a0 If you are on a budget, Garageband<\/a> comes with a Mac computer and a very nice demo version of FL Studio <\/a>can be downloaded for free on a PC.\u00a0 Even though these all\u00a0basically work the same except for the learning curves, \u00a0I would recommend the last two for beginners since they are the easiest.<\/p>\n

3. AUDIO INTERFACE<\/strong>
\n\"make<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The audio interface is what connects your audio or sound source to your
\n<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0computer.\u00a0\u00a0Your sound source could be an instrument or microphone which we will discuss later.\u00a0This is\u00a0a\u00a0 must have if you are gonna use a computer! \u00a0The\u00a0price range can start from $99 on up.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to note \u00a0that some \u00a0audio interfaces come with music production software such as the PreSonus AudioBox USB 2\u00d72 USB Recording Interface\"\" which comes with Studio One Artist.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE\u00a0 <\/strong>
\nIf your plan is to use computers, I also recommend the purchase of an external hard drive.\u00a0 You need this to back up all the files you create for safe keeping.\u00a0 I\"make<\/a>\u00a0can\u2019t tell you how many times I\u2019ve lost music from not saving or backing up a session.\u00a0 Also, this allows your computer to perform more efficiently if you record directly to your external hard drive instead of your internal drive which is the actual computer.\u00a0 They can store anywhere from 500 GB on up at really affordable prices.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. MIDI CONTROLLER<\/strong>
\nA Midi Controller allows you to play and records sounds into your computer. \u00a0 \u00a0The midi controller usually comes in the form of a keyboard and is used to \"make<\/a>communicate with your computer through cable connections.\u00a0 You will need either MIDI or USB cables in order to make the connections.\u00a0 After you\u2019ve done this you can press the keys to make your beats using the various sounds and virtual instruments coming from your DAW.\u00a0 Believe it or not, its easy to find these for really cheap even if you have to go to a pawn shop.\u00a0 Personally, I have the one you see to the left called the\u00a0Akai Professional MPK Mini Keyboard Controller\"\" for less than $100.<\/p>\n

Any keyboard that has MIDI will work by the way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. MICROPHONE<\/strong>
\nThe best way to record vocals for your beat is to have a solid microphone. This is an example of a\u00a0\"dynamic<\/a>
\n<\/a> piece of equipment that will connect to your audio interface. \u00a0I prefer using a condenser mic which needs phantom power provided by your audio interface\u00a0via the 48 volt button. \u00a0However, if you wanted to you could use a dynamic mic such as a Nady PCM-200 Pro Classic Dynamic Mic\"\"
\nwhich doesn\u2019t need phantom power. \u00a0A nice quality mic can run less than $100 so if you are just beginning, you don\u2019t have to break your bank.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7. MONITORS<\/strong>
\n\"make<\/a>
\nSome use headphones and others use speakers to monitor what\u2019s \u00a0being recorded. \u00a0If you have a computer then it should have speakers if you can\u2019t afford to purchase studio monitors. \u00a0The other option is to go with headphones \u00a0that \u00a0preferably\u00a0cover the ears so that it kills background noise while mixing and or recording. I would recommend the AKG K 240 Studio. \"\"
\nHeadphones.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

8. DRUM SAMPLER<\/strong>
\nIf you wanna make beats<\/strong> without a computer, this is the way to go. \u00a0The only catch is that \"make<\/a>
\n<\/a>the drum\u00a0sampler must be able to operate without a computer. \u00a0Many of the newer models have integrated with software meaning that a computer is required. \u00a0Im not referring to those, however I will list my all time favorite\u2026. \u00a0The Akai Professional MPC2000XL \"\"!\u00a0I\u2019ve used this for years and don\u2019t see myself getting rid of it anytime soon.<\/p>\n

For beginners, I would proudly recommend the MPC 1000<\/strong> for its ability to function with or without a computer and for the fact that it comes with sounds built in. \u00a0Drum machines\/samplers can be found all the time on ebay\u00a0which is where I got mine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9. RECORD PLAYER<\/strong>
\n\"make<\/a>
\n<\/a>This item is usually used with the drum sampler because it plays the vinyl records that are being sampled.\u00a0 This is probably the purest form of HipHop even though nowadays any form of media can be sampled.\u00a0 This is very cost effective from the fact that you can find these at the Goodwill, pawn shop, online, or maybe your grandmother\u2019s house.\u00a0 All you have to do now is collect records and start sampling.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

10. CREATIVITY<\/strong>
\nWithout\u00a0having the quality of being creative, a very sick beat cannot be made.\u00a0I often \"make<\/a>share with cats, that the equipment you use does not make the beat.\u00a0 YOU DO!\u00a0 The\u00a0most horrible sounding\u00a0beat can be made in a state of the art studio with top of line equipment and a timeless sounding classic beat can be made on a used piece of gear from a bedroom.\u00a0 The difference is in the person making the beat and using their creativity.\u00a0 Feel free to write any comments or thoughts on this list.\u00a0 Thanks for taking the time to\u00a0read this!<\/p>\n

source: Useful equipment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So you wanna make beats?\u00a0 Here is my top 10 list of things used to make a beat and notice I did not say top 10 things you need.\u00a0 Everything in this list is not necessarily needed, but if you have or are able to possess some of these items, you will definitely be good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siteblog.tuc.gr\/cpapadopoulos1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siteblog.tuc.gr\/cpapadopoulos1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siteblog.tuc.gr\/cpapadopoulos1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siteblog.tuc.gr\/cpapadopoulos1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siteblog.tuc.gr\/cpapadopoulos1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/siteblog.tuc.gr\/cpapadopoulos1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194,"href":"https:\/\/siteblog.tuc.gr\/cpapadopoulos1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siteblog.tuc.gr\/cpapadopoulos1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siteblog.tuc.gr\/cpapadopoulos1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siteblog.tuc.gr\/cpapadopoulos1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}