How To Make Hip Hop Style Beats

If you are a hip hop artist, or you want to inject some fresh new sound into another genre of music, then you might be interested in learning how to make hip hop beats. The great thing about hip hop music, and I'm sure one of the things that makes it so popular is that the rules around the construction of the sound are really flexible and allow for a lot of creative expression.
Making hip hop beats really comes down to your imagination and a good understanding of what the popular artists are doing today. You need to train your ear to really listen to what the industry looks for and you can develop your own unique hip hop production style by using the basics that you learn how to make hip hop beats from listening and understanding the greats.
When you are making hip hop beats the first step is definitely creating the drum groove. The fundamental element of any great hip hop song is the drum beat. You can create this beat using midi-drums, a drum loop or an individually designed drum loop using your beat making software. It is important that your drum beat is around four to eight measures long for it to be a good base for hip hop beats.
The next step in learning how to make hip hop beats is to lay a bass line over the top of your drum beat. The bass line that you create should complement the drum beat that you have already chosen, it also needs to be really catchy and in a loop.
This is a very important component to the hip hop beat and like the drums, it can be created as an original beat with your software or you can download a royalty free bass line online.
Now that you have the perfect base for your hip hop beats you can really start getting creative. The next step in learning how to make hip hop beats is to add the orchestration; this is any musical sound or element that lies over the top of the foundation you have created.
You can use any instrument from guitar chords or cello stabs. You can use any great funky sounds that are catchy and work well with the other beats you have already chosen. And then you add samples.
Almost all hip hop beats include some form of sampling, but you have to get permission from the artist. You use snippets of pre-recorded existing recordings, often by other artists and you add it to an original beat. Make sure you get permission before you use any samples.
The final step to learning how to make hip hop beats is to add effects. Effects can change the feel of your beat and really make your sound unique. There are so many effects out there to choose from and your beat making interface should offer lots of different options including adding delay, compression and reverb.
Now you have learnt how to make hip hop beats! I've given you all the elements and now you are free to create some awesome new sounds! Remember, hip hop is one of the most flexible styles of music, and it's the drum and bass line that really defines the sound.
So get creative, and see what sort of great hip hop sounds you can make!