A newbie with some questions

[darthck]

Hello. I am a avid hip-hop and music fan who is interested in getting into production. However, I am a rather poor college student at the moment, so I cannot afford too much equipment. I do have a new Gateway Pentium 4, and I was wondering if it is at all possible to make good quality hip hop beats with just software, as I cannot afford an MPC or an ASR-10 etc. I can get a midi connector though. What programs are the best to use? Any help would be appreciated. I want to be a part of the art of beatmaking, if I can afford it.


Thanks

[dacalion]

I got started by going down to the local Music shop and one of the reps gave me a demo copy of ACID to try out. The CD had a recording program and some loops that you could make your own beats with. Since then I've made some major investsments and upgraded everything but thats how I got started and it was free. Ofcorse the free version was very limited but I could multi-track record and compose my own beats from the loops provided on the disc. I'm sure theres some free demos out there that are pretty good for starters.

Good Luck,--dac

[Fade]

You can check out the Downloads page, there's links to lots of different software. They're all good, I suggest you try a few and decide what you're comfortable with.

http://www.illmuzik.com/downloads.php

[Beatbrigade]

look for a used mpc on ebay, you can get them pretty cheap!

[DJ Excellence]

Do you plan to make keyboard beats ? sampling beats ?

You may need to consider that before buying some piece of software ... ACID would be perfect for repetitive sampling beats.
It's easy to use but at the same time it's a very serious program.

peace,

PHIL

[darthck]

Thanks for the help guys.
Any other suggestions?

[milLion]

look into Fruityloops or Reason if you want to start off with a decent software sequencer -- they're on the download page where fade put up the link

[mike kilo]

yo peeps, i got a question to y´all, can somebody tell
me what software is better for hip hop production,
LOGIC or CUBASE? and what is easier to handle?

[Cosmonaut]

Well I use Logic but the thing you have to remember is if you get logic 5.5.1 is the last version on the PC. If you have a mac then there is a version 6 which is relatively new. The truth being I personally think Cubase is a bit easier to get going with. As well as being a bit cheaper. Logic on the other hand has some great features though not very intuitive. Both of them are aight for hip hop production since the quality of your sounds is whats gonna make the difference anyway. If I was you I'd check to see if anyone local to you has them so you can see how they work.

[petty]

i've heard many things about these programs... i've been using acid for awhile and am wondering how they are different, and what other applications they offer. :confused:

[joeburnem]

If you have a P4, I would suggest ACID 3 and Cool Edit 2000. That's it. Use CE2 to set up loops and samples and ACID is your sequencer. Boom!
You can get all that for under $180.00. Cheaper if you really search!
It's MIDI compatible so if you have a keyboard you sequence that as well.