Which Beat Programs are Easy to Apply and Quick to Learn?
There are a great many beat programs out there. Some have been recognized for many years and used in professional recordings. Others are new and permit you to study and create your individualized rhythms on-line without needing to install anything.
Before you look at any beat programs firstly consider how you learn most effectively and how you can reach your goal as easily and rapidly as doable.
What sort of learner are you? Do you learn well from studying books and manuals? Are you more visual and pick things up from following video recordings? Do you learn best from simply getting in there and doing it?
How much time, exertion and expense can you commit into becoming a skilled beat maker?
Your options are pretty wide and vary from complicated high end music production packages to free open source programs, there are also web browser based beat programs at varying costs.
Free vs. Paid
Everyone wants something for nothing and free is always nice – but like anything that’s free there’s invariably a catch. With music production computer software the free ones come in 2 flavours – time limited demonstration versions of paid products or open source and shareware.
If you are a proficient computer user and resourceful when it comes to finding information the open source shareware route might just be for you. You’ll need to be able to install and teach yourself the software program – and if it goes wrong there’s no support. As Well – and this is the greatest downfall with free beat programs – you don’t get any samples to use.
The benefits of paid products are that the good ones will include good (video) training, royalty-free samples you can use to create tracks that you can sell commercially, good support and if you’re lucky a money back guarantee.
At the end of the day your journey from novice to full-fledged beat maker can be time-consuming or compact.
So how much is good value?
Now depending on what level of dedication you’re happy to put in you can spend a lot or a little at the start of your journey. High end packages cost hundreds of dollars whereas some beginner software programs cost fewer than 30 bucks.
What’s appropriate for your budget and time depends on your personalised situation. A novice software package will get you up and working fast but may lack some of the more subtle and intricate features of pro standard beat programs. High end software packages take longer to learn, are complicated to install but you’re setting a solid base.
Only you can decide what will best accommodate your unique demands. Recall your aim of learning how to make beats speedily and easily and keep that in mind when looking at beat programs. Ask yourself questions like “do I need these extra features?” and “am I merely paying extra for the brand name here?” Keep your focus on your goal and you’ll be hearing your own beats on the radio and in the clubs in no time.
Peter Webber reviews beat making software software on his dot-funk site which is targeted at helping the novice musician train the necessary skills to make and produce their own music using a computer and the internet.
