Making Dubstep Tracks - Organizing Your Loops

Making Dub step tracks is fun and allows you to really run wild with your creativity. However, it's hard to take the hundreds or even thousands of different loops, beats, and sounds you acquire making your songs and properly organize them. You need to separate your stuff into different libraries that will make them easier to find. A good organization of your sounds will allow your creativity and track creation to reach new heights. Lets check out some techniques that will help you use more sounds.

The best way to do this is choose your loops that are higher register, lower register, and your funny (different) ones. If you have a lot of funny loops. (voices, birds etc) maybe put all the bird ones in one file, and all the voice ones in another file. Keep doing this until you have separated everything into opposite files and they are easy to find. The next thing to do with the files is take them and organize them into most used to least used. This is important for a few reasons. first, this allows you to grab your most commonly used loops: hi hats, drum kicks etc quickly. This will also let you know where to go if you want to get creative: just scroll down! there will be all the stuff you rarely or never use. Imagine the possibilities of creating library like this: you can now open up your file browser, have your most commonly used loops in the top of each folder, and the least commonly used ones in the abyss, where you can dig from for inspiration. the speed of your track creation and the fluidity of adding and creating loops will skyrocket. Imagine how bad ass loops could be if everyone did this!

Sometimes, its good to just create things form scratch as well. Create a folder with funny sounds that yourself have recorded. record a toilet flushing, dings on pots and pans, a car starting, you burning out in your civic, whatever. These are the sounds that will sound original in your loops, and not only that, but a little modulation can take just about any sound and make it into a complete whirlwind of crazy noise, which will make you create something that nobody else could possibly have, because its your loop!

Use old CDs in your house, if your mother listens to a lot of Bach, or classical, check the copyright dates, and create a new folder that has just CD libraries of stuff that's in the public domain. These can create a whole other venue of things you can draw from. Use these things to create a whole list of new ideas and songs and loops. for instance, pull apart on Bach song, and you have different notes, keys and intonation from 4- 100 different instruments. These instruments can be modulated, slowed down, sped up, pitch modulated etc to create yet MORE unique sounds.

Do the same thing with the more stuff that's just... cool... like your moms car versus your dads car revving in the drive way, or your dog barking. These are all sounds that can be bass dropped, heightened in pitch, slowed down, anything! There are so many possibilities that you could continue to do this forever.

The most important part is organizing, when you organize these things properly, you will create a system that will let you delve into not only your music library properly, but delve into your own creative mind to create completely new musical ideas that nobody else has ever thought of. Imagine being able to throw down your favorite bass and hi hat loop instantly, then just messing around with adding new crazy sounds you found around the house. You would be able to create music that nobody has ever heard before. The music would be intense, crazy, and something that would surprise even you. Creation of music in this nature is what will take a genre like dub step and push it for the stars!

Charles Manuel is a dubstep curator for up and coming Dj's and clubs around the world. Check out the tracks, DJ's and forums at:

http://www.dubstep-tracks.webs.com/

http://dubstep-tracks.webs.com/apps/blog/

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Making the Move To Jazz Performance - Should You Pursue It?

Often a rock musician will get the sudden inspiration to learn to perform jazz music. This is an ambitious pursuit, and should be carefully considered. This article will outline the challenges in learning jazz performance and the commitments required to succeed. It will also provide a short list of jazz artists that all serious students of the music should study and absorb into their listening and understanding.

I will separate this subject into two areas: drums, and every other instrument. First, we will discuss drums. If you are a drummer, understand that jazz is the most rhythmically-ambitious music in normal music circulation. The drum set (or "trap set" as it is sometimes called in jazz circles) is put to full use. Rather than getting 38 different percussion objects to strike occasionally, jazz drummers typically favor smaller setups and exploit them to their fullest. Although jazz may sound like a "dark and mysterious" music, the toms are actually tuned much higher than those in a typical rock music kit.

Be prepared to spend long hours learning limb independence. The "swing" rhythm dominates the common practice era of jazz (approximately 1928-1968). No jazz drummer can be taken seriously if they are incompetent with swing rhythms. Get used to being a master at keeping time with your hi-hat foot on the back beat. Be prepared for complex, triplet-centric rhythmic renderings. You will benefit highly from seeking tutelage from a jazz drummer who knows what he/she is doing. The student/teacher relationship is important in jazz. Information and skills are frequently passed down directly and in person.

Make sure you develop your knowledge and taste in jazz by listening to the best artists in the field. There have been all sorts of fluff and gimmicks that have come and gone. The true taste makers in jazz live on and are still studied today. There are many excellent jazz drummers throughout its history. I will give you a short, must-know list: Buddy Rich, Roy Haynes, Jack DeJohnette, Max Roach, Elvin Jones.

Now we turn our attention to melodic/harmonic oriented instruments such as piano, guitar, saxophone, bass, trumpet, etc. If you are new to serious jazz, you may be completely unaware of the extreme level of harmonic sophistication. If you cannot yet spell out the notes of a C7 chord, or know that Gminor7 is the "two" chord in the key of F, you are in for a lot of work. Be prepared to learn chords like "F sharp minor 7-flat-five-flat-nine" or "A flat 7 sharp 11". Even if your instrument is monophonic, you still need to know what is going on in the harmony. Many serious wind and brass players will also study piano to develop their harmonic understanding. Serious jazz artists don't just "wing it". The music's harmonic undersurface is typically constantly changing. In jazz, you don't just play a solo "in the key". You play moment-by-moment expressions that are fully aware of the harmonic construction supporting the music at that exact point in time. You will benefit substantially from studying with an accomplished jazz performer/educator.

Jazz has been around for a century. The expanse of time has accumulated a substantial collection of excellent serious jazz artists to study. Regardless of which pitched instrument you play (trumpet, piano, guitar, saxophone bass, etc), the following provides a short list of jazz excellence. Every one of the following artists should make it onto your radar screen. Your primary education should include the following acoustic artists: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Bill Evans, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Herbie Hancock, Art Tatum, Frank Sinatra, Charles Mingus, Ron Carter, Earl Hines, Count Basie. Supplement your understanding with the following electric artists as your interests and circumstances navigate you: Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Jaco Pastorius, Les Paul, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, Jimmy Smith, Joey DeFrancesco, Pat Metheny (note: some artists are listed in both categories). The artists in the above collection are all serious, accomplished jazz musicians who have earned enduring respect in the jazz listening and performance community.

Jazz is not a simple music that you can learn in a week. The above will help you gain an understanding of the seriousness of the undertaking, and point you in the direction of highly-accomplished serious artists in the field. Good luck, and allow yourself the appropriate amount of time, discipline and learning resources to successfully pursue this challenging and ambitious art form. Even if you don't pursue jazz to its outer skill levels, you will gain from digging your way into this ambitious and uniquely-American music form.

Joe writes for 2sheetmusic.com, where you can find sheet music such as Brahms' Lullaby and The Can-Can for guitar, piano, bass and many other instruments.

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Making Music Beats With Online Beat Makers And Selling Them Online

If you have an interest in making music then this article is for you. What if I told you, you could be making money online selling beats that you have created using affordable online beat maker applications? You're going to be shocked at just how easy it really is and the best part is you don't have to be musically talented.

If you have ever done a search for a beat maker or music software then you may have already come across some of the popular names like FL Studio, Sonic Producer, Dubturbo and Cyber Sequencer. These are all programs that are very affordable and all of them have the features you need to make your own beats.

Because they are already pre-loaded with a variety of sounds and samples you can make pretty much any kind of music. Popular genres like rap, hip hop, R&B, dance and techno are all the rage and are fairly easy to create and best of all they are easy to sell.

Why use a online beat maker?

Ok, I personally use software that can be used online and offline but having the option to be able to make beats anywhere that there is an internet connection is a huge bonus. There is nothing worse then having a new beat stuck in your head then getting all the way home and forgetting it.

Another good thing is if you're at a party or a friends house you can simply log in to the website where the online beat maker is and start making beats. There has been lots of occasions where I have been to a party and we all had a go at making beats which turned out to be a very fun night.

How Much Should I Pay For A Beat Maker?

This all depends on how far you want to go and what your goals are. If you're a beginner then I would advise not to spend hundreds of dollars on software that you might lose interest in. Instead, choose a beat maker that fits in your budget. The applications mentioned above are all under $30 and have everything you would need to get started.

Once you learn the fundamentals and if you need you can then move on to more advanced programs or even give hardware a try like midi's.

How Do I Make Money With My Beats?

It may surprise you, but lots of people are searching for royalty free audio, music and beats to buy for their personal and commercial projects.

This is what I love doing because and I have made some pretty decent money. Once you make your beat and master it you search for popular sites that you can sell your beats on. Because they are digital files you can sell them over and over again. Having a large portfolio of beats for sale online can make you a lot of money if you market them the right way.

These days we have popular sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and it is pretty simple to set up a little website to display your portfolio. These are all great marketing tools and if you can get a good amount of followers, treat your buyers right and make quality beats then you can make some serious money.

Using an online beat maker is easy but if you would like some tips and information on making beats, selling them and learning more about music then feel free to visit my website http://www.musicmakerpro.com/

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