11/24/2012

Guide To Making Hip-Hop Beats For Sale (Purchase Beats): The Sequencer

By Frank Lubsey


Today, we will discuss the sequencer and it's important purpose in hip-hop production. The sequencer allows one to be a virtual conductor. Typically, producers have an arsenal of sounds consisting of virtual instruments, hardware instruments, and audio recordings that they use in a track. A sequencer gives the producer the ability to control all of these parts in order to make one cohesive song.

The sequencer is the medium in which a producer controls almost every other instrument in his/her arsenal. Often, in order to record a sound from a hardware synthesizer or virtual instrument, the producer first has to perform some sort of action on the sequencer. It is for this reason that the sequencer is important. A producer really needs to feel comfortable with the workflow that the sequencer provides him with. If the workflow feels awkward to the producer, creating music simply won't be as fun and the quality of music will suffer as a result. The ideal is to have a sequencer that you don't even realize is there. When you have this relationship with your sequencer, there will be nothing between you and the music and making music will be enjoyable. For educational purposes, we'll discuss 2 different types of sequencers:

Linear: With these types of sequencers, the interface is designed to record each track within a song from beginning to end. A producer must go track by track to record every part. If a track part repeats throught a song, the producer can cut and paste or duplicate the track throughout the song. Cubase, Pro Tools, and Sonar are examples of linear programs.

Pattern Based: With pattern based programs, you record sections of a track at a time and specify which parts play in that section. For example, in section 1, you may have the drum and bass playing. In section 2, you may drop out the bass. You then arrange these sections so that they form a full song. Fruity Loops, Ableton Live, and Maschine are examples of pattern-based programs.

Choosing a sequencer is definitely a personal decision and each producer will have their own preference of which program they'd like to use. However, for the purposes of hip-hop, I'd highly suggest to use a pattern based program. This type of program really complements the standard workflow of hip-hop, so I'd really give them a try before making a final purchase.

The preference of sequencer is up to the producer, but a producer should take advantage of free demos that many sequencer software companies offer. The choice of a sequencer is an extremely important choice and producers should put much thought into one before purchasing.




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