Hip Hop Studio

"Blog Article"

We want to show you how you can put together a hip hop studio on a small budget. If you already have a home computer you are half way there. I recommend that if you are just starting out and don’t have a large budget to work with to get a program like Fruity Loops or Reason and invest Midi Controller keyboard to trigger the sounds in the Fruity Loops program or in Reason.  A Midi controller in this case would be a keyboard with no internal sounds but would trigger the sounds in your software. If you are looking for software programs you can find them at places like Sam Ash, Guitar Center, Sweet Water, and Musicianfriend.com.  Other  inexpensive programs you can purchase are Sony Acid Pro and Ejay.  Music production can be tricky if you don’t have the aptitude for it. You can end up spending a lot of money on a dream wasted.

If you’re not comfortable with computer route and prefer hardware like keyboards and drum machines, then I recommend the Akai MPC series, the Roland Sp 606, or finding old used equipment like the ASR-10, EMU sp1200, or a used MPC 60 II. Building your studio even on a budget, can be a fun an adventurous journey.  The greatest plus a hip hop music producer has is technology. When Smokey Robinson was churning out hits for Motown, he had relied on a band with about 6 to 8 musicians, bass guitar, drummer, piano player, guitar, horn section, strings,  and percussionist. Now days you can get a keyboard and have all those sounds at your call.

That brings me to keyboard workstations. This is a great way to have everything at your finger tips at once. Most work stations have an array of sounds from strings, to pianos, synth sounds, horns, drums, percussions, flutes, bass and guitar. You can actually compose all your songs directly from the keyboard. A lot of rap music hits have been made from one keyboard. Some of the hottest keyboards on the market right now are the Yamaha Motif, Korg Triton, and Roland Fantom. You can also get this in sound module format. A sound module is rack or box version of the keyboard without the keys that you would trigger with a MIDI controller. The sound Module is usually much cheaper than the actual keyboard and takes up a lot less space. 

If you plan on recording vocals in your studio you will need a program like Pro tools, Sonar, or Logic.  These programs can be expensive but are a necessity if you plan on recording vocals and mixing down your recording to a final product.