Equipment Used to Produce Rap Music

Much of rap music on the radio today is surprisingly simple to produce from an equipment standpoint. Big-name hip-hop producers have studios valued at hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars, but a lot of underground producers achieve a quality sound with scarcely more than a laptop. The equipment used to produce hip-hop or rap falls into two basic categories: analog and digital. Let's look at the basic components in each and how they work together to create rap production tool kit.

Analog Tools

The rap producer in his element will have a quality mixing board, a set of turntables (usually including some Technics SL1200s), at least one type of analog drum machine, a keyboard synth, a couple of other oscillator-based synthesizers and crates and crates full of records.

Digital technology has made a lot of this equipment seem superfluous, but the best of the best still insist on doing things the old-fashioned way. Still, Pro Tools and some kind of Digidesign hardware has replaced the mixing board equipment in many pro studios.

Digital Tools

Pro Tools might be the beginning and the end when it comes to digital rap production equipment, but it is very expensive, and a lot of producers use other software as well when it comes to making beats, slicing samples and sequencing tracks.

Some of the favorites when it comes to software are: Propellerhead REASON, Ableton Live (in version 8 as of 2009) and FL Studio. All of these software products use MIDI controllers for input devices, so if the rap producer chooses to go digital a MIDI controller or two will be necessary, plus a fast computer with a good internal or external sound card.

The Mic

A good condenser mic is one of the most important tools in a rapper's studio. A condenser microphone is far-better equipped than the other major type, the dynamic microphone, when it comes to picking up the subtleties in a rapper's or emcee's performance.

With microphones, the sky's the limit when it comes to price. Some good and reasonably affordable condenser mics are made by Shure, M-Audio and Blue Microphones. Don't skimp on buying a good mic, or the rest of the equipment in the rap studio is useless.

Hybrid Studio

Combine all of this equipment, both analog and digital, you get something more like what producers like Dre probably have in their home and pro studios. Almost every big producer these days is running some sort of Digidesign/Pro Tools set-up, but they all have some Numarks or Technics sitting around with a bunch of records as well. MIDI-based electronic sounds are so easily mixed with analog stuff these days that there is no longer a hard line between analog and digital in the rap studio.

The MPC

Several companies make all-in-one units that carry out most rap beat-making functions. You might hear rappers or cuts about the MPC. Made by Akai Professional, the MPC series combines many of the functions of beatmaking, mixing and recording into a handy all-in-one box. Another option to look at is Tascam, the makers of similar units that may not have the cred but have a lot of the same features while costing far less.

References

• Tweakheadz Lab: Microphones for the Home Studio

Resources

• Digidesign
• Akai Professional
• Musician's Friend ProAudio Catalog