How to Create Beats for Free
With iTunes and Rhapsody increasing the popularity and accessibility of digital music, multitudes of users are experimenting with digital music formatting to create their own beats. Even though professional DJs with paid music samples and high-end mixing boards are the most recognizable type of beat-makers, newbie DJs can jump in on the action with absolutely no start-up costs. With the plethora of options available to first-time DJs, you can create beats using free software and audio clips readily available on the Internet.
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Things You'll Need
- Fruity Loops 8 Demo Acid Xpress 7.0 software (free) Audacity software (free) Royalty audio clips (free)
Instructions
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Download and install Fruity Loops 8 Demo software. The demo version does not give you all of the features of the paid version, but this free software lets you create many rudimentary beats that can be adjusted later for completely customized audio beats.
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Download and install Acid Xpress 7.0 (see Resources). Available from Sony, Acid Xpress is a functional, free version of Acid Pro, a music mixing program widely used by professional DJ and recording artists. According to the Acid Xpress 7.0 website, this free software is limited to 10-track beat mixing, but 10 tracks should be enough for somebody to make quality audio tracks. It's easy to set up your beats with the highly intuitive interface; Acid Xpress 7.0's website says you "just pick some loops, paint them into a track and play them back." Furthermore, you can import the basic loops made in Fruity Loops for further customization with Acid Xpress' "Effects" menu, allowing for a beat library extending far beyond the stock beats that come with Acid Xpress 7.0
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Download and install Audacity's free audio editing software (see Resources). This program is a nice compliment to Acid Xpress 7.0's free mixing services. You can export multiple tracks from Acid Xpress 7.0, import them in Audacity for further mixing, then save the Audacity track as a "WAV" or "MP3" file. The recently saved Audacity, single-track file can then be imported back into Acid Xpress 7.0---this is an easy way to get the most out of each program and also bypass the 10-track limit, allowing for unlimited beat creation.
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Get royalty-free music samples from websites like Free-Loops.com and RoyaltyFreeMusic.com to further increase your personal audio library, allowing for a wider variety of beats in Acid Xpress 7.0 and Audacity. When imported into Acid Xpress 7.0 or Audacity, you can change the tempo, add effects, and layer these free sound files over new or existing beats you've created using the software.
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Tips & Warnings
While it is possible to import beats from virtually any audio file into Acid Xpress 7.0 and Audacity, you should only use royalty-free music files---if a website's downloadable tracks are not clearly labeled "royalty free," do not use them. If you use copyrighted music files to create your beats, you may be forced to pay artist royalties if your finished songs are ever distributed online or in a club.
