Beginners guides to beat building and genres

To say that the beat is an important part of the song-building process is probably one of the biggest understatements ever made. If you are in any way involved in music production you will almost definitely have to produce and program beats and rhythms at some point. Of course that is a bold statement but it is almost completely true. We say ‘almost’ as it does, of course, come with caveats. You might not need to program beats because you may know – or may even be – an excellent drummer, have excellent mics, an excellent interface and a stupendous recording knowledge, so are easily able to record yourself or your excellent drummer into your DAW for all of your beat requirements.

But if you are a percussion expert (nor an ambient music producer like Brian Eno, come to think of it) then you have come to the right place, and are using technology to make your beats. Using software like Live or studio hardware need expensive mics to record proper drums otherwise what is the point of lugging them into the studio) and a multi-connected interface.