Introduction    Writing    Storyboarding    Drawing    Voice Acting     Sound Design    Animation    Music    Editing    Conclusion

Music

If you are making animations, you probably want to add music to your art. The music can set the mood if it’s a love scene, action sequence, suspense, and all that. Some might find making music intimidating, but I’m going to break down the formula so you can make as many beats to your heart's content. 

First, you have to get the proper software to make a beat. I personally use FL Studio. I purchased it a long time ago, and with your purchase, you get free lifetime updates for the version you have. The good news is that there are plenty of free DAWs (digital audio workstations) out there. 

Music theory is universal, so the knowledge I’m going to break down on how to make beats can apply to all of the applications. Once you start making your beats, you can add them to the score of your animation project. If you like to rap and freestyle, you will have unlimited beats. You can produce other rappers' songs. There are so many doors that will open with this knowledge. 

Tempo

In whatever software you are using, find the tempo gauge. You can adjust the tempo of your beat to be slow or fast. Slow tempos are for love scenes, sad drama, the beginning of suspense, etc. A fast tempo is for action, time lapses, and the end of suspense, etc. Usually, when you open a DAW program, the tempo is set to 120 BPM which stands for beats per minute.

In an old school Hip Hop beat, the BPM is in the range of 80 to 100 BPM. The new school beats are in double time, so those can range from 140 to 200 BPM. That’s not because the new school rappers rap faster. It is because the high hat drum moves faster, and the other elements of the drum and the beat are spread out double, so the tempo is still that of an old school beat with a faster high hat. 

With both styles, a rapper can still rap at the same pace, but the new school beat has a faster high hat. I hope that makes sense to you. If it doesn’t now, it will when I break down how to make the drum beat which will be the foundation of the rest of your beat. Hip Hop is built on the drum beat, so you have to start there. But before you start working on the drum, make sure you adjust the tempo to the desired speed. 

Drums

Once you get the drums down, things will get a lot easier. In your DAW there will be something called the step sequencer. That is where you will make your drum beat. The step sequencer is a virtual machine that loops around, and you will mark where you want your drum to hit. When you put down where you want the drum to hit, your drum beat will play automatically. Technology is beautiful. 

The step sequencer is set up in bars. A bar is a measure of music. When you loop a bar or two of a drum pattern, you will have a beat. You can rhyme to that beat as is at that point. It will be a raw drum, but some cats like that. Each bar is broken down into four segments with four points within each segment which gives you 16 points where you can plot your notes within a bar. 

Step Sequencer

The base of a drum beat has 4 main components

1. Snare

2. High Hat

3. Kick

4. Clap

Snare

The snare is the first thing you're going to lay down. For an old school beat, hit the snare at the 5th and 13th points on the bar if you are just looping one bar. Remember, each bar has 16 points. If you are looping 2 bars add the 21st and 29th to the 5th and 13th. 

A new school beat will start off with 2 bars because remember the new school beats are in double time. Mark the 9th point and the 25 point on the snare. The tempo will be faster so both snares will sound the same at this point. 

This will give you that steady thump of the snare that your beat is built on. This is important because now your drum will be on beat. A lot of beginners struggle with figuring out how to get their beat on beat. It’s all about the snare. If you follow this formula, your beat will be on beat everytime. 

High Hat

Next thing you will add is the high hat. This is that soft ticking steady sound that you hear on all Hip Hop beats. You will fill every other point on the high hat to get that steady tick. On an old school beat, the high hat will be slower, and on a new school beat the high hat will be faster. This is the only component on the beat that has a different speed between the two styles. 

Kick

The kick is going to add the flavor to the beat. The kick plus the snare is what gives you that “Boom Boom Bap Boom Boom Boom Bap”. The kick is the Boom and the snare is the Bap. The Bap, which is the snare, is steady. The Boom, which is the kick, could be in different places for a different sounding beat. 

First, you hit the first point of the bar for the kick. After that, you use your ear on where you want to add the rest of the kicks. The kick is more flexible than the snare, so you can play around with the kick. Remember, in the double time beats, the points in the kick will be spread out, so if you hit every other point on an old school beat, it will be every four points on a new school beat, or it won’t sound right. 

Clap

The clap is there to add a little more flavor to the beat. You could end the bar with a couple of claps. The kick or the snare can be emphasized with the clap by marking the same points. You can get creative with the clap, or you can leave it out. 

There are a bunch of different sounds for the snare, high hat, kick, and clap. You can fill the step sequencer with whatever sounds you want in the respective slots. In the program, there will be a library of sounds that you can pick from. You will see a pack each of snares, high hats, kicks, and claps. 

Of course, you can add more drum sounds to your beat. Also, you can tweak the formula above by rolling the end of the snare, kick, high hat, or clap by filling each point at the end of the bar to get that drumroll effect. The important thing is to get that knowledge above down, so you have a foundation to build on. 

Melodies

Now that you have the drum down, it’s time to add that flavor to it. I’m talking about pianos, guitars, flutes, and all other types of instruments. That’s what’s gonna give your beat that originality. It will give the beat your signature sound. Your unique sound is just going to pour out of you. You don’t even know it until you lay it down. Your music needs melody.

You will add your melodies on a piano roll. The piano roll is a grid that will let you plot notes that would play on a physical keyboard. On most piano rolls, you will see the piano keys going vertically on the left side of the piano roll grid. You will add your notes horizontally so they can play within time to the tempo of your beat. 

Just like the step sequencer for the drums, the piano roll is arranged in bars. You can loop a bar or two of melody, and you have your beat. Just press play.  With the drums, the melodies, some drum rolls, and breaks, plus some other elements, you will have a slapping beat.

Piano Roll

When a musician plays an instrument, it’s done in a rhythm. That’s the tempo. It’s a consistent flow, and all the musicians in the band play at the same rhythm with their respective instruments. The computer program plays the rhythm for you. All you have to do is put the notes for each instrument where you want them to play, and the program will play all of them, including the drum, simultaneously in a rhythm according to the tempo that you set. 

Just like the drum, the melody has a formula that you can follow so you can take a lot of guesswork out of the beat making process. This formula consists of 

1. Scales

2. Octaves

3. Chords

A scale is a group of keys on the piano that sound good together. There are a bunch of scales, like over a 100. For this book, we’re going to use the Major C scale as an example. When you look at a piano, you see a bunch of keys. It’s like 88 keys, 52 white keys and 36 black keys on a standard piano. 

The keys go from A to G and repeat. Actually it goes from C to B, CDEFGAB. The same seven keys go up and down the keyboard. The Major C scale is CDEFGAB. Those are all white keys. The black keys are sharps and flats of the white keys next to them. That means the black key to the right of a C will be a C sharp. The black key to the left of the white key would be a C flat. Don’t worry about that now. Just know that the Major C scale is the CDEFGAB keys. Those keys will sound good together. 

When you are putting your notes down on the piano roll, regardless of what type of instrument you are using, Use those same seven keys. You can play around with the arrangement of the keys as long as you use those same keys. Another thing to remember is to use the keys in the same octave for each loop. 

An octave is the group of keys that are close together on the piano. The piano keys go from C to B and repeats. Each repeat is a different octave. You want to keep your bass beats on the low octave, and you want to put your treble on the high octaves. The lower the octave, the deeper the sound. The higher the octave, the more high pitched the sound. When you make a beat, no matter what instrument or octave you are in, use the same set of keys which is called a scale. 

When you watch a person play the piano, one hand is playing the deep sound, and the other hand is playing the high sound. The musician is playing both sounds together in different octaves, but they are playing them both in the same scale which is a group of notes or keys that sound good together. 

Chords are when you press two or three keys together to get that layered sound. In the Major C scale, you can press the C, E, and G together and that’s a chord. You need to look up musical chords to get a better understanding so you can apply it to your project. This knowledge is a solid foundation that will get you in the game, but you should still watch Youtube tutorials on how to use the DAW you are working with. Also, you should study music theory, and tutorials on musicians playing different instruments. 

Like I said before, I use FL Studio. A lot of big time producers use that program, but there are many free programs out there that you can make beats on. You can choose the one that best fits your needs. Also, while you are learning your craft, you can use songs in the Youtube Creator Studio. Those songs are royalty free. You can also go to my website, HipHopRaisedMe.com, for free beats. 

List of Free DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations)

1. Cakewalk by Bandlab

2. Garageband (comes free with all Mac devices)

3. LMMS

4. LUNA

Click here for my animation tutorials.

Introduction    Writing    Storyboarding    Drawing    Voice Acting     Sound Design    Animation    Music    Editing    Conclusion