Produce Rap Music

How do you produce rap music? Of course, there are more than a thousand ways and even more than a few thousand record producers. Each with their own way of doing things. The purpose of this article is to go over most of the basic techniques of record production.

Let’s review some of the steps in the process:

SONG - Think about the song(s) you’ve written. They can be lyrics and/or melodies you've written down or recorded that you want to turn into a song.
In pre-production the producer selects the artists and creates an arrangement that determines how it will be recorded. Pre-production includes songwriting, song selection, types of instruments and sounds, and rehearsing schedule.

RECORDING - In the recording studio, each performance is recorded either on a computer using DAW(Digital Audio Workstation) or by using a mixing board and multi-track recorder.

These days most home and professional recording studios use DAWs. Also, one of the most important pieces of equipment used to produce rap music is the drum machine or beat maker. This can also be hardware or software and just about every recording studio has one in one form or another.

EDIT - During editing, you can change each performance and even the arrangement.

MIXING - During mix down the individual tracks from the multi-track recording are combined and processed using various effects in order to create a final recording. Mixing allows you to control the level of volume, effects, panning and equalize.

MASTERING - Mastering is the final step in the process. Here you make final adjustments to the recording before the song(s) is distrubuted.

An important part of record producing is also understanding that its not just technology. A good rap producer also has a good chance of success if they know whats bangin' in the clubs, what's getting played on the radio and especially if they know what the buzz is on the streets.