Producers block

Just as songwriters get writers block; producers often get stuck, lose focus, become uninspired and have to stop working. If this happens to you, don't get frustrated. This most likely happens to everyone from Dr Dre to Timbaland. You probably just need a break. Put your project on hold and step away from the studio for a moment or longer. Even if you have a deadline to meet; you may be able to work faster once you've cleared your mind and regained some inspiration. Here are some ideas to get you back on track.

How to Cure Producer's Block:

1. Listen to something inspirational.

2. Check out some cool artwork.

3. Take a walk to get some fresh air.

4. Get a coffee (preferably with a hot chick).

5. Eat something good for you (banana's are great "brain food")

6. Play a game that stimulates your brain.

Finding your sound

There are a number of ways to develop your sound and style. It will take some time so, you'll need patience and dedication.

1. Listen.
Listen to music when ever you get a chance. Listen to any and every style of music possible (yes, even country). Get a turntable (belt driven) and start crate digging at your local record stores. CDs & Mp3s can be a good start but old vinyl can really broaden your ears. You'll find a lot of good music that may not exist as Mp3s or CDs. Be nice to your ears. They are your #1 asset. Don't blast your speakers & headphones too loud. You need those ear drums.

2. Get educated. There's more than one way to learn how to make hip hop beats. You can learn from friends, at school or by yourself.

If you have friends in the music business you're lucky. Take every opportunity to learn from them. They can teach you things you would never learn in school.

Going to school for music is a good step to take. Study music theory. Get some piano, bass, guitar, drum, and or other instrument lessons.

On your own time, get into as many recording studios as you can and see, hear & study their gear. There are a lot of magazines and sites dedicated to the discussion of studio gear & instruments.

3. Take your time. Making music takes time. You may have friends cranking out beats. Don't let that frustrate you.

Finding your flow

There are a lot of different ways to make a hip hop beat. As with any form of art, a hip hop beat starts with inspiration. Maybe it's inspired by a rap, a story in the news, a painting, a person, a feeling, or a dream.

What happens in between inspiration and the finished beat varies between artists and producers.

When I get inspired and I hear a beat in my head, I usually.

1. Keep the beat going by beat boxing it.

2. Record myself beat boxing ASAP.

3. Lay drum & instrumental tracks over my my beat boxing.

Hip Hop Beat Making 101

1. Focus on goals. Is your goal to be a beat maker or a producer? Maybe you want to be a M.C. or a Rapper? If you want to be a rapper, don't waste all your time trying to become a beat maker or a producer. Every hour spent trying to figure out your recording software is an hour that could have been spent writing raps, songs or practicing an instrument.


If you want to make beats and be a producer then, go ahead and learn about recording. There are many college level programs available. Do some research and get educated. Next, get some gear. Do some research but don't go overboard and spend all yourtime trying to figure out what everyone else thinks is the best gear. Decide what gear you like.

2. Start small. We live in an exciting time. We can make decent quality music with very little money. Start with a quality computer with beat making and or recording software. If you're on a tight budget go for a piece of classic gear like an Akai MPC or Ensoniq ASR-10.

3. Find sounds & samples. There are a number of ways to build your collection of sounds and samples. Many dig through vinyl. Others use sounds on hardware and/or buy from sites.

4. Make music. Don't worry about making some dream studio or acquiring every piece of gear that you hear is good. Focus on making music with what you have. Grab some drum sounds from a record. Sample things you find around the house: a jar, a plate, a cup or whatever.

Free Roland TR-808 samples

Here are some free TR-808 WAV files for you to download (16 bit 44 kHz). Most have been normalized in Cool Edit (the Windows WAV editor). They can be imported into an SBK file and loaded onto a Soundblaster AWE32. They can then be used as a midi-instrument in a sequencer. My fellow Ensoniq EPS and ASR-10 users may use a program called AWAVE to convert these WAV files to Ensoniq formatted files. AWAVE is a program that can convert any file format to almost anything. Thus it may also work if you have a different sampler or synthesizer (so look out for that).

All of these files have all been zipped and require WINZIP or PKZIP to extract the WAV files. Any files that are greater than 1Mb will be broken down into parts. When clicking on the download button, you will be taken to a special download corner where you could download the files part by part. The reason for this is that we are only limited to upload up to 500Kb per file. Also, it is a great convenience as well for those who are saving these files on standard 3.5 floppy disks where storage space is limited.

Free Roland TR-808 Samples
Kicks, snares, High Hats and
other Roland TR-808 sounds

Some Good Pay 808 Samples
Tr-808 samples Endorsed by Multi-Platinum Hip Hop Producers