Today, you will find many blogs online about how to create music only using a laptop, but never any on specific types of music. This blog was made to teach how to create music aimed specifically at the underground scene, if you have no idea what you are interested in creating, but enjoy artists such as $UICIDEBOY$, DJ Smokey, or FREDDIE DREDD (to name a few) you are in the right place.
Finding the Right DAW
For starters a DAW (Digital Audio Workspace) is necessary, this is where everything is going to happen. I would recommend using either Ableton Live or FL Studio, it is important to know that the learning curve for Ableton is far steeper than FL studio, but both are very useful and powerful software.
FL Studio
https://www.image-line.com/flstudio/
Ableton Live
https://www.ableton.com/en/shop/live/
Logic Pro
https://www.apple.com/logic-pro/
Using Your DAW
After obtaining a DAW you’ll need to get comfortable with the software, this comes with experience. Tutorials online will help but only to an extent, you must gain knowledge of the DAW of choice through your own experiences to really learn.
FL Studio – Beginner Guide
Ableton Live – Your First 15 Minutes
Logic Pro – Beginner Guide
Sounds to Sound Good
Sounds are the next most important aspect to making music, without baseline percussion you have nothing. There are a magnitude of free to use sounds floating around the internet, these include hi hats, snares, kicks, etc.
Candy Boy Phonk Kit
https://soundpacks.com/free-sound-packs/candy-boy-phonk-sample-kit/
VIVIVI Phonk Sample Kit
https://soundpacks.com/free-sound-packs/vivivi-phonk-drum-kit/
Memphis Samples
For underground music there is an abundance of 90s to early 2000s southern rap placed into most tracks to give the feeling that your music is being created on an 8 track, this really adds dark and gritty sound to your track. This isn’t necessary but it makes producing far easier.
r/memphisrap Database (updated frequently)
Here are some albums to check out for samples. Keep in mind, these albums are from 1994-2012 but were far ahead of their time.
The God Formula
When creating a track the easiest way to go about this is by using a simple formula; sample (for melody), closed hi hat, snare, and kick. Once this formula is used more can be added on to make the track stick out from others.
*note: melody samples can be anything from disco to italian swing music, that part is all up to you. If it sounds cool take the risk and try it out.
Inspiration
Remember, the art is not making the percussion, its blending the samples together and making them sound as if it’s part of the same song, the better you manage to do that the more success you’ll end up gaining because this is what people are looking for in this genre of music. People want to hear what they have heard before in a new way, live by this and you are on your way to the bank.
Here are some examples of songs that combine samples over their beat very well
Freddie Dredd & JAK3 – Do the S**t I Do
https://soundcloud.com/ryan-cc/freddie-dredd-jak3-do-the-shit
DJ Sacred – Rest Yo Soul
https://soundcloud.com/lilsvckrxd/rest-yo-soul
Both of these tracks utilize the simple process described before. Simple percussion with samples from complete different songs put together to create one song that stands on its own, it’s quite an amazing process when done correctly.
Underground Music Production 