Obviously one of the things you can do easily with a home recording studio is record hip hop beats. These are usually electronic, so the use of MIDI and/or virtual instruments does the trick nicely. Both of those last things you can plug in to your DAW (digital audio workstation), such as Reaper, Pro Tools, etc. But there are also stand-alone programs you can use as well, such as DubTurbo.
One of the most popular virtual instrument plug-ins is called Sonivox Playa. It is available in VST or RTAS versions.
You can be the most creative if you understand MIDI (musical instrument digital interface – not that anyone will ever ask you;)). For a review on what MIDI is, see our article
What is MIDI? A Big Help in Home Music Recording, That’s What
Also, in our new home recording course (video tutorials) – The Newbies Guide To Audio Recording Awesomeness 2, there is a 3-part lesson that can take you from knowing nothing about MIDI to being able to use it to create beats, all in about 30 minutes. BTW, that course uses Reaper recording software (amazingly awesome professional software that costs an amazing $60) to teach you the recording skills you need.
Of course there are tons of different drum programs out there. But you can definitely get started making your own hip hop beats (as opposed to “sampling” beats that somebody else made/owns) easily and quickly with these programs.
Leave a Reply