Finding the Right Beat For Your Sound
No matter how good your bars, flows or melodies, picking the wrong beat is a quick recipe for disaster. The best songs have great music behind them, and without knowing how to find what works best for you, creating that magic in the studio becomes all the more difficult.
At Airbit, our sole purpose has been to empower musicians by providing the tools they need to create. While our platform hosts a huge range of beats from countless producers, knowing what to look for before you start your search will make things a whole lot easier.
Part I – Working out Your Sound
Finding the right beat includes a lot of factors, all different for each artist. As time goes on, you’ll get a better idea of what suits you instinctively. Until you get to that point, there are some things you can think about to help you make an informed decision.
Influences and Content
If you’re just getting into making music, your sound will most likely be influenced by the artists you listen to. Play a lot of party anthems? It would be fair to say you might gravitate towards instrumentals with a club-hopping vibe. Or if you enjoy melancholy songs, you could look for something with a somber feel.
Of course, what you want to rap or sing about will also dictate what music you pick for your songs, too. Think about what you’d like to talk about, then listen to artists that cover similar topics to get an idea of beats you may sound good on.
Voice and Energy
Most of the time, the beats that work the best are simple and leave room for the artist to showcase their vocal talent. Thinking about how high or deep your voice is (especially for singers) can help you to narrow down what beats will leave space for you to shine.
If you do want to use a beat that is busy or high energy, you’ll need to make sure you can cut through the sound with your vocals.
Tempo and Style
Playing with different tempos can help you to find a speed that suits your delivery. Some artists do well on hip hop beats (around 80-100 bpm), while others may fare much better on trap or drill instrumentals. The easiest way to work this out is to simply try performing over these different tempos, and seeing which ones inspire you the most.
Part II – Searching for Beats
Once you’ve got an idea of the beats that work for you, you can begin your search.
There are two ways to approach this – either try and find a beat that inspires you, or look for a beat that matches something you’ve already written. Regardless of what you decide to do, Airbit makes it easy to find the beat you’re looking for: read our full run-down of how to search for beats.
To start your search, go to the Airbit website and click ‘Buy Beats’ at the top of the page. From there, you’ll be presented with the explore page. This will show you some of the recommended or promoted beats, as well as the top rated beats and producers on the site. To get specific, hover over the beats tab and select one of the following options:
Browse Beats/Recently Added Beats
You can further explore these results on the next page. Filter by genre, mood, tempo or date.
Top Selling Beats
This displays beats that have sold the most over a certain period of time. View beats that have been popular within the last week, month or all time.
Genres
This section lists popular styles of beats, including Hip Hop, Trap, R&B and more
Type Beats
Very popular on the internet, we thought it appropriate to include ‘type beats’ too. See beats in the style of popular artists/producers
Airbit’s keyword search is particularly good if you have a defined idea of what you’re looking for. Search for a type beat (for example, Jay-Z type beat), a producer on the site, or a tag to find the right instrumental to spark your creativity.
You may have also noticed in both the ‘Search by Sound’ option. This new feature (still in beta stage) allows you to search for beats similar to other instrumentals. Simply paste a Youtube, Vimeo or Soundcloud link, and Airbit will show the most relevant beats contained onsite!
Once you’ve searched for a beat, your results will be categorized and listed. After you’ve found a beat you like, click the shopping cart button next to the title and choose from the license terms available.
Repeat this process for every beat you need, and when you’ve finished shopping, click the shopping cart icon at the top right of the page to make your purchase.
And with that, you’ve taken the first steps towards creating your song! Remember what to look for when you go beat shopping, and the process will be even smoother next time. Check out our other artist content on the Airbit Creator Hub for more tips on leveling up your music career.
