Beat making software is a very new development. Thirty to forty years ago producers would use manual instruments to create beats and then other technologies to synthesize the beats with the vocal aspect. The olden ways of doing things were much more thorough and the music creation process more interesting. But that does not mean that today music has be come less interesting and involved. We will explore the different pros and cons of beat software.
The very first advantage is that beat making software is quicker to use. But I would never say it is easy because the creativity process is not naturally embedded in the software itself. Generally all software comes with instrument samples that are used to create music. So under normal circumstances a producer would have to get all those instruments before starting or completing a beat.
Still on that these software are convenient. Buying or hiring all the necessary equipment can take forever if you do not have the means. So eventually it can be safely said that they make it cost effective to make music. This alone means that it is cheaper to invest in them when you are still financially unstable.
Nevertheless beat software are very much digital. It is not like there is a problem with digital music; you can hardly tell the difference between an analogue beat and a digital one. But when it comes to the intensity and clarity of music there is a slight difference. And when ANR’s are rating or judging your music before release this can be a huge stumbling block.
Another thing with this is that when it comes to performing live a purely digital producer will struggle with trying to play some of the instruments live. What normally happens with this software is that you can tamper with it so much that when you do decide to perform live you will never be able to find an instrument that plays exactly like that. Some of the samples are derived from songs sung in the past and this alone makes it hard to reproduce the same samples live.
On the same topic of live performances I must say that ardent followers of music prefer live performances. So when a producer using digital software has to perform live unexpectedly the best they will probably come up with is an instrumental. Now this works fine but it does not satisfy music lovers completely. The live sound is not overrated, it is just preferred.
In addition to this when it comes to transferring digital music to CD’s a lot of mastering has to be carried out beforehand. This is because the sound can come out slightly distorted the first time copies are made and a producer has to go back to the drawing board.
Generally there is nothing entirely wrong with beat making software. For a person who uses them I would recommend fusing analogue and digital as the best way to achieve a more wholesome product. Once this is done samples and complex instruments of software won’t exactly dampen the hopes for a flexible sound.