What’s the difference between the two?

Think of tones as the actual waveforms that you are hearing. A tone is simply a sound occurring at a specific frequency, a waveform at a certain interval. On DAWs you will sometimes see a visual representation of that waveform, which you can manipulate. We label tones with notes so that we can talk about them and use them effectively. You’ll be working with notes in your audio program as well.
Musical notes can be visualized in a number of different ways. On every instrument, there are ways to produce specific notes and corresponding tones. There are seven different notes, delineated by notes of the alphabet, which make up a scale.

The first note in any scale is a “C.” The progression of notes is C-D-E-F-G-A-B. On a keyboard, which is a common DAW interface, you’ll find a pattern of two black keys followed by three black keys followed by two black keys, and so on. The white key to the immediate left of any of the groups of two black keys is the “C” note. Each white key following that C note makes up a note on a scale. Every time you reach another “C” going to the right, you’ve reached a higher octave.

So what are those black keys?

Think of them as half-steps between notes. They are referred to as sharps or flats interchangeably. When you talk about a half step above a certain note, you call it a sharp. When you talk about a half step below a certain note, that note is called a flat. So let’s say you play the black key immediately to the right of the “C” on the keyboard. That note is a half step above the “C” so it is a “C-sharp.” It is also a half step below the “D” note so it is referred to as a “D-flat” as well. Which you say is irrelevant.

music notes visualized

You’ll figure out fairly quickly that some notes played together make harmonious sounds while others make discordant sounds. When you’re making music, in most cases you’re going to be aiming to combine harmonious notes together to make more complex sounds. In rare cases you may deliberately seek to create discord by combining notes which do not work well together traditionally. Experiment a bit on your DAW with combining notes and you should start getting a feel for which notes go well together and create a pleasant sound. Soon we’ll talk about beats, bars and tempo, so stay tuned for the next installment in our series on basic musical education.

The most important subject to do with beat making, is tempo. Tempo is de?ned as the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any song, as it greatly affects the mood, and dif?culty of a piece. A good example of tempo, is comparing Dubstep and Drum & Bass. Dubstep is usually rated at 140BPM, where as Drum & Bass is usually rated at around 160 – 180 BPM.

After reading this, you may ?nd yourself asking “What is BPM’?”. BPM stands for Beats Per Minute, and it is exactly what it says; it is the number of beats in a song, per minute that passes. In order to maintain a persistent tempo, a metronome must be used. A metronome is a device which musicians use to generate a regular, and metrical tick. A metronome can be set in BPM (Beats Per Minute), metronomes are useful to musicians, as it helps to maintain a consistent tempo.

In music theory, a bar is de?ned as a small equal part into which a piece of music is divided. Each bar contains a ?xed number of beats, meaning that each bar is a set amount of time. The amount of time for which each bar lasts depends on the BPM of the song itself. For example, if there was a Drum & Bass song with a tempo of 180 BPM that would mean each bar lasts for 3 seconds. The bar count, is simply the total number of bars in a piece. Bar structure on the other hand, is actual structure of the bar itself, in terms of which notes go inside, if it should be repeated or not, or whether some notes should be muted.

Once the basic tempo, and bar theory has been learnt, you can move on to learning about which tools, and processes should be used in order to create a good beat. Two very important pieces of hardware which any professional Beat-Maker must use, in order to make the Beat-Making process as quick and easy as possible, are pad’s, and sequencer’s.

A pad, or ‘Drum Pad’, is simply a device which contains a number of buttons, each with an individual sound bound to them. Once the button is pressed, it plays the sound. A drum pad is used to generate drum loops, and other types of loops which will go into your songs and beats. A sequencer takes these loops, created by the drum pad, and allows you to sequence them in a proper structure, in order to make a song; hence the name sequencer. However, sequencer’s can also be used without drum pads, but with synthesizers, and keyboards, and all kinds of MIDI instruments.

One problem which may arise when recording an instrument for a song (such as a bass guitar, or a piano), is imprecision.

It is impossible to hit the record button JUST as the instrument strikes the note. In order to align these notes and trim them perfectly, so that they can be sequenced, musicians use a method called ‘Quantization’. Quantization is the process of aligning a set of musical notes (a bass guitar recording for example), and aligning them to a precise setting, at a precise time.

Now that all of the musical theories and processes have been made clear, it is time to learn about how the settings and effects of the sound waves should be modi?ed, in order to create an ear-pleasing beat.
One of the simplest settings is called ‘Delay’. Delay is simply an effect, which causes the selected sound to be repeated, decreasing in volume each time in order to achieve an echo-like effect. Reverb on the other hand, is quite similar to delay. Reverb is simply the persistence of a sound in an enclosed space. The difference between delay and reverb is that reverb gives you the sense of being in a small room; it adds ambience to the sound, and makes it sound a lot smoother. Delay causes the sound to be played again and again until it ?nally decays.

The other two settings which have a very close similarity are frequency, and pitch. Pitch is the position of a tone, in terms of a musical scale. Today, pitch is designated by a letter name such as ’0′ or ‘A’. The frequency is the individual rating of a note, measured in Herlz. In a nutshell, frequency is the characteristics of a sound wave, where as pitch is the resultant sound which humans hear. Resonance is when the vibrations of the sound waves from one instrument, cause a second object to start vibrating and creating sound. And last, but not least, pan is the direction of which the musical notes come out, left or right. Pan can be used to create a cool effect of spinning, as it makes the sounds appear as if they are coming from different directions.

LFO stands for Low Frequency Oscillation. LFO’s are usually used to modulate synthesizers, in order to create a rhythmic pulse or sweeping effect. Modulation in the case of music, means changing from one key to another.