Download the audio program you wish to use. If you want to get started making beats right away, a program with built-in loops, like the Fruity Loops demo or Ableton Live demo, would be the best bet for you. Start with Audacity or AcidXpress if you have a loop you want to record from an audio feed.
Plug in your hardware. Jack a microphone into your computer sound card microphone input to record sound for your beat. If you are using an external sound card like a Tascam US-122 or Ozone console but want the audio to play back through your computer speakers, set your playback device as your onboard computer sound card and your recording device as your external recording interface sound card.
Set up the audio program. Full setup of a recording program usually includes setting up your audio control surfaces and configuring sound levels. Most audio programs have the settings under Preferences in the Edit menu.
When setting up your audio control surfaces, configure your software to recognize your sound card and audio feed source. In Audacity, the audio device configuration is located in the Preferences menu under the "Audio I/O" tab.
Check your sound levels. You can see whether your sound is clipping in the sound configuration utility in your audio program. This is usually located in the same Preferences module as the audio setup. The sound level from your audio feed should be high enough to render strong audio quality but should stay out of the red to avoid clipping and distorting the audio.
Open a new music project in your software program and add a blank track. The command to insert a new track for recording and loop arrangement varies on different software but is usually located under an Edit or Track menu.
If you want to record audio for your beat, record-enable the track by pressing the red "R" on the new track you created. Press the "Red Circle" button in the playback controls to enable recording, then press "Play" to start the recording. When you are ready to end the recording, press "Stop."
Record any audio feeds you wish to include. Add a new track to your project, then record-enable the track by pressing the red "R" on the new track you created. Press the "Red Circle" button in the playback controls to enable recording, then press "Play" to start the recording. When you are ready to end the recording, press "Stop."
Program a basic drum beat. Use a drum machine program like Rebirth to create a repeating drum beat cycle for your beat. A basic beat will have at least a bass and snare beat. Different types of music substitute many sounds for the bass and snare sound, but the structure of the beat is similar in all music.
Arrange your beat. If you used your own audio, cut out and arrange the parts you wish to include. You can copy and paste segments of audio if you want to repeat something to create a pattern. After you get the sounds you want, play with the rhythm and the sound qualities to get a solid background drum beat chiseled out.
Enhance the track with recorded audio and loops. In AcidXpress, you can set your beat alongside one audio track of vocals or other sounds. If you want to include more than one audio track, you will need to export your beat to an audio file type, such as wav, aif, or mp3, and import it into Audacity as an audio track.
Clean up the track. Use the edit tool in your audio program to realign beats so the rhythm sounds right to you. Dance to the beat a little to make sure it feels right and make changes to the sound mix, tempo and types of sounds to make a beat that pleases you.