Warbeats KDE Blog

About

KDE (Ghost Unit) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:47:57 GMT

This sub-forum was created for me to share my knowledge about music and the music industry with the rest of warbeats. My name is Kevin Beggs also known as KDE and I am a producer who started out at warbeats much like the rest of you. I had an affinity for music and I dreamed of becoming a big time producer someday. When I first came to this website I knew nothing about beat making, music theory, or using Digital Audio Work stations (such as FL Studio). Over the span of two years this site has helped me create a musical foundation and has helped me understand the technicalities of music. I’ve picked up a lot of knowledge about music, the entertainment industry, and the technical parts of music and sound. I’ve made huge leaps in my own musical composition and I have learned so much about the entertainment industry. I hope to share all of this in hopes to inspire people here on warbeats much like NFX did for me with the creation of this site. In this forum I will have tutorials on musical theory, mixing, and composition. I will also have a video blog called “The KDE Theory” where I will show parts of my life such as working with artists in the studio, doing buisness, and where ever else my career takes me.

About Me:

Myspace Link (Click Here)

Discography

KDE (Ghost Unit) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:20:19 GMT

KDE Official Discography:
This is just only the tip of the ice berg. I have hundreds of composed beats and atleast 30-40 more finished audio tracks with vocalists over them. These are the select few with artists you may recognise. I have worked with the likes of Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Joel Ortiz, Sum 41, Tyga, 40 Glocc, Strong Arm Steady, and many more. I have a lot of work in progress with more artists you may recognise.

Loser Remix - Raje (Feat. Lil Wayne & Tyga)
Loser Pt. 2 - Lil Wayne (Feat. Tommy Lee, Sum 41, Joell Ortiz, Tyga, Spark Dawg, J-Son, Big Sean)
Good Times - Raje (Feat. Rick Ross)
Braggin - Cassius (Feat. Lil Wayne)
Mama Said - Ashley Nikole (Feat. Lil Wayne & Raje)
Shes My Color - Raje (Feat. Lil Wayne)
The Window - Tyga
I Make It Hotter - Yung Pop (Feat. 40 Glocc & Da Eastside Savior)
Turn The Alarm On - Verbal (Feat. Strong Arm Steady & Raje)

Remeber to download the tracks at : http://www.reverbnation.com/kde

Equipment List

KDE (Ghost Unit) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:23:24 GMT

Comp:

HP Pavilion Elite - Intel Core(TM)2 Quad CPU - Vista x64 Home Premium - 6 gigs ram - 1.3 TB Hard Drive

24 Inch LCD Screen

Keyboards:

M-Audio Axiom 25 (Travel Keyboard)
M-Audio Axiom 61

Monitors:

M-Audio BX5a

Audio Interfaces:

Digidesign M-Box 2 (Protools/FL Studio Soundcard)

Lexicon Alpha (Media Soundcard)

Mixer:

Behringer Xenyx802

Mic:

Audix Om2

Networking

KDE (Ghost Unit) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 08:05:48 GMT

Networking is possibly the single most important part of the music business. For producers like many of you it is important to network and build connections with as many other artists, other producers, A&R’s, managers, promoters, and anyone within the music business. This is very crucial because you never know when opportunity will arise. Managers are very important for networking and bring you opportunities, but before you ever get a manager you need to understand how to make your own connections. In order for someone else to take your music seriously such as a manager or A&R, you need to show that you take it seriously. You need attempt to build your own set of connects within the industry. So in this blog I would help show you how to network with artists and build connections starting from ground zero. Like me many of you were not born into the music industry. Many of you do not have an Uncle or an Aunt with major connections in the industry. So getting your music to the right people is very hard almost impossible. These are many of the same challenges I faced and I was able to overcome. I had to build my connections from scratch so I will explain the method in which I was able to build my connections. Like I said last blog I am in no way an expert in the manner and I am only supply you with information through my own experiences so take this information of leave it.

Submitting Beats is probably the first and most important step. When I say submitting beat I mean allowing artists to use your music for free and when I say artists I am not talking about A list artists like Akon or Kanye West, I am not even talking about B list artists such as Twista or Gucci Mane, I’m talking about C list artists the artists who are signed to sub-labels of the major artists. I am talking about the artists who are coming up in the music industry the artists you may or may not have heard of yet. This is because the chance of you getting your music to major artists in the game is very slim and then also the chance of your music being chosen over the top producers in the industry is very slim especially when you have a small discography or nothing at all. So the first thing you must do is research. Research is very important. Figuring out which artists and what type of beats they are looking for. You can do this by looking on these artists’s Myspace, Twitter, Facebook and many other promotional sites for artists. Many of these artist’s include emails in which to send beats to (Ex. Nicki Manaj of Lil Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment Label see figure 1).

Figure 1

Send as many beats as you can to as many artists you can. Usually if they like the beats you send them they will contact you, or they will send someone to get into contact with you. They may or may not offer you money 9X out of 10X they will ask you to submit more music. These are great opportunities to build relationships with the artist and at the same time collect names for your potential discography. Always collect emails, phone numbers, and Instant messenger screen names of your contacts. Having multiple ways of contacting a person is always great to have. Also if possible always meet people in real life. Socializing with people in real life is very important in building trust and people are always going to remember you once you meet them in real life instead of just being an email or a screen name to them. Also go to shows and try submitting your music in real life. People are always more receptive in real life then they are over the internet. Make Beat CD’s and go to studios and hand them out to artists. Take advantage of every outlet into the music industry you can. Go to producer seminars and conferences (See Figure 2). Many of these are held all over the country and many important people within the music business go to them. Many A&R, Artists, and managers go to these conferences and it is built for making these specific types of connection building and networking. Make yourself available to connections, setup professional quality Myspaces, Facebook, and twitter accounts. Create mailing lists where you update people and link them to sites where you have put up new music on. Let everyone know you have new music and allow them to hear it. People will contact you if they are interested. All of these things are essential to creating a successful network of people within the music industry.

Figure 2

Once you have made connections with an artist or multiple artists, if you have what they need which is quality music they will usually return to you for projects and this is how opportunities will arise. You will have opportunities to work with various artists and make connections with many other people. Always take time to see what someone is about and never blow off anyone. Once you have obtained your first track with a lower level artists use it as leverage in your other beat submissions. Always mention you have worked with so and so on a couple of tracks. These types of things will get people’s heads turning. Once you have a good base set of connections you need to keep expanding and working up the ladder and expanding your network. You will be surprised about the crazy opportunities that will come up just by being in contact with the right people. Also remember that you will be able to do all the things that a manager can do by yourself. The good part of having a manager is that they come with a certain set of connections already and you are will hopefully be able to achieve more career wise faster and remember the earlyier you start building connections the better.

Dedication

KDE (Ghost Unit) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:52:24 GMT

It takes a certain mind set to truly succeed in the music industry and in life in general. People dream of doing big things such as being the new Michael Jordan of basket ball or being the next Timbaland of music, but they rarely come to achieve these things. If you are like me and you dream of becoming someone great or someone influential then understand this that it takes dedication and talent. In this blog today I am here to talk about dedication because talent is something you must have on your own. Dedication and aspiration is something that you can receive. Now a lot of this information is stuff you think you already may know, so what I am going to do in this blog is explain how dedication translates into the world of trying to become a producer in the music industry since this is the reason why we are on Warbeats.com. Now before I start I would like to state that I am no expert in any way when it comes to making it in the music industry since I have yet to do so myself, but from what I have observed within my own life maybe be of some use to you.

Dedication is the belief in yourself and the ambitions to achieve your ultimate goals. If you are like me and want to become successful in the entertainment/music industry then you already know that it take a lot of dedication to achieve your goals. For me personally I want to create a hit record. I want to create a piece of art that everyone will recognize and know that KDE has created that. How do I go about this? First I create new songs daily. I never stop creating music. I wake up every day and I sit down at my keyboard and I play the keys until I have created a melody that is worth developing into a beat. A lot of producers wait for a melody to randomly play in their heads to start playing in their heads or for to get an idea for a song. You can’t just sit around and wait for an idea to hit you. If you want something you must go out and get it. Even if you are composing without inspiration you are still doing something useful even if the end product is not what you wanted. Some of the greatest records where created on accident when the producer ran into a great melody or created a counter melody to a not as good melody. Also even when you do create tracks that you may not even like yourself there is always a chance that someone will think that that track is the greatest thing ever. So never stop composing even if you have no inspiration.

The next thing I do is make connections. I cannot stress how important making connections with other producers, artists, and other people within the music business are. Opportunities present themselves out of nowhere sometimes. Get to know people make friends and never turn your back on someone who could possibly create opportunities for you. People always know other people who know other people who know people who are in high positions within the music industry. You have to go out of your way to create opportunities to meet people. There are so many success stories where someone met someone famous and the famous person help set a stage for that person’s career. Sean Kingston is a prime example of this he used to send JR Rotem a message on MySpace every day until he had no choice but to check out his music which he ended up liking. So create opportunities maybe not the same way as Sean Kingston but go out of you way to make situations such as that. Promotion is the best thing you can do for yourself and anytime you can allow your music to be heard by someone in a position of power within the music industry take them.

The next thing is to believe in yourself. You must have the belief that you have something to offer to these people within the industry. You got to love your own music before someone else is going to love your music. Trust yourself and know that your music is great or its way to becoming great. If you don’t like your music then put your effort into progressing your music. If you don’t think your good enough then work towards making your music on that level. It doesn’t happen overnight so understand that you’re going in the right direction and enjoy how it sounds now and just think about how much better it’s going to sound when do reach that point. Always believe in yourself and know that your good enough and if you don’t think that then keep trying to progress and take it easy on yourself if you haven’t reach that point.

The final thing I am going to say is to put in hard work. Like I said never stop creating music. Also treat your music as more than just a hobby to you. If you are truthfully trying to achieve your goal then music is more than just a hobby to you. You must take your approach toward music to another level. You need to prioritize music over certain other aspects of your life. You need to work hard and put in the time and effort it would require to achieve it. I truthfully cannot spend 20 minutes a day on music and hope to achieve my goal of making a hit record. I know that it take a lot more time to develop my skills into creating a product that people will love and replay on their iPods over and over again. Truthfully you must put in the work needed to achieve your goal or it will never happen. If you think your life is too busy to do music for hours at a time then don’t make it your goal in life to become a top music producer, because you won’t achieve it without taking the time in to create music. With this said I hope you take away something from this and if you have goals and dreams in life I hope you achieve them.