Kevin Mckinney
Bio
Stories (8/0)
Mixing Beats/Instrumentals For Music Producers
Here goes that topic again that music producers are very familiar with, mixing. There are so many videos, information,tutorials, PDFs and more across the web on this subject. There are great books out that tackle this subject as well. There tons of methods and ways to approach mixing a beat or song, but I'm going to give my approach on how I mix my beats. *Disclaimer* Even though I will mention that I mix in Reason, which is my main Daw for creating beats, I am going to discuss more of my techniques that are not Daw specific. I try to focus on principles that can carry over to any Daw as opposed to Daw specific approaches. With that being said, let's get into.
By Kevin Mckinney3 years ago in Beat
Tapping Into Your Creativity As A Music Producer
Music producers, how do you begin you beat making sessions? What are your creative processes? Do you start with a pre-made template? Are your sounds pre-loaded? Maybe you listen to your favorite songs before you start to kick off your creative energy. Of course there is no wrong answer and there are obviously different ways to get your juices going. In this post I'll share some of my ways and maybe they can inspire you when needed.
By Kevin Mckinney3 years ago in Beat
BUILDING A FAN BASE AS A MUSIC PRODUCER
There are many things that music producers think about while on their musical journey. Subjects like how to create better beats, how to network, how to mix and record better, etc, are all things that of course will help you in your craft. One thing that goes overlooked as a music producer is how to build a fan-base. The assumption is that if you build your brand big enough, that fans or your tribe will come, which has truth to it, but lets talk more about ways to be more intentional and make it happen.
By Kevin Mckinney3 years ago in Beat
Introducing..
My name is Kevin Mckinney or my music production name is Kmcreates and I am a music producer and content creator from Chicago. I've had a love for music since I was young. In 4th grade I learned how to play the clarinet, so that was my first formal introduction to music. I continued that well into my teens/young adult age, and that's when my focus and attention switched to Hip Hop production. During that time it was about hardware so I've has a sp1200, two MPC 2000's , synths, keyboards and other outboard gear. I came up producing with a few local production teams in Chicago producing beats for our in house artists and other local artists. It was a great experience to work in the studio with the artists, giving feed back, receiving feed, learning how to run cables into mixers and all that goo stuff. back being a part of the creative process from top bottom.
By Kevin Mckinney3 years ago in Beat
SHOULD I PRODUCE MORE THAN ONE GENRE OF MUSIC?
Music producers, how many of you create or produce more than one genre of music? Through the years I've produced Hip Hop music, R&B, and Electronic Dance Music (Deep House, EDM remixes). How and when do you come to the decision to expand and try your hand at other genres? What makes you internally want to produce other genres? I know quite a few music producers who have produced a particular genre so long they feel "pigeon whole" or they feeling like they can't change because their brand has been built already around their main genre. Let's explore the question of should you produce more than one genre of music .
By Kevin Mckinney3 years ago in Beat
STILL SPENDING MONEY ON MUSIC PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT OR SOFTWARE, WHY?
Music production can be a beautiful thing. The creative process alone is breath taking. To create a completely finished product , where you started from nothing but a blank canvas is amazing, and that's what we do. In this process it's natural to grow , meaning you learn new things, you expand your music production knowledge and you need new tools in the process. With that being said, do you tend to buy more music production gear, or buy more software than you actually need? It's not a uncommon thing, I know several music producers that were to the point of hoarding equipment and software to so call "advance their production", but it didn't work.
By Kevin Mckinney3 years ago in Beat
SETTING GOALS AS A MUSIC PRODUCER
It's the start of the new year, and you are pumped full of energy of what feels like a new beginning, a new opportunity and a new chance to accomplish some things musically you haven't reached yet. All of this is true, and although every day is a new opportunity to start, the beginning of the year gives us a longer metric to judge ourselves by once the end of the year comes. All this is fine, but have you actually set your goals? I mean have you really thought them out, with a time timetable to achieve them and then wrote them down on paper. If not this is the first step accomplishing anything, let alone your music production goals.
By Kevin Mckinney3 years ago in Beat
A HOME STUDIO FOR THE BEATMAKER
So you want to set up a home studio and start your journey into the music industry, but you have questions . For example you don't know where to start, you are not sure if the computer you already have is powerful enough, you are not sure what your budget should be , you are not sure if you need physical equipment (for example effects racks) and if so what do you necessarily need. There are many blogs, videos and posts on this topic these days, but I'm sure if you a true beginner , it still can be confusing after countless hours of research, so we will try to break things down and give you your options that will hopefully allow you to make a informed decision. *For the sake of this blog we will consider a complete home studio as a place where you have the ability to create tracks (instrumentals) record artists and the mix complete song into.
By Kevin Mckinney3 years ago in Beat