In this guest post, Mike R. had a chance to chat online with NFX, the owner operator of the well known FL Studio beat making site called Warbeats.com
[Editors note: Warbeats is an active sponsor for us]
Q. Please introduce yourself.
A. My online nick is NFX which is derived from my initials. My real name is Nelson Fernandez. I run a website called Warbeats that aims to give people information about making beats and using FL Studio as a beat making tool. I live in Southern California.
Q. Many of our readers know about Warbeats but can you tell us what the site has for the novice beat makers out there?
A. Well I like to think it has a little of everything for all levels of beat makers. In a nut shell we have the usual things you would expect like forums and file downloads. The file area has about 2,000 files and consists of mainly FL Studio projects – both user created and remakes – and user made drum kits. The more unique things we have going on are things like the audio/video chat and Beat Feedback System, where people upload their beats and get detailed feedback.
Q. Before I ask you about the beat feedback, what can you tell me about the chatroom?
A. The chat room is just a fun place to hang out. If you have a webcam or mic hooked up you can stream your video and audio into the room. Monday nights are battle nights where the people create beats in realtime and compete for bragging rights. People use it to get instant feedback or freestyle, etc.
Q. Cool. Cool. Tell us about the Beat Feedback System.
A. It’s basically a system where you upload an MP3 of your music and it gets rated by other members. You get scored on various aspects of it like the mix/master quality and composition. It can really help a beat maker identify his or her weaknesses so he can improve. We also have a beat charts system tied into it, but the real value is in the feedback you get from your peers. You are required to also give feedback. One the surface you might think that GIVING feedback is not that helpful, but it makes you think about beats and music in a way that only makes your own skills better. You can learn a lot from mistakes other people make once you can identify those mistakes. By listening to other people’s beat with a critical ear, you can build that skill.
Q. I’ve used the beat feedback system and one thing I learned is that you can’t take criticism personally.
A. Definitely. There are a very few people who might put up negative and hateful remarks like “that sucks. give up music” but if you can get past the occasional hate, you will find that most feedbacks are helpful. While we all hate to get bad feedback, if most of your feedback shows a low rating in the “composition” category, maybe your beats really are too repetitive and boring. A humble person can accept that and can improve because they won’t be fooling themselves. That’s the key goal for me to convey to all beat feedback users. Take the gold nuggets and leave the dirt when you review your feedback.
Q. One of the things you are most known for is your youtube videos. They are usually very in-depth to the point of your giving too much information. Sometimes I see people say “That video was great but you talk too much”. Do you agree?
A. I agree to a point. I try to be as detailed as I can. I want to tell you the HOW and the WHY and the WHEN to use various techniques. A lot of times you have to cover much ground to do that. Also, I don’t have a set level of competency that I am speaking to. Someone people might know more than others and not find parts of my tutorials useful. I try to be as thorough as I can be. I am aware of the criticisms though and I take them to into consideration when doing my new tutorials. I don’t script my videos so sometimes it’s a stream of consciousness that does go off on a tangent. So I understand why people might say “you talk too much” especially in this generation of people wanting quick fixes and instant results.
Q. Speaking of long-winded tutorials, another free FL tutorial maker, STE1438, makes some really long tutorials also. What do you think of STE1438?
A. I admire him tremendously. People might not realize what goes into making these videos. I think his videos are as long or longer than mine and great quality in terms of production and content. I know what might be a 15 minute video from me, takes probably an hour to record (Maybe I should start scripting them – LOL! ) and then about another hour to edit and then time to upload and post it etc. What I admire most is how he is open to distributing his videos free. Some people might think that nothing good in life is free, but I think people like myself, STE1438 and other free tutorial makers like AcePincter prove that theory wrong. I think some of the best things in life are free if you know how to find and appreciate them.
Q. That said, what is your stance on people paying for lessons or classes either online or at a college/school?
A. I say if you want to do it and you can afford it, then by all means do it. I would never take a position that any source of knowledge is worthless. You might point out that some of the biggest named beat makers and rappers didn’t have much, if any, professional training. I think in the music biz, a lot of talent will take you far but obviously talent and education can take you even farther. Ultimately luck plays the biggest role to success in the music world. I think the best attribute one can have is a humble attitude. A stage performer needs a personna or alter ego, but a beat maker just needs to be a good beat maker and be able to deal with people on a professional level. Having a humble mindset helps with personal interactions.
Q. Speaking of personal interactions, you have a blog where you get very personal and post what I think of as life lessons not related to music. What can you tell us about that?
A. Thats just the way I am. I am a very open person and I have been through a lot in my life. People might look up to me to some degree because of the popularity of my site and videos. I think I owe it to those who seek this extra knowledge to get some guidance. My nature is to be helpful and generous. It’s what makes me happy so I do what I do.
Q. One of your more personal themes in your blog as about is really “keeping it real”. Can you briefly touch on that?
A. Sure. The main premise is that the easiest way to be happy and successful is to be yourself. Beat making is part of hip hop culture which can be overly focused on “keeping it real” where on the surface it’s meaning to be street smart/thuggish and/or materialistic. I don’t buy into that. If you’re a bookworm from Montana trying to make beats because it’s your passion, don’t think you have to wear your pants to the ground and talk like they do down south just to get street cred. Do you. Go with your flow and don’t make things tougher by trying to swim upstream. We need different personalities in hip hop and thats the true beauty in REAL hip hop culture. The problem is that the trends in hip hop may not always be positive ones but you take the good with the bad. There I go on a tangent. Bottom line is that keeping it one hundred percent real means being who you really are inside so let it (you) shine.
Q. Deep. Getting back to your tutorials for a minute, are all of them posted to youtube and how often do you post them?
A. I usually keep 10 or so tutorials for the VIPs at Warbeats but otherwise they all go to youtube and possibly other sites. I think I have recorded over 80 videos and as of this writing 69 of them are at youtube. I’m lucky in that when I joined youtube, I was able to get a director’s account and can upload long videos. My longest clocks in at over 30 minutes, my shortest is probably about 3 minutes long. My new videos often get posted to VIPs and then I take an older one and move it to youtube. I don’t have a set schedule for the videos. I might do one a month and then the following month do three or four.
Q. Please tell us about VIP at Warbeats.
A. VIP is an access level that I give to people that contribute to the site. Most often they do so with a subscription but many are also awarded VIP for participation and contribution in other ways. The basic premise is that while most of Warbeats is free, VIPs get a little bit extra. VIP videos, exclusive files, like my own drum kits, Warbeats VST plugins, private forums, etc. The VIP cost is $15 for one month and is non-recurring so after your month, you don’t get billed again. I want to stress that most of the content on Warbeats is free. Just like 69 out of 80 videos are free. Beat Feedback, the A/V chat rooms, the file area, etc. are all free. Warbeats is not my job in the sense I want to make a living from it. I have a full time day job and do Warbeats as a hobby.
Q. So what do you do by day? Is it in the music industry?
A. No. Thankfully, I’m not just another frustrated beat maker who never made it in the industry (j/k)! I’ve never seriously considered being a famous beat maker or pursuing a music related job. By day I’m a programmer (which I love doing) and my hobby is making music. Not just hip hop either I like to dabble in all kinds of music.
Q. Do you think not being in the music industry hurts your credibility as a music tutorial maker?
A. I don’t think so. I have received some criticsm from another FL tutorial maker who I believe is extremely envious of the fact Warbeats is so well loved and popular within the FL Studio community. His main method of getting users is to put down free tutorials like mine as worthless in order to make his own look more valuable and one of his selling points is that we are not “professional”. If hating on Warbeats helps him put food on the table, then let him eat. I’m about abundance and positive energy and I make tutorials based on how I make music, not how to make it in the music biz. There is a big difference. It’s just common sense that you can learn piano or guitar from a teacher who never had a professional music career, so you can learn techniques from me on making beats.
Q. Since VIP costs money, doesn’t that make Warbeats a money making site?
A. Technically, it does make some money but it has too in order to survive as it is today. In the early days of Warbeats we hosted the videos on site directly. Youtube was relatively new and I didn’t know a lot about video compression and stuff like that. My first videos were probably over 100 megabytes each in size. Due to the popularity of the videos, I was shut down from two different “unlimited” web hosting sites for using too much bandwidth. I invested a couple thousand dollars of my own to buy a dedicated server and rental space at a data center. My monthly bill is now well over $350 a month to keep Warbeats online. VIP contributions help me keep the majority of the site free for everyone else and because of this I am grateful and compelled to give VIPs a little something special. The very first user at Warbeats actually sent me a $20 bill in the mail way back in 2005. This guy from New York was so appreciative of the videos – I think I only had two at the time – that he sent me cash money. I always think back to that moment because thats when I set up the first VIP section so I could share my personal self made drum kits with him. Thats how VIP started. It was an afterthought.
Q. You always refer to your “Warbeats Family” in regards to your members. Why is that and do you have any famous family members?
A. Warbeats is like a family to me. Anyone who has come through and participated in the forums, battles and chat has earned a position in that family. I also like to take care of my family which is why I look for ways to keep them happy, whether it’s making a free VST, new tutorial, promoting them or whatever. As for famous Warbeats family members, I’d say we have some successful ones for sure. Fame is not the correct term I’d use. I’ll just say we have had family members work with many famous people in the music game and leave it at that. People can read the interviews at Warbeats and get a feel for who they are. We don’t take credit for their success and hard work but we are very proud of their accomplishments and honored to have them come through. One specific recent success I’d like to mention is a kid named MdL who worked on Justin Beiber’s recent platinum certified album. He also made several excellent free tutorials before he got signed, check them on youtube.
Q. The name Warbeats sounds like it would be a strictly a beat battle site but it really isn’t. Or is it?
A. No it isn’t not in the sense that a great site like Rocbattles is. Originally I bought the Warbeats domain with the intention of doing a battle only site. I mean we do have battles but not to a great degree. The only exception is that I like to have one big battle every year. In our last battle, the Beatdown 2009, we had 32 people competing in tournament fashion and we gave away over $2000 in prizes. We had no entry fee and even voters in our battles could win prizes. It was a blast. In reality though, battles are just a small part of the site and not the focus. Originally the site was going to be used to temporarily host the videos because I didn’t have any other domain at the time. It just grew a mind and community of it’s own from there.
Q. On your home page you state that you have over 100,000 users. That seems like a lot for a little FL Studio specific site.
A. Well I’m sure that Image-Line has well over that number, but yeah I think it’s a lot. Our user database actually has over 120K entries but not all of those people connect everyday nor do they participate on a regular basis. Probably most users just go to our downloads and grab stuff, lurk in the forums or watch the vids and disconnect.
Q. Something I’ve always wondered is where do you get your lessons from? Do you have a set of resources?
A. I read a lot of audio production web sites, books and magazines. It’s not rocket science, but I think I like to take all the info and boil it down and give my viewers the raw essence of it. I might spend a couple weeks learning about scales by reading books, wiki articles, whatever. Then once I think I understand it enough to explain it, I do just that in a video.
Q. Are there any pay tutorial sites you go to?
A. The only pay tutorial site I was ever a member of was TodaysBeats.com. The owner, Terrence is an excellent teacher and a positive person who is fun to learn from. I would recommend it to anyone who can afford it. I think I may have got some of my “talk too much” style from him. LOL!
Q. With regards to FL Studio, what made you choose it as your main platform?
A. Price and free lifetime updates were a big factor. When I started using FL Studio I was not able to afford a lot and had to make the most of what I could afford. I also recognized that FL has a lot of power under the hood that other DAWs did not give you and that impressed me. Considering you can get a new PC these days for under $500 and add $300 FL Studio as your DAW and you have something infinitely more powerful than a top of the line MPC at sampling and making beats. Some people need the status of using a legendary MPC or maybe they can afford all the trendy gear. I have an article at my site detailing how you could spend about $1,200 and have a near complete home studio including new computer, monitor speakers, MIDI, headphones, microphone, pop filter, etc. (http://bit.ly/Make-A-Home-Studio)
Q. I’ve heard it said that FL Studio is one of the most pirated programs in the audio production world. What’s your take?
A. I guess it’s true. I’ve always laughed when someone posts something like “I’ve got FL Studio rewired into Reason so I can export my tracks to use in my Protools but my Nexus isn’t working right. Damn I wish I could afford a MIDI keyboard.” LOL. Yeah people pirate software. As a software maker by day I know the pain when someone takes your software without paying for it. I know it goes on but at the same time I don’t get too preachy about it. Not that it’s okay to pirate but it’s an argument you won’t ever win in everyone’s mind. People have excuses like, “I can’t afford it and would have never bought it anyway so they aren’t losing money” and “I’ll buy a legit copy when I make enough money selling my beats”. At the end of the day I think what you invest in yourself says a lot about who you are and makes a difference in how far you get in life. I don’t mean that you have to be rich enough to pay for everything your heart desires, but look at ways to accomplish your goals within your financial limitations. If you can’t afford one of those $4,000 sound libraries, see what you can do with some free soundfonts or plug-ins. Sites like KVR have lists and lists of plug-ins you can get for free. Same with drum kits. You can find free and legal kits at places like Warbeats. Just make do within your means and let your creativity take you to the next level where you can make enough to upgrade your gear. Limits can really force you to be creative and sometimes thats the difference between a beat maker who sounds average and one who sounds unique.
Q. I’ve specifically avoided asking any direct beat/music making questions because I wanted to get at who you are and the site itself, but what if you had to give only one piece of advice to a beat making newbie what would it be?
A. At the end of the day you have to do this because you love it, so have fun. Too many newbies put this tremendous pressure on themselves at the beginning to make dope beats. You need to have fun with the journey of learning to make music. God willing, you will do well and you will have other headaches to worry about like dealing with lawyers, agents and record labels. Keep music fun enough to want to do for life and let the rest fall into place.
Q. Thanks NFX are there any parting words and where can we connect with you other than Warbeats.com?
A. Thanks Mike it was fun. I would say to everyone interested in beatmaking to just keep an eye on the Warbeats front page for announcements and follow us on twitter: twitter.com/warbeats Warbeats has so many things to offer you that you owe it to yourself to at least come through and see what its about and tell your friends too!
