We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Robin Sedivy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Robin below.
Hi Robin, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
How did you learn to do what you do?
When I first started trying to produce music and engineer audio for my compositions, I lacked the basic fundamental knowledge a typical audio engineer or producer might have, even when they’re first starting. However, having a background in instrumental performance, reading music and training in both Western and non-Western styles gave me a head start in my creative mindset and in the artistic identity I put into my early productions.
When I started out, I had just a PC and a simple MIDI controller called “Maschine Studio”. It came with it’s own music production software, which allowed me to quickly start creating sounds. At first, I literally just started experimenting with audio effects and virtual instruments, creating new and unusual sounds inside the fairly robust software application, even if the sounds weren’t great at the time. I would methodically try new sound FX and turn different FX knobs to affect the audio, even if I had no comprehension about the name of the knob or the FX unit.
I didn’t know much about the magic of sonics, audio and production, but I had some intuition to lean on from my time recording albums as a drummer. I remember a producer saying something to the effect of ‘if it sounds good, it is good’, or ‘you can’t polish a turd’. So, I figured, even if I didn’t know what I was doing, I could at least listen to what I was doing with the sound FX, and have fun stumbling across wild and crazy sounds and manipulate them according to my personal tastes.
Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process?
My productions skills, which I had developed over a couple years of studying and learning online with mostly free or affordable online articles and videos, really took a leap when I started working with an experienced producer. Last year I was accepted into the Music Career Mastermind and Music Production Mastermind courses With Melissa Mulligan and Michael Mangini at mastermindroad.com . As a result, I was able to get world-class music production and career training.
This experience helped reaffirmed many of things I’d learned through deduction, reasoning and researching, but also filled in some of the very basic audio fundamentals that someone might learn in a more formal setting. In particular, though, this producer had many decades of experience and multiple Grammys under his belt, so being able to get answers to all my lingering questions, and seeing how he reasoned and worked, affected the quality of my productions improved drastically.
No doubt, having this experience earlier, may have sped up the process for me, but I don’t think it would have been a shortcut. What made the learning with him all the more easy and profound for me was already having accumulated all those months and years of hands-on experience creating Elemental Rhapsody (2020) and Whaelstrom (2018), my first two releases.
What skills do you think were most essential?
Ear development. When I picked up the drum set at age 12, I also started listening to grunge rock, and eventually classic & prog rock. Instead of listening to music as a passive listener, my ears started to hone in and visualize the drum performance and composition in every song I heard. When I started producing music, the process began anew, but instead of visualizing just the drum performance, i started visualizing and considering the music from the perspective of a producer.
At first, my brain was very tired. I would spend many hours per day trying to get hands on experience producing my own audio and songs, and then listen intently to my favorite music. Far from listening passively, at this point, I was visualizing and considering every single detailed element of the song production, including abstract concepts like the overall tonal balance.
Eventually, my brain and ears would develop to the point where I no longer had to think so hard about everything I was doing and hearing. I could accurately predict what the FX knobs would do and have a better chance of making good decisions with my sounds. Through time and determination, and constant learning, this part would become second nature before I ever really even talked with another producer.
What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I think because I was learning a lot from myriad online sources, I got a lot of information that was half-baked and not of the highest quality. This so-called knowledge prevented me from internalizing better concepts and approaches that could have saved me hours, weeks and months perhaps, while also creating better sounding productions. That said, with learning a complex and difficult skill like music production, there are going be moments of profound epiphany and weeks of challenging plateaus. It’s going to take a lot of time and determination, and the belief that your time and energy is not wasted. It rarely is.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
How you got into your craft?
Music influenced my life from an early age. I gained an early passion with the drum set and instrumental performance, but it took many years for me to realize an even greater passion for producing music and making records.
At the time, I had put down the drumsticks for several years, knowing that someday I would likely regain my passion for making music in some way shape or form. When it came time, it materialized for me internally as a form of depression. I quickly turned my sights on something with which to express my feelings. Coming from my instrumental background, I had developed an interest in musical composition and arrangement, and thought it might be fun to finally express the music I heard in my head. In particular, I thought it would be fun to try layering polyrhythmic drum and percussion loops.
Once I’d found the means of making music digitally with some simple tools, not only did my internal mindset change abruptly for the better, I realized that I’d found a deeply hidden passion. I’ve been developing it and cultivating it everyday since then.
What type of offers you provide?
I offer myriad special experiences for my fans, such as an amazing private online community called the Grayliens with free behind the scenes content, free and exclusive GrayBeat merchandise, and even custom songs and experiences.
Recently, I launched my Inner Circle, comprised of a very core group of my most dedicated Grayliens. It offers a host of additional benefits, including a chance to get to know me even more in depth and have a stake in the future of GrayBeat.
I also teach a private online music production course geared towards novice to advanced musicians of all genres that are interested in gaining professional level music production skills.
Finally, I’m currently lending my tech skills in contract with Modern Musician with their IT Support department. We are building the latest and greatest new app for independent musicians.
What you think sets you apart from others?
I’m very technical, and, while music allows me to express my technical skills in a creative fashion, I’m also able to be very technical when it comes to prioritizing my goals and finding the best possible support network to make my dreams reality. My early experience with being an independent artist involved a high attention to detail, as I was working to develop the most organized and methodical workflow possible in building my brand, my music and my business.
This workflow I developed, was however, still relatively erratic and unfocused until I found the folks at Modern Musician and was accepted into their Gold Artist Academy. Modern Musician harnessed my potential and focused it in new and much more meaningful ways. They were the genesis of the Grayliens and everything that I currently offer my fans and peers.
Now, I’m able to not only make the music that I want to make, it’s driven creatively by the inputs of real GrayBeat fans and the people that engage the most heartily with the Graylien platform. In fact, my latest release, Realms of Passion, was inspired by a Graylien that filled out my custom song application earlier this year! This type of life-changing personal experience that goes beyond the music itself, is definitely not something you get from every artist.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
Unlocking the powerful benefits of these assets will enhance our lives as both artists and consumers. I’ve seen artists get involved with the Web 3.0 community and the NFT ecosystem over the past year and it’s brought their careers to heights. NFT’s and those involved with the Web 3.0 community are going to become even more important to independent artists as time goes on.
In fact, with platforms like Modern Musician and Star Stake, I think we may just be finally starting to see some influential blockchain platforms emerge that will help make NFTs bring artists even closer to their fans than before. Once a blockchain transaction is as easy as a credit card transaction for the average person, we are going to see just how powerful NFTs are as an asset.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
Art and music are a birthright, though not always a seemingly practical endeavor for everyone to undertake. That said, they are as intrinsic to our experience on earth as food, water or shelter. Art and music is a means of expression that helps humanity cope with its existence, and all the wide array of feelings and experiences that it brings.
That said, music creates its own charge. It is a currency, but not in the monetary sense. It is a current that lives in the air as waves that travel into your head and is no longer coupled with what we would consider a typical means of economic fulfillment. This decoupling of the music we make and the typical means of monetizing an independent business is hard to understand unless you’ve experienced it. Ultimately, the music I make is a way for me to connect with people of all different backgrounds and creative ambitions, and those connections are what provide the foundation for being able to support myself in my creative endeavors.
So, while my passive income from royalties on my recordings, for example, isn’t currently paying my mortgage like I believe it will some day, I’m able to leverage the skills I’ve learned while making my music and computer graphics to cover my bills in the meantime. I offer comprehensive online music production training, custom songs for personal and business use, and live performances. I also work part time for Modern Musician in their IT Support Department, and I have an unofficial gig as the ‘PC audio tech person’.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://graybeat.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/graybeatmusic
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/graybeatmusic
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graybeat/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/graybeatmusic
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@graybeat
- Other: https://withkoji.com/@graybeatmusic https://twitch.tv/graybeatmusic https://www.tiktok.com/@graybeatmusic
Image Credits
Artwork and Logos by Michael Sedivy (Aardvark Artwork) and Robin Sedivy, Photo by Mike Madision (@bumpopera)