Artist, Producer, Mixing Engineer, Mastering Engineer, Beat Maker, Web Developer, Cybersecurity Analyst
CYB (COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS) BIO
ARTIST
Gospel artist CYB passion for music and rapping started as far back as around 8 years of age. CYB became an instant hip hop fan since the early 80’s. He began to write raps and lyrics and has been rapping ever since. He got the name “CYB” from his brother that use to called him, “cool young brother” growing up. As he got older, he kept the initials “CYB” as his artist rap name. He started off as a secular rapper, but later became a Gospel rapper when he changed his life and began to live for God. CYB later swapped the “cool young brother” name for “count your blessings” when he decided to become a Christian rapper. His transition didn’t happen over night though; It was a process that happened over time. He eventually cleaned up his rap lyrics and learned how to rap for God through his music. Essentially, he went from from a secular rapper, to a Christian rapper, to Gospel rapper.
PRODUCER
Christian producer CYB passion for hip hop and rap music didn’t stop with just being a rapper or writing raps. CYB had a love for the entire music process. Being the only music creator in his household at the time, he was left to create songs on his own. He started off recording with one stereo to record while using commercial rap songs instrumentals playing in a tape player, and rapping at the same time. As you might know, without a microphone or a track recorder, this wasn’t the best way to record a song. So, CYB brought his own first 4 track Tascam tape recorder and begin recording his first songs. He later upgraded to a 4 track Yamaha midi disc recorder, a compressor, microphone, keyboard, and an Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine. Before there were a such thing as Google or Youtube, CYB somehow had an internal gift to know how to put songs together. Moreover, being so young with no schooling or training, CYB was able to produce 11 underground secular cd albums before moving on to become a Christian producer. When CYB heard about recording or producing music on computers, somehow that seemed foreign at the time. But eventually, he upgraded to his first G5 Mac computer, Pro Tools, and Reason software.
BEAT MAKER
Christian beat maker CYB became very knowledgeable in Reason Studio software by creating beats for his songs. There wasn’t a friend around who made beats at the time, therefore CYB was left to create the music behind the lyrics. CYB became the beat maker but never really had a chance to conquer the beat making skills as much as he wanted to; due to wearing multiple hats in the music production process. He always had to sacrifice, juggle, or spread out time for all parts of the production process. Without official music theory training, CYB took a few piano classes here and there but never stuck with it long enough to do any damage. A life long goal of CYB is to learn how to play an instrument.
MIXING ENGINEER
Christian mix engineer CYB somehow enjoyed the process of making music sound the best it could possibly sound. It was something about turning the eq knobs on the track of his Yamaha midi disc recorder. The knob that said “High”; somehow when he turned it to the right a little, made everything sound just a little bit brighter and clearer. The knob that said “Low”; somehow gave the song more bass and punch. Then there was the knob that said “Mid”; that brought out the vocals a little bit. When CYB later upgraded to software and recording on a computer, it was a huge learning curve, to say the least. It was about 10 years of trial and error before he officially became proficient in Pro Tools and audio mixing. CYB was self-taught through YouTube tutorials, practice, and multiple classes, courses, and workshops.
MASTERING ENGINEER
Christian mastering engineer CYB passion for wanting to make music sound it’s best, naturally, went on a quest to learn mastering. Using the same process he used to learn how to mix songs, through trial and error, practice, and tutorials. The good thing is that once you learn how to mix tracks, mastering is not that hard to learn. This is because, you already know how to work an eq, compressor and most other plugins, now you just have to shift that knowledge to processing the song or track as a whole.
WEB DEVELOPER
Christian web developer CYB (9 to 5) or day job is web development. Therefore, he build websites on the side as a part time gig. His main passion is music, in which he does for enjoyment, but music doesn’t necessary pay the bills. He uses his web development knowledge and incorporate it with his music career. CYB stresses the important of Christian artist having their own website. Social media platforms should not be your only means of a website for Christian artists. It’s always a good idea to have a platform to host your music or merch where you have total control over and ownership of your brand and artist identity. Bandzoogle is a great platform for music artists, music producers, or musicians. There are other platforms out there like Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly; however, Bandzoogle is geared towards artists and musicians. If you need a website or want to know how to get started with getting a website, you can submit an inquiry here and get a free consultation. Being that it’s a free consultation, time is limited to a first come first serve basis.
CONCLUSION
CYB is a self-taught music producer with no official college training. Learning how to rap, produce, make beats, mix, and master came out of necessity being that he was the only one into music in his inner circle. The internet does make it better now to collaborate with other artists and producers. CYB says he’s always down to collaborate with other music makers. In fact, wearing many hats can become tiresome over time, CYB stresses. Somehow, CYB manages to write the lyrics, perform and record the lyrics, create the beat for the lyrics, put the song together, mix the song, master the song, publish the song, create the website for the song, and market the song. This is a guy of many hats and many talents, who mainly does most of his work behind the scenes, with multiple published Christian rap albums available on all major streaming services and at gospelbeats.com/music.
