Pictures

Learning the piano by ear at an early age.

A major part of the reason Shaun started composing: The Casio SK-8!

Shaun Friedman: writer and composer of urban hip hop beats.

FL Studio Training offers tutoring lessons on creating digital music to people in Cleveland, Oh and worldwide using screenshot tutorials.

Credentials

December 2003: Bachelor of Arts: Mass Communications and Social Issues | Media Effects - Columbus, Ohio.

April 2009: Certified pro tools Operator in Music and Post Production.  Pro Media Training courses took place in Dallas, Texas.

 June 2010 - In house engineer at 480 Studios - Phoenix, Arizona. Also launched the site Global Heat Wave to give away 20,000 free wave drum samples.

October 2011: Graduate of 3 month course at Sweetwater University in everything pro audio gear, instruments, and electronics - Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Shaun was born in 1981 in Cleveland, Ohio.  When his dad got him a Casio SK-8 keyboard, his destiny as a music producer was quickly put into full swing.  The family was very involved with music and his dad Allen Friedman composed jingles for advertisements and played jazz piano.  There was a piano at his home and many other family spots like Aunt Judy's, Grandma Bina's, and Grandma Rosie's.

Shaun started to seriously compose around age 15 or 16 his his fathers studio.  This consisted of an old version of Digital Performer, a small Macintosh, Korg Keyboards, Kurzweil Keyboards, Proteus sound modules, korg sound modules, a soundcraft mixing board, outboard effects like lexicon and bbe processors, reel to reel tapes, cassettes, C.D.'s, and DAT Tapes.  This was an analog type of studio based around midi instruments.

The beats accumulated into the hundreds, if not close to thousands of compositions during his teenage years.

He was 1 of 5 students in his high school that enrolled in the Music Theory course, and played the drums at school assemblies and in the "White and Gold" talent shows.

He went to Ohio State and still used his fathers studio during summers and when he came back to Cleveland on breaks.  During his last quarter at Ohio State, he stumbled upon the program fruity loops and spent about a week trying to decipher the program.  It was a pretty big breakthrough as the workflow suited the way he composed, and he was able to get his ideas down quick.  
 
After Ohio State, he set up a his own apartment studio consisting of a Dell Desktop computer, Creative X-Fi music extreme PCI soundcard, Behringer mixer, Roland Fantom X-8, Rode NT1A mic, Stanton Turntable, FL Studio, and his fathers old  vinyl records from the baby boomer generation.  It was a little bit of an unorthodox setup, but it was a good mix of the new Digital DAW (digital audio workstation) technology and the analog setup he learned during his teen years. 

After becoming somewhat sickened that all of these beats were just collecting dust in his closet (literally on C.D.'s), he decided to start the website UnbelievableBeats.com in May of 2006.  The websites sole purpose was to give away free beats, the same free beats that can be found in the player today.  The website had a great response, and the tremendous guestbook posts from people around the world fueled his fire even more.  The fact that people could feel the heart and passion he put into each composition meant more to him that anything.  The original posts can still be viewed today on the Guestbook Page.

Shaun then moved to Dallas, Texas (Addison) in February 2009 and enrolled in a Pro Tools 8 certification course from Pro Media Training.  He lucked out and got a great teacher in James Creer, a midi and audio expert who also taught at Full Sail University.  Besides getting certified  in Pro Tools as an Operator in Music and Post Production, he learned production techniques and was introduced to the software called Reason.  Reason could actually be used with FL Studio, and the creative pallete expanded.  

After Dallas, he moved back home and worked on the site, adding new beats and offering non-exclusive, exclusive, and media master use and synchronization licensing.  He started to get involved with youtube videos and tutorials, as well as remixes posted to youtube.  

In 2010, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona (Chandler) to work at a recording studio in Queen Creek, Arizona.  It was a great experience where he recorded rap groups from around the area as well as a group that traveled up from Mexico.  There were also sessions with singer/songwriters and guitar players.  

In August of 2011, he accepted a job as a Sales Engineer at Sweetwater Sound and graduated from their 3 month course at Sweetwater University.  The job is one of constant learning in the areas of computer audio, instruments, recording gear, live sound, church systems, amps, DJ gear, keyboards, speakers, and more.  It's also great to learn about vintage gear vs. the plugins and digital technology of today.

The current site offers free beats, easy licensing of beats for lyricists, as well as audio visual projects which have a simple media master use and synchronization license.  

The best is yet to come and Shaun seems to be "never satisfied."  He is now working with music publishers to help exploit his instrumentals to audio visual media.

Friends and Links

TCustomz.com - Your #1 Source for Authentic Hip Hop Instrumentals.

Royalty Free Heaven - Your royalty free heaven on earth.

Royalty Free Music from All Music Library - The highest quality royalty-free, buyout, and production music tracks available.

StandOutBeats.com - Beats for the Artist who wants to Stand Out. Original | No Loops | No samples 

 WorldHipHopBeats.com - Download Hip Hop Beats and Free Instrumentals.

 Shadowville.com - The #1 most visited website online for original hip hop, pop, and R&B beats.

ProBangers.com - Free Beats, instrumentals and hip hop beats for commerical use.

iProduce1.com - Buy beats online | Buy Beats | Beats for sale

AlmostFreeBeats.com - Free Rap Beats Download | Buy Pop Beats For Sale | Hip Hop Instrumentals

 CFLBeats.com - Beatmaking | Rap Beats | Hip Hop Beats | Download Beats

Buy Beats - #1 Digital Production Marketplace | Buy Beats | Beats For Sale | Mixing & Mastering

 Beatpick Music Licensing

RoyaltyFreeMusicLibrary.com

FreePlayMusic.com

indieTracksLibrary.com

Nomad Recording Studio - Carrollton, Texas

GlobalHeatWave.com - 20,000 Free Wave Drum Kits

BeatBrokerz.com - Production ready rap beats & hip hop instrumentals from professional producers. Free downloads and paid licenses available.

OpenMindsEntertainment.com - Original High-Quality Music Instrumentals

PresidentialBeats.com - Premium Rap Beats for Sale | Buy Hip Hop Beats Online | Pop Beats for Sale

Beats for Sale - Get hot beats for as low as $9.99, plus beats with hooks that will make your mixtape sales explode!