We’ll be the first to admit – BandLab has a LOT of features. As hard as we try to build our features to be as intuitive as possible, some tools like the web Mix Editor take time to master. If you’re someone who has turned to YouTube for tips and tricks on using BandLab, the name Eumonik will not be new to you.
Eumonik is one of the first YouTube content creators to make beautiful, high quality and insightful videos on using BandLab. He’s gone on and helped thousands of creators understand and appreciate BandLab for what it is. Because of that, we felt that Eumonik was a natural fit for a collaboration.
The result? An exclusive sample pack with more than 100 samples available for creators to make music with, all for free. Whether for personal or commercial use, you can download Eumonik’s Loop pack on BandLab Sounds and make music on BandLab, or any other major DAW. (We also collaborated on a special contest round this month! More details here.)
It’s been long overdue to officially feature someone so prolific within the BandLab community. So, we caught up with Eumonik to talk about his music journey, YouTube channel, his brand new Loop Pack and more.
ICYMI: Introducing BandLab Sounds: Royalty-free samples, unlimited and free
Introduce yourself to everyone on BandLab!
I’m Eumonik, I’m a music maker and creator. I call myself a music maker instead of an artist or musician because I’m a very producer-focused musician. I do play instruments – my favourite instrument is the banjo. But most of what I do when it comes to making music is focused on the production side. I really enjoy the process of letting music evolve, especially within a computer – there’s so much you can do there. I really love the art of getting into a flow state just like crafting a song, it just becomes something else. As much as I love that aspect of it, I definitely have a goal to get more into the performance side of things.
Tell us how you started on your music making journey.
I started making music in high school. It was when I first listened to Dilated Peoples’ “Worst Comes To Worst.” I was probably 12 or 13 when I saw their music video watching MTV late at night. DJ Babu, who called himself “The Turntablist,” was just wrecking it on the turntables. Looking back at that, I thought that was what I really wanted to do.
Hip hop was really the channel in which I found and started to respect the rest of music. When I first started listening to hip hop, it was like that was the only music that existed. But through all the sampling of jazz records and other random records from all other genres that gave me a wider appreciation for all music.
How did the YouTube channel come about?
I actually just slept on YouTube for many years and it wasn’t until three or four years ago that I started enjoying and watching videos on YouTube. Up till then, the only reason I would get on YouTube was to find out how to fix the sink or something stupid like that! One of the first YouTubers I subscribed to was Andrew Huang. He blew my mind, he went from sampling stuff to making beats out of pizza boxes.
The big thing that spurred me to action, like many things in my life, is curiosity and enjoyment.
You have a personal mantra which viewers can see and hear very clearly in most of your videos, which is – make more music. Can you tell us more about that?
Yea, as much it is a personal mantra, it’s also a call to action to people that follow me. Making more music is the best recipe for improving and staying inspired. There is something powerful about working on a new project, a new song, or a new beat. Also, for beginners, learning music production can be overwhelming. If people stay in that excited and curious mindstate and MAKE MORE MUSIC, I believe they will find the answers they need.
If I feel like an idiot in front of the camera, I’ll just keep making more videos. If I think my voice doesn’t sound good enough, I’ll just keep singing.
The other reason why people should make more music is because most of the problems I have experienced, creatively or even personally, can be solved if I just keep continuing at it. If I feel like an idiot in front of the camera, I’ll just keep making more videos. If I think my voice doesn’t sound good enough, I’ll just keep singing.
How did you first discover BandLab?
I found a goldmine of all these different companies and apps and services that focused on music production. It inspired me to make a series of videos focusing on these apps, and some of them were quirky, some serious and professional. That was when I found BandLab.
The first thing I liked was the design. It’s not one of those DAWs that has been shrunk and put on a phone, where I struggle to push buttons and adjust the sliders. BandLab’s mobile app is designed to work on a phone. The colors were beautiful and I was instantly gravitated to it. The first feature to blow my mind was the Looper. There are many apps that do that, but the sound selections and the effects and then how you could seamlessly transition from the looper into making music really caught my attention. BandLab takes it one step further by saying “here’s that, now do more.” Using BandLab more and more has just been a constant unfolding of “how is this free?!”
Since you’ve tried so many other music making apps, what made you stick with BandLab?
BandLab is such a multifaceted gem of value – it’s got completely free tools for creators and it’s also an entire social media platform (I have not made a video about this). And yes, it is completely free – there’s no premium account, paid content or pay structure, and they are hosting every single user’s music on their servers for free. That’s amazing. I could go on rambling about how great BandLab is.
After seeing how well my first few videos about BandLab were received, I did some research. Aside from Phil Heely of Inclusive Music, there was a huge gap for BandLab tutorials on YouTube. People were making music with BandLab and searching for videos that weren’t there. That’s when I decided to make the first 12 BandLab tutorial videos.
There are lots of beginner-friendly apps out there. They get viewed as beginner-only, and if you want to produce something more professionally, you’d have to move on to something else. I don’t see BandLab like that. There are actually resources and features here that any professional could use and find value in, especially with the portability of it, and of course now, with Sounds.
How has BandLab shaped your YouTube channel? Do most of your subscribers and viewers watch your videos for the BandLab tutorials?
When I first started posting videos about BandLab on YouTube, there were hardly any video tutorials online. There were some but many weren’t of high quality – just lots of screen captures with talking over it. Lots of people were searching for BandLab on the internet, but not enough people were making videos about it.
Everyone went home, they were bored, and they started searching for videos on making music with their phones, and for free.
Earlier this year in March, for obvious reasons, was a pivotal moment for me as a content creator. Everyone went home, they were bored, and they started searching for videos on making music with their phones, and for free. By then my YouTube channel already had many videos about BandLab, so naturally the number of views skyrocketed during that period.
Can you tell us more about your latest Loop pack on BandLab Sounds? What do you want creators to get out of it?
I’m just so stoked about Sounds. As I mentioned earlier, BandLab is a multifaceted platform of free value for creators, music makers. With Sounds, it just continuously increases that value, turning it up making it more accessible to people who may use another platform to make music.
There are 90 samples and 14 one shots in my Loop Pack, and there are two parts to it. The first part are the beats that are like construction kits (or deconstruction kits because you get to take it apart) are mainly electronic, hip hop and pop sounds.
For example, if I was a beginner, I would see 12 sounds that all work together. If I just stack them up and drag all of them into the track, I’d have a complete beat. That helps people see and process how a track comes together, especially for the beginner. And my goal is to inspire creators in some way with these samples.
I would say the thing that I want creators to get out of it is to find the sound that truly gets you curious and excited, a sound that resonates with them and amplifies in their heart – whatever makes them go PLAY THAT AGAIN! And wherever the music goes after that, I think it is a good place to start. I’m really looking forward to seeing what people make with my samples!
What are two features you can’t do without on the Mix Editor?
The New Track button. It’s like a blank canvas. All the magic happens in the tracks.
And then on the mobile Mix Editor, I would say the Looper. Simply because it’s like a sampler where you can chop up stuff, take samples and it just unfolds from there, and anyone can use it to make music.
Lastly, how did you come up with the name Eumonik?
I’ll start with the boring side to the name first! I realized that I needed something unique that no one else had because it makes my name more searchable and . And, eumonik.com was $8.99 to buy the domain name! In this world, an artist really has to think about the trajectory of their name.
The name Eumonik is a portmanteau between euphonious and mons, which is Latin for mountains. Euphonious Mons would literally mean “the mountain of good sound,” which has some poetry and beauty to it.
When I was in high school, I went by the name of Symphonic. It just didn’t really make any sense because most of the beats I made weren’t symphonic at all! As much as I loved the meaning behind that word – from Greek word symphonia, meaning “harmony, concord of sounds” – I realized that I needed something more unique if I was going to release music or content on YouTube. I also didn’t just want to go by my first name Kyle – there are so many other Kyles out there in the music world.
The name Eumonik is a portmanteau between euphonious and mons, which is Latin for mountains. Euphonious Mons would literally mean “the mountain of good sound,” which has some poetry and beauty to it. But to set the record straight, I’m not claiming I am the mountain of good sound, or this great thing that is amazing – I am just of its being and it’s just a deep appreciation for the greatness that exists in life and knowing that I’m a part of it.
We collaborated with Eumonik for a special contest round this December. Eumonik created a beat with his very own Loop pack and we want to you remix it. Find out more details about the contest here.
For producers, creators and artists who are making music, check out Eumonik’s exclusive Loop pack on BandLab Sounds here.
Lastly, please show some love to this incredibly talented and passionate music maker and content creator by visiting and subscribing to his YouTube channel. We have collaborated once again so that Eumonik can bring you even more useful and entertaining tutorial videos on the ins and outs of making music with BandLab. You will not want to miss out on these new series of tutorials, so make sure you are subscribed to BandLab’s YouTube channel too.
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Read more: Beats from scratch: How to produce a Cardi B style beat on BandLab
