ENGINEERINGATLANTA.BLOGSPOT.COM

A blog all about recording and mixing.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Enjoy Some New Photos...


So I finally got the camera Ive been obsessing over today, The nikon D90. Now im new to this whole photography thing, but its been something Ive wanted to do for a while now. This camera is sick, shoots HD video and shoots photos with 12.1 megapixels. Stay tuned for some new HD vids of us in the studio working or chilling and just some more artsy joints of gear and whatever i see that looks cool.






Chilling At Patchwerk from J Stevenson on Vimeo.

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Sunday, December 21, 2008

JD And Trey Songz Living The Life

If you dont keep up with JD's Youtube page and his Living The Life series, you should. For him to actually stay taping and posting these vids with an inside look at his process is amazing. I wish I had this when i was younger, JD being one of my fav producers ever and one of the reasons I even moved to Atlanta in the first place. Dope vid check out the rest of his series via youtube.com/jd1472


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Sunday, December 7, 2008

My everyday essentials.

I wanna dedicate more posts toward what I do day to day. I dont do as much freelance site to site as much as other guys having a pretty steady client for the last 1 and a half, but there are things I still like to have with me when I head out to a session. I usually carry the same bag with all these things in it. Most thigs I use every day, others are for just in case circumstances.



I always carry a portable drive for tons of reasons. While recording Here I Stand, it was important to keep several backups for mix uploads, making Mp3's for the label, or those awesome 4am sessions all over Atlanta. I guarded this drive with my life while tracking all those songs, after the album dropped I exhaled and immediately did a backup of this drive and erased it. Hence the "Instant Death" written in sharpie on it.




An extra set of headphones can be a lifesaver and just a generally good thing to have if ur ever doing ruffs in an unfamiliar place. These 7506's are pretty standard sets around the world, Im pretty used to them and know exactly how they sound.




I Stay on MLK, nuff said.



Any engineer who is worth their day rate owns a few " Go To" plug ins. For such things these ilocks contain the licenses for said plug ins so they can operate on any computer you decided to install them on. I own a couple joints, not as many as some but they are very valuble to me none the less. Master X, Melodyne, SSL, and Filter Freak to name a few. I also keep a couple of jump drives for quick transfers and backups, and my Logic 7 key.




Hands down the most important thing I take with me besides my harddrive is my laptop. I would lose my mind if I didnt have my lappy with me on most writing sessions that occur at the 2 spots I work at. I have most of my LIFE on this thing. I always back up my itunes and the entire HD for that matter using time machine, which is great cause we all have had a drive go bad one time or another. Im currently graphing my joint out, I need to go ahead and hit up SK8TIQUE for some stickers and finish it off.




Now this I cannot front is probably pretty silly to most guys. So instead of keeping my fingers crossed and hoping the studio Im working at would have one ( doppler never does lol) I just decided to keep one on deck at all times. Now dont get it twisted, I'll track with anything but I prefer to have this joint simply for the side to side scroll action and it being so easy to carry around.




My manuals. Now i dont refer to these all that much but I do believe its important to always be up to date with the latest programs and staying in the loop so to speak with the standards set by our industry. Miles turned me onto Melodyne and is a must for R&B sessions though its kinda time consuming to use during a session i usually wait till after the client leaves to break it out and start tuning vocals.

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Wednesday, December 3, 2008

I fucks Wit Luda Lol

I love this song, produced by the big homie Cannon!. Love the video and the concept, alotta local industry heads in this joint, Luda is one of the most underated creative people period. He's a dope actor awesome rapper and takes a hand in everything that comes to the table whether it be movies music or his own video's, ya gotta respect it.


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JD back on his grizzy via Youtube

Love his channel on youtube, always ome interesting stuff on there from the parties, to the behind the scenes footage of him working in the studio. Glad he actually keeps up with his vlogging and giving the fans some insight on what goes on in the yo. Check him out as he cooks up some heat and then producing vocals with his artist Dondria.




http://www.youtube.com/user/JD1472

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Friday, November 28, 2008

Classic Sound: Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon

One of my favorite albums of all time, DSOTM is arguably the best engineered album ever. The mixes and effects, the loops and certain sequences are just amazing especially for the time. This album stayed on the billboard charts for something crazy like 15 years after its release. Absolutely timeless, I still listen to this album for inspiration. Here's a great documentary with all 4 band members and their engineer Alan Parsons.










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Thursday, November 27, 2008

Almost Too Perfect

I was looking on youtube today (Happy Thanksgiving yall) and found this vid of Mike recording "We Are The World" and I have to say this is a lost art. The man freakishly doubles himself with accuracy to the point Im sure it was phasing cause it was so exact. I was laughing at how he was jammin at the end dancing while he was waiting to do another take. Mike was and still is the absolute shit.



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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Cannon On Atlanta

My big bro speaking on what made atlanta music special to him.


Get your urban news at DimeWars.Com

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Monday, November 24, 2008

Beyonce is a BEAST

Please tell me.....who is fucking with this chick right now? RiRi's performance was garbage. All hail the queen.




Plus here's some studio footage of her getting it in on some tracks from B-day.




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Monday, November 17, 2008

Redbull Music Academy

An oldie but still relevant, I love the sound of Deangelo's Voodoo, probably one of the best mixed albums ever. All this was tracked and mixed by Russell elevado.


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Monday, November 3, 2008

Rocko Raw Report Street Vid

One of the best songs off of his Holiday Season Mixtape like 8 months ago lol, none the less still loved this joint wish it had made the album but atleast we got a vid for it!


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Thursday, October 16, 2008

Pharrell And Big Sean In The Yo

Good shit and good Music. Pharrell has been getting it in with the beats lately, this joint sounds crazy too.


Get your urban news at DimeWars.Com


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Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Mix Views: Kevin KD Davis

So finally a new post, Ive been slipping lately no doubt, but with good reason. Ive actually been busy with personal stuff and work in general so its not like im sitting around not doing anything, but I swear to get back on it for atleast a week or so lol. So a pretty cool post with one of my fav. mixers KD. His mixes on Ne-Yo's first album are absolutely incredible. I reference from that cd so much, its kinda flawless actually lol. Heres a close look of his Mix on Ne-Yo's latest album called "Closer".






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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The comeup

Saw this video a while back with Polow explaining how he came up in the industry from an artist to a producer. Great story and the one of my favorite quotes, Anyone who is serious about music, wont go away.



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Thursday, September 4, 2008

Crazyness

This nigga chain game is crazy, that skull shit is crazy
niggas need to be careful, its snuff season right now lol


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Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Absolute Truth


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Must Be T.I. month or something right? lol

Another T.I. post, but hey when do we ever get a freestyle from the king? This nigga is going in on Carlos.


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Sunday, August 31, 2008

Swagger Like Us New Video

Wow, this is so dope. Must have taken forever to do the edits and what not. this niggas deserves a job lol.


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IICRLT: Results May Vary- Limp Bizkit

Another installment of If I Could Record Like This ladies and Gents, and this time its with one of my favorite bands ever and in my top five albums of all time. Results May Vary was definately not their most popular album or best selling but for some reason that i cannot explain, I absolutely love everything about it. The mixing, production, musicianship, artwork, and the whole concept and storyline that went on during the recording of this album. Fred Durst is something like a genious, fuck what you think, this man just directed a movie this year! I put him up there with Kamye and Joseph Hanh from linkin park as far as creativity. I get alot of my sound from this album, i love what they did with the drums and bass as well as the vocal effects used on durst throughout. Give the album a listen if you can on itunes and trust me its worth the 9 bucks.





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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Youtub'ed It!: Dave Pensado

New Vid, check it out!


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Industry Legend: The NS-10


So heres a new title post that i will be doing along side the Mix Views I do from time to time. It will be a new post regulary about an item or person who has reached a legendary and almost mythical status in the music industry lol. Well the first post is very fitting of that title being that this monitor is in every studio in the world and god knows how many records have been mixed mastered or arranged on these sets of speakers. Love them or hate them, sooner or later you will run into these bad boys in a studio while working. Ladies and gentlemen....The NS10 lol












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Saturday, August 23, 2008

Best Song Of 08


nuff said....btw TIP murdered this shit, then J, Then Weezy.


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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Awesome studio footage!

we all know i love some studio footage, like im not there enough doing my own stuff but either way its so cool to see how other people lay it down in the studio...no homo. Wale and travis barker laying down live drums over a sean and lv track. Nasty.


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The King is back

hes definately on top of his game right now, hes killing the radio and clubs too. the king is back and im glad to hear him talking positive. cool interview.


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Sunday, August 17, 2008

I See u Bro!

Shout out to the big bro Cannon, word on the street is he has the hardest song on Recession. Be easy!


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Saturday, August 16, 2008

T.I. and Just Blaze....

Found this vid on Just's youtube page of him and TIP working on the last albums hottest track, Helps on The Way. Cool vid also make sure to check out his youtube page cause
theres plenty of other cool vids of him doing work.








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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

First Post Since Forever...

Sorry I havent been on this joint in a while, kinda got discouraged from blogging the last 2 weeks, been busy setting up my stuff at the apt. and work has picked up again, exciting but also very tired. But in the next week I will post pics of the new setup at the crib, ive been currently mixing the homie IL's mixtape tracks in the house and it's a breath of fresh air really. Dudes voice is sick and I wil definately post his tape as soon as its ready. I cant believe how good the stuff is turning out with all new gear basically for me, new monitors as well. (HS80's and yes Im happy to admit that I like them them!) but i decided to post some new songs Ive been listening to lately, Jeezy's album is gonna be a monster, and T.I. is running the club and radio right now with his new songs. 4th quater here we come!








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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

For you songwriters out there.

Really cool article on Diane Warren, arguably one of the most succesful songwriters ever. Shes written so many smash records its ridiculous. She even touches on the importance of having a publisher and getting started on your own.





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Sunday, July 27, 2008

Mix Views: Fabian Marascuillo




Yes another post in the same month by the same mixer, but the guys seems to be everywhere as he should be. Hes putting out some of the best mixes all year. Heres an in depth article about his awesome mix on Low By Flo Rida. It just came out via my online subscription to sound on sound. your welcome.





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Killer

I love vids like this ever since travis started remixing popular rap songs like 2 years ago. this kid is equally ill with his version of the CRS track Us Placers. Check him out and subscribe to his youtube page.






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Saturday, July 26, 2008

Marco Polo!

this is still my shit, but why is soulja boy swagga jacking the shit outta gucci mane? Ole i idolize my fav rapper face ass nigga lol.


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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Jeezy Talks...

Heres a cool vid I found on The Fader website. Ive heard a couple of joints so far and his album will fuck around and be the best hip hop album this year. Yeah I said it lol!


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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

I Put On!

finally the video comes out like 2 years later lol, but on the real hottest song out, been waiting on this one for a sec.


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Monday, July 21, 2008

Mix View : Manny Marroquin

Ive been posting more Mixing and recording stuff lately and Ive been getting really good responses. So here's another joint that I uploaded myself from the Waves site. Awesome 5 part series with him breaking down mixing and how hes done some huge mixes like Alicia's "No One" and John Mayer's " I dont trust myself".










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Sunday, July 20, 2008

Big Boi Feat Mary J Blige!


Somethings Gotta Give, very dope.


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On A Lighter Note

BEATS BY DR. DRE
Im pretty intrested to hear what these are gonna sound like. I would love to get a pair of headphones that actually show detail and clarity. And are actually honest lol, any way they are gonna go for 350 so save up kids!





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If You Got A Sorry Engineer...


Nate on Engineers

Im really disappointed. As of late some of my peers and clients have expressed their feelings bout the lack of credible engineers here in Atlanta. Maybe things would be different for me if I never interned at such a great studio as Patchwerk and get to see so many dope engineers track and mix everyday. Ive assisted some of the best engineers in the country and Im very thankful for that and to actually be friends with some of the industries best cause that gives me insight and actually in more ways a sense of what its gonna take to get where I want. Theres no excuse for some of the things that fly nowadays. For example and Im not trying to point fingers or diss anyone, but listen to The Carter 3. Awesome songs and pretty much the Savior of Hip Hop this year. Dude has went 2x platinum in a lil under 5 weeks. Amazing. The vocals though from song to song....decent at best. Listen to " You Aint Got Nuthin" Juelz and Waynes vocals are so distorted its crazy. The verses are sick too, but they sound like shit becuase whoever tracked them didnt have the sense to stop and change his settings until he or she got it right. Retracking a vocal due to fidelity is a artists worst nightmare. I would have loved to track those joints, Id be sitting pretty right now with those credits lol. I posted a vi of Danja talking about his engineer and how shes a very valuable part of what he does. The engineer is so critical cause they are the gate keeper, they control how the record is gonna sound and how fast or slow the session is gonna flow. Ive seen an engineer single handily shut a session down from being to slow and just plain out of their league during a vocal session. Kanye said it best, "Go to the studio in fear of being wack". If nothing else will motivate you then that should, I would hate for someone to say I was wack and kept them from being creative. Fuck that, step your game up Atlanta, your making it easier for your competition to take your cleintele. If this was LA or NY you would be out of work and luck. Even if your in a good situation and your happy and content things change with the wind, stay up on current platforms and updates. Read and study. Ask questions and lose the ego, cause if theres anything worse than a dumbass, its a smartass know it all. Get Money.

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Friday, July 18, 2008

Mix View: XXL Mag Interview W/ Fabian Marascuillo


Very cool article about the man who mixed most of the Carter 3, and actually almost everything Cash Money does. Fabe is definately one of my favorites and has been str8 killing it lately across the board. From side effects from Mariah to Cash Flow by Ace. Not to mention Lollipop being the best mixed hip hop joint all year, i love that mix. Ive also had the pleasure of assisting him on plenty of sessions when he came down to atlanta to mix, one of the coolest guys in the biz, easily. His low end is crazy, no homo lol.

Tha Carter III is finally here, leaked online and now in stores, too. The overall reception has been favorable, though there’s been some rumblings over whether Lil Wayne properly delivered considering the sizable buzz he built. According to his engineer, however, Young Money/Terror Squad family Fabian Marasciullo, TC3 is even better than intended.

Plenty of songs leaked to the Internet that could have made the cut. New songs were added literally days before the product was shipped. But the end result, he says, is a quality album.

Here, Marasciullo, who rode shotgun for the entire making of the album, speaks to XXLmag.com about the records that didn’t make the album, mixing and mastering the album, and the pesky leaks that slowed down the project in the first place.

On meeting Lil Wayne…

I’ve been working with Wayne since the 500 Degreez stuff. I was working with Rodney Jerkins and we were doing shit like Michael Jackson and stuff like that. I was Rodney’s exclusive engineer and I met the Cash Money guys including Lil Wayne and we hit it off well. I didn’t really start working with them until Tha Carter, the first one. The first record I mixed was “Go DJ.” So I been with Lil Wayne as an artist for a while now.

When we started with Tha Carter III and seeing all the leaks, there was frustration because we had been working on this for years. When it came time to mix, the first record that we mixed was “Lollipop.” In the past, Wayne was never involved in the technical process before this album. He just gave us the songs and we mixed it, compiled the album, and put it out. We, meaning Slim, Baby, and me.He would give us the songs he wanted, and Baby and Slim had more input on the original albums. But Wayne always gave us the records. And then we would mix, put the spacing and do all that shit. But this album was really more hands on for Wayne. The first record we mixed was “Lollipop” and it was kind of a weird situation. It was Wayne’s first time really being involved in the mix process and at the time there also was a couple different version of the record, so there was confusion getting started. We might have mixed that record three times before you guys even heard the final product; there were three different versions of where we were going. From that point, me and Wayne had a meeting about the vibe he had and what he wanted it to be. We kind of pushed the envelope as far as rap stuff goes. He kind of did it a little funkier, wild, and far out for rap shit, as opposed to the typical straight up, rap album. His manager left me with Tha Carter III drive and they left overseas to do some shows. They were gone like a month and while they were gone I just started mixing stuff.

On getting started on Tha Carter III…

When it comes to Wayne it’s always been more of a family thing so I always go in a little bit different for him than for anybody else. So they left me with that and we started going in. We did “La La,” the David Banner record. I mix records every day, but then you get someone like Wayne and just because you know it’s a more anticipated thing, not to mention it’s my brother, so you have to go in a little bit more different and you got to think about things differently. When we were working with Michael Jackson, it was like, it’s Michael, we got to go in. So we’re looking at Wayne in the same light nowadays, really, because he’s who everyone is looking to. So to go in on that means to just give things a 10th listen instead of 9. We go in with more passion and more heart, just because it’s a family thing. And we knew this was the most important one so we had to make it perfect. So we did “Lollipop then we did “La La,” then we did the Alchemist record. From there, I did a record called “Phone Home,” which was produced by Cool and Dre. And it was dope, because I kind of took Wayne’s lead on that. In the first verse he said, “We are not the same, I am a Martian.” And he sounds crazy, like a Martian when he says that word. So in the intro, the record didn’t have any of that computer shit, the space and all that stuff. So I listened to the record and I was like, We need to take this up to the next level. I got a bunch of sound effects, I created the countdown at the beginning, the spaceship taking off, that’s what I mean by going in. The next step. So I went in and added all those sound effect and Wayne heard it and was like, ‘You’re retarded.’It was great.

The whole time it was just so stressful. We had a safe in the studio. Because I knew I was the only person that had a copy of these records at the time. So it was so stressful we literally had a safe. I locked everything up every night, leave. No one had the combination. Nobody had access to this thing, not even Baby and Slim. In fact, I got married in the middle of the process and went on my honeymoon; I was in Italy for two weeks. They were calling because they needed a record to send over for clearance. And they couldn’t even get it, because I had the key on me. It was funny. This shit was literally under lock and key. They were like, ‘Damn, we can’t even get to it.’ From there, we mixed a couple of really dope records that didn’t make the album. I’m sure they’ll be out on mixtapes or on the Internet in the next month or so, you know how that shit goes?

Fabian Marascuillo mixes records for Young Money and Terror Squad.

On leaked records…

The way I look at it, everything happens for a reason. As far as the stuff leaking, I was always Cash Money’s mix engineer. And Andrews Correa was the tracking engineer. There was always two guys that they could always go to. Baby and them were still in old-school world and Wayne was never too into the technical process before. They would have to come to us to burn a disc, do this. It was always more of a pain in the ass for us, but it was good because no one had access to things and you didn’t have to worry about much. So now Wayne blew up, he goes all over the world, he goes here, he goes there. So of course now there’s more margin for error. As opposed to being in the studio in New Orleans, we record here, or we’re in Atlanta, you send it to me and we mix it in Miami, then it goes to mastering. But now he’s all over the world, so there’s 10 engineers doing 10 different things. So of course there’s more of a margin for the shit to get leaked. But anybody that hears this stuff can tell you that the records that got leaked were always super dope. But the final album…it’s like, thank God for the leaks. Because the final album is killing what would have been the final album, in my opinion.

On what made the album and what didn’t…

The “Playing with Fire” joint, the Streetrunner record. That originally was a Rolling Stones sample that they used and there wasn’t no way it was gonna get cleared and everyone was tripping about it. Streetrunner went back in, unbeknownst to Wayne, got Betty Wright, replayed the guitars on the record. Up until the day before mastering it wasn’t on the album. We were in New York paying the album and I was like, What about “Playing with Fire?” It was one of the records I really enjoyed listening to the whole thing. Wayne was like, ‘We can’t get it cleared, We can’t use it.’ I told him he re-did it and Wayne was so excited. It cost Universal so much money because the artwork was done already; they printed almost 2 million copies of the album to ship out. And Wayne was like, ‘No, make it happen.’ I was watching people from the label scrambling to put the shit on there. But that was another thing that people probably don’t know about. Literally we were mastering and adding songs. Like Jay-Z, I didn’t get that verse until the day we were mastering. So I mixed that record. I was in New York and I had to go over to Quad and mix Jay-Z’s vocals into the record literally within minutes of completing mastering.

There was this record that Develop produced, and it was called “American Dream.” It had a Mike Tyson sample on there, when he was going crazy that one time talking about I’ll eat your children. They couldn’t get the sample cleared but it was crazy hearing Mike, and then Wayne talking about he’s the baddest and on that level, that eat your children type of shit. It was dope, it was extreme, it was really hard, but obviously they couldn’t get it cleared, they had to call HBO, they had to call Don King, it was like 10 different clearances that needed to be done. So it wasn’t worth putting it on there.

On his favorites…

Definitely my favorite record on the album, there’s two, “Mr. Carter” and “Tie My Hands” is just such a dope record. The ending is so legendary [on “Mr. Carter”]. But it’s kind of like a milestone where we are in the rap community. There was always Biggie and Pac, you got Nas…then you have Jay-Z. That’s the king, but I think people are starting to, if they haven’t already, obviously compare Wayne and Jay, so to hear them together is just so legendary. And to hear Jay give Wayne his props and say, ‘Go ‘head, go get it.’ Just the whole presentation was legendry. And Drew and Infamous killed that beat, it was retarded. “Tie My Hands,” that’s like a movie, its theatrical. He could be talking about the soldiers, the hardships, people trying to make it, and your hands are still tied. So I know we’ve all been there, we all could be doing better but something is holding us back. And the collaboration between them two, that’s something you’ll continue to see. Robin Thicke is an incredible artist and Wayne already respected that. I think that’s a collaboration that you’ll always see from here on out whenever anyone of them puts an album out.

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Thursday, July 17, 2008

Cool Interview W/ Danja


Found this on rhapsody.com


If 2006 was the year that Nate “Danja” Hills became the hottest co-producer in the game, 2007 was the year he established himself as a force to be reckoned with on his own. The 27-year-old Virginia native made his name sharing board duties with Timbaland on Nelly Furtado’s Loose and Justin Timberlake’s Futuresex/Lovesounds, racking up platinum stats, number one hits and Grammy Awards. However, when you break in with one of the most influential producers in pop history, people tend to be skeptical of your contributions. Thankfully, the music industry is not short on opportunities to prove oneself: Danja did so by producing Britney Spears’ comeback single (“Gimme More”), DJ Khaled’s heavyweight anthem (the futuristic, electronic “We Takin’ Over”) and a handful of songs by Canadian emo-popsters Simple Plan (on their new self-titled album). While he continues to work closely with Timbaland on upcoming Missy Elliott and Madonna projects, it’s clear that Danja is far from a sidekick.

Rhapsody: You have previously spoken about the desire to do a full project by yourself. How was it producing most of Duran Duran’s new album, Red Carpet Massacre?
Danja: I’ve learned that you hit a wall trying to do the whole project yourself unless you're working with a team of people. That’s why me and Tim were able to do a whole album, because it was two brains working at the same time. The good thing is, if you hit that wall, it’ll trigger you into going somewhere else. But it may not be for this particular album. During the Duran Duran project, toward the very end, I started feeling like, "Ah, what can we do?" But by that time, we already had so many songs, we didn’t have to keep going back in to create something new.

When you hit that wall, is that discouraging?
That’s the most frustrating [thing]. I’m surrounded by 12 keyboards and I’m looking at every one of them like, "Nothing is gonna come out." It can just be depressing. Especially when, for years, you just sit and create non-stop. Not saying that I haven’t experienced writer’s block before it [lifted], but it’s definitely different now [having done] music that was ground-breaking.

Explain how you test your melodies as ringtones to see if they’re catchy?
I call it “ringtone” because it’s a silly little melody that catches you. I do those melodies and loop them and build songs around that melody, whether the artist is singing it or [an instrument] in the track is playing it. I’ll pull a random person into the room and say, "Listen to this." They listen to it and I come back [in 10 minutes] and say, "Sing what I just played for you." If I know they can remember it from hearing it one time, then I know we have a potentially good record.

How did the collaboration with Simple Plan come about?
I was in London working with Duran Duran. [Atlantic Records] hit me about who was on their roster and who I’d want to work with. I picked Simple Plan. We was all on the phone; they just told me what they wanted to do. We finally got in the studio in Miami and fully collaborated. I’m doing beats and they playing on the beats. At that time, I wanted to venture out and challenge myself. I was working with Duran Duran, but it wasn’t so much rock. Simple Plan was similar to Duran Duran because we would come up with the basic idea, and then they would take it and record on their own with the drums, guitars and vocals. But the basic bed was laid down.

They were talking about how the night before you did “The End,” you guys all went out to a club where DJ Tiesto was spinning.
We went to dinner and we went to Mansion. So we just vibing out to Tiesto. We all was thinking, if we could just take something like this, and flip it. “The End” has a techno feel in the beginning, but they replay it with guitars. By the time we got to the hook, it’s just a smash pop-rock record. But that’s usually what we do. Go out and grab inspiration from the clubs.

When I was hearing the stuff you were doing with Simple Plan, it reminded me of TV on the Radio and Radiohead, of how the rock and electronic elements are melded. Are you a fan of those groups?
Definitely. I brought a TV on the Radio [album] one time and just rolled to Virginia from Miami. That’s like a 12- 13-hour drive. I’ve been listening to a lot of Foo Fighters lately. I was listening to a lot of Coldplay before that. I like listening to Nirvana. If I can figure out how to capture that “Teen Sprit” energy, I know I’m gonna have something monstrous on my hands. I listen to the weirdest things, like Massive Attack sometimes and find myself doing it subliminally in my music. It’s things inside of that music, whether it be a little weird sound that you put inside yours, that just turns your track into something totally different. I’ll ride around to this French group called Air.

Have you been working on T.I.’s upcoming album, Paper Trail?
I did. I sent him a few tracks. He wrote to one. From what I hear, it’s incredible. I’m not allowed to go in his crib. But I’ll be in the studio completely focused on T.I., sending him tracks and we’ll be communicating. I hate emailing beats. It’s the worst thing you could do, because it’s a magic that has to happen in the studio. I can see and feel when you don’t like something. When I worked with Tip on the last album, I ended up with three [songs]. But it’s another six records that he started, where he at least got a verse and a hook on, that we were just doing so fast -- just from being in the studio [together]. So I’m gonna try to recreate that magic even though there’s going to be a distance. The difference is he’s writing everything now. The last [album] he just went in the booth. So now he’s thinking about what he’s saying. It’s gonna take a little bit longer. But the quality of the work is gonna be phenomenal.

What’s going on with the Clipse?
We haven’t got in. I really want to get in them just for the sake of Virginia. Pusha, pound-for-pound, a lot of people ain’t touching him with the spitting. I wanna do at least six or seven joints and make that album a classic like a Dre with a Snoop, or Primo with Big and Nas. There hasn’t been any more conversations [recently], but we gonna make that happen for sure.

Keri Hilson was saying because Britney wouldn’t open up about her own personal experiences, it made it tougher to write for her. Did you find that it made it harder for you as well?
It wasn’t hard for me in the creative process with Britney because I was totally left to do pretty much whatever I wanted to. If she felt it, she was gonna ride with it. If she didn’t, you’d see it in her face. I don’t think she needed to open up. She did have one record where she’s mentioning certain things, but it’s in a clever kind of way, not necessarily pouring her heart out. We’ve known Britney for entertaining, dancing and giving you a sexy record, getting you moving. And that’s what we did. Unfortunately, she’s in the state that she’s in, but the music speaks for itself. In the studio she was dancing, laughing in the booth. She gave the right type of energy. That’s all that matters.

Did it disappoint you that the public didn’t respond as well to her VMA performance as they did to the actual “Gimme More” song?
It didn’t bother me until nine months down the line. I was like, "I wish she could’ve really nailed that performance ‘cause that really would have set it off." It was still top five [on the Billboard] Hot 100. I didn’t think the performance was really that big of a deal. She looked a little spaced-out. To me it looked like she was completely nervous. She hadn’t been on stage in I don’t know how long. During the performance, I was watching like, "Just give me that one pop to let me know you back." And it never happened. I was rooting for her regardless.

At the end of “Gimme More,” you were talking on the record. What prompted that?
[Laughs.] I just felt like I needed to say something. People haven’t really seen me or heard my voice, and that was one of my first solo productions. So I definitely had to stake my claim. There's a lot riding on my future, because people think I’m around because of Tim and they don’t really know what I’m capable of. After we mixed that record, I just knew that record was crazy. Period. We got all these hit records and I haven’t got any on my own. Well, here’s one.

Has all the drama overshadowing Britney’s project and Duran Duran's lackluster sales had any affect on you?
It definitely weighed on me. At one particular point last year, I felt like, "Man, I did all this work, and it ain’t pop like it’s supposed to pop." I was down for a little bit. It wasn’t that I wasn’t proud of my work. It’s just things with the business that sometimes happen that affect your music. You could put your all into the music, and it’s some executive decision that ruined it. I don’t count it as a failure. It’s just a lesson learned. In the Britney case, every producer, songwriter or arranger on that record did their thing. The record label did their thing. That was just something uncontrollable on her part. Duran Duran [is] an old group, [and] a lot of people are not familiar with them. Not saying that it’s over for them. It’s just a matter of reintroducing them.

Are you still working on Madonna's album?
Actually Madonna is finished. Me and Tim did four or five [songs] together. He also did three more with a new producer, Hannon, out of Virginia. Then Pharrell did the rest. So it’s like a Virginia-produced album. I’m actually kind of proud of that. Even though me and Tim and Pharrell didn’t work together, just for us to completely conquer an artist such as Madonna ... I’m good. Either way, whether we got a single or [Pharrell] got a single, Virginia got a [Madonna] single.

What was the vibe like?
She was cool. She had a dark sense of humor that I can’t explain. She might just say something crazy that you might feel is out of line. But it’s not. It’s just her sense of humor. She was in the studio chilling with us, being open and the whole nine. With any session when you don’t know somebody, the first session is the hardest. You gotta break the ice, but after that initial session, it was all good. Another person that I worked with, Mariah, was really cool and so down to earth. [I did] her new single that’s coming out with T-Pain, “Migrate.”

So, right now, who are your top five producers in the game?
Danja. [Laughs.] I’m playing. Of course, Tim would be number one. I love the Runners, Pharrell, Dr. Dre, Swizz Beatz. I don’t put myself in the top five. Not right now. I need more classic joints under my belt. I’m working on that.

Posted by Toshitaka Kondo on 13 February 2008

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Mix View: Jack Joseph Puiq

Heres another mix article with Jack Joseph Puig and his mix on Fergie's smash 3rd single "Big Girls Dont Cry". Now I love this record, awesome production with a great vocal performance by Ms Fergie Ferg. Im not into the autotune'd sound vocal, especially since I dont believe she needed it, kinda like how keish coles vocal always has the tune cranked on her leads that it reacts crazy with her vibrato. Melodyne is 10 times better but either way both of those girls mixes sound awesome. To me this is easily one of my fav. mixes to date. JJP has always been on top of his shit. Awesome producer and enginner this guy is in my top 5 all time. Hes really known for his use of compression, in his words its the most musical piece of gear we have, and he uses every bit of that. Theres some real cool stuff in here that he uses and if you got to waves.com he has presets on there that he uses regulary. Check em out! Also check out the gear in his room at ocean way. he has tons of vintage gear worth thousands of dollars in there. hes a collector of some of the coolest gear ever.






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