In case you missed TLC‘s reality show, Street Customs, on Nov. 15, Snoop Dogg had his old Sprinter van converted into a mobile recording studio. It was a first for the car-remodeling company, West Coast Customs, featured on the show.
“We‘ve done a lot of projects involving extreme high-end car audio, and a number of mobile stage trucks with performance and DJ rigs, but professional recording gear has a whole different set of requirements,” West Coast Customs‘ Chad Utt says.
The van went from a beat-up shuttle vehicle with six rows of seats to a kick-ass mobile studio. First things first, West Coast Customs called Mackie, who outfitted the van with a Sony Vaio SZ491 2.16 GHz dual-core laptop running Mackie Tracktion 3 Ultimate Bundle software; Mackie Control Universal Pro, Extender Pro and C4 Pro control surfaces; Onyx 1200F FireWire interface; and 1521Z 15-inch active loudspeakers.
The van also does double duty as a video lounge. To that end, there‘s a Sony 46-inch Bravia flat panel display, Blueray DVD player, PlayStation 3 console, HR624mk2 studio monitors and an HRS120 12-inch studio subwoofer. And people sitting at stop lights next to Snoop won‘t be complaining from the racket, either: West Coast treated the entire van with Dynamat acoustical sound dampening material.
“Snoop is totally stoked,” Utt says. “He was looking around the van and saying ‘man, I gotta shut down my other studios and go on the road.‘ Everyone who sees it is just amazed. It‘s not some all-cosmetics project, just for TV. It‘s fully functional and it sounds awesome. This is the real deal.” Check it out!
You may have already heard of iStandard Producers, but you may have thought that it’s only hip-hop producers’ battle that takes place at Remix Hotels and many other events all around America. Not so. In fact, they’re up to a lot more to help talented producers build a career.
The company has brought labels on board to solicit and scout for music to be used in major album productions, as well as TV and film. Labels who have already committed to iStandard include Def Jam, Universal, Jive, Sony BMG, J Records, Bad Boy, Warner Family (Atlantic and Asylum), Interscope family (Shady, Aftermath and G-Unit) and others.
Cats who sign up for a full account can post up to 5 tracks ($50 a year) to their own iStandard Web page with photo, resumé and music player. A 10-track account is yours for $75 a year. What’s important about these accounts is that you can then submit to a project looking for beats on the Web page. As I write, some of the track submission oppotunities on iStandard were from Atlantic, Jive, Def Jam and others for vocalists such as Lloyd Banks, Slim, Dolla, Ghostface and Juvenile.
So far in the short history of iStandard, producers involved in the iStandard showcase have had been placed with or worked with 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Cam’Ron, Method Man, Fabolous, Freeway, Talib Kweli, Postaboy, Capone and many more. 27 producers have also been placed in Viacom network (BET, VH-1, MTV, etc.) shows. So go get your hustle on!
Man, Daddy Kev was off the hook spinning digital vinyl with Torq and Torq Conectiv. The crowd was head-bobbin, totally into it. It was like a miniclub goin’ on in there. The music is thumpin’ hard, and I’m off to go check out some more now.
It’s Lori here. Well, I’m mostly here (mentally, at least). My co-workers and some industry peeps stayed up really late debating/discussing the state of the music industry and the state of hip-hop. It was a great, intense conversation until the wee, wee hours of the morning. But it was worth it. And now we’re juiced for today.
Yesterday was just crazy here. The Beatport stage outside with the Red Bull bar was massively kick-ass. All the panels were packed. I was hanging out in the Ableton Room around 7 p.m. last night and overheard two attendees talking. One guy was all excited. He said, “This is the best day ever. I had a half day at work, and right after I came here [Remix Hotel], and this place is sick! I’m having a fuckin’ blast!” So there you have it. The best day ever. See? Today could be ANOTHER best day ever. So you’ve got to come out, okay?
Hi again. We’re already approaching the last day of Remix Hotel, and I’m a little woozy from all the action yesterday. If you see me and I’m downing Red Bulls, it’s ’cause the four hours of sleep last night didn’t really cut it. But it was worth it. As usual, yesterday was a whirlwind. I helped judge the iStandard Producers battle,which was cool. There were a lot of great tracks. Da Grindaz, who have apparently already worked with T.I., took home the prize for their commercial radio appeal. Their tracks were really hard-hitting and definitely had hit potential. But my personal favorite was a little left of center: Soul Nana & Taka. I believe Soul Nana is from Ghana, Africa, and Taka is from Toyko, Japan, and their tracks were as diverse as their nationalities. They didn’t have the same commercial style as Grindaz, but the tracks were really cool and original. iStandard chose the eight finalists from 60 entries, so everyone who hit the stage was really talented. And man, it takes guts to get up in front of all those people and put yourself out there. The other judges (including A&R from Interscope and Atlantic) and I didn’t always agree on everything, and we made various songwriting and technical suggestions, but hopefully our comments were helpful to the producers.
So after the battle, I ran over to watch DJ Babu scratch it up in the Rane room and DJ Rap talk about making tracks in Logic in the Apple room. And finally, the “Producers, Bring Your Beats” panel was really cool. Aloe Blacc, DJ Rhettmatic, DJ Babu, MED, Charles Goodan and a couple other producers picked numbers out of a bucket and gave feedback to people on their tracks. We’ll have a ton of video to show you of everything soon. Day 1 video will hopefully roll out here in a few hours.
Today we have T-Pain, Carmen Rizzo, FreQ Nasty and a ton of other producers, musicians, DJs, etc. in the house. Come on down! –Kylee
Okay, remember when I said this Beatport stage is gonna be crazy? Yeah, well, the cops just showed up because we’re a little too loud. Pssshhhht. Is there any other way to be when you have the hottest DJs around? Nope. But we still got the beats flowin’ for ya, baby. The Beatport stage is still goin’ off.
Also? We’ve got some Poppycock in the back room. That’s right, I said Poppycock. It is delicious. Look into it.
Right now we’re gettin’ ready for our final Shocklee panel of the evening, where we asked you, our lovely readers/producers, to bring your beats to have our panels of judges give you feedback. And who does this panel consist of? None other than DJ Rhettmatic and DJ Babu (who spun an awesome set in the Rane room just minutes ago), Aloe Blacc, Medaphoar (MED) and Charles Goodan, that’s who.
Sweeeeet. I’m gonna go check out some stuff now. See ya later.
Remix is stoked to have JBL speakers in our NARAS Producer’s & Engineer’s Wing, where our illustrious VIPs are enjoying awesome food and drink. The vibe in there is totally chill–a nice place to step away from the hustle and bustle of Remix Hotel. Many thanks to Kyle Keene with the Producer’s & Engineer’s Wing and JBL!
Man, it is crazy-ass hot in the panel room for the Ultimate Engineer’s Session. It is so packed with folks absorbing all the tips and tricks on how to get your mix right in the box. Problems are being solved left and right…it’s pretty freakin’ cool.
But I had to step out and let some more folks take my seat (well, my spot on the floor…it’s sitting-on-the-floor-room-only).
The iStandard Producer Showcase is wrapping up soon, and the crowd is totally into it. I saw many heads bobbing in time with the fat beats being dropped outside on the Beatport stage. And at 6 p.m., the Beatport stage is gonna blow up with a slew of DJs, spinning until 11 p.m. tonight. Look, ya gotta get your buns down here. Why? Well, for one, your buns are pretty sweet. And another thing, you’re missing out if you’re missing this event. We’re easy to find: We’re the ones throwing the most kickass party on Sunset tonight.
Hey again. So day one of Remix Hotel L.A. was awesome. The panels were superinformative as usual, and it was great hearing from Josh Gabriel of Gabriel & Dresden about how he works with Apple Logic Pro and his transition from Logic 7 to 8. And while DJ Rhettmatic and DJ Trainwreck were ripping it up in the Rane room, Roland was demoing its VS-8800, Hank Shocklee was moderating a mixtape vs. radio DJs panel and DJ Revolution DJ’d a live set using M-Audio Torq, I was doing a little video interview with 9th Wonder, which you’ll be able to watch here at remixmag.com shortly. I was really inspired by his True School association, which he founded after he realized that his group Little Brother’s album, The Minstrel Show didn’t “do what it was supposed to do.” True School (www.trueschoolcorp.com) caters not to the old or new schools of hip-hop, but that middle era from the 1980-95. But while 9th’s music harks back to the boom-bap era, he brings an updated slant to it in his latest album, Dream Merchant Vol. 2, which features a whopping 33 guest vocalists.
After our one-on-one talk, 9th and I met up with Hank Shocklee in the panel room and talked to a crazy-packed crowd about everything from A&R reps–”What are they there for?!” 9th exclaimed–to 9th’s love for Hank’s work with Public Enemy. 9th teaches a “Hip Hop in Context” class at North Carolina Central University, and last week, the topic of discussion was Public Enemy. Also coincidentally, he was wearing a Public Enemy shirt last night. 9th had a chance to ask Hank two burning questions he had about Public Enemy samples (again, wait for the video clips coming in the next few days). And I asked the guys about how they get the best out of vocalists. It was pretty hilarious watching them shake their heads about the trials and tribulations of working with Jean Grae and Murs (9th Wonder) and Flavor Flav (Hank). Hank said, “Flav is like taking the worst of every vocalist and putting it all together in one.” So if you find yourself in shouting matches with vocalists you work with, you’re not alone.
Today, we’ve got a ton going on: DJ Rap in the downstairs Apple room, DJ Babu in the Rane room, a bunch of top engineers (who’ve worked with Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Fleetwood Mac, The Killers and much more) talking about mixing, a beatmaker’s panel, Jay-J in the M-Audio room and so much more. Can you handle it? I think so. Haven’t registered yet? No worries. Just come on down, and we’ll register you right when you walk in.–Kylee
