New! Video Interviews of world renown producer/engineers/composers
Get your FREE Real One Player download
Michael C. Ross at Royaltone Studios, North Hollywood - watch the interview here!

studioexpresso in alliance with the following affiliates is pleased to bring you these interviews. Big thanks to: Record Production & Babblefish

Top 100 Positions /Issue Date: July 20, 2002

"Express Tour" of following world-class studios available here: express tour gallery!

Welcome to the new Recording Hot Spot, Firehouse!

North America's newest and largest Pro Tools HD3/5.1 complex, Firehouse Recording Studios in Pasadena, California is open after a year of planning and building! Studio manager, Melanie talkes to us about the goal to please both music and film clients in a perfect mix of analog and digital environment.

Mention this "express tour" and receive a bottle of Firehouse's amazing "hot sauce" on your first visit!

Read more by taking an "express tour here" or call manager, Melanie Mullens Hoyson - 626-405-0411- to visit the fab facility.

Back to top

Win $200 gift certif towards a Zeeta purchase anywhere in US including on-line, courtesy of Maven Amp


:Maven Peal's Zeeta 30 is the perfect studio guitar amplifier. With authentic control over the power amp, you get a wider variety of sound from this simple tweed design than you would get on an "unpealed" amplifier with 100 knobs.

How?

Simply identify the producer on wheels below whose credits include Keith Richards and Neil Young. Go Zeeta!

click on producer name to read the full bio and credit update

Matt Chiaravalle producer/engineer/mixer
Warren Zevon, Crossbreeed, Bonamassa

Chris Trevett mixer
Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, R. Kelly

Check out the Studioxpresso online event calendar

highlights this month:

7/16 Billy Holiday Salute at the Hollywood Bowl with Dianne Reeves and friends tix

7/22 -- Support Musicare courtside with some great tennis, courtesy of Grammy organization, "Night At The Net" with Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt and Celeb guests!

7/30 -- Take a tour of Manley Labs courtesy of AES LA Chapter, and decide for yourself why "tubes rule!"

Go to "event calendar" link above for details on these events and more...

Back to top

AP Photo/Pat Vasquez-Cunningham

AP Photo/Jim Cooper
Arista's 'L.A.' Reid at the helm

When Antonio "L.A." Reid, president and CEO of Arista Records was named head of the label two years ago, it marked the pinnacle of more than two decades in the music business -- first as a performer, then a producer, and later as a founder of his own music label.

Reid, 45, was selected by BMG, Arista's parent company, to replace Arista founder Clive Davis partly because BMG wanted someone younger, despite the success of the now 70-year-old music legend. "He was basically asked to do the impossible," said Grammy-winning producer James "Jimmy Jam" Harris III. "He's been asked to come and take over from a legend -- and not a legend whose who's retired by the way, but a legend who's still very much alive and involved in making great music."

Last year, Arista's multiplatinum acts included OutKast and Usher. In February, its artists were up for five Grammys; four of them won. In addition, this year's surprising success of singer Pink, and promising first-week debuts from newcomer Avril Lavigne and old-timer Barry Manilow have only further solidified Reid's reputation.
And BMG says that Arista, which lost money after the Davis transition, is on pace this year to make a profit.

Reid grew up in Cincinnati with a love of music, and started playing in bands when he was 14. He first gained prominence in the early '80s as a founding member of the R&B group The Deele, which featured then unknown Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds.

Though the group scored hits with "Two Occasions" and "Love Saw It," the production projects of both Edmonds and Reid led to the group's demise in 1987. But the pairing with Edmonds would not end -- they would continue a successful production and songwriting partnership that created hits for artists such as Whitney Houston and later, for the group's own label, LaFace Records, whose artists included platinum acts such as Toni Braxton, TLC and Usher.

BMG noticed LaFace's success and began wooing Reid to fill Davis' position, especially since LaFace already was a subsidiary label of Arista's. The company even sent Reid to Harvard Business School.

The idea of heading Arista appealed to Reid because "I had worked closely with the artists at LaFace, and some of the artists at Arista, like Whitney Houston, like Kenny G."
"It was important to me to continue working with people that I feel like I had an interest in their success," he said.

After Davis departed in July 2000, he negotiated a deal with BMG to create his own label imprint, J Records, which became an immediate success with acts such as Alicia Keys, O-Town and Luther Vandross. When Davis left, however, he took key executives with him, and left Reid with very few records set for release. "We had to really play catch-up," he said.
Yet Reid doesn't have a disparaging word to say about his predecessor; and when Davis threw his annual pre-Grammy bash, Reid was there.

Arista sustained itself with holdovers such as Dido and Brooks & Dunn; later in 2000, OutKast's Grammy-winning disc "Stankonia" began its platinum run. However, Reid had to work hard to keep Arista on the charts.
"We signed a lot of artists, and we got into production on many of them, and we've now started to release some of the records," Reid said. Among the recent signings that have paid off: Lavigne, a teenage singer-songwriter whose style is reminiscent of fellow Canadian Alanis Morissette.

Reid also helped guided his established artists to multiplatinum success; he helped choose producers for Usher's "8701," and also gave the green light, although a bit reluctantly, for Pink, whose first platinum album was steeped in R&B rhythms, to change her sound and move more toward pop and rock. The album has sold nearly 3 million.
Braxton says Reid's success as a label president comes in part because he's a former artist, and he has a strong relationship with his acts. "I think a lot of times, record company people and producers have to be therapists," she said. "He's always been very very good at that."

Reid also re-signed Houston, the label's biggest artist and one of the most successful artists in recording history, to a much hyped $100 million, multiyear contract. Allegations of drug use and erratic behavior on Houston's part have some questioning whether the deal was a smart move. But Reid brushed aside concerns, saying Houston was in great shape. "I'm trying to think of which artist hasn't had drug rumors in their careers," he said
Longtime friend Edmonds believes all the negative talk surrounding Reid only helped to make him stronger. "Ultimately, it's a question of whether you believe in yourself," Edmonds said.

Lon Cohen Studio Rentals has just expanded and relocated to a 6,000-square-foot building in the prime NoHo arts district of North Hollywood, Calif. They specialize in recording-quality guitar, bass and amp rentals and they handle storage and cartage for some of the top names in the recording studio world. They offer top-shelf guitar and amp maintenance and currently have limited space available for secure storage, cartage, showrooms, and management and artist relations offices. visit the web site, call (818) 762-1195 or e-mail: lon@loncohen.com.

Pete Byrne is working on a new collection of acoustic covers. The first of which is "Cry Baby Cry" MP3 available. Pete is also in the studio producing tracks for Saitobeat.

MTV's Twentieth Anniversary video collection "MTV 20" includes the "Promises, Promises" music video. The DVD version also includes a bonus interview clip with Pete and Rob.

Pete's album "The Real Illusion" is out! MP3 available at: http://www.pjbmusic.com/main.html

TuttoMedia has been busy with great sessions lately!
Producer/songwriter, Giovanna is happy to report that Grammy Award winning producer Narada Michael Walden (Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey) just finished tracking with vocalist Siedah Garrett for her upcoming release on Higher Octave Records with Jim Reitzel engineering. Garrett is doing her version of the song she wrote for Michael Jackson that became a #1 single..."Man In The Mirror" and it's awesome!

Jimmy Mahlis just finished tracks for his band of all-stars with Ronan Chris Murphy engineering...Ralph Humphries on drums, Jerry Watts on bass and Andy Suzuki on sax, with Jimmy Mahlis on guitar.

Ronan Chris Murphy just mixed the new urban acoustic blues release from Chic Streetman, singer/songwriter from Seattle produced by Giovanna.

Producer Bob Esty (Cher, Barbra Streisand) tracked a string quartet with the 12 year old sensation Lizbeth for her upcoming CD with George Landress at the controls.

Also, the monthly in-store radio program for "Best Buy Radio" that gets heard in over 400 Best Buy stores nationwide will be produced in-house at Tutto Media.
Call or e-mail Giovanna for a tour of this fabulous recording hide-away in Venice, California.
310-399-2800

Bowie tour and art exhibit to support the new Columbia release!

Bowie, who turned 55 in January and has a 22-month-old daughter with supermodel wife (Iman), says his old label Virgin neglected to sign his extension. He and his old record producer, Tony Visconti, the team that worked on Bowie milestones such as the 19'71 "The Man Who Sold the World" and "Low" in 1977, returned to the studios last year for the first time since "Scary Monsters" in 1980.

The newly released "Heathen" on Columbia Records is a liberating escape from the heavy concepts and arrangements that encumbered much of his 90's work. It's relaxed, straightforward, quietly intense. Includes versions of songs by the Pixies, Neil young and the legendary Stardust Cowboy, along with Bowie originals that recharge his basic themes of obsession., alienation and mortality.

Look for Area2 with David Bowie, Moby, Busta Rhymes, Blue Man Group
Aug 13, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater 8808 Irvine Center Dr Irvine 949-855-8096

Also check out the exhibit - Sound+Vision both LA & NY
Museum of Television and Radio
465 N. Beverly Dr. Beverly Hills
Sun 2pm; Thusdays, 7pm through Sept. 15
free 310-786-1000

Listen.com becomes the first subscription service to have signed content distribution deals with all five major labels, having just signed on with Universal Muisc Group to offer tracks via its Rhapsody streaming service. Rhapsody now offers users over 200,000 major label and indie songs-but no portability of major label content. Regarding the issue of portability, the FullAudio subscription service operator has its own first in its new pact with Warner Music Group, whereby users can buy WMG tracks online, download them to a PC or portable device, and burn them onto a CD. "Three years ago, the labels really hoped the Internet would go away because they couldn't see any benefit to it," Listen chief executive Sean Ryan said. "In the last year, they've grown to understand the Internet is not going away and the Internet can grow their businesses."
The Rhapsody service offers access to all of San Francisco-based Listen's licensed music content for $9.95 and allows the user to stream songs from a desktop computer.

Get the 7-day FREE trial here!