The Artists, The Producers Face the Press
Congrats to all Grammy Nominees!
studioexpresso is pleased to bring you sights from the press conference that took place on December 4th at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and was attended by national and international media, as well as key music industry executives. The Awards will be presented in Los Angeles at Staples Center on Sunday, February 8, 2004. The show will be broadcast on the CBS Television Network from 8 - 11:30 p.m. (live in the East, tape delayed in the West), marking the 31st consecutive year the show has been broadcast on CBS. Artists reading nominations included Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Dido, Evanescence's Amy Lee, Sarah McLachlan, Moby, Jason Mraz, Stacie Orrico, Brad Paisley, M.C. Lyte, Steve Via and Pharrell Williams (above).

L-R: Evanescence, Joe Chiccarelli, Jimmy Jam, Nile Rogers, BabyFace, Neptune's Pharrell Williams & Steve Vai

The Production Field was split into two separate fields for the 46th Annual GRAMMY Awards: Production, Non-Classical, and Production, Classical. In February, Nigel Godrich, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the Matrix (Lauren Christy, Graham Edwards and Scott Spock), the Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo), and Outkast (André "3000" Benjamin and Antwan "Big Boi" Patton) will vie for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical. Nominees in the Producer Of The Year, Classical, category include Adam Abeshouse, Manfred Eicher, Steven Epstein, Marina A. Ledin and Victor Ledin, and Robina G. Young. Complete 46th Annual GRAMMY Nominations here!

Sound Worthy of A King...

...New King Sound where Fishbone, The Warlocks, Slum Lords and slew of other artists are recording in this Hollywood Hills vintage heaven.

studioexpresso caught up with owner/producer Jimmy Sloan who gave us the grand tour.
Take an Express Tour of NKS and hear the latest here...

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MusiCares® 2004 Person Of The Year - STING
Tony Bennett, Black Eyed Peas, Elvis Costello, Dido, Elton John, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Dave Matthews, John Mayer and Rufus Wainwright will perform in honor of GRAMMY-winning artist Sting at the MusiCares 2004 Person Of The Year gala on Feb. 6 in Los Angeles. Special tribute dinner, concert and silent auction held on Feb 8th - Grammy night. For more info please download the invitation and reservation form.

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Stephanie Quayle
Turqoise

New sensation Stephanie's debut is produced by Eric Foster White who has written, produced and sold over 70 million records worldwide for rock R&B and pop superstars (Britney Spears, BackstreetBoys, Jessica Simpson).

Quayle just performed new songs off of her new album at the Gig in Hollywood last Tue eve for a packed audience.
E-mail here for updates on how to order the album and get on her mailing list for the next show!

Verve Remixed

The World's top DJ's rework the legends of jazz classics from the Verve vaults. Mix up the holidays with Afro-Cuban" rhythms of "Manteca" composed by Dizzy Gillespie, the bebop trumpet great remixed by Funky Lowlives. Warm up with the High Priestess of Soul, Nina Simone, renowned for her daring arrangements, and her take on "Sinnerman," as featured on 1965's Pastel Blues with Felix Da Housecat remixes. Bring home Sarah Vaughan, arguably the most versatile female vocalist of jazz's Golden Age ("Whatever Lola Wants" mixed by Gotan Project) or First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald ("Slap That Bass" remixed by Miguel Migs Petalpusher) or Brazilian bossa nova chanteuse Astrud Gilberto who never set out to be a professional singer (she just happened to be the only qualified candidate when her husband, guitarist João Gilberto, was cutting a song called "The Girl From Ipanema" with saxophonist Stan Getz in 1963, and they needed someone to sing a verse in English!) Wrap it up with Verve Remixed for the holidays and warm up your parties! Listen to samples here!

Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Raise Your Spirit Higher—Wenyukela
(HUCD 3083)
Ladysmith Black Mambazo releases Raise Your Spirit Higher on Heads Up International on January 27, 2004, in time for the ten-year anniversary of the end of apartheid. In English, the word Wenyukela means “raise your spirit higher,” but the language of Shabalala’s stirring and richly layered vocal compositions are universal. Raise Your Spirit Higher is Ladysmith’s message of hope and unity to a troubled world.

Against a backdrop of political upheaval and personal tragedy, Joseph Shabalala and the ten-member vocal group—now including four of his sons—have spent three decades fusing the disparate but spiritually resonant traditions of Zulu and Christian gospel music.

The Third Circle
“Enter the Worship Circle”

Released Nov. 4th,“Enter the Worship Circle” has already become the current best-selling album for Grassroots Music.
A unique compilation of meditation and worship music and the most recent album in the “Enter the Worship Circle” (EWC) series that sold over 100,000 units combined.
The Third Circle features the performing talents of Ben and Robin Pasley (100 Portraits), Barry and Michelle Patterson and Kate Hurley. Ben Pasley, writer, performer and producer of the EWC series, turned to PreSonus Audio when recording the much-awaited Third Circle project.

Hear Songs Here!

Verve Remixed

purchase here
listen to samples here

Third Circle
11.4.03

Bronfman's $2.6 billion cash offer - Music to Warner's Ears

L-R: Bronfman, Ames

Just two weeks before, Sony Music and BMG had agreed to merge into one big-ass music company, and it appeared that Warner Music Group and EMI were going to do the same. But now WMG has apparently spurned EMI and is going with a group led by an investor group led by Seagrams heir Edgar Bronfman Jr.who's buying Warner Music Group for $2.6 billion, a cash deal that propels Bronfman back into the forefront of the entertainment business and gives Time Warner Inc. the cash it needs to help pay off some of its debt. This leaves EMI as the only one of the big music companies without a more- diversified parent.

In an interview, Bronfman said he plans to play an active, day-to-day role in running Warner Music. Even though he anticipates that cost-cutting will be necessary in the short run, as the music industry struggles with online music swapping and piracy, he is optimistic about future prospects.

"We don't believe the music industry is going away forever," Bronfman said. "The industry has, and always will, find new means of distributing its content. Whether that takes a short time, or a long time, which is what we are planning for, we think we know how to run this business."

Bronfman said Roger Ames, the chairman and chief executive of Warner Music, will continue to play a senior leadership role.

For Bronfman, the deal marks a fresh chance for success as a music mogul. His stewardship of Universal Records ended with the sale of that business for stock to Vivendi Universal SA, a French firm that has struggled under the weight of too much debt and other problems.

Time Warner chief executive Richard D. Parsons said in an interview that the sale of Warner Music will give the world's biggest media company enough cash to begin investing in Time Warner Cable and other divisions that have been growing, rather than sticking with the music business, which has been contracting for several years because of falling CD sales.

Parsons said Time Warner is about one year ahead of schedule in reducing its debt to target levels, a top priority. The company plans to shift its focus to growth after the sale closes, within 60 days.

"We will be looking to maximize the value of this flexibility for our shareholders and that probably will entail investment inside and outside the company, and possibly doing other things," Parsons said. "Cable is one."

The deal gives Time Warner the right to buy back 15 to 19.9 percent of Warner Music over the next three years, which Parsons said would give Time Warner the ability to participate in future growth if there is a turnaround in the music business.

The transaction includes not only Warner Music's stable of more than 800 artists -- including Linkin Park, Sean Paul, Madonna, Metallica, R.E.M. and Kid Rock -- but also its highly profitable music publishing arm, Warner/Chappell Music, which owns more than a million copyrights. Ames said the newly independent company would continue to work closely with Time Warner as a result of a number of existing agreements.

"I am very, very happy," Bronfman said.

The company will retain the name Warner Music Group. Warner Music, home to Madonna, Kid Rock and Missy Elliott, is the No. 4 music company with about 11.9 percent of the global market share.

A message posted at Mp3.com!

"As the creator of trusted, award-winning sites like CNET.com, Download.com, GameSpot, and mySimon, you can rest assured that we are working hard to build a digital music information service that you will come back to again and again." -- Vince Broady
Senior Vice President, Entertainment CNET Networks
In order to keep up to date on the new launch, and to receive your invitation to the exclusive member-only preview, sign up here.

Launching in early 2004, music.download.com will offer artists free file hosting and a presence on the Web, and will give music fans free access to a universe of downloadable songs.

Most Popular Download Sites
Week ending November 30th:

1. Kazaa Media Desktop
2,721,180 downloads
2. iMesh
449,248 downloads
3. Morpheus
187,814 downloads
4. LimeWire
120,635 downloads
5. DivX Player (with DivX Codec)
103,004 downloads

Who would you like to see interviewed? Send us your feedback.
Past interviews include:Get your FREE Real One Player download

Ken Allardyce - Sarm West, UK
Chris Fogel - Fig, Glendale, CA
Greg Ladanyi - Tidal Wave Sound, Studio City, CA
Joseph Magee - O'Henry Studios, Burbank, CA
Michael C Ross - Royaltone Studios, North Hollywood, CA
Elliot Scheiner - Presense studios, CT NEW!
Tolbert & Sutton - Studio Atlantis, Hollywood, CA
Rafa Sardina - Abbey Road, UK

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

George Harrison Honored
Harrison will be the third Beatle to be inducted as a solo artist into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Sail on George.

Arise Sir Mick!

Mick accepted his knighthood from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace on Dec 12th.

``It's very nice to have honors given to you as long as you don't take it all too seriously,'' said Mick outside the Palace. He wore black suede and leather sneakers for the occasion and was accompanied at the ceremony by his 92-year-old father Joe and daughters Karis, and Elizabeth.

Rosa Parks Trumps "Rosa Parks"

hook:
Ah ha, hush that fuss
Everybody move to the back of the bus
Do you wanna bump and slump with us
We the type of people make the club get crunk

The familiar song by Outkast was subject of a suit by Rosa Parks again this last week. known as the "mother of the civil rights movement," Parks filed suit against Arista Records, LaFace Records, and Outkast back in '99. The 90-year old Detroit resident sought at least $25,000 in damages and an injunction preventing further sales and distribution of the song "Rosa Parks." Her high profile attorney, Johnny Cochran, presented new evidence claiming that Parks had approved an album of gospel recordings titled Verity Records Presents: A Tribute to Mrs. Rosa Parks and that she received reports of consumers seeking to purchase the tribute album, but instead accidentally bought Outkasts' Aquemeni album, due to the prominent promotion of the "Rosa Parks" song. Someone at Arista, give Ms Parks a break - after all learn from history...the lady gets what she ask for!

Christmas at Cups N' Strings!

Photo by David Goggin
Pictured (L-R) are Eric Heatherly and studio owner/engineer Bruce Maddocks

Alternate country rocker Eric Heatherly stopped in for sessions at LA's Cups N' Strings Studios to work on various projects for records, film and TV. His new single "The Coolest Christmas" was released on the Nashvegas Recording Company label.

The Village People


Ricki Lee Jones at the Neve 88R console at The Village's Studio D

What do Los Lobos, Guster, Dido, Jack Johnson, Josh Rouse, Usher, Café Tacuba, Damien Rice, REM, and Ricki Lee Jones have in common?
They’ve all been spotted recently working at The Village, Los Angeles’ premiere Westside recording facility. Maybe it’s something in the air: After more than 30 years in business, The Village continues to be a top recording hot spot for cutting edge artists, both established and new-on-the-scene.

The recent buzz at The Village is due, in part, to almost daily live recordings in the facility's Neve 88R-equipped Studio D, where the nation’s hottest radio program, KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, broadcasts some of the most exciting music to be found on the air--or on the ‘Net. Helmed by influential tastemaker Nic Harcourt, the morning sessions at The Village are not only broadcast in real time but are also simulcast and archived on KCRW.com. In one recent week alone, Village staff engineer Jason Wormer recorded Morning Becomes Eclectic sets by The Eels, Seal, and red hot up-and-comers East Sound Mountain, The 88s, The Frames and Butterfly Boucher.

Meanwhile, anticipation has been building for the release of Ricki Lee Jones’ new CD, The Evening of My Best Day, recorded and mixed entirely at The Village. Jones’ first album of original material in six years, the long-awaited CD, on the V2 label, was already garnering critical accolades even prior to its October 7th release date. The Evening of My Best Day, which was produced by Jones and David Kalesh, was recorded by Jason Wormer and Mark Johnson, with Joe Chiccarelli on board for mixing.

Soundelux Keeping Good Company with Vsioneering


Photo: D Goggin
(pictured L-R) Ron Lagerlof, Visioneering Design president; Doug Mountain, Todd-AO Studios engineer; Bill Johnston, Ascent Media senior VP engineering.

Soundelux (An Ascent Media Company) recently contracted Visioneering Design to integrate several ProTools systems for their new Soundelux London editorial facilities. "It was a very fast turnaround for this project," commented Bill Johnston, Ascent Senior VP Engineering. "We had to be ready for shows in London rather quickly, so we did a joint venture with Ron Lagerlof of Visioneering. Ron and his crew did the pre-wiring and integration and our team completed the assembly. That was the only way it could have been finished in the timeframe we had." For more info: Ron Lagerlof, Visioneering Design 818.882.7271

studio bau:ton Completes Expansion of Award-winning Studio Atlantis


The studio where Def Jam's Christina Milian & Benny Cassette, Interscope/Beat Club's Bubba Sparx, Dreamworks' John B., Ray-J and Sony Music's Nona Gay have been recording is even more beautiful. And here's why:

The latest expansion of the Studio Atlantis recording studio facility, winner of an AIA/LA Honor Award for Interior Architecture in the year 2000, includes an adjacent client lounge and a Protools production suite with support facilities.

"Undulating translucent Lumasite panels had been used earlier to wrap the studio volumes and to express the ephemeral nature of sound, visualizing the sonic forces shaped inside the recording spaces," says the designer, Peter Gruenisen. The concept and the materials are continued in the expanded space, where the large warped plane of the main wall gradually turns into a ceiling. The light-filled, hovering presence of the floating element informs the entire space, playfully transforming and shaping it in the process. Daylight is brought in through skylights above the ceiling cloud while artificial lighting provides a consistent glow at night.

Cherney Mixes The Stones at Record Plant with DFX

Photo by David Goggin
Pictured (standing L-R) are DFX president Gary Ladinsky, mixer Ed Cherney, Pro Tools engineer Mike Butler, DFX systems mananger Jeffrey Welch, and (seated) Record Plant assistant engineer J.D. Andrew.

Ed Cherney recently completed audio mixes for The Rolling Stones 4 DVD boxed set. The collection includes concert footage from the current tour, including arena shows at Madison Square Garden, theater shows at the Olympia in Paris, and stadium shows in London at Twickenham Stadium. LA's Design FX provided two Pro Tools systems with a total of 72 outputs, a third 24-bit 96K system for mixdown, and Apple cinema displays.

Design FX is comprised of five divisions: Design FX Audio Rentals, Design FX Remote Recording, Design FX Systems, Design FX Service Center, and the Design FX Transfer House. For info: 818.843.6555

XM Radio offers state of the art studio

In addition to their 101 channels of digital entertainment satellite broadcast, XM Radio also offers in-studio performances in its two state-of-the-art performance studios. The control room offers a Sony Oxford 96 channel Mixing Console with full automation. Digidesign Pro-Tools
HD system and some standard processors and mics. The 25 x 40 feet studio, 23 x 20 control room offers capacity for 50 people, including up to a 40-piece orchestra. Though it's mostly used for XM showsXM, it's available recording, mixing, remastering commercial proejcts.

In addition to our corporate headquarters and broadcast facilities in Washington, D.C., XM has broadcast facilities in New York and Nashville, and additional offices in Boca Raton, FL; Southfield, MI; and Yokohama, Japan.

Quincy Jones hosts several multi-part musical documentaries in which he uses real-life experiences to weave a history of contemporary music. He also acts as a creative consultant to XM's programming and production teams and help steers the XM musical vision.

Lead singer for Yes, John Anderson hosts one-hour progressive rock and eclectic music shows. He is also recording his next solo CD at the XM recording studios.

studioexpresso's pick is the XMCafe on Ch45 hosted by Brian Chamberlain where thoughtful musicians doing more than just their hit singles. . .plus the first sounds off albums from artists like the Wallflowers, Dave Matthews Band, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello take a listen here !

SSLXL Coming to A Store Near You - 9X!

Solid State Logic has announced that it has chosen a limited dealer network to distribute the company’s new XLogic line of rack-mounted outboard gear. The network consists of nine dealers located in the United States, Canada and Mexico, including Guitar Center Pro. Since the release of the new products at AES 2003 in October, the response has been remarkable with over 200 units sold worldwide.

The dealers in the U.S. consist of Brook Mays Professional Recording Sales (Dallas, TX), Cutting Edge Audio (San Francisco, CA), Harris Audio Systems (N. Miami, FL), Interface Audio (Nashville, TN), Professional Audio Design (Rockland, MA), Tekserve Corporation (NYC, NY) and Guitar Center Professional will offer the product in various locations across the United States.

The dealer in Canada is Sonotechnique with offices in Montreal (St. Laurent), Toronto and Vancouver (Burnaby). Vari International will serve as the XLogic dealer in Mexico.

SSL is planning a series of open houses at select XL recording studios throughout the U.S. to support the launch of the new product line and the dealer network. Schedules will be announced in the near future on the SSL website.

Manage This!

It's the End of the Year, it's the Holiday Season plus Studio Suite just opened their Online Shopping Cart. So they're offering $50 discount on Studio Suite, the leading Studio Management Software for the entire month of December (This offer ends December 31st)!

Purchase a single license of Studio Suite for just $449 instead of the normal $499 price. Existing users can upgrade to version 5 for a $25 discount ($225 instead of $250). Visit http://www.studiosuite.com and click the Purchase button, or call
1-800-450-5740 (in the US or Canada), or 1-818-752-3900 (Internationally).

BowieNet - featuring BowieArt & More..

BowieNet provides Internet access with a local call in more than 2,000 North American cities, with 47 countries to be added by the end of the year. Users pay $19.95 a month or $5.95 if they already have an ISP and just want to access the site.

Apart from the usual 5mb of space and an e-mail address, BowieNet promises access to previously unreleased material, video footage and photos of the artist. There will be newsgroups, chat rooms, online shareware, multi-player gaming and personalised content updated daily with news, sport, weather, horoscopes, TV guides and thousands of album and gig reviews.

We can be heroes. "I welcome all you web travellers to the first community driven Internet site that focuses on music, film, literature, painting and more, where you can interact with all the members of our adventurous new project," says Bowie in a personal message on the home page.

Bowie, who turned 50 last year, has proved himself as both a smart businessman and Internet innovator. He was the first major artist to post a new song for downloading over the Web - Telling Lies - and he created and designed Bowieart.com, a site featuring his artwork for direct sales to the public. 'REALITY' on Iso/Columbia Records was released September 16th reuniting him with long time co-producer, Tony Visconti. The duo were responsible for last year's critically acclaimed 'Heathen' as well as classics such as 'Scary Monsters', 'Low', and 'Heroes'.

SCR completes Acoustic Upgrades for Music Therapy Wellness Clinic at SSUN
Sound installation and sound control primary requirements for treatment center

USC Program Director Ron Berczon surrounded by wellness Music therapist

Steven Klein of SCR, a leading designer and builder of commercial recording studios, project studios and post production facilities, recently completed an acoustic consulting project for The Music Therapy Wellness Clinic at California State University Northridge (CSUN).
The assignment involved acoustic measurements and treatment for a room used by children with special needs. "There were two different issues to address," Steven Klein explains, "Firstly, insufficient privacy between the two rooms; and secondly, acoustic treatments to quiet the rooms for better intelligibility. Other challenges included limited down time, access and budgetary considerations."

Warped Tour to celebrate 10 years
44 days, 50 bands, one Tour

Eleventeen
More bands announced for '04 Vans Warped Tour -- Bad Religion, Bouncing Souls, Anti-Flag, The Casulties, Yellowcard and Rise Against, New Found Glory, Taking Back Sunday and Coheed and Cambhave are in the lineup for the 2004 Vans Warped Tour. Click Here for updates.

Stars Go Live with Sennheiser!

Norah Jones and Dolly Parton each chose a Sennheiser 5000N wireless system for their stunning duet at the recent Country Music Awards.

The all-acoustic show, featuring Shania backed by friend and multiple Grammy-winner, Alison Krause and Union Station, was performed and filmed before a small audience in Nashville, Tennessee in early November ("UP! Close and Personal," aired on NBC just before Thanksgiving) and was captured for broadcast exclusively by Neumann and Sennheiser microphones.

Legendary human rights champion and former South African president, Nelson Mandela, united some of today's most socially-conscious international superstars for "46664-The Concert" a day-long musical event to help combat AIDS. The event featured artists Bono,
Peter Gabriel, Beyoncé, Eurythmics, Jimmy Cliff, Anastacia, The Corrs, Queen and others, key corporate executives at Sennheiser Germany decided to support the worthy cause both financially and by providing wireless, Evolution Series and Neumann microphone systems to bring the event to life.

Digidesign gets a Tec Award

Digidesign’s general manger, Dave Lebolt, personally accepted the 2003 Technical Excellence and Creativity (TEC) Award for the Digi 002 in the category of Outstanding Technical Achievement for Workstation Technology from the Mix Foundation for Excellence in Audio. The 19th Annual TEC Awards ceremony was held earlier this year in New York City Congrats, Dave and crew!

Farewell:

1948-2003
Michael Kamen

Michael Kamen, the Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated composer who fused hard-rock riffs with classical styling in albums for Pink Floyd and provided music for the "Lethal Weapon" and "Die Hard" movies," is survived by his wife, two daughters, his father and three brothers.

1962-2003
David Kimm

Well-respected in the pro audio industry, Kim's efforts resulted in the launch of JBL's award-winning LSR studio monitor series. In 2000, David left JBL to become president of Apogee Electronics. His most recent career move was back to Pepperdine University (where he had gotten his MBA) as a faculty member in the MBA program. We will miss your wisdom, graciousness and support of our engineers.

Happy be-lated Birthday Shaft!
Happy 1st Christmas Mike Banks Jr (L: Santa Baby pictured left courtesy of Record Production)!

Congrats to newleyweds Dave Navarro & Carmen Electra!

Congrats to new parents to be Oscar-winning US actress Paltrow, 31, tied the knot with the 26-year-old Chris Martin (below), Coldplay frontman at a low-key ceremony in the California city of Santa Barbara earlier this month.

Photo: Rebecca Shapiro

Finally we'd like to close 2003 with these stunning images (like a colorful holiday card) from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope... revealing a vibrant green and red nebula far from Earth, where nature seems to have put on the traditional colors of the season. These colors, produced by the light emitted by oxygen and hydrogen, help astronomers investigate the star-forming processes. For more amazing pix visit the web site Hubba Bubba!

R -- Newborn stars emerging from dense, compact pockets of interstellar gas in the Eagle Nebula, 7,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens. Credit: Jeff Hester, Paul Scowen, NASA
L : Pearl Jam--the only band cool enough to put a planetary nebula on an album cover.

Read the nice article "Platinum Hits & Indie Dreams" on studioexpresso producers by Scott The GMan that appeared in the November issue of NOHO with Stellastarr* on the cover. From time to time we'll bring you the GNotes of special interest to unsigned artists. And a hearty congrats to The G-Man for being nominated Electronic Artist of the Year by the 2003 Los Angeles Music for his Electro Bop album.

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and Kwanzaa !!

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