Learn from Legends

Background

Ryan Hewitt is a Grammy winning engineer, mixer and producer with a credit list spanning all popular genres of music for such notable artists as The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Avett Brothers, blink-182, The Dixie Chicks, needtobreathe, Flogging Molly and Jamie Cullum.

Relocating from Los Angeles to Nashville in early 2015, Ryan took residence at House of Blues Studios in Berry Hill and jumped into a non-stop string of records. In between mixing albums for The Avett Brothers, Third Eye Blind, Sean McConnell, and Harry Connick, Jr., Ryan produced and mixed up-and-coming Georgia rockers, Crass Mammoth, Knoxville troubadours, The Black Lillies and Nashville mods Elle Macho. He spent last summer recording and mixing The Lumineers’ #1 album Cleopatra with producer Simone Felice in upstate New York and has since recorded and mixed several more songs for film soundtracks.

Background

F. Reid Shippen is a New Jersey-born, Nashville-based, highly motivated, completely caffeinated multiple Grammy® award-winning producer/engineer/mixer.

Background

Tim is one of alternative rock’s most recognized and respected names. Originally from England, then L.A., and now based in Austin, Texas Tim is a “household name” among famous musicians and record executives. His platinum credits speak for themselves: as a record producer, engineer and mixer Tim’s credits include David Bowie, Tin Machine, The Cure, Pearl Jam, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears and U2.

Background

Columbus Smith III, better known by his stage name Rahki (sometimes Rahk or Rahki Beats), is an American record producer and songwriter from Los Angeles, California. He is known for his work with mentor DJ Khalil and acts such as Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Currensy, Evidence, Schoolboy Q, 50 Cent, Domo Genesis, Lecrae, Aloe Blacc, and more.

Background

Ross Hogarth is a man of many talents. He’s an award winning producer, mixer, and engineer. He’s been the main man behind the control board for such artists as The Doobie Brothers, John Mellencamp, R.E.M., Sick Puppies, and Van Halen.

Ross is one of the Learn from Legends mentors at the Recording Connection. He works with advanced or graduated students to further their abilities. He’s given numerous externs their first big break. He’s one of the mentors in Los Angeles that put the students first. When you’ve been around as long as Ross has you’ve seen people come and go. You’ve seen trends die and fades fade. You know that the only way to really be successful is to follow your passion and create the work that you want to create.

This is something that gets lost in the hubbub and doldrums of Los Angeles. People are always chasing the almighty dollar. But Ross knows that the real success lies in following your passion.

When one of the Recording Connection students works with Ross they’re going to be gaining a wealth of knowledge, make valuable connections within the industry, and learn the ways of a master craftsman.

Background

Noel “Detail” Fisher has been behind the scenes crafting the biggest hits for Beyonce, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Jennifer Lopez and more. Producing songs like the Grammy Award winning hit, “Drunk in Love” as well as, “7/11” for Beyonce’. Are just mere pieces of the eclectic producer of Detail+Music Studio whom gave us the heart felt “How to Love” by Lil Wayne, and the melodic “We Dem Boys” by Wiz Khalifa.

He connected regions through Drake’s “305 to My City”, and sent good vibes through the globe on Lil Wayne’s “No Worries”. These sonic historic landmarks established Detail as an artist who can do more than just create a hot beat. His songwriting and hookcraft abilities have helped him emerge as one of the biggest and most well-rounded talents in hip-hop today.

Detail was first known for being a co-executive on Ray J’s Raydiation, which was his first major contributions on an album. However, times have changed for the Detroit, MI native, “When you’re in Detroit there’s nothin’ to do. There’s no opportunity” Detail explains.

“All of the record labels left, and it’s just been a desert. All I could do was ,sing, play the piano and write. I came up from that era of just tapping into all genres of music. It’s not different than having a house and pulling in the person that does the air conditioner and the person that does the plumbing;’ that’s what I’m doing with my music. It’s a household and I’m connecting with the best people to make that happen.”

With production in the works for Big Sean and more, Detail is slated to not only be one of the most talked about names in music, but will be defining the sound of our modern generation.

Background

Warren Huart is a well-known songwriter, audio engineer, music producer and mixer who has produced, mixed and/or engineered on recordings for The Fray, Korn, Better than Ezra, James Blunt, Matisyahu, and Howie Day to name a few. Warren also has extensive Film and TV credits including Inglorious Basterds, Transformers 2, MTV’s The Hills, Lost, Scrubs, and Grey’s Anatomy. Warren also co-owns a recording studio in Los Angeles, CA.

Background

Niko Bolas is known as a “vibe oriented” producer/engineer in music studios and in forays with hi-tech companies. He has recorded and produced music and technology since starting at the famous Record One Studio in 1979.

In music, he’s cut with a wide spectrum…

Classic Artists – Neil Young (The Volume Dealers), Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, Keith Richards, Herb Alpert, KISS, Steve Perry…

Contemporary Artists – John Mayer, Los Lonely Boys, LeAnn Rimes, Big Head Todd & The Monsters, The Mavericks…

Emerging Artists – RACES, The Vim Dicta, Incan Abraham…

Film work spans “The Breakfast Club”, “Singles”, Scorcese’s “Lightning In A Bottle”, and Beyonce’s “Cadillac Records”.

In ’89 Niko co-founded Fakespace Music, and at computer graphics conference SIGGRAPH ’95 in Los Angeles, débuted two new patented music technologies in Virtual Reality.

In ’98 he co-founded internet radio company Sonicbox, and as President/CEO, successfully raised venture capital, and integrated Sonicbox technologies with several consumer products (Acer, Panasonic, Phillips). In 2000 the company was re-named iM Networks and in 2001 merged with Japan’s software giant Softbank.

Niko moved to Nashville in 2006, and set up a room at the amazing Blackbird Studios. He bought George Jone’s former house where he could fire up his secret passion, Bird Watching, which he did every free chance he got, along with his pet, Shovelhead.

In late 2010, Niko moved back to Los Angeles, where he promptly set up a the now infamous Surf Shack mix room in the Capitol Records tower…

Niko is also technical advisor to the Microsoft Surface (multi-touch computing) project in Los Angeles.

Background

Four-time Grammy award winning producer, mixer, engineer, and co-owner of Sputnik Sound

Background

Los Angeles based, 12-time Grammy-winner, producer/mixer/engineer Rafa Sardina has built an eclectic and impressive client list in the recent years. As a musician, engineer and producer Rafa connects easily with artists and has tremendous respect for creating a studio vibe that’s performance-friendly for both new and established talent.

Rafa’s love for music began at an early age playing guitar and attending recording sessions in his native Spain. After four years in Medical school, Rafa chose to pursue his life-long passion: Music. A live sound stint with folk, jazz and world artists in northern Spain and the south of France led him to the United States. Soon after he landed an engineering position at the legendary Ocean Way Recording Studios in Hollywood and Record One Studios in Sherman Oaks. Rafa had the unique opportunity to work with world reknowned artists on a daily basis – from Natalie Cole to the Black Crows, Celine Dion, Greenday, Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Frank Sinatra, the pre-recording of The Academy Awards and worked on numerous movies. Rafa’s intuition to move to Los Angeles proved to be one of the most rewarding synergies of his life.

Though Sardina is best known for working on pop, rock and R&B projects, he has recorded and mixed just about any genre of music you can imagine: orchestral recordings, big band, R&B, dance, gospel, soul, rap, choral, film/TV soundtracks and movie scores like “Any given Sunday”, “102 Dalmatians”, “Michael Jordan – To the Max”, “Biker Boyz”, Tyler Perry’s “Madea’s Family Reunion”, Johnny Depp’s “The Rum Diary” and many more.

Over the years Rafa has developed professional and personal relationships with many artists that he has grown to respect.
“At the end of the day, it comes down to a simple studio philosophy – I’m there to make sure the artist is able to realize his vision and have fun in the process.”

Rafa founded Fishbone Productions in 2001. He built “Afterhours Studios” from the ground up with artists’ needs in mind. “It helps me to be more flexible with today’s recording budgets and create a safe place for artists to work without having to worry about the clock,” says Sardina, who specified the acoustics and gear installation details of his studio in Los Angeles, California. He also frequents major studios around the world. “Basically, I go where the projects take me…”

Background

John Greenham has more than two decades of mastering experience to draw from. His client list is about as versatile as it can get, from Jerry Lee Lewis to Ice Cube to Queensrÿche, Susana Baca to Ae$op Rock, Kimya Dawson to American Royalty and up-and-comers Bad Suns. Now ask him to explain just what “mastering” is and he turns to metaphors to help explain the process. “Closure” is the word that comes up again and again. For Greenham it’s less about certain processes since every album, track and artist is undoubtedly different: “Mastering is like framing a piece of art. You have a bunch of paintings lying around but no one’s going to be able to look at them and appreciate them until they’re framed properly and hung. That’s what mastering is, it’s framing the art, not changing it’s essential character.”

Now ask John Greenham what mastering is not, and he gets pretty adamant. For him the job of the masterer is NOT to put their signature mark on the work. The job of any good mastering professional is to achieve the sound, feel and character that the artist intended. Greenham says, “You’ve got to get behind the artist’s music and their vision. You’ve got to love it and feel passionately about it, otherwise, it just won’t work out very well. Ultimately, you’ve got to allow it (the song) to speak directly to the audience and get all the technical stuff out of the way.”

We are honored to have John Greenham of Infrasonic Sound on board as our newest Recording Connection mentor. We look forward to placing our students with this gifted master of mastering.

Background

Nashville based Jeff Balding’s hits are almost too many to list. He engineered & mixed Don Henley’s Billboard #1 country debut ‘Cass County’ and recently finished working with Megadeth’s own Dave Mustaine on the band’s upcoming album. Recent mixes include tracks for superstars Brett Eldridge, Jana Kramer, Ashley Monroe,Michael Ray, and Chris Janson just to name a few. Jeff has been at the helm mixing some massive hits like Taylor’s Swift’s self titled debut, Kellie Pickler ‘Small Town Girl, Keith Urban’s ‘Day’s Go By’,LeAnn Rimes ‘This Woman’, Trace Adkins ‘Songs About Me’, and Brooks & Dunn ‘Cowboy Town’ as well as recording Brad Paisley’s’This is Country Music’, Shakira’s ‘Shakira’, and Trisha Yearwood’s’Jasper County’. Jeff’s projects have won multiple Grammy awards and received even more nominations.

Background

Recording Connection is happy to welcome producer/engineer Matt Linesch from Ocean Way Recording to our mentor-family!

Ocean Way is a world-renowned studio that has worked with many of music’s biggest names. The multiple-award-winning studio boasts four locations including two in LA, one in Nashville, and one in St. Barths in the French West Indies. All told, this powerhouse studio has been in on the ground level of project which have sold more than one billion units globally!

Working out of the Ocean Way Hollywood location, Linesch is an LA native. The producer and engineer’s deep love and dedication for making music was fostered from a young age. An independent musician in his own right, he feels a great sense of accomplishment from working with artists and helping them to develop their own unique sounds. Personal and creative growth are a big part of what he’s about and Linesch is always checking in to see where his expertise and relationships can help take a project and an artist to the next level.

As this pro’s career continues to thrive as a producer and engineer, so does his passion for making his own music. For him, everything is connected. Ultimately, the goal is to share the music he believes in and to continue building a life that’s wholly centered around music.

Background

Since the late 70s sonic-master Adam Moseley has had a very successful career as producer, engineer, and mixing for bands like U2, Beck, The Cure, Rush, Kiss, Maxi Priest. He’s also mixed audio for big budget movies like The Big Wedding and hit TV shows including True Blood and The Americans.

With more than three decades worth of experience in the music and audio industry under his belt, for Adam Moseley building tracks is a very big deal, an enlarging and fine-tuning of one’s perception and “sonic awareness.” On this point Moseley says, “The essence of music is arrangement, both musical and sonic.” Becoming proficient at assembling tracks entails learning how to “build a musical arrangement through awareness of your sonic field.” Attaining this heightened level of awareness involves sharpening one’s listening skills, talking about the craft (and having the vocabulary to do that) as well as growing through one’s experiences and becoming fine-tuned to the work itself.

To those future externs we say: Listen, learn and take it all in from this most sagacious master of sound.

Articles

Adam Moseley mentors for Recording Connection!

Background

Bob Bullock knows what it takes to compete in today’s ever changing market and brings years of creative and technical expertise to every recording session. He possesses a unique understanding and sensitivity when it comes to creating the perfect atmosphere for an artist or musician, helping them to reach their highest potential. Whether he’s working with today’s hottest acts, independent artists on the rise or the young, developing artists of tomorrow his attention to the needs of the client, combined with his ability to combine the different colors of musical instruments and equipment, make Bob Bullock one of the industry’s top producer/engineers.

Background

a two-time GRAMMY®-nominated Producer-Remixer, Artist and Artist Relations Manager for Native Instruments, a leading manufacturer of software and hardware for computer-based music production and performance.

For those of you who are not totally familiar with Carmen, he’s got one very eclectic career! From co-writing, engineering and programming material on Seal’s classic 1994 self-titled album (aka Seal II), to co-producing and co-writing Paul Oakenfold’s Bunkka album; remixing such artists as BT and Tiesto; collaborating with Tuvan Throat singers Huun Huur Tu; and co-founding the ground-breaking World Music act Niyaz, Carmen has done it all!

Background

Visionary songwriter, performer and all-around musical pioneer Gary Wright has spent more than forty years shattering conventional ideas about how to make chart-topping rock music. Not only have his classic songs “Dream Weaver,” “Love is Alive” and “Really Wanna Know You” proven their genius by achieving hit status in four different decades; Wright’s musical wizardry has also extended, more than once, to changing the very sound and texture of contemporary pop.