Background

In 1996, Scotty became Production Manager for the powerhouse production team, The Characters. It was during this time that Scott worked on numerous Platinum and Gold albums, including releases by SWV, Johnny Gill, Tyrese, B2K, Brian McKnight, Petey Pablo, and Faith Evans. Scotty has been lending his expertise in Studio and Production Management at Engine Room Audio since 2006.

Background

Head Mastering Engineer and owner of Engine Room Audio in New York city. Starting his music career as a guitar player in numerous garage bands, Mark was the owner of the first Tascam Portastudio 4 Track Cassette Recorder in Colorado. He has spent the ensuing thirty years staring at knobs and meters. Recent projects include Mastering for They Might Be Giants, Mr Probz, The Killers, 50cent, Trey Songz, Dr. Dre, and OK GO.

Mark and Engine Room Audio have been the recipient of multiple Grammy awards, and have been lucky enough to have been involved with a pile of Gold and Platinum award winning records. In early 2012 Christensen mastered the first single off Trey Songz’ album Chapter V, titled “Heart Attack,” which was produced by Benny Blanco and Rico Love.Around that time he mastered a track for Pauly D on G-Note Records as well, and he worked with the Italian rap group Club Dogo in June 2012. Signed to Universal Music Group, the group’s members DJ Don Joe and engineer Andrea “db” Debernardi flew to New York to mix and master an album with Christensen. Their resulting single “Cattivi Esempi” reached #2 on the Italian music charts. Christensen’s other mastering projects in 2012 included the alt-rock band Weep’s album Alate and the Trey Songz album Chapter V, which reached #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Also that September, 50 Cent was in the studio with Christensen to master his single “New Day,” which features Dr. Dre and Alicia Keys. The song was mixed by Eminem before mastering.

In 2013 Mark starting working with the artist “Mr Probz”, initially on his album “The Treatment” and the single “Waves” and new material including the single “Nothing Really Matters”. On 27 April 2014, Waves debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart after selling 127,000 copies in its first week. As of October 2014, it was the fourth-biggest selling single of 2014 in the UK, with sales of 758,000. The song also peaked at number one in Australia (currently 3x platinum), Austria (currently gold), Germany (currently 5x platinum), Italy (currently 3x platinum), Sweden (currently 5x platinum) and Switzerland (currently 1x platinum). In the United States, the remix reached number one on the Billboard Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart for the issue dated 16 August 2014 and is currently 1x Platinum.

Engine Room Audio in 2014 continued to work on projects by both 50 Cent and Trey Songz, with Christensen mastering albums such as 50 Cent’s Animal Ambition. Other recent mastering projects include Collide by Boyz II Men and Game Changer by Johnny Gill. Christensen’s associated projects had been nominated for five Grammy Awards as of 2015, winning two of them. At that point Christensen had also worked on over 24 Billboard chart top ten hits, and around 25 of the releases had gone platinum or gold. Christensen is an official “mentor” at Recording Connection, a New York-based school for music recording. He also periodically chairs and moderates audio engineering panels at music industry events.

Articles

Recording Connection mentor Mark Christensen
Engine Room Audio completes work on 50 Cent, Trey Songz albums!
From Newcastle, Australia to New York, New York, Darren Fewins Gets Going!
Mark Christensen of Engine Room Audio NYC talks Student Success rates with Brian Kraft

Background

Most of the time, building a career requires moving, evolving, and learning over time. One’s “career” is the byproduct of work that’s done in the present, the things you do while you’re in the pocket, perfecting your craft.

Sharrief Thomas knows about this intimately. This writer/producer/engineer and artist in his own right was exposed to the Recording Connection program when he was recording at Quad Studios in New York City. Seeing our program at work led Sharrief to become a mentor himself. Today he helps our students hone their chops, gain skills, and plan for their futures while gleaning a first-hand understanding of how the music industry works from a creative and business perspective at Water Music Publishing, an independent music publishing and media company run by Sharrief and business partner Big Bug, whose known for his work with Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Sean Combs, and as one of the original members of the 90s R&B group, Today.

While recording at Quad, Sharrief and another Recording Connection mentor, Sax DMA, decided to give a number of RC apprentices the opportunity to earn engineering credits on his forthcoming album. “We had to turn down kids that wanted to join,” Sharrief says. And a number of notable artists came in to help on vocals including Sky Heavens, backup singer for Eminem, and Big Bub himself. “It was just the students getting to be in a live situation with real, live artists.”

Today, as a Recording Connection mentor himself, Sharrief apprentices students at Water Music Publishing in Bloomfield, NJ, just outside of New York City.

Articles

RC mentor Sharrief Thomas Talks Truth on Having the Winning Mindset

Background

SWAN7 is a comfortable space to work with someone who’s as in to your music as you are. Whether you just need a place to record or you need a collaborator to help bring your songs to life, SWAN7 is a great place to start. As an engineer/producer with over 20 years of experience working with some of the biggest names in the industry and a former touring musician, I’ve got the skills to help you get you music sounding the way you imagine. I can help with any and all aspects of the process: recording, mixing, arranging and co-writing.

Articles

One on One: A Formula for Success

Background

“I operate a recording studio, record, produce and mix records for clients, write songs and get song placements on nationally distributed compilations. Record voice overs and edit video.” – Harley Fine

Background

Sevensound’s Chief Engineer, Richie Beretta is a multi-faceted musician, internationally known writer/producer and educator. With over 15 years of studio experience, there isn’t many styles or genres that he is a stranger to. He grew up in New York City with a love for punk and reggae but has written, mixed, and produced almost every genre from Metal to J-pop. He has also worked for some of the biggest names in music like Beyoncé and Major Lazer.

Richie is just as passionate about sharing his love of how music is made as he is about making it.  In 2013 he began cultivating the talent of future engineers and hit makers at the world’s leading electronic audio institute, Dubspot. Since then he also started and coordinates possibly one of the first and only live mixing tutorials on Twitch.tv.

SEVENSOUND is a production company founded by producer and New York City native, Richie Beretta. Built with his own two hands he created a full service production house that is an affordable alternative to the “big facility” experience for both independent and major label artists.

Background

The End is a one-of-a-kind recording studio located waterfront and ,parkfront in Brooklyn, New York. We are full-service offering recording, mixing, mastering and writing/production space.

Background

Hand built in 2014 by studio owner and audio engineer Danny Rose and his friends, Rose Studios opened in 2015 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NYC as a multi-purpose facility created for one aim: to approach any and all audio needs and to provide the greatest sounding results possible to our clients and collaborators. We have a unique relationship with the space since the studio was completely custom built from the ground up by our amazing team, allowing us to get the greatest results possible in all endeavors ranging from post-production film sound to live band recording and even multilingual voice over productions. The studio team is dedicated to outstanding service and great results for our clients in order to create a carefree and unforgettable audio production experience.

Background

In October 1988 the studio opened on Shelter Island, two hours east of NYC. Producer/ engineer Steve Addabbo purchased all of the equipment from a well respected east side studio that was closing and set up the studio in the basement of his home. The timing was perfect, Steve had just had a huge success with Suzanne Vega’s “Solitude Standing” album and Shawn Colvin had just been signed to Columbia records. Steve and the studio began working on Colvin’s debut album, “Steady On”(a Grammy Winner), Eric Andersen’s classic, “Ghosts Upon the Road” and other major label and indy projects.

Now in its 27th year of operation, the studio continues to be a vital part of the New York recording and mixing scene.

Articles

RC Graduate Michael Gevaza starts label Electric Giant!

Background

My name is Mike Hemberger, also known as Jive The Universal or JiveDig. I was born and bred in NJ and have spent over a decade in various roles throughout the music scene. I began my music career as a teenager playing guitar, bass, singing and playing in several bands, all the while pushing myself as a solo hip-hop artist. I went to a local college and earned a degree in Music Theory and Music Technology. Right out of school I purchased Pro Tools, a Mac and a bunch of studio gear. I haven’t looked back since.

Background

Justin has been recording and mixing professionally for over 10 years. He has worked with hundreds of artists spanning many genres including various notable clients. Originally a Kansas City native, Justin lived and worked in Brooklyn, New York for 5 years. In New York, he worked as a staff engineer at Translator Audio and staff engineer/manager at The Audio Parlour Brooklyn. Justin returns to NYC a few times a year to work on projects.