This is your Real Santa Barbara In-Studio Education

Background

After working in some of the biggest studios in Los Angeles, under some of the biggest names in music, Doug Boulware partnered with visionary Jason Ries to bring you The Abstract LA. Doug’s start in music began as a child vocalist in music theater. His influences range from the big band and jazz present in the household to Motown and oldies his mother insisted on! Doug’s obsession for music took a more contemporary turn in his formidable years in the early electronic music scene in LA. Doug has been an underground house music DJ since the 90’s which led to him to his true passion, music production and songwriting. The Abstract LA represents the culmination of a lifelong dream based of a lifelong love of music!

Articles

Recording Connection Mentor Doug Boulware Opens his Own Studio
Recording Connection mentor Doug Boulware: What it Means to Hustle

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Background

Strawberry Girls drummer and producer BEN ROSETT has been recording music in his home studio since he was 14 years old. In the summer of 2012, “Spirit Vision Studios” was founded as Ben procured a professional recording facility in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA. Ben’s initial vision was to offer professional high-quality productions to bands and musicians who did not have the high budgets of more established artists and labels. Since then, Spirit Vision Studios has grown to include photography and videography services for weddings, engagements, real estate, businesses and more. Over the past four years, Ben Rosett’s credibility and reputation have continued to grow as more and more bands and artists have recorded at Spirit Vision and also come to realize Ben’s musical knowledge and skill in the studio.

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Background

Shane Anderson is a seasoned music industry veteran. With over 20+ years in the music industry Shane has vast experience in production, recording, mixing and mastering as well as the ins and outs of the music business. Shane began his musical career in his early teens as a demo vocalist for labels and also as a sound engineer for the MUZAK corporation. At age 18 he opened his first studio location in Honolulu, HI called “Unique Studios” and oversaw the daily operations of the recording studio as well as landing several indie label deals and distribution agreements while in Hawaii working with local talent. In 2009 Shane released a solo album titled “Dangerous”. This album took off online primarily on MYSPACE and gained much success with over 2.5 Million plays worldwide landing him on BILLBOARD NEWSWIRE and ultimately landing him several placements on TV shows to include “The Kardashians” “MTV” “E- Networks” and Oxygen to name a few. Shane moved down to Los Angeles 2010 where he formed with his long-time high school friend a production company called “The Go Gettas” where he continued to build on his credits and catalog working with artist who have been on American Idol, X Factor, Dancing with The Stars and Disney to name a few. After landing multiple placements in Film/TV Shane relocated to the Sacramento area in 2016 to build on Unique Recording Studios and help bridge the gap between artist and the industry. Shane runs Unique Recording Studios as a production label, distribution company and recording studio for artist to create and focus on their art. Unique Recording Studios has also newly launched an exciting new venture at URS called “The Collective” which will allow producers, engineers, songwriters and artist to collaborate in house at Unique Recording Studios to work together to create music and promote building a large collaborative catalog of music to submit to labels, publishers, music supervisors and overall decision makers in the music industry. This will provide a great opportunity for students who complete their coursework at the recording connection.

Articles

Unique Recording Studios

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Background

Axenzo had recently graduated San Diego State University with a degree in mechanical engineering when he found that having achieved a major life goal, namely getting a degree to make his parents happy, had quite an interesting effect on him. Now that he’d achieved that, what else was possible? What could he achieve if he pursued something he was downright passionate about—music. While an engineering student, Axenzo had tried to double in music but the classes weren’t stimulating and were “very theoretical” with nothing practical or new to offer. Brewing at the back of his mind for years been the idea of learning how to produce EDM. While it wasn’t a choice his mother would consider practical, to him it was the natural conclusion. Axenzo was an active EDM explorer who attended shows regularly, a lifelong musician who played guitar and piano, and even wrote melodies on a whim. Music was just the thing going on in his mind. After completing his college degree with high marks, Axenzo spent a number of months training with a professional EDM music mentor who taught him Pro Tools and Logic with direct, one-on-one lessons. Although he already knew how to play a couple instruments he’d never set his hands on a DAW. Nevertheless he excelled fast, and consistently challenged himself while getting hands-on training and tips from his music mentor, a longtime engineer and EDM producer himself. During his time in the program Axenzo was able to create his own EDM songs, first starting on MIDI, then composing from within a digital environment. Crossing the bridge from having to play and record, to creating digitally “opened a door” for the EDM creator and DJ. In the two years since graduating the program, Axenzo has built a promising career in EDM as a DJ who has opened for Bob Sinclar, Robin Schulz, Steve Aoki, Marshmello, Borgeous, Nicky Romero, among others. Nevertheless, for him DJing and especially composing new material as a producer is a never ending journey. The great unifier isn’t by genre or culture for the rising talent. Regularly dipping into multiple genres and researching far and wide, Axenzo is in quest of something singularly specific: “I’m trying to create something that every time people listen to my tracks they’ll know it’s me. That’s my focus right now. I’m working on it every day.” Now, the melodies and musical ideas Axenzo used to write on a whim are being put to use professionally as he divides his workdays between producing new material and performing at venues. He says, he’s even got a surefire way of capturing the music when it hits: “I open the recorder on my phone and just sing the melody to myself. Even if I’m in the shower, I’ll get out and record it.” Now versed in Ableton as well as Logic and Pro Tools, Axenzo is fluent in the various DAWS and he’s confident in his capacity to continually explore and grow as an artist. And as for future goals, he’s got a few: “I definitely would like to play in big festivals. Hopefully at Ultra Miami, EDC Las Vegas, and I would like to go worldwide. I’m working on it. I know there’s lots of competition, but I think nothing is impossible.” As for the time he spent as an apprentice in the program, Axenzo says, “It was an amazing journey. I am extremely thankful.” Axenzo currently performs weeklies at The Hard Rock Café in Las Vegas, Nevada, and The Pool House and Sunset Vibes in San Diego, California. Request an Invitation

Background

Kevin Sharpe is an Emmy Award winning producer, engineer, and keyboardist. He has produced, recorded or mixed many fine artists. Click here to see a list of credits. Kevin began recording at the age of 15 years old with a 4 track Teac reel to real, a Yamaha mixer, Moog synth and a broken drum machine. Soon he was recording local bands and the neighbors dog. After years of making noise and honing his recording skills he opened a small studio in Troy, Michigan. twenty five years and a couple of thousand bands later, he still gets chills while mixing a great song. As a producer, Kevin is 100 percent committed to doing whats best for the song, while preserving the unique chemistry of the preforming artist or band. By making the recording process work for the music, the artists vision shines through to the finished product. After all it is always about the music! Kevin attended Oakland University before studying music at Rochester College. After completing his education, he has taken several courses at The Berklee College of Music.

Articles

Graylyn “Gino” Claiborne gets hired by his mentor’s studio after graduating!Aver

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Background

Recording Connection mentor Gregory Hainer is an interesting case. Usually our Recording mentors work primarily in the music industry but Gregory has made a successful career for himself in music as well as film, television, and video game entertainment as a music composer, voice over specialist, Sound FX designer and mixer on numerous projects including: Plants vs. Zombies 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Guild Wars 2, Prince of Egypt, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, We Were Soldiers, Dishonored, Black Hawk Down, and many more. Gregory does most of his work from Scorpio Sound, his boutique studio located in the Hollywood Hills. His unique skills-set, talent, and setup enables him to do work larger audio studios can’t. “From a client’s perspective, I own the studio, so there is no middle management overhead to worry about because the owner/operator is also the creative head. This means I have the freedom to choose to spend a little more time with my clients in order to get things perfect versus having to be out of a studio by a specific time.” Specialty might as well be Gregory’s middle name. “I get quite a few calls for the most unusual or difficult to design stuff that many in-house teams can’t quite seem to pull off convincingly, such as creating sounds for creatures, magic spells, sci-fi effects, light sabers and the like. But I will also get the occasional call to do the less-fun direct stuff like cleaning up poorly recorded production audio from a film, or digging out inaudible archival dialogue from excessive background noise.” On top of working in the film, TV, and video game industries Gregory also takes on Recording Connection apprentices and teaches them about both the industry and the craft of audio engineering.

Articles

RC grad Andrew Holscher reports back on his Eddie Kramer Experience
Recording Connection mentor Gregory Hainer on Vibe and Flow

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Background

Recording Connection mentor Josh Monroy is proof-positive that getting in and showing your commitment to the craft, day-in and day-out, can launch your career to unprecedented heights. With more than a decade in the music industry, Josh “Igloo” Monroy has worked with everyone from Justin Bieber to Quincy Jones, to The Notorious B.I.G. The seasoned engineer/composer/producer is also known for his longtime work with iconic artist Ludacris. An Atlanta native, Josh recently answered the call to come out to Los Angeles and is now co-owner of Studio 1 Zero. His most recent success includes the work he’s done on JoJo’s critically-acclaimed album Mad Love, which includes three tracks recorded, produced, and co-written by the multifaceted music professional.

Articles

RC mentor Josh Monroy Talks How He Got Hired by Ludacris and Doing JoJo’s “Mad Love”

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Background

Jeramy Roberts is an EDM producer, composer, DJ and Ableton educator located in Austin, Texas. As founder of the Electronic Musician’s Guild, his approach combines the creative and the pragmatic—an ethos that’s dedicated to helping his students get their music out into the digital marketplace and distributed on major platforms. Jeramy has sold his songs and records in dozens of countries around the world. He has broken the Top 100 spot in numerous international sales charts and even his former students have hit #2 in Amazon’s House Top 100 while training under his direction. A loyal lover of EDM and the great local EDM scene in Austin, Jeramy Roberts is serious about helping today’s most driven and committed newcomers create productive, rewarding careers in music.

Articles

#IZCONNECTED 62 | Jeramy Roberts - How To Monetize Your EDM
Recording Connection mentor Jeramy Roberts talks about the new music industry and creating your own job within it

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Background

An established audio engineer/producer based in New Orleans, Recording Connection mentor Misha Kachkachishvili is an industry veteran whose client list includes names like Solange Knowles, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Janelle Monae, Taj Mahal, T-Bone Burnett and many others. A few years ago, he purchased a historic church left decimated by Hurricane Katrina, chose to keep the church’s historic pipe organ donated by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, and converted the space into what is now Esplanade Studios, the largest recording studio in Louisiana (and one of the most prestigious).

Articles

A Day in the Life of Our Student
Recording Connection mentor Misha Kachkachishvili on working with artists and finding opportunity

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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. Request an Invitation