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Tech Sessions #4

Rick Rock
This week I sit down for a one-on-one convo with the A-list producer Rick Rock who has laced joints for the likes of Tupac, Busta Rhymes, the Jigga man and a truckload of the game’s finest.

In between working on his own stable of new artists like The Federation, Kinsmoke and Eldorado Red for his Virgin imprint Montbello and killing new joints for Xzibit among others, Rock takes a minute to get at Tech Sessions on what he would do if he was still back in Alabama trying to elevate his game.

Go ahead and get a pen and pad… we’ll be here when you get back.

So dude tell me what you think is the one thing that you hear coming out of home studios that could be better?

I think a lot of that is quality man. Straight quality. Basically, I have a home studio and everything comes out of the house; well yeah pretty much everything. You know like everything you do has to be of that quality to where it is equal to what is on the radio.

That could be like the chords you are using and especially your equipment. You need to take the steps you need to take in your sound to get that quality. You can’t let anything get in the way of that quality.

You can get some nice little pieces to like Digidesign’s) Digio 001. I think that’s down to like $600 so you can do Pro Tools you know to get those nice quality recordings. Focus on your quality.

Do you see drums being a major issue now-a-days as well. A lot of stuff that I hear coming out of project studios sounds like dudes just are not spending enough time getting their drum sounds just right.

Yeah! You know I am hearing that. Drums are the foundation man. Whenever you decide to make a professional sounding recording you have to make sure those drums are sounding just right. Don’t bullshit on that.

Let me say something on this too. You know that same old clap and snare sample that everybody is using that came from Tone and Poke (Trackmasters) leave that shit alone. They did that. Let that be theirs. Let them use that.

I am from the old school though you know where you place emphasis on the snare. (You know) incorporating live instruments with nice drums and getting that nice backbeat. That’s the key right there. I do a lot (of my records using) real instruments.

How do you feel about software programs which basically allow you to loop up pre-existing betas or create your own?

Yeah, it’s real easy to download a program and then just have a whole beat. That’s too weird for me and and its too easy. It’s not the art of the shit. You know half the fun when you are getting sounds is finding them. Shit, I used to be Grand Exalted and me… man we had some good times just looking for snares on records and all that.

It was the art of it. That’s what’s missing right now. Nobody is really doing that shit anymore. The whole art of it is missing for real.

Last week, I did a column that was all about how you know when a track is done. When do you know that its just right and not to bare or too busy?

You just feel it. It was funny, I just heard DJ Premier talking about this and it was like that. You just know. You know how you like to get down at home and you do what you do when you are in the spot and then maybe you can get the artist to fill it in so you can occupy the right spaces. You can’t clutter it up so they can’t paint on it you know. Then you come back to it and you add a little salt to it so it tastes just perfect.

And you just have to leave it there. Some records as you grow you look back on them and you go ‘I would have put something else on that.’ But you know that is now. You have grown. The shit sounded perfect at the time so you just keep growing.

That’s the key to being a good producer is having that ear for what sounds good for you now (as) you grow. If you don’t grow then you get old or whatever. A&R’s are supposed to have those ears but as a producer if you are going to be a great one you have to know when you have done a record that is a real record. A real producer knows a hit record from record that is just going to be a local hit.

So what have you got coming up? I know you got some stuff to plug.

I got The Federation coming in September. We real heated on that. That’s the big focus right there. Don’t any one song on that sound the same on it from front to back. I’m real proud of that. I can’t wait for the world to hear it.

Check out Rick Rock and The Federation at thefederation.net and listen to the new banger “Hyphy” featuring E-40.

Glover is one half of the Atlanta, GA based production squad The Audio Assassins which are founding members of The Elements. You can find them both at Audioassassins.com and theelementsinc.com

Message Rick Rock and Glover and tell them what you think

Glover

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