Recording Session In Indonesia


One of the joys of being a producer and writer is the joy of working in the coolest man caves known as recording studios. Ocean Way, the Enterprise, Studio Ultimo, the Hit Factory, and many others are among the man caves I have been privileged to work in. But this week has been one of the most memorable sessions I have done in many years. My session in the Musica Studio’s recording facility in Jakarta Indonesia has been like a major blast from the recording years past

A friend of mine told me about Musica, so I went to visit. I was not in the place more than two minutes and I booked a session immediately. This place is straight out of the 70s. From the 5000 series Neve console to the 40 year old parquet  floors, this place takes me back to my high school days when I first started recording. The vibe was old school and the sound was beautiful.

 

One of Indonesia’s largest and most prominent facilities, this hallowed grounds is home to three retro rooms. Studio 1, studio 2 and studio 3. Studio 1 rocks with a nineteen seventy's 5306 series Neve 16 channel console. Studio 2 boasts a 32 channel AMR console, and studios 3 is home to a nineteen eighty's Neve 32 channel board. Of course I parked my butt in studio 1 and did not come out for 12 hours 

The owner of this fine facility is one of, if not the largest record label in Indonesia. Home to such artists as Noah, Geisha, Friday and a few others. These groups are among the most famous in all of Indonesia. The are only the latest artist to be born from this label. As I learned from my assistant engineer, the pictures on the studio walls told stories of Indonesian musical  legends  that made countless hits known by all in this country.

As the record label industry experienced a severe down turn some 10 years ago, this record label hung in there and fought on. According to my assistant engineer this label is still going strong. And from the obvious hunger this country has for good music I suspect this label will continue strong for decades to come.

 

The product to come out of this session will be a brand new Minecraft song and animation series called The Clan. The song will feature dramatic cinema type Orchestra with heavy metal rock guitars to form the power ballad that should go nicely with the fight scene and love scenes that will occur in the animation. The video will hopefully be released about two months from now.  You can check out the video on my Minecraft Jams YouTube channel.

 

Do you Know The Roots Of Your Music?

Do you Know The Roots Of Your Music?

I had a young friend of mine do some guitar parts for me the other day. This dude is a monster guitar player whom I thought could handle what I was asking. Well, I was wrong.

He is still a great player, but I was asking him to play blues. You would think that was standard for a guitar player. but it was a total foreign language to him. I told him to listen to Eric Clapton and Muddy Watters and Robert Johnson from 1930's. He said that what i wanted was more like Zz Top. Well he was right but where did he think Zz Top got there licks from?

It was completely foreign to him that something from the  1930's could be relevant today. But in fact without it, we would be lost. And I do see a little lost playing in today's music. From One Republic to Cold Play I see an approach to the guitar that tells me these people either never studied the roots of guitar or they just did not appreciate it. I think it is the former.

I do like eight notes. And I like repeated eight note rhythms. They are actually some of my favorite grooves. But, some how it kinda bothers me to see guitar players not knowing their roots. I would like to think they play like they do because they want to, not because it is the only thing they are capable of.

Rush Duck Dynasty Stings

So last night at 5pm i get an email from one of my publisher. They needed Duck Dynasty stings. And they need them by morning! So as usual I open up a new Cubase project and fire away! 

This is typical in the music composition business. They need it and they need it yesterday! So untill midnight I slaved.

I pumped out 5 good stings in the Duck Dynasty bluesy style and uploaded them to my pubishers site. They replied with "we need more!"

So again here this morning I'm slaving away on Duck cues. All is well.

Mixing for Cellphones

The old days are gone. We used to mix to satisfy the book shelf speakers because that is what most people used to listen to music. But today, the cell phone and tablet could be, and in many cases is the device people listen to music on most.

I have found that I use compression very differently now. In a cell phone the voice and anything in the voices range pops out dramatically. So compressing and EQing is more tricky than ever. How do you create space for vocals and instruments on a tiny little mono device? It is different than the bookshelf speaker for sure.

I recently studied a few popular songs like Radio Active by Imagine Dragons. I listened to that song on my cell phone. The big bass drum was completely gone! Did the imaginer even consider a cell phone customer? It did not seem like it.

So I have found that I have to strike a balance between the book shelf concept and the cell phone. I work it until the vocal sounds very low in the mix but very present on the big speakers. That generally translates to a good cell phone mix.

Ongoing Major TV Credits: 2012

Last Quarter 2012 was quite amazing!  America Now, the popular syndicated news show featuring Leeza Gibbson and Bill Rancic, Played so many of Dwayne Russell's cues that an entire page of his cue sheet was dedicated to just those cues!  We are hoping this show continues to grow in popularity as the royalties will grow as well.

Also in 4th quarter 2010 Toddlers and Tiaras continues to use more of Dwayne's music, as well as Discovery's Auction Kings and MTV's true Life.

New SINGLE "Slanky" released today. Get it at CDbaby. CLICK HERE

Dwayne will be playing with Reza Saleh at the 2013 NAMM show Saturday January 26th at 9pm at the Hyatt Hotel stage.

October 2012 Dwayne's smooth jazz song Everybody Dance just got picked up for heavy rotation on the Weather Channel.

Second Quarter 2012 has the hit TLC cable TV show SURPRISE HOMECOMING  using three of Dwayne Russell's hip hop compositions in three new episodes.

Dwayne is currently producing the next CD for Talita Doodoh, one of Indonesia's most popular christian singers. Talita sells hundreds of thousands of CD's in the small country. The CD is expected to be picked up and distributed by Maranatha Asia who distributes several of Talita's other CD's.

For the first quarter 2012 we have MTV using more Dwayne Russell cues in the show TRUE LIFE.

The new Cable show TRACK ME IF YOU CAN just used 13 of Dwayne's cues in one episode.

Several Dwayne Russell cues in TLC's TODDLERS and TIARAS.

Yet another Dwayne Russell cue in TLC's reality show SURPRISE HOMECOMING this quarter.

Two of Dwayne's compositions were featured in two episodes of the big DISCOVERY CHANNEL hit AUCTION KINGS.

Last quarter several Dwayne Russell's cues were used on the news program AMERICA NOW with Leeza Gibbson and Bill Rancic

Several of Dwayne's Hip Hop compositions were used on the episode OPERATION: GRADUATION of TLC's show SURPRISE HOMECOMING.

Several of Dwayne's Hip Hop compositions were used on the episode title IM THE BIG GIRL of MTV's show TRUE LIFE.

New CD is out!!! The new smooth Jazz CD Elevator Grooves is out now. Click Here

Dwayne’s jazz composition, Millers Dream was used on the long time hit day time soap opera The Young And The Restless

Dwayne’s Hip Hop song Aladin Hop was just used on the hit MTV series 10 On Top.

Dwayne Russell’s song Dancing Around Midnight was just picked up by The Weather Chanel for use in rotation.

Dwayne Russell’s organ arrangement of Amazing Grace was featured on the ABC TV series The Middle.

Ongoing Major TV Credits: Q1 2013

First Quarter 2013. another fantastic quarter for cues! Seems like America Now only plays music by Dwayne Russell. There is literally a whole cue sheet page just for Dwayne Russell cues! And It seems like Toddlers and Tiaras, SURPRISE HOMECOMING and  AUCTION KINGS keep rolling along continuing to use Dwayne Russell cues. Also BURN WITH JEFF ROSS has used over a dozen Dwayne Russell cues this quarter. Apparently the show is pretty popular because these cues pay quite a bit.

Ongoing Major TV Credits: Q2 2013

Second Quarter 2013:  Foreign royalties came in. They are too numerous to list but here are the highlights.

In Canada Dwayne Russell cues were played on BURN WITH JEFF ROSS CUES, TODDLERS AND TIARAS, AUCTION KINGS, TRUE LIFE and more!

United Kingdom we have:  GADGET SHOW, TRACK ME IF YOU CAN, BIONIC BUILDERS, AUCTION KINGS, and more!

April 2013-Dwayne Russell signed record deal with Maranatha Music Asia for production of Talita Doohoh's new record. This record will be distributed through out south east Asia in major retail outlets and stores.

 

 

 

Latest News!

 

Latest News

BIG NEWS!!  The video training course on HOW TO GET YOUR MUSIC ON TV is here!!!

Check out the sales page here: www.howtogetyourmusicontv.com

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Dwayne Russell composition used in this cool You Tube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkB_7EV7K-M&list=UUDc03e_BJ18qrG_Y4plC4pA&index=2

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Dwayne has launched a NEW MINECRAFT CHANNEL dedicated to original Minecraft songs and Minecraft animations. This channel is dedicated to his son who loves Minecraft. The first Minecraft video has already been uploaded. New animations are in progress and will feature all original Minecraft music written and produced by Dwayne Russell.  You can see the first Minecraft music video here. More videos will come soon. Please subscribe to the channel.  new videos and animations should be posted every two weeks or so.

UPDATE  Dwayne has now partnered with the 5th largest Youtube network in the world! The Next Gamer TNG network, a division of Broadband TV corp, is now in full partnership.