Balancing Act

Sep 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Matt Gallagher

           

Nueva Musica/The Latin Project

Producers Jez Colin (a bassist) and Matt Cooper (a drummer and keyboardist) have a wealth of album credits to their names. Colin, based in Los Angeles, has remixed songs by Björk, Maxwell, Sade, and Stevie Wonder. Cooper, based in London, records for U.K. label Dorado Records under the name Outside, and writes and tours with Incognito and David Sylvian. In 1998 Colin and Cooper forged a partnership as The Latin Project.

The Latin Project's debut, Nueva Musica (Electric Monkey Records, 2003), presents an intriguing fusion of programmed dance music with live performances of South American musical styles. “We figured there's no point in [simply] doing a programmed record, because we bring other things to the table,” says Cooper.

The Latin Project blends electronic production and live performance.

They recorded Nueva Musica in Los Angeles, London, and Rio de Janiero. All sessions eventually ended up in Colin's Mac G4/867, which runs a Pro Tools|24 Mix3 system. Colin and Cooper cowrote nine of the album's ten tracks, programming synth and drum parts. “We created a solid direction together, and then explored details in our respective studios,” Colin says.

“We both have Akai samplers, so a lot of the basic tracks were created using those,” Colin adds. They also drew sounds from an E-mu E6400 Ultra and racks of synths. Colin also uses Ableton Live and Propellerhead Reason. “All MIDI is done in [Steinberg] Cubase 5.1, and all audio in Pro Tools,” Colin says. “I sync Pro Tools and Cubase internally by sending MIDI Time Code through the IAC bus in OMS.”

Although their music has a sampled feel, Colin and Cooper used no sample libraries. They played their own instruments and collaborated with a bevy of guest artists including Junno Homrich and Robbie Nevil. “Balancing the live and programmed elements is very difficult,” Cooper says. “Most guest musicians played along to an embellished version of the basic song idea,” Colin says. “But sometimes we deliberately stripped away our programming to leave room for the musician to perform, rather than fit in.” In other instances, a performance shaped a track. “On ‘Lei Lo Lai’ and ‘En Fuego,’ the first element that went down was the acoustic guitar,” says Colin. “We treated the performance almost like a sample, and then built the track around it.”

Colin recorded a few guest musicians in his studio, while the duo recorded most acoustic tracks in the RecRoom — a commercial studio in Los Angeles. “The RecRoom has a Pro Tools rig, so we transferred our sessions onto a removable SCSI drive and recalled them there,” Colin says. “[Engineer] Giorgio Bertuccelli has a great-sounding baby grand piano, drum booth, and live room for horns and percussion. We used all his mics and preamps.”

The Latin Project's quest for balance extends to their choices in analog and digital gear. “A lot of our recordings first passed through tube-mic pres and compressors to get as warm a sound as possible,” Colin says. “By contrast, most drum programming was recorded into Pro Tools through a solid-state interface — the Focusrite ISA430 — for sounds that have attack and punchiness.

“I like to experiment sonically with musical elements after I've recorded them into Pro Tools,” Colin says. “But to maintain the integrity of the original instrument, it's important to record its fundamental character really well. If the punch and the tones aren't there, then you won't have as much fun. It's important to select the right type of front-end recording gear for a particular instrument. That also gives you a diverse sonic palette when you listen back to the mix.”

For more information, contact Electric Monkey Records; e-mail info@electricmonkey.com; Web www.electricmonkey.com.