Beat Crazy in Atlanta

Mar 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Mike Levine

Analog World

From his years as a performing keyboard player, LRoc has become very proficient on the Minimoog and uses it a lot in his productions. “I can pretty much look at the knobs and tell what the sound is,” he said. “I've programmed on the spot so many times for so many years onstage, doing the same songs with no presets.” He said he often turns it on and starts playing a bunch of effects “wild,” that is, not along with any song (but with a click). He'll have Pro Tools on, and he records the results. “I record myself tweaking and looking for stuff,” he said (see Web Clip 3). “And in that process, I go back and hear a lot of stuff that I can use.” Later, he'll take out pieces here and there and throw them into a song.

According to LRoc, his analog experience, both with synths and with recording gear, has been very helpful in his production work. It gives him a perspective that younger producers, who work only “in the box,” don't have. “It really helps, you know — coming from being in the world of splicing tapes, rewinding, and fast-forwarding,” he said. “Can you imagine what a kid would think of that today? ‘Rewind? I got to wait for that?’ But like I said, just having that experience of both worlds is definitely a plus when it comes to sonics and just about everything.”

On to SouthSide

Later that afternoon, LRoc's engineer, Vincent Alexander, arrived. Alexander helps LRoc with engineering and keeps the studio gear set up and running efficiently. After they worked on beats a while more, LRoc said that there was a mix session scheduled that day over at the SouthSide studio for Bow Wow's new CD. LRoc had helped work on the album, and he wanted to attend. “Sometimes they need me to add something,” he said, “but I doubt it on this album.”

The mix for the CD was down to the wire. “The album has to be turned in tomorrow,” he explained, “because Bow Wow has a single out with Chris Brown that's called ‘Shorty Like Mine.’ Jermaine released it a couple of months ago, and it's blown up. When that song was released, we hadn't started the album. So we had to rush and finish it.”

After a detour to LRoc's favorite Mexican restaurant for a quick bite, LRoc, Alexander, and I headed down the highway to Dupri's SouthSide studio complex. I asked LRoc if he ever mixes any of his own music, and he said no. “I know how I like it to sound. But as far as how those guys get the frequencies and the placements … it's tough understanding all that stuff, like how they use all the outboard, the formulas for delays, the right kind of delay and effects. That's my green area. I have to admit that everything I create is done with a team. I just master what I do and slowly learn the other stuff.” But he does want to develop his mixing skills. “Eventually, I'd like to become really good at it,” he told me.

Fun and Games

When we arrived, we found out that the mix session wasn't happening. There was a big huddle going on in the main control room concerning the Bow Wow album. The label wanted to release only a “clean” version that contained no swearing so that the CD wouldn't get an “Explicit” sticker. Bow Wow was apparently not happy with how the editing necessary to make it “clean” affected the final product. There was much discussion about what to do, especially considering that the album was due to the label the next day.

Not being involved with that aspect of the Bow Wow project, LRoc took this opportunity to show me around SouthSide. The main studio is a super-high-end Pro Tools-based room, with a large Digidesign Icon console in the control room (see Fig. 3). LRoc showed me several side rooms that are production and composing facilities featuring gear setups fairly similar to those at dakitchen, including MPCs and KV Audio EX 10 systems with subs. The EX 10s sit on speaker stands and are basically like P.A. speakers. With the subwoofer, they're capable of cranking out the bass and simulating club conditions. Apparently, KVs are ubiquitous on the Atlanta hip-hop production scene. LRoc had the same KV speaker system in his studio, and he said that Lil Jon has it as well.

The composing rooms have Dynaudio BM15A active monitors, just like the ones LRoc has at dakitchen. “Jermaine and I write on the Dynaudios and some Samsons, and once we get something we like and he wants to listen, we go to KVs,” said LRoc. He said he sometimes does the same thing at his studio. “Especially when I'm doing a rough mix, then I use the KVs for reference. I go back and forth.”

As impressive as all SouthSide's gear was, the studio's most astonishing feature was its indoor full-court basketball court. When people working at the studio have downtime, they can relax and play hoops. People less inclined to the hardwood can amuse themselves at a full-size billiard table or with video games. Clearly, Dupri has spared no expense to make SouthSide a comfortable working environment.

LRoc showed me one of the live rooms, and it featured an isolated room off to its side with a grand piano. He sat down at it and started playing fluently. “I've been practicing lately. I made a conscious effort to get my chops back up, because I've gotten lazy just with simple stuff. But I want to start doing more stuff and getting back to some playing.”

Later, sitting and talking in one of SouthSide's production rooms, I asked LRoc about how his Liberian background had influenced him musically. “I listened to African music in general,” he told me. “I listened to stuff that you could hear on the radio all the time. I was playing a lot of those songs by ear. And in bands. They've got different kinds of rhythms [than American music]. I understand other kinds of percussive rhythms and feels; I learned a lot from that, and I still apply it.”

I asked LRoc what he hopes to accomplish in the near future. He said that he'd like to be able to produce more beats without a specific artist in mind, and then sell them. “I'm working on my skills of just doing tracks and getting them placed. If I can do that, then my income will increase,” he said. “When I'm selling tracks that I made on my laptop, I'll be the happiest. I'll just get my little M-Audio bag and go on the plane, compose on the way to where I'm going, and when I get there, it'll be done.”

In addition to increasing his proficiency in Logic and with his virtual instruments, LRoc said that the biggest challenge presented by producing beats strictly from his laptop is to successfully duplicate the sounds he gets in the studio. “I can create a song on it, but my signature — my drum sound — isn't the way I want it yet. I'm still working on that, and that's key.” He knows that having killer sounds is crucial to staying successful in the hip-hop production game. “Sonically, it's got to beat so hard,” he said, “because the competition will.”