My name is Hakim Callier and I am a music producer and currently working on the art-rock band RPG’s debut album. I am specializing in the songwriting and music production of their 7 volume music project entitled, Rainbows. R P G, makes colorful songs that reflect all the texture, tone and imagery of a beautiful rainbow. There isn’t much art in music anymore. However, R P G makes music and art a single experience. Please, share this music with  your friends. All you have to do is post a link on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace or your own blog. Let’s help get R P G a little Internet exposure for their debut album, Rainbows scheduled for release this Spring.

More advance previews of R P G’s music will be added to the player.

Featuring: Broken Hearts ©
R P G | Rainbows 
Volume 2: The Blue Collection
Written and Produced by: Hakim Callier
Copyright 2009, Kalandar Music (BMI)

My most recent mixing project, a mid-tempo funk rock tune, that has a lot of movement within the stereo sound stage has got me thinking about effects. I have found myself thinking about the basics of mixing and why we use effects in the first place. This led me to pick-up an old classic, the reference book Mixing Engineer’s Handbook by Bobby Owsinksi.

In chapter 4, Dimension – Adding Effects, Owsinski mentions four basic reasons why a mixer would add dimension to a track. These same reasons were again revealed in his latest blog post, The 4 Reasons To Add Effects, where he lists,

There are four reasons why a mixer would add effects to a track:

• To Create An Aural Space. One of the reasons why we record elements in stereo is to capture the natural ambience of an instrument, or the “aural space”. Since we can’t record everything this way due to track or storage limitations, a limited recording space, or because we’re close-miking, we usually just create this aural space artificially.
• To Move A Track Back In The Mix (give the impression it’s farther away). One of the easiest ways to keep instruments from fighting each other for attention is to layer them by moving them back in the mix.
• To Make A Track Sound Bigger, Wider And/Or Deeper. This is the usual reason that a successful mixer will add effects to a track, but one of the hardest for a neophyte mixer to grasp because it can be so subtle. You can’t really tell the effects are there until they go away, but they never do, so how do you know?
• To Add Excitement. Sometimes a delay or modulation effect added to an instrument or vocal will be just the thing to make it the hook or a major focal point of the song.

Each of these reasons remain true. And on this track the excitement element stood out, and so I added a slight digital distortion to the bass track, a DI bass and mic’d cabinet blended to taste. The cabinet is deep and woody while the DI had light compression and a slight boost in the 2.5khz area. The digital distortion gave a light buzz in the mid range frequencies and also drew some attention to the upper hamonics of the the bass part, something that I picked up from Greg Kurstin on Lily Allen’s latest album, It’s Not Me It’s You (SOS, May 2009).

As promised I am giving my blog readers advance news on the progress of the R P G project. The latest update is the official biography for the group. You may also find a link to a rough mix of a feature song from the Red Collection below.

R P G is a New York City art-rock project, founded by Hakim Callier in 2008. Although the name is typically affiliated with video games, grenades or nerds playing dress-up and using their imaginations in ways a three year old might. Yet R P G, the band, is quickly getting noticed by music lovers – which may still include some over-imaginative nerds playing dress-up – allowing the alias to attain totally new affiliations. The band, though not currently in the media spotlight, is a musical bright spot in an industry that’s become a real downer in recent years.

The original idea for the band came while Hakim was attending New York University in 2005. However, the group officially took shape at a New York City rehearsal studio in 2009. And for the past two years, Hakim has been at work, developing the sound, focus and overall musical style for R P G. As the front man and only official member, Hakim writes and arranges the songs and works like a task master in the recording studio playing drums, bass, guitar, keys and vox. Between 2008 and 2009, R P G formed a distinct sound from diligent efforts inspired by the ups and downs of life in NYC. This also paved the way for the group’s intricate and unorthodox creative process; provocative songwriting and edgy themes.

“A slick city sound reminiscent of Interpol”
-soundout.com

R P G’s hard work, talent and influences from artists like Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure and David Byrne resulted in catchy, upbeat yet extremely moody tunes. Their songs were the answer for a vacancy in the music licensing business that industry professionals knew needed to be filled. As the band continues to grow and develop, much of its notoriety is coming by way of the Internet. R P G is currently recording their seven volume debut LP titled Rainbows, at their Harlem recording studio on Sugar Hill. The album is an effort to forge an array of musical textures with vivid tones and brilliant lyrical imagery.

“You’re A New Yorker“, is a song from the Red Collection of the Rainbows LP. The link will bring you to an advance preview of a rough mix. Hakim is currently in the studio finalizing the mix. The Rainbows LP is scheduled for a Spring 2010 release.

Photograph by dreamglow @ flickr.com

Is the art of recording dead? Where are all the colors and textures in today’s music? Making music with bold textures made the listener feel something. Remember, “At Last” by Etta James? The texture in that recording was great!

Customizing texture and character of sound was a key feature of recordings in the late 1950s particularly among music producers in the U.K. like Sir George Martin,  Norman Smith and even Joe Meek.

It seems to me that this influence reached the US perhaps as a result of the British Invasion. But after that American music became a collage of musical color and texture. This can be heard in fantastic recordings by Jeff Lorber and Pleasure. But also the more well known recordings from bluesy artists Van Morrison and and vintage rock icons like the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix.

So what do I mean by musical textures? Well, I am referring to the interwoven elements of a sound. These elements have distinct characteristics (shape, size, color, etc.):

For example, sand has a texture that is different from glass. Sand glued or embedded in glass would give an interesting texture. So imagine what can be done with sand, glass, metal and a piece of a brick. The different textures combined make for a pretty exciting time for those who have sensitive hands!

In music, sound can also have texture. Sounds can be grainy like sand or smooth like glass. These days I find most music just sounds brittle! Everything from the top-to-the-bottom; high frequency range down to the low-end. The majority of “big record’s” sounds seem as though they can from the same element. All sand for instance or all glass. I am looking to do something different with with this album.

I have no intention on giving an accurate historical account of textures used in music. This is merely a thought I was having as I further develop my forthcoming album, RPG Rainbows. Working on the title track has really got me looking at sound more deeply and trying to explore different ways to present a single sound besides dialing in artifacts.

My feeling is that the recording process has become so easy for songwriters and composers now that the ingenuity and art of recording has waned. And despite arguments over SPLs – the loudness war – music texture is also a characteristic of recording that is in a state of flux.

There are however, some artists who are using texture well and I am looking to some of them for insight on this project. I would like to discuss this topic further so if you have anything to add feel free to leave a comment.

Full length audio clip of Scream!, a music production by Hakim Callier (Music X-Ray)

follow me

(@hakimcallier)

"Pump up the volume." By delphaber @ Flickr.com

Update: Obi of www.obiaudio was announced the winner with 46% of the votes at 8am on Friday 7/31/09.

Competition pushes creativity. Isn’t that what they say? My blog is hosting a healthy, but intense competition between the best and brightest among up-and-coming music producers from all around the world. The members of FutureProducers.com decided to have a mastering competition featuring my song, RPG Rainbows.

This is a competition where we will allow the people to decide the best of  audio mastering performance on RPG Rainbows. The finalists are Morning_Star, Edge0125, Obitheincredible and deRaNged 4 Phuk’dup. The winner of the competition will be determined by a poll on Future Producers (FP).

Please vote! In addition, ALL mastered copies of RPG Rainbows can be downloaded as FREE MP3 for your listening convenience.

This is the first time that I have sponsored a competition like this, so if you have any feedback or questions please leave it in the comments section. You may also ask questions to the finalists about their audio mastering performances in the comments section. If all goes well, I may just develop this competition into a regular feature on this blog. Adding yet another way to get up and coming composers, music producers and audio engineers some added exposure to media music supervisors and content producers.

-@hakimcallier