AROUND THE BLOCK

Oct 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Tamara Warren

From working with Kurtis Blow as a young kid to Amy Winehouse, Nas and Lalo Schifrin into his 30s, Salaam Remi has amassed major amounts of gear, a long discography and a whole lot of studio science

Then came time to collaborate with the orchestra — a first for Remi. “We did that at Sony on the Barbra Streisand Soundstage.” After mixing in Pro Tools and with the SSL console, he sent an MP3 of the track to Cee-Lo while Nas recorded on a Sony C800G mic at the Atlantis studio. Nas and Cee-Lo instinctively composed topical lyrical content. “They wrote their parts without hearing each other,” Remi says. “Then I edited it all back together. There's a lot going on back in the track.”

With longtime collaborator Nas, the work was natural once Remi had the beat and feel down. “He likes the [Sony] C800G mic going through an Avalon preamp on 95 percent of his records.” For singers, Remi prefers a Neumann U 47 because it gives him more space to layer around the vocals. “I feel like the Neumann captures from the top of your head to your stomach all the way around your head. I like to not have to reproduce the sound with electronic reverbs. For vocalists, you can do a lot of processing, so I avoid artists who can't sing. Every track is totally different, and I use different vocal techniques. Some things are dry, and verses have a certain energy, and the chorus is bigger and spread out over strings.”

The production process keeps Remi motivated, and he maintains an intense composition schedule. This year alone he has produced songs for Busta Rhymes, David Sean, Nick Harrison, Joelle Ortiz, Leona Lewis, Chrisette Michele, Nina Skye, Money Mark, Bobby Ronson, I-20 and his own groups Champagne Flute and Crunkadelic.

He's indeed a producer's producer, enchanted by the notion of taking an artist and drawing out their best qualities and vision, and is always looking out for new artists and challenges. “I'm a big believer that it's not the machine, it's the monkey,” Remi says. “It doesn't make a difference what you use; it's what's in your brain. I got past having a beat ego a long time ago. It's based on the emotion I'm trying to pull out of the record and how I'm trying to showcase that artist. The beat is secondary. The key is still to know exactly what I'm looking for and to keep learning.”

THE INSTRUMENT ZOO

Computers, DAW, recording hardware, interfaces

Apple G5 (4), G4 (2), iBook (2)
Apogee Big Ben Master Digital Clock,
Rosetta 800 AD/DA Converter
Digidesign 192 I/O, Digi 002, Digi Sync I/O,
Pro Tools|HD3 systems (2)
HHB CDR-800 CD burner
MOTU 24 I/O (2), 2408, Digital Timepiece,
HD192, MIDI Timepiece, MIDI Timepiece II,
MIDI Timepiece AV interfaces
Panasonic SV3800 DAT recorder
Tascam DA-88 and DA-98 (2) digital 8-track
recorders, MD301 MKII MiniDisc recorder

Consoles/mixers

Mackie Onyx 1620
SSL 6000E
Yamaha DM2000

Mics

AKG C 451 E
Audix Fusion Drum Mic Pack
Neumann U 47, U 87
Oktava MK-012 (2)
RCA 44BX (3), 77 Type DX (2)
Røde NT2
Royer Labs SF24
Sennheiser MD 421 (2)
Sony C800G

Mic preamps

Avalon Vt-737sp preamp/compressor/EQ (2)
Daking 5227 (2)
Neve 1073 (8)

EQs

API 550 (2), 550A (2), 560 (4), 560A
Audio Arts 4200A
Avalon AD2055
Lang PEQ-2
Manley Enhanced Pultec EQP-1A
Orban parametric EQ
Pultec EQH-2 (3), HLF-3, MEQ-5 (2)
Tubetech PE1A
White Instruments 4700 (2)

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