Wizard of Oz | Bryan-Michael Cox

Nov 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Ken Micallef

QUIETLY MAKING HIP-HOP HITS BEHIND THE CURTAIN, BRYAN-MICHAEL COX HAS HELPED MARIAH CAREY, MARY J. BLIGE, USHER, RIHANNA AND MONICA STAY ON TOP

You may not know his name, but you have undoubtedly heard his music. A four-time Grammy-Award winner whose pristine productions are sourced by R&B's elite performers, Bryan-Michael Cox is among a new breed of producers hailing from the South.

Cox's career is as star-studded as the acts for which he has supplied multiple hits. SESAC named Cox songwriter of the year in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Billboard named him producer of the year after he broke The Beatles' record for most consecutive No. 1 hits. Equally surprising is Cox's humble nature. Though nearly impossible to track down, Cox is heartfelt and warm — once you find him.

As comfortable programming Native Instruments Kore as flipping it old school with an MPC, Cox is also an accomplished piano player whose church roots keep him grounded. Currently working from Atlanta, Cox learned the basics in Houston's Assemblies of God and Church of Christ congregations, playing alongside such heavyweight jazz musicians as pianists Robert Glasper and Jason Moran. Cox often accompanies many a soul or pop star on his Rhodes Suitcase (as he did for forthcoming tracks with Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Monica and Rihanna; previously with Mary J Blige and Usher), and while you'd never mistake him for Herbie Hancock, a jazzlike architecture and a clarity of line marks Cox's million-selling productions.

“That is harder to do than you might think,” the 30-year-old replies when asked about his simple but extremely direct productions. “I learned with Puff [Cox made regular appearances on MTV's Making the Band] and Jermaine Dupri that people want to be able to feel what you are saying and feel the music. I don't want to fill my music up. I don't want to throw random sounds in there. Creating a track and writing a song is a journey. Understand where your destination is and find the quickest and most effective way to get to that destination.”

Mary J Blige's “Be Without You”; Mariah Carey's “Don't Forget About Us” and “Shake It Off”; Destiny Child's “Bad Habit”; and Usher's “Burn,” “Confessions, Pt. 2” and “U Got It Bad,” as well as tracks from Dupri, Amerie and Ginuwine have all benefited from Cox's touch. Cox can as easily create a skeletal production template in Logic as he can a vamp on the keys (if Mary J or old friend Beyoncé is in a crooning mood), but truth be told, his favorite software is Native Instruments Kore. He used Kore on upcoming productions for Rihanna, Mariah Carey and Monica, and he understands its ins and outs like the back of his hand.

KULT OF KORE

“For the most part, I use Kore as a sound generator,” Cox explains from Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank while working on new material for Trey Songz. “I use Logic as my sequencer; I never realized Kore was a sequencer until after I had it for a year and a half. I basically use Kore to enrich my sounds. I definitely love the way it allows me to layer and mix and match sounds you might not normally use in that way.”

Working in Kore 2 with Komplete Bundle 5, Cox approaches its software in similar fashion to his keyboard exploits. He will open the browser, choose from among Massive, Pro-53, Reaktor 5 or FM8 soft synths, and fool around until something strikes him.

“I usually go right to the different presets 'cause they have some pretty dope presets in there,” he admits. “I figure out which sounds move me on that particular day. If I am in the middle of a production and I need something different that people don't use as much, I will use Kore to mix and match sounds to create a new sound. That is the beautiful thing about soft synths; certain sounds inspire me to create a new melody that is hot. Outside of what I use in the box, the only hardware that I use is an SE-1, or a Moog Little Phatty or Voyager. I have a Motif and I use that and Fantom to death. When I'm within the box, I use Kore 'cause it lets me create new sounds. You will never go through all those sounds in Kore. There are no limits.”

Regarding Cox's Kore experiments, he typically combines presets as he did for Trey Songz' “The Last Time.” He also enjoys NI's seemingly endless layering possibilities.

“That melody from Kore is actually the anchor of the record,” Cox says. “It's a direct reflection of me mixing different synth sounds to create a mono kind of Moog-y sounding synth. You're basically pulling and pulling 'til you create something hot. For ‘The Last Time,’ I laid a chord progression down and tried to find the perfect synth line. I went through all my equipment, all the presets, all of the sources I had. It wasn't working. I opened Kore, started diddling around with it, put a couple of leads together, and that dope sound came. It's not like a horn; it's like a wah-wah sound. It goes up and closes at the end. I was looking for the most synthetic-sounding texture I could find.

“Layering in Kore is similar,” Cox continues. “Basically, I go to the browser and find different textures; then I will just drag-and-drop in. From a layering standpoint, Kore organizes all the sounds that are in Native Instruments. I will go to sounds I am familiar with from Massive, Pro-53, Reaktor or FM8 and basically build a sound. There's a sound I love in FM8 called EW7 Lead Sound; it's almost like a synth flute with a little delay on it. When you are in Kore, a list pops up with the different instruments. So I will maybe select EW7 and then find something a little grittier to go under it. ‘The Last Time’ has the EW7 on top; then there is a rougher, edgier thing at the bottom that I got from the Massive library. Then I balanced it off with another sound from Pro-53. The problem is that I can never get the exact same sound [because] I didn't save the preset. I learned a valuable lesson. Every time I make a preset like that now, I have to save it! But basically, the browser comes up, I click what I like and whatever happens, happens.”

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