Remix Hotel L.A. 2008 Wrap-Up

Jan 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Lori J. Kennedy

Remix Hotel's (Remixhotel.com) annual stop in L.A. always comes with celebrity sightings (Dustin Hoffman for telling mom about, Dave Attell for telling friends about), almost celebrity sightings (hey, was that the skank from Rock of Love?), TV show tapings (hi CSI:NY!) and interesting characters on the Sunset Strip (hmmm…that guy appears to be wearing a newspaper).

Naturally, RHLA 2008, December 4-6 at the SAE Institute in Hollywood, was a mass of awesomeness. Our presenting partner, Avid, supplied the new components of video-editing classes and TV and film industry guests, including Brendon Small, creator of Metalocalypse/Dethklok; legendary indie music producer and Alpha Pup Records founder Daddy Kev (Flying Lotus, Daedelus, Busdriver, Mix Master Mike); and Chris Vrenna, Grammy Award-winning producer/engineer/songwriter/founder of the band Tweaker.

Industry panels always pack 'em in at Remix Hotels. Remix partners iStandard hosted two, including L.A. Hip-Hop: The Sound That Defined the West Coast, which discussed the major players at the beginning of the L.A. hip-hop scene, moved on to the post-N.W.A. G-funk movement and the lingering influence of Tupac. iStandard's encore — A&R: New Era, New Challenges — presented industry muscle from Atlantic Records, Delicious Vinyl, ASCAP and more. One of the big points was finding a way to stand out when MySpace has a million rappers on it, such as handing your music out on a Flash drive rather than a CD. The A&Rs also stressed that when you submit tracks, submit only your favorite track rather than a full album.

Grammy Award-winning producer Danja (T.I., 50 Cent, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears) sat down for a special In Session Q&A on the making the DJ Khaled hit “We Takin' Over.” Danja — along with his engineer of five years, Marcella Araica — went through the track's Pro Tools HD session, explaining how he came up with the initial beat, the hook and the stacked drum parts. In addition to calling out some of their favorite studio tools (including Celemony Melodyne and, of course, the Akai MPC4000), Danja and Araica also gave some real insight into their working relationship and how to forge a career as a producer or engineer.

Intimate master classes also gave attendees in-depth looks at specific products and important answers and tips on how to use them. Classes focused on Ableton Live 7, Propellerhead Reason 4, Cakewalk Sonar 8 Producer, Roland Fantom G6, mastering with IK Multimedia T-RackS 3 and more.

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