Jody Whitesides

Category: News

Why Every Musician Should Explore New Rap Artists Right Now

What could be more out of wack than three white men discussing rap music? That’s right. Jesse Stern starts us off with an off the cuff remark about rap music and George Leger III takes over discussing the state of modern rap in Southern California. Don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot of rap I like for it’s originality, it’s beat, it’s wild-blue-yonder approach. Yet listening to George talk about the artists he’s hearing about from the youth group he works with, is definitely an eye opening and mind expanding situation for myself and Mr. Jesse Stern.

Find out my expression and how I react to a group that I’ve never heard of. Actually all the groups that George mentions are groups I hadn’t heard of until he mentioned them. Jesse takes it all in stride. What ended up happening afterwards is that I’m now more aware of some of the new modern rap coming out of Southern California. Not necessarily a bad thing.

What say you? Who is rapping stuff so awesome that you can’t believe they’re not uber famous yet? Give me some names so I can flesh out my measly commercial rap collection.

White Men Discussing Rap

There’s a lot of really cool rap out.

Productionwise it’s so minimalistic.

Uh Hmmm.

That I… it’s like driving on ice.

Do you do a lot of rap?

I do where I work ’cause the kids, that’s what they want to do.

That’s what the kids are doing these days…

They’re not producing music. They don’t even know what music is. Well, that’s not true. I can’t really say that, ’cause… You know. They. It’s been really intriguing with them to try and turn them on to other kinds of music.

Uh Hmmm.

And other stuff because they’re so into this ridged little clique of music. ASAP Rocky, fuckin’ ah, SPM, South Park Mexicans. Yeah.

Is that a band or a style.

That’s a band.

Ok.

I was about to say if that’s a style, it’s way off my radar.

There’s a band down in Orange called FUNK.

They’re just called FUNK?

They’re just called FUNK. And like all the gangsta kids love ’em. They’re all like, I want FUNK man. I hear it. Like who the fuck is FUNK? FUNK is the they’re a band man.

Funk is that guy right there. He got the funk.

Well, they’re, you know. Eh, South Park Mexicans, SPM, there’s like four or five guys, that’s all they talk about when they talk. ASAP Rocky is one of them.

–

Give me some more rap to check out in the comments.

Enjoy your day!

– Jody

2014-04-08
One Trick You Didn't Know For Loud Mastering

One thing these days that lots of people have complained about is extremely loud mastering of music and how it tends to kill the song. I’m someone who has heard many a song released where the mastering and/or mix was so brick wall limited that it ends up sounding distorted, lacking dynamics, and it’s disappointing. It destroys the vibe of the recording, all in the name of attempting to stand out above all others when broadcast to the world. The end result of these loud mixes that are overly compressed and limited is one of making the song sound small and shitty. Small and shitty is not necessarily the result any self respecting musician would ever want for their releases. However, many record labels now force this concept of “make it LOUD” to the mixing engineers and the mastering guys.

Once in a while, a mistake can lead to a new discovery about how to approach doing something. Said mistake can end up starting a new way to look at a problem. Such is the case with an approach George Leger III stumbled upon while putting his mastering skills to the test for my song Touch. I have a version of Touch that has been mastered by the great John Rodd. But before I end up releasing the song, I’ll consider going with a second master based on George’s new technique. To put it simply, it’s mind shredding loud mastering, without sounding distorted or compressed.

Watch as I get George to discuss the process of super loud mastering he stumbled upon, to my buddy Jesse Stern, who is also the co-writer on “Till We Meet Again.”

Loud Mastering

Transcript:

So we can get the low down on all this trickery.

Well really all it is… is this is a 32 bit hard… uh, software mixer right.

Yeah.

But because it’s 32 bit, you can crank the crap out of the levels internally. So I can take this fader and ride it up to say +9. And it won’t clip.

Hmmm.

It chops the top off, but it does it in a way that it doesn’t sound dynamically compressed.

Like a soft clipping type thing?

So you can push it up and it sounds loud without sounding [distorted] compressed. Or distorted. Jody was just like: I don’t know what you did man, but the file you gave me, the mastering… It’s the loudest I’ve ever heard and it’s like doesn’t sound bad at all. It sounds great.

Well, yeah. He did a master of Touch.

Uh huh.

That he gave back to me and I was like it was just… what did I say? Mind shredding loud?

Yeah. It was super super loud. [it was so loud…] I didn’t even realize I had done this when I did it. Until I went back and looked and I went, oh wait a minute I didn’t go through this whole thing that I thought I was going through.

And I’m looking at the meters of my thing and my meters are still going up and down with all the dynamics. I’m like how the F^#$ is it so God damn loud!

Yeah. And not like: Phhhhfffftttt! Like crushed. Normally you do that and it gets crushed. What I discovered is that you can actually use this internal little mixer to jack the heck out of your levels, but it doesn’t distort.

Wow.

And it doesn’t sound compressed.

That’s cool.

It is really cool. Cause it’s like you can add 6 to 9 db of limiting without it sounding at all like that’s what you did. The nice thing that I like about the master that I did is… The attack of the kick and the snare are still there. Dynamically it’s like BAM BAM it just sounds so good. I couldn’t believe it. I was like, what the hell.

Okay, are we ready?

We’re ready. We’re ready. Anybody ready?

Have thoughts on loud mastering for your music – chime in in the comments below. I’m happy to discuss.

2014-03-25
The Unexpected Link Between Mountain Biking and Music Production

Ah yeah, when I’m in the studio and I’m cooped up for too long, I need to get outside. Such was the case while I was in the studio during the recording of Touch. I needed a break and what better break is there than to get outside and do some light grade mountain biking. Here in this video I’m out in the Pacific Palisades area taking a quick ride up the Westridge trail with my good friend Russell Bowman and his dog Tara.

Mountain Biking

Hey it’s Jody, I’m here with my good friend Russell Bowman.

Hey! Tara. Shhhhh…

You’re part of this too, but yeah, wait your turn. You need to stop barking right now so I can speak.

I’m here in the lovely area of (is this West Ridge?) (West Ridge)

We’re in Westridge this is Russell Bowman and he owns Thunderbolt Spiritual books. He has loaned me his mountain bike.

Normally I’d be on my own. But, mine is somewhere else in the world at the moment.

And we’re going mountain biking today. Join us!

A slow uphill climb up Westridge.

Need a little seat adjustment. We don’t have the tools.

So one of the last times I was riding here with Russell I came down into this ditch.

Right there!

And face planted. When my bike stopped dead in the ditch.

Downhill here. Unfortunately, Russell’s seat clamp has broken so we can’t make it up to our goal which is that little silo looking thing up there on the top of the hill.

We’re going to turn around here in just a moment and go up the single track ‘n’ go back down.

We are, on our way up the Westridge single trail. Russell has got his helmet on I’m solo without helmet. Silly me for being unprepared. But. That’s what you get when you borrow. See ya on the flip side on the bottom.

Russell has to walk ’cause his seat don’t work.

Made it up that. I’m breathing a little bit heavier than I thought I would. But that was exciting.

Next set of downhill we go.

Came down that single track in the center.

Coming back up the hill. Over here Los Angeles covered by clouds. Looks like yesterday when golfing.

Now back down to the end.

Russell and Tara up ahead. As they say – never let ’em see ya sweat.

2014-02-04

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