Our buddies over at SmC have come up with some great beats to rage to, study to, get loose to, or even to just listen to if that’s your thing. My personal favorite is the recently-posted Deadmau5 mashup “You and I in Brazil,” a great mix of two Deadmau5 classics. Check out the track, and the rest of the site, here.

Shyne was discovered by renowned producer Clark Kent (no relation to this Clark Kent), who had previously worked with the late Notorious B.I.G. Subsequently, he signed with P. Diddy’s Bad Boy Records where he recorded his debut album Shyne. The album was released a few months after Shyne was arrested for attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment at a Manhattan club. Regardless of his setbacks, the album achieved a great deal of success, eventually reaching Platinum status; however, Shyne did not enjoy his success.

While in prison, Shyne decided to assume a new outlook on life. He converted to Orthodox Judaism in 2006 and changed his name permanently from Jamal Barrow to Moses Levi, while keeping his stage name: Shyne. In the last couple of years, his release from prison was waited upon eagerly in the hip-hop community. Everyone was curious for an eventual comeback album. In February of this past year, Shyne signed a contract with Def Jam Records to produce what will be two albums worth of material. One album will be called Gangland and the other, Messiah. At this point, two singles are available online as preview tracks from the albums, which are due to be released next March.

The two singles, ‘Messiah’ and ‘Roller Song,’ clearly indicate a similar style to Shyne’s previous material. His clearly defined baritone-voice is still the focus; however, there are some melodic parts in the chorus of ‘Messiah’. What stands out to me though, in a bad way, is Shyne’s enunciation and tone. Many times, his syllables are unclear, leading to misinterpreted metaphors and rhymes within his songs, and his tone makes him sound like he is out of breath. Also, even though he is clearly going for the minimalist, underground sound heard in most ‘gangster rap’, the beats leave quite a bit to be desired.

On a positive note, the imagery in the chorus of ‘Roller Song’ is quite passionate, detailing Shyne’s feelings after being in prison for so long. The synth melody is also quite catchy. Contrastingly, in ‘Messiah,’ the synth is too overdone, and the backing track sounds like something coming from an 8-bit videogame.

Overall, I would say that these two songs are not what I expected to hear from someone with such a high profile label backing him. The production level, especially in ‘Messiah,’ is exceptionally low, leading to about ten minutes of uninteresting music. I am not sure whether this was intentional, and if Shyne is trying to simplify the production to give his lyrics some added meaning. If this is not the case, I am not sure I can rate this new material in line with the high expectations for these two album preview tracks. I give them 2 out of 4 stars.

Shyne – Roller Song

Shyne – Messiah

Photo Cred : The Grapevyn

T Bone Burnett and Greg Kot @ Summit10 from Future of Music Coalition on Vimeo.

Check out this interesting Q&A with producer and musician T Bone Burnett as he talks with Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune about today’s digital technology and the effects it is having on music.

Around the 35th minute, look out for Terrapin Sound writer David Botwick-Ries as he questions Burnett about ways to raise awareness to college students about the differences in listening to MP3′s versus “old school” records.

Before I get started on the actual software, I want to quickly go over the external interface that interacts with POD Farm. There are many Line 6 interfaces for sale that all work with POD Farm, ranging in both price and utility. I have found the POD Studio UX2 to be the most practical for my situation as the other models are either too large to fit in my designated area, or too small where the input and output specifications are not quite complementary to my equipment. One quick example of this is the lack of a “phantom power” toggle switch on the UX1 that is present on the UX2 that essentially powers my RØDE condenser microphone and allows it to record a signal. Anyway, as I said, there are many options to choose from in terms of your external interface, but it is up to you to pick the one best suited to your musical and creative specifications. For the sake of consistency, I will refer to the UX2 throughout the series when it is needed, but most of this information will be applicable to the smaller (or larger) equipment as well.

As I mentioned, the one universal component that all of these interfaces have in common is the POD Farm software. This excellent application allows any artist, in particular the dorm musician, to access a plentitude of sounds and tones that are fully customizable, just as if you were playing your guitar or bass (or singing) through an actual external effects system. When you first open the program, a window opens like the one here. On the first tab, called Gear View, you can scroll through various amp and cabinet models, as well as a plethora of distortion, dynamic, tremolo, and delay pedals, all based on actual existing models. You can either use these various models to customize your own sound, or choose from a very long list of preset sounds that are all based on well-known artist tones, songs, or typical genre and industry standards. Regardless of whether you choose the preset or custom approach, the second tab, Panel View, will definitely come in handy. On the second tab are where the actual amp control knobs are located for your virtual setup. This allows you to fully customize your sound so it sounds just how you want it. There is also a tuner available on the Show/Hide Tuner tab so that you can always make sure you’re tuned up before you start recording.

On the surface, POD Farm is very easy to use. However, some of the tricks of the trade are not so evident. One very important setting that I always make sure is set is on the fourth tab, Mixer View. On this tab you can select which external input’s signal running through the POD that you want POD Farm to process. The key here is to make sure that above the Send Mixers that the drop down menu is changed to “REC: Dry Input.” With this setting marked, POD Farm will send a dry signal to the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) while you hear a processed sound with effects. The significance of this is that once you have recorded all of your tracks and are ready to mix them together, it is much easier to manage an unprocessed signal because you can then go back and edit any levels or other settings on all the effects you want to use without rerecording the tracks.

Being familiar with POD Farm’s interface is very critical to the recording process. As I will explain next week when I begin talking about Reaper and using a DAW, many of the post-record editing of tracks will involve applying various effects to tracks, and many of these effect will come from POD Farm. More on this next time, thanks for reading!

My “music area” is fairly simple compared to the layouts of some professional practice and recording spaces. In the foreground you can see my main instruments, from left to right: a Martin DCX1E Acoustic-Electric, my personal favorite Paul Reed Smith Custom 24, and a RØDE NT1-A Condenser Mic with shock mount and boom stand. With the PRS sometimes acting as a bass and computerized drums (which I will get to), I have been able to record songs that sound as if a whole rock band is playing, when it is really just me. While the production of sound is heavily dependent on the playing of instruments, what really makes the whole process go is the computer interface behind it.

There are four essential applications on my computer that allow me to record in my dorm. The first is by far the most important of the group: POD Farm from Line 6. Originally a suggestion from multiple friends, I have grown quite attached to both the POD Farm software and the external interface, succinctly known as a POD.  After the POD comes my Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) of choice: Reaper from Cockos Inc. As a cousin of Pro Tools, the very expensive choice of professional recording studios, Reaper gives the user almost all of the same controls that you would have in a professional setting for a fraction of the cost. The other product that rounds out my set-up is EZDrummer from Toontrack, which serves as a more than adequate drum replicator. It converts the MIDI files that I create in Guitar Pro 6 into realistic drum tracks. Together, all of these products work hand-in-hand with any musician’s creativity and allow everyone who takes the time to learn each program’s ins and outs the ability to make recordings that are very close to professional quality.

Throughout this series, I will give you just that: the ins and outs to my recording setup. Hopefully you can apply this newfound knowledge to a recording set up of your own. Stay tuned for next week: POD Farm 101.

Thanks for reading, and check out the sample recordings below!

Halfway Home by Barren Mind
Moniker by Barren Mind

When Russell Simmons speaks, people listen–After all, he is one of the most successful music icons pretty much ever.  Simmons created the groundbreaking hip-hop label Def Jam; started his own clothing lines, Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and American Classics; co-founded the Foundation for Ethical Understanding; he is the editor-in-chief of GlobalGrind.com, and, since May 2005, has been contributing blogger to the Huffington Post.

When he came to the University of Maryland to talk to students last Wednesday, he talked about life. The stripped-down event featured Simmons sitting backwards on a chair in front of a blank projector screen, and yet, the audience’s attention remained focused throughout the nearly two-hour event. For the first fifteen minutes, Simmons told the audience about his personal journey; however, he surprised the audience by spending the next hour and a half on an informal, impromptu q-and-a session. The common theme strung through many of his answers was his definition of happiness; Simmons explained that, to be truly happy, you have to be happy doing what you do. Every has a passion, he explained: You just have to find it.

A large part of Simmons’ happiness, he explained, is his sobriety; however, it took him a while to reach that point. An anecdote he shared with the audience was the story of his first time on an airplane: When the stewardess asked what he wanted, he replied, ‘Some coke, and some pussy!’ A few thousand airplane rides later, however, he now said he would rather “do yoga in the morning than be high at night.” His experiences with drugs and alcohol are closely tied to his experiences with wealth; although very wealthy himself, he had a lot of strong feelings attached to the concept of materialism and material needs. “If you’re needy now,” he told the audience, “you’ll be needy with a lot of money. If you’re sad now, you’ll be sad with a lot of money.”

The final note of the q-and-a was Simmons’ belief about success and failue: “You can only fail if you quit.” You can only succeed if you try, you can only be happy if you make yourself happy, and you can only make something of yourself if you love who you are and what you do.

Walking out of the talk, I had a clear grasp of what Simmons wanted from life: Happiness. Bliss. Simplicity. One of his final notes to the audience, which resonated the most, was his comment on the road to bliss: “That’s what promotes happiness: When the noise is gone.” Happiness will not be reached with money, or cars, or bottles in the VIP section; it comes from you.

Check out the photo gallery here for pictures of the event!

Photos by Haya Levy; review by Matt Brody and Shayna Hodkin

Heh. The puns are never-ending. Though the next two weeks might be hell in a bucket (see last post), something about old school Jay-Z usually makes me feel better. My prescription for midterm blues: Listen to this once and go back to work. Midterms are almost over, cheer up.

This post is a little bit more about me than usual. See, I love the Dead and, more than the Dead, I love my birthday. It came to pass that when I started searching for shows in the great sea of Dead audience recordings, the first ones I checked out were shows that went down on my birthday.

There are a lot of remarkable shows by all sorts of bands spanning the last twenty years that have been played on December 16. For example, a cosmic coincidence dictated that Phish played one of my favorite songs, “The Curtain,” on the day of my actual birth. However, out of all of the great shows I’ve heard, my favorite would have to be The Dead, December 16 1994, at Los Angeles Coliseum.

The show has a fiery start with “Hell in a Bucket,” and keeps moving from there. My absolute favorite song of the show, and one of my favorites from the entire Dead catalogue, comes towards the end: Good Lovin’ closed out the second set with spirit and happiness–and, anyone as nerdy as me will not be surprised to know that exactly two years earlier, December 16 1992, the Dead played Good Lovin’ in Oakland. Highlights in between include “Eyes of the World” and “New Minglewood Blues.”

The encore of this show, which is the real kicker, is crowd-pleaser “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Stream the show here; give it a listen and holler at us with your opinion.

Set 1:
Hell In A Bucket
Cold Rain & Snow
Minglewood Blues
So Many Roads
Childhood’s End
Eternity
Don’t Ease Me In

Set 2:
Eyes Of The World
Samba In The Rain
Estimated Prophet ->
He’s Gone ->
Drums ->
Space ->
The Other One ->
Wharf Rat ->
Good Lovin’

Encore:
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

The Philadelphia-based Chiddy Bang rocked the University of Maryland last Thursday night. Chiddy working his magic on the mic alongside Xaphoon Jones doing his thing on the drums and beat machine turned the Stamp Student Union into a Thursday night hotspot. From the first song to the last they had the crowd dancing, jumping up and down, and having a blast.

The duo continues to tour the world, going nearly nonstop between venues as varied as Glastonbury Festival in England, New York City’s famed Highline Ballroom, and our Grand Ballroom. Chiddy Bang is famous for championing the growing genre of indie hip-hop, but that doesn’t mean they’re well known; however, once you listen to one song (preferably their “Fuck You” remix, YouTube below), your heart will be pumping and you’ll want to listen to more.

What makes Chiddy Bang unique is their selection of beats; unlike traditional hip-hop, Chiddy leans more towards electronic beats than drums. They are one of the best examples of indie hip-hop, a burgeoning genre including Long Island-based Hoodie Allen, Pittsburgh-based Wiz Khalifa, and all-time Kanye favorite, Kid CuDi. Hip-hop has grown in recent years (months, really) to include dubstep, trance, and electronic beats, making the competition tougher for American MCs.

The most notable aspect of their performance was their engagement with the audience; they talked to the audience, and at one point even asked people in the crowd to shout out different things for Chiddy to freestyle about—and he did, and he killed it. With topics as varied as Yom Kippur, pandas, birthdays, and, of course, College Park Terrapins.

We were lucky enough to have a few minutes to chat with Chiddy after the show (check the pictures in the Photo Gallery), and he was nothing less than incredible. We talked a lot about the online music industry; Chiddy’s career was launched in 2007 when they released a mixtape on the well-known blog Pretty Much Amazing, so as it can be imagined, they are in full support of the ‘mixtape movement.’ This past November, they released a second mixtape through PMA, heightening their buzz and further broadening their audience. With more and more names in hip-hop releasing free mixtapes, from unknowns to Kanye West, the Internet is impossible to ignore. Artists see it as a way to get their name out there; they can’t go wrong with free publicity.

What surprised me about their live show is how well everything translated to the live set. Even remixed tracks, such as “Never” (the studio version of which features XV and Killer Mike) were raging. The duo has incredible stage presence, which gave life to tracks that were more likely to fall flat.

Their great personalities, both onstage and off, give Chiddy Bang the edge that it takes to make moves in hip-hop. Keep an eye out, because these guys won’t be performing in college auditoriums for much longer.

Written by Shayna Hodkin and Matt Brody; photos by Haya Levy