RSR284 - Tony Black - Grammy Winning Engineer for Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Wu Tang Clan, Luther Vandross, and More...
Recording Studio Rockstars
Lij Shaw
4.8 • 543 Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2021
⏱️ 151 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
My guest today is Tony Black a Grammy-winning music producer, mixer/engineer & songwriter/musician. He has contributed to recordings totalling more than 50 million units sold or downloaded. He won a GRAMMY AWARD for his contribution to the album "THE DIARY OF ALICIA KEYS" for BEST R&B ALBUM. He also mixed and recorded "RIDE OR DIE" on the Grammy-winning album JAY-Z "HARD KNOCK LIFE VOL.2".
Tony spent many years in NYC at legendary studios such as The Power Station, The Hit Factory, Quad, and Electric Lady. He became part of the 90's hip-hop scene that would go on to make music history. Working with artists such as Notorious BIG, Jay Z, Q tip, Lil Kim, P. Diddy(Puffy), Cam'ron, Wu Tang Clan, Michael Jackson and too many others to list, he clocked in more than 4000 sessions in the 90's alone.
These sessions led to a 6-year working relationship with Alicia Keys. He recorded and mixed all of The Diary of Alicia Keys. He continues mixing, recording, and producing new music today for label artists, indie artists, and for his own project Slow Down The Quick based in NYC and working anywhere in the world with his mobile project studio.
Thanks to Josh Harris for making our introduction! (Carl Nappa).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of Recording Studio Rockstars is brought to you by Sound Porter mastering, Adam Audio, OWC, JZ microphones, Spectra-1964, and Isotope. |
| 0:12.6 | In fact, you're hearing my voice right now on the JZBB29 microphone through the Spectra-1964 STX-100 micpre, C C610 complementer, and isotope RX and ozone. |
| 0:24.6 | So get ready to rock. |
| 0:26.6 | I think there's paralysis by analysis kind of thing. |
| 0:29.6 | Very simply, I'll say to the kid, like, you know, whatever you got boosting 4K, what happens if you, like, go from 2 dB to 10 dB? What happens? Well, I don't know. I've never tried. |
| 0:39.7 | There's like this hesitancy like, well, I've heard that that's crazy to go crazy with the knobs. |
| 0:44.7 | I couldn't disagree more with that. I mean, that's all I did when I was learning was explore the limits of everything. |
| 1:03.2 | Welcome to Recording Studio Rockstars. |
| 1:11.0 | I'm Lid Shaw and this is the podcast created to help you become a rock star of the recording studio. |
| 1:20.4 | I'm Brian Murphy, and I strive to produce masters that move your song emotionally, |
| 1:24.1 | but maintain the spirit of your mix and the intention of the artist. |
| 1:29.3 | My promise is to give your music its best sonic performance, not simply change it. You work hard on your mix, and I always want to respect that. My goal is to help you realize how great your mix can be, and I'll work hard to make sure it succeeds. |
| 1:38.3 | I don't just master. I help your mix sound the best it can. Contact me for a free mastering demo at soundporter.com. |
| 1:48.2 | I've got two words for you that will help you make your best record ever and not lose it. |
| 1:53.0 | Storage and backup. |
| 1:54.5 | You want fast drives for composing and recording and reliable drives for backup so you don't lose all your hard work when something goes wrong. |
| 2:02.1 | That's why I chose OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G internal SSDs for my studio computer |
| 2:08.7 | and Mercury Elite Pro external drives for archiving. |
| 2:12.5 | Discover the best OWC drive options for your studio at macsales.com slash rockstars. |
| 2:22.0 | Hey, rock stars, it's your host, Lid Shaw, and welcome back to recording studio rockstars, |
| 2:27.0 | bringing you into the studio to learn from recording professionals so that you can make your |
| 2:31.3 | best record ever and be a rock star of the studio yourself. |
... |
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