Stadium Red Expands: Just Blaze and the Science of NYC Studios

HARLEM, MANHATTAN: As artistic as the purpose of New York City recording studios may be, it’s fair to compare these houses of sound to modern-day warriors. Every one goes into battle with the belief that they’re invincible. Many fall – but some grow stronger.

Uptown, the facility known as Stadium Red became convinced that there was only one sure strategy for thriving in the battle-scarred landscape of NYC: expand, and you’ll be in demand. Marking steady gains since its inception in 2007, when Stadium Red owner Claude Zdanow took over the highly respected but troubled former studio of jazz legend Ornette Coleman at 125th and Park, 2010 sees Stadium Red placing a bold bet that bigger really is better – even when paying NYC prices for your real estate.

The result is a recently completed 2,500 sq. ft. Frank Comentale-designed expansion that sees big names and powerful new capabilities added to the facility. A focused new B-Room is home to hip hop super producer Just Blaze (Jay-Z, Eminem, Saigon, Fabolous, Jamie Foxx, Talib Kweil, Kanye West) and an SSL AWS 900, Augspurger mains, and a digital/analog hybrid production/mix approach. A world-class mastering suite has also been added to house Herb Powers-protégé Ricardo Gutierrez (Justin Timberlake, Usher, John Legend, Jill Scott).

Meanwhile, Stadium Red’s accommodating A-room has gotten its own facelift, swapping in the classic SSL G+ board from Baseline Studios (RIP). Another pair of Augspurger mains with dual 18” subs, a custom Dangerous designed 7.1 surround monitoring system, 24-track tape machine and more are all in there. Mix engineer Tom Lazarus (Ray Charles, Bjork, Yo-Yo Ma, Chicago Symphony), mix engineer Ariel Borujow (T.I., Black Eyed Peas, Puffy, Kanye West), engineer Joseph Pedulla (Thursday, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Mos Def, Kid Cudi) and producer Sid “Omen” Brown (Ludacris, Mya, Drake, Fabolus) also maintain their respective residencies throughout the studio. A host of old skool elite amenities – from upgraded lounge to private chef/spa services – are in the mix for good measure.

While the idea of an all-encompassing studio environment of writing/tracking/mixing/mastering is not new, Zdanow believes that it’s the rare human resources he’s gathered – and what they’re on board to do – that will make the Stadium Red expansion stand out. “The idea is that more heads are better than one,” he says. “In studios it can become a stale environment, where the engineer is just a button pusher. What we take pride in is something the artists and labels don’t offer anymore, which is artist development.

“Artists come in here, and when they walk out our brand is attached to them. It’s about letting them know that all these ears are around, whether it’s Yo-Yo Ma, Eminem, or the emerging people we work with. We want to make records here that matter, and the idea is to bring back that creative community — we’re a growing team of NYC engineers and producers that care about NYC and the music scene.”

Zdanow’s energy – driven equally by his spirit of adventure and copious amounts of caffeine – was enough to convince Just Blaze to relocate to Stadium Red after closing his beloved Baseline. “I had known Ariel from before, and he said, ‘You should come look at this space and have a conversation with Claude,’” Blaze relates. “Claude explained his vision, what he wanted to build, and I said, ‘Maybe we can make something work.’ It made sense: The overall vision of the place and the appeal is that it’s a one-stop, end-to-end solution, from recording to mixing to mastering, even doing surround 5.1-7.1.

“So he physically expanded the space, and we combined our resources. It’s a win/win I get a little bit of the stress off my shoulders from running the day-to-day. That allows me to be more creative, but at the same time I have my own space.”

Whether for intensive writing sessions or serious mixing, the new B-room that Just Blaze inhabits was designed to be distinctively accommodating. “It’s gotta be something special — if it’s going to be this meeting of the minds, then it’s got to be something worthwhile,” he emphasizes. “It can’t just be a Pro Tools setup. The way I work, I need all the resources available all the time – I couldn’t go from a G+ to a writing room. And if we’re talking about partnering up and joining our resources to build a business, there’s no point in building something that’s just a production room. That’s something people can put in their houses these days. So you’ve got to take a step further and make it a destination.

“My room is the best of both worlds. If you want to walk in and get down to business in the box, you can do so: We have every plug-in, plus Augspurgers and other monitors. But if you’re a little more old school, you have the SSL and all the gear to go out of the box. Or you can go the third route, in that the AWS can go in and out of the digital world.

“By keeping it smaller we could keep it more affordable. Clients have the SSL, a full suite of plug-ins, Augspurgers – everything that would usually cost you $2500 or more a day, at the fraction of the cost. I think we really hit that sweet spot in terms of sizing. Sometimes you just need a room for production, with a controller or a laptop, but if you’re in this big huge room that’s a waste of money. Or it’s the other way around, and you’re feeling cramped. This place is small enough to feel like a production room, but big enough to feel like a room you can mix comfortably in.”

Arguably, the Stadium Red formula was working already: The studio and its personnel had a part in ten 2010 GRAMMY-nominated projects including Eminem’s Recovery (Album of the Year, Best Rap Album), Drake’s Thank Me Later, (Best Rap Album, Best New Artist), and Steven Mackey’s Dreamhouse (Best Classical Album, Best Orchestral Performance, and Best Engineered Album, Classical).

A good year, all right, but that’s already in the past. Although he’s young – still just in his early 20’s – Zdanow understands that part of moving forward is understanding what didn’t work before, and making adjustments. In that regard, the difficult decision to swap out the A-room’s ICON for the SSL G+ dovetailed with the concept of adding new faces, spaces and capabilities at Stadium Red.

“We’re in an ever-changing industry,” he observes. “When we started out I had a very strong opinion about being versatile and trying to do it all in one room. People appreciated the ICON, but over time we weren’t doing anything as good as we could have been doing it.

“By adding these two rooms, we’ve come to critical mass. People want a lot of options. The ‘A’ room has a big live room where people can track through the console, and mix with tons of outboard gear. Just Blaze’s ‘B’ room is its own environment for production, with the SSL AWS. If you want a powerful controller-based system, you have that in the ‘C4’ room where Ariel Borujow works. So what we realized was that it wasn’t just about one room. There are certain things that need to be in place to do everything — and do it well.”

– David Weiss

Omen: Positive Career Workflow

HARLEM: There are plenty of producers out there who are decidedly not feeling the pinch. GRAMMY Award-winning producer Omen is one such emerging impresario – an in-demand man shaping hip hop. With records for artist such as Memphis Bleek, Juelz Santana, Fabolous, Fat Joe, Redman and Mya to his credit, Omen currently keeps busy at Stadiumred’s Studio B. Hear here his wisdom on instincts, teamwork and advanced career management.

Q: How did you get into music production?
A: I actually went to school for art. I originally wanted to work in the comic book field as a sketch artist, but music captured me.

I officially started producing music around 1995. We were in a bedroom studio in the Bronx, just tinkering with tracks. I was rapping, I had a crew, and I had to do beats for the crew. That’s when I started sharpening my skills until a friend of mine, DJ 7:30 who has since passed away, connected me to G. Roberson – A&R at Roc-A-Fella at the time – and I got a few placements.

Q: How would you define yourself – composer, producer, engineer?
A: I would say all of the above. I wouldn’t say I’m the best (engineer) in the field, because there are other engineers, but I can track vocals in Pro Tools or Logic. I can compose a track and melodies, but I can’t read music. I’m not skilled from a music standpoint. I just know how to get it hot. I would say I’m a hands-on producer.

Q: What have you been working on recently?
A: I’m working on a debut album for Drake, who’s killing the Internet and the music scene. Also, working on a new artist named XV from Witchita, Kansas — he’s a dope MC just starting to build buzz. And I’m submitting for Young Jeezy’s, Ludacris, The Game and 50 Cent’s latest projects .

One thing I really appreciate is that I was able to get on a couple of debut albums. I was on Memphis Bleek’s debut album, Coming of Age on Roc-A-Fella, which went gold, and Fabolous’ debut album Ghetto Fabolous which went platinum – that was a classic record.

Q: What’s the submission process like for an artist on the level of Ludacris?
A: Back in the day you just had a beat CD, and they chose the beats they wanted. These days, it’s MP3s and you have to create a track based on what they want, and adding a chorus or a full song would help. So you have to innovate what’s hot.   If you give away a beat CD these days, it may be a waste of time. I suggest, give an artist three solid tracks to choose from. If they don’t like those three, submit another three. Keep it to a minimum.

Q: Can you give an example of your workflow for one of the Drake tracks?
A: There’s a record that I produced that’s on my producer’s compilation album entitled Be the Judge. I had a track called “Overdose on Life” that was pretty much a skeleton, and Drake loved it. I told him the concept, the vision of what to rap about, what the titles of the song means. Then he came to me with the finished product of the lyrics. The concept of “Overdose on Life” is to live life to the fullest. We all have our addictions and our vices, and I told him to overdose on what he loves the most. It was very classy. The collaboration was dope.

Building on the skeleton of the track that I created on my MPC 2500, I brought along a couple of friends. A young lady named Brandee Younger plays the harp on this – very subtle, very clean. Another friend of mine, Erik Torrente, is a crazy saxophone player/producer who helped me discover my ear for production. He added some piano splashes throughout the track. The vocal producer/track arranger was Noah Shebib, whose production name is 40/40. After the instruments were laid down, 40 took all the raw vocals, put effects on it, warped some of the words, put on delays, chopped the beat. He really helped bring that beat to life, as well as with the vocal tricks.

Q: That sounds like a very team-oriented approach.
A: I say it like this: I can trust my own ears and judgment to do the initial track, but I like to bring in other elements to make it greater. You can’t have all the glory, so instead of having a fake keyboard, horns or pianos, I’ll bring in a real pianist or horn player just to accent it, so it sounds a little more authentic. That makes it a lot broader, a lot stronger, a lot more organic.

Q: What does your residency at Stadiumred have to do with the way you work?
A: I wouldn’t call Stadiumred a commercial studio – I would say it’s a recording house, meaning, we can take a record and develop it, mix it, and deliver the final product.  We’ll keep it all within and make it a team effort. Say a client comes in to have me produce the record. I’ll make it sound good, then I’ll pass it on to Ariel Borujow or Joseph Pedulla, the mix engineers there, and they’ll mix it. So we keep it like that. We all have positive energy, we all encourage one another, and it’s a more family-oriented feel.

Q: How do you feel the NYC production scene is evolving?

A: I would say that with the constant demise of larger studios like Sony, what’s happening is that a lot of studios are now partnering up with publishing houses, the BMI’s, the ASCAP’s, and they’re working out situations with the labels. They’ll get an artist, develop that artist, record and mix the album within one facility, so everything pumps out of that studio/situation.

Of course, there are also a lot of home studios. People are getting Pro Tools, putting out their own mix tapes, sounds, albums, and they’re getting distribution deals – situations based on what they’re creating on their own.

Q: What’s your advice for producers who want to take things to the next level?
A: If you don’t have a studio, find a studio like Stadiumred. I’m not plugging it, but Stadiumred is a facility where we help a lot of aspiring artists, and we’re doing a lot of interesting things for the future. So find a studio situation like we’ve got, or create your own situation that could better yourself.

Right now, sales of physical product are down, but a lot of things like iTunes are up. Find your own lane, your own sound, your own comfort zone for recording in. Go with the formula of how you get things done.

Lastly, don’t put out anything not mixed — if you put out any records, make them sound the best you can. The first impression is the best impression.

Tweet Omen: @producedbyomen

Hear Omen: www.myspace.com/emw