ROCWELLRECORDINGSINC
ROCWELL
Islam, (Peace).
My name is J.O.E, I've been fooling around with production since around 91'. Doing tracks with my home team Universal Chaos off Chi's south side. In the beginning we used 2 Gemini XLDD50 TT's, a PDM1012 2 ch DJ mixer with a 12 seecond sampler, and a Boss DR550. Then in like 96' after I got my GED, I met my long time friend/collaborator S.I.C.K.S aka Schamburg Dan. I'd responded to an ad in a local trade pub about a SP12 for sale. The **** was kinda' funny...see when I called this dude on the horn he sounded like one of the Moes, but when he showed up at the flat with the SP... I open the door and it's a 6' brother from the caucasian persuasion! That's my guy though, I wouldn't give a **** if he was polka dot...Real Talk! My homie SD put me on to some real valuable things as far as Hip Hop production was concerned. See when I used the Gemini/Boss setup I couldn't even track vocals, or save samples! I was basically two trackin' every thing on the fly! I went to SD's crib and he had this ****in' dream room.... I saw a Mackie 1604, MPC60, S950, a rack full of FX/Comps/EQ's, and those fresh ass SL1200's with the "finger needles" Ortofons!!! I was like dammmmmm! I wouldn't neva' come out!!!! So, I kick it over there and learned about this new thing... MIDI, I thought it was amazing how all these devices could "talk" to one another. He had drums in the 60, bass in the 950, he was patching this sound into this filter outside the box, and the 4-track (Tascam 424MKII) was outputtin' SMPTE into the MP so the **** would lock to tape!!!!!! 1nce again....I was like dammmmmm!
So needed to say BIG UP to my man, and ALL PRAISE DUE 2 ALLAH for that experience. Production has kept my skinny ass out of trouble that some of my partners I ran wit' got into, I was working on loops while they was chasin' prostitutes....most of the time anyway.
So....I went from the Gemini/Boss>>> an SP12 Turbo w/1541 disk drive, still had the Gem TT's & mixer, and I got a Tascam Porta 02 (later a 414MKII for the discrete sync out to send SMPTE to the SP although it cut my total recordable tracks down to 3, it was key because I didn't have to commit anything to tape. I could build the beat around the vocals). From there I tracked at local studios who were using ADAT's and DA88's mostly. It wasn't until around 98' when I went to a session with a girl from my high school who sung R&B (at the request of her manager) to be the feat. MC on a song for her demo, that I had my first encounter with Pro Tools. I wasn't blown away...maybe cuz' I didn't get it? Or maybe cuz' my **** was working for me. For awhile I was one of dem' cats that was Pro-Analog. My big Cuzzin' Verb E (from the famous The Chapter Crew..."PLUG") and his homeboy DJ 360 (Salaam Alaikum) were recording to a Roland 880, burning CD's and ****!!! Now CD's was big time to me, I mean even though I was pro analog, having ya' **** on CD was like...."you damn near signed!" lol. Then I didn't understand the process of putting songs onto a "digital" medium. So I use to hit up local music gear suppliers ask hella' questions, take free pamphlets on hardware/software, call 800 numbers request catalogs/manuals etc...and I studied that ****! I was like "alright this is how we gonna do it!!!" So round 01' I bought my first computer (PCI Graphics G4 350Mhz with a Combo Drive off ebay) for the "low-low". I got this computer cuz' the people I knew who used computers to aid in music creation used Macs, even at school we were using 8600's. Another deciding factor was that uring my research I'd come across Digidesign's Pro Tools Free system requirements for Mac. So now I was semi-digital. I was still syncing to the 414 with SMPTE, but I would bounce to Pro Tools every time those 3tracks would get full (I bounced vocals seperate).
I rememeber hitting my boys off with the first CD i "burnt"! Muf****a I got CD's...I'm like young Russell!!!lol I went through a lot of trial phases with my gear ie, SP12>MPC60>>>SP12/MPC60/S2800>>>MPC60/S2800>>>MPC2000XL>>>MPC2KXL/EPS>>>EPS>>>(my current) M-Audio Keystation 49e/S2000/Dual450Mhz G4 w/Digi 001, G4350Mhz w Audiomedia III, Reason 2.5, Peak 3 & 4, Akai Mesa II, Toast 7, Live 4, 5, 6, 7 & a Presonus Faderport. The only thing I'm kinda' missin' are pads, it was fun to chopp ****, and tap it out on pads rather than keys. And of course I miss "Pochahantos" the blue SP. Not cuz' it sound is un imitatable but cuz' I'd gotten to a place with the SP where I could bang out a track in a few, or I could make some elaborate **** but I had to do some thinkin' first cuz' I only had 5 secs to work with...At any rate y'all my hand is crampin' up so....I'ma say Peace&Love, but I just wanted to....introduce SELF.
7.
My name is J.O.E, I've been fooling around with production since around 91'. Doing tracks with my home team Universal Chaos off Chi's south side. In the beginning we used 2 Gemini XLDD50 TT's, a PDM1012 2 ch DJ mixer with a 12 seecond sampler, and a Boss DR550. Then in like 96' after I got my GED, I met my long time friend/collaborator S.I.C.K.S aka Schamburg Dan. I'd responded to an ad in a local trade pub about a SP12 for sale. The **** was kinda' funny...see when I called this dude on the horn he sounded like one of the Moes, but when he showed up at the flat with the SP... I open the door and it's a 6' brother from the caucasian persuasion! That's my guy though, I wouldn't give a **** if he was polka dot...Real Talk! My homie SD put me on to some real valuable things as far as Hip Hop production was concerned. See when I used the Gemini/Boss setup I couldn't even track vocals, or save samples! I was basically two trackin' every thing on the fly! I went to SD's crib and he had this ****in' dream room.... I saw a Mackie 1604, MPC60, S950, a rack full of FX/Comps/EQ's, and those fresh ass SL1200's with the "finger needles" Ortofons!!! I was like dammmmmm! I wouldn't neva' come out!!!! So, I kick it over there and learned about this new thing... MIDI, I thought it was amazing how all these devices could "talk" to one another. He had drums in the 60, bass in the 950, he was patching this sound into this filter outside the box, and the 4-track (Tascam 424MKII) was outputtin' SMPTE into the MP so the **** would lock to tape!!!!!! 1nce again....I was like dammmmmm!
So needed to say BIG UP to my man, and ALL PRAISE DUE 2 ALLAH for that experience. Production has kept my skinny ass out of trouble that some of my partners I ran wit' got into, I was working on loops while they was chasin' prostitutes....most of the time anyway.
So....I went from the Gemini/Boss>>> an SP12 Turbo w/1541 disk drive, still had the Gem TT's & mixer, and I got a Tascam Porta 02 (later a 414MKII for the discrete sync out to send SMPTE to the SP although it cut my total recordable tracks down to 3, it was key because I didn't have to commit anything to tape. I could build the beat around the vocals). From there I tracked at local studios who were using ADAT's and DA88's mostly. It wasn't until around 98' when I went to a session with a girl from my high school who sung R&B (at the request of her manager) to be the feat. MC on a song for her demo, that I had my first encounter with Pro Tools. I wasn't blown away...maybe cuz' I didn't get it? Or maybe cuz' my **** was working for me. For awhile I was one of dem' cats that was Pro-Analog. My big Cuzzin' Verb E (from the famous The Chapter Crew..."PLUG") and his homeboy DJ 360 (Salaam Alaikum) were recording to a Roland 880, burning CD's and ****!!! Now CD's was big time to me, I mean even though I was pro analog, having ya' **** on CD was like...."you damn near signed!" lol. Then I didn't understand the process of putting songs onto a "digital" medium. So I use to hit up local music gear suppliers ask hella' questions, take free pamphlets on hardware/software, call 800 numbers request catalogs/manuals etc...and I studied that ****! I was like "alright this is how we gonna do it!!!" So round 01' I bought my first computer (PCI Graphics G4 350Mhz with a Combo Drive off ebay) for the "low-low". I got this computer cuz' the people I knew who used computers to aid in music creation used Macs, even at school we were using 8600's. Another deciding factor was that uring my research I'd come across Digidesign's Pro Tools Free system requirements for Mac. So now I was semi-digital. I was still syncing to the 414 with SMPTE, but I would bounce to Pro Tools every time those 3tracks would get full (I bounced vocals seperate).
I rememeber hitting my boys off with the first CD i "burnt"! Muf****a I got CD's...I'm like young Russell!!!lol I went through a lot of trial phases with my gear ie, SP12>MPC60>>>SP12/MPC60/S2800>>>MPC60/S2800>>>MPC2000XL>>>MPC2KXL/EPS>>>EPS>>>(my current) M-Audio Keystation 49e/S2000/Dual450Mhz G4 w/Digi 001, G4350Mhz w Audiomedia III, Reason 2.5, Peak 3 & 4, Akai Mesa II, Toast 7, Live 4, 5, 6, 7 & a Presonus Faderport. The only thing I'm kinda' missin' are pads, it was fun to chopp ****, and tap it out on pads rather than keys. And of course I miss "Pochahantos" the blue SP. Not cuz' it sound is un imitatable but cuz' I'd gotten to a place with the SP where I could bang out a track in a few, or I could make some elaborate **** but I had to do some thinkin' first cuz' I only had 5 secs to work with...At any rate y'all my hand is crampin' up so....I'ma say Peace&Love, but I just wanted to....introduce SELF.
7.
