RS: Do you see Beatport and digital distribution as the future of
music and dance music?
Lenny B: Definitely. Although you'll still find me buying CDs of music
I listen to every day–music that isn't dance music, e.g.–digital
distribution sites, like Beatport, make the most sense, especially
when it comes to dance music. I gave up on vinyl years ago, and as I'm
about to make the transition over to playing out with a laptop,
digital distribution makes so much sense to me. I can preview the
tracks online and download whatever I want straight to my hard drive
and I'm ready to go. No more CDs to lug around (didn't we say that
about vinyl not too long ago?) or rip into the computer. It's just
convenient. However, I still like to buy real, physical CDs for the
music I like to listen to when I'm not in the studio or playing at the
club. I'm not a fan of how mp3s sound, even at 320. You might not be
able to tell the difference in your car over the road noise, or on
your iPod when you're out for a jog or on the treadmill at the gym,
but when you're sitting at home or in the studio and you're listening,
there's a world of difference between a 16 bit, 44.1 CD/.WAV file and
a 320kb/sec MP3. It's bad enough we've killed sound quality with the
whole "louder is better" approach to mastering these days–but that's a
topic for another conversation one day!
RS: Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?
Lenny B: I'm sure I'll always be doing remixes in some capacity.
Although, lately, I've been getting into more full production, which
is where I've been heading anyway. It's just a natural progression for
someone like me. Also, living in Nashville, I'm surrounded by some of
the best talent in the industry–writers, singers, session players,
engineers, producers. I can just pick up a rock, throw it, and I
guarantee you the first person I hit is one of the above. It's great.
I've met so many talented people here, and I've been working with some
of them on projects that aren't dance-related. More "pop" stuff.
Writing and full-production. I'll always have a hand in dance
music–production, DJing, whatever–but my goal has always been to make
records that end up on the radio–pop records.
RS: How has the remix world changed since you started?
Lenny B: Hmmm… where do I begin? When I started, I jumped in
head-first into digital music production, using a Mac IIx running
Sound Designer on Digidesign's A/D IN and DAT I/O (Sound Tools)
hardware, which was pretty advanced stuff back in 1990. Most records
were still being recorded to tape. Well, technically, we were using
tape also: even though the production was done using the Mac, we would
print our final mixes and masters to DAT. Then, when we started
getting parts from the labels, they would show up on either DAT, with
the audio on one channel and SMPTE time code on the other (so we could
sync our computer to the SMPTE), or on 2" multitrack tape. We would
then have to book a studio that had a 2" deck and transfer the multi
onto DAT and then bring that back to our studio and dump that into the
computer–one track at a time! (DVDs have replaced multitrack tape
today. I'll get a DVD in the mail with the complete ProTools session.)
Eventually CD-Rs came out and that simplified things. Projects would
then go out on a master CD. Nowadays, I don't even send out CDs. Why
would I do that when I can just upload the finished 24 bit (16 bit…
are you kidding?) mix to either my or the label's FTP server? It's
crazy.
The technology has advanced so much that really anyone with a computer can be a remixer. Just as recently as a few years ago you'd have to ask yourself if your computer was "fast enough" to handle digital audio, but that's not the case anymore. Of course, that has really changed things up in the industry. Gone are the big budgets for remixes, since SO MANY DJs with PCs call themselves remixers and producers now and so many of them will knock out a mix for really low-dough, often for free, just to get their name on a record. Back when I started, you needed a studio full of outboard gear, a mixing console, keyboards, etc., and nowadays, you can literally do full production on a laptop if it has a fast enough processor. Example "studio" to do a remix: MacBook Pro running Logic Pro, a FireWire audio interface and a keyboard controller (if you want to actually play something). Actually, just get a keyboard controller with the built-in audio interface! Oh, and a pair of good-sounding studio monitors (you really don't want to mix in headphones… trust me!) That's it. That's all you need: $3,000-4,000 and you're done. That's insane!
The downside of all this is, to me, personally, that a lot of the "newbies" are just jumping right in without any prior knowledge about production and music creation in general, and that affects the overall quality of the music. How many records have we heard that are off key, the vocals are recorded badly, or have poor mixdowns that sound terrible in the club? Wait… that was Freestyle! Just kidding! And don't even get me started about the tons of mashups that come out. Talk about "tone-deaf"… yikes! The flip to that, however, is there are guys out there that are just brilliant, and if it wasn't so easy to get into music production, they might never get the opportunity to get their hands on the tools needed to make records. I've heard some pretty amazing stuff from "bedroom" remixers and producers.
RS: What would you like to say to all of your fans out there?
Lenny B: Thanks so much for the support over the years. I get lots of
eMails and bump into people at my gigs who always tell me how much
they love my mixes. That's a good feeling, knowing that others out
there enjoy my work. Makes it all worth it, ya know? I promise I'll
keep up the good work if you guys keep playin' my mixes! :-)
