Music
Jamaica – renowned internationally as the home of reggae music - presently boasts a new hi-tech digital recording studio, which will greatly boost the efforts of our local music industry in ensuring that the quality of our music is just as appreciated worldwide as our unique Afro/Jamaican sounds.
At the helm of the new M-Phatic Recording Studio located on the grounds of the Creative Production and Training Centre (CPTC), Kingston, is a 20-year veteran record producer by the name of Steven Ventura.
“Over the years I have often found that when Jamaicans refer to the recorded quality of our musical as ‘digital’, they were wrong as our technology then was not up to the digital international standard that we professed,” Mr Ventura told Reggae Times. “It was then that I decided to bring a complete digital facility to Jamaica and train our upcoming engineers and producers in handling all the technical equipment,” Ventura, who holds the distinction as the producer who introduced the first DAWS Audio Work Station locally, continued.
“From a nationalistic perspective I figured that if our producers and engineers were to be recognized internationally then the benchmark of our music had to be raised to international standards. So I brought my system here and started training producers and engineers in three categories - basic, intermediate and advanced. I drafted a proposal and approached the management of CPTC who expressed an interest in coming on board and the rest as we say is history.”
Classes are now in progress at the multi-million-dollar recording complex, which boasts among other features, a 56 Amek Hendricks Console with digitally controlled dynamics. There is also a 32-track digital recording facility, tons of tube gear with Pro Tools and top-of-the-line name brand equipment with a limitless choice of microphones. M-Phatic Recording Studio also boasts a large 50x28ft studio room and a separate area capable of accommodating a large band and/or choir.
Ventura has also disclosed that he will from time to time be bringing down the best professionals in the field to host seminars and workshops. He also has his plate full in working with several overseas producers who have approached him to produce selective tracks for their respective artistes. Steven Ventura, the veteran producer who has worked with every conceivable rhythm and artiste both here and abroad, started out as a disc jockey who became renowned for his ‘wicked’ remixes. Born in Miami, USA, Ventura is a graduate of Kingston College and also attended college in Mexico and Miami University.
The former med student took up an offer in ’88 to tour with the Mighty Diamonds as tour manager and it was then that he realised his interest in music was more than a hobby. With this conviction, he became a trained engineer and later the holder of a bachelors degree in Contemporary Jazz. In 1994 he quit working at contracted studios and realised his dream of opening and operating his own recording studio in the US, working with a long list of recording artistes dominated by hip-hoppers.
His desire to return home followed and today his M-Phatic label is all set to put Jamaica on par with other international studios which will no doubt be a needed boost to our aching music industry.
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Copyright 2004 Reggaetimes.com
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