The Beach Audio Blog

When I first moved to LA, I was amazed at the caliber of musician that came into my studio for sessions. One day a great sax player showed up to do a solo on a track that I was producing for Electra. He was on time , in tune and blew his ass off. After we were satisfied that we had a good take, I chatted with him about future sessions. The player was thrilled and eager to do more work, because as he put it, “I’m just a third stringer and never get called for studio work”. I had just move to LA from Toronto and in Toronto, this guy would have been one of the top players. I never forgot that feeling. As time went by, I was involved in more and more top projects, and eventually got to work with the best studio musicians, writers, arrangers and performers. These guys were good, and certainly better than the first player I mentioned, so I then focused in to see what made them the “A” list players.

My top rhythm section could break down each beat into 5 segments and move around within that structure, in the case of session guitar players they give you 5 great solos in a row, with no way to choose the best one. This went on for quite some time till one evening in a heated discussion with George Daly of Warner Brothers Records, we got onto the subject of really great players and performers. George said, “all professionals are expected to be great, and no one ever questions that”. “What I look for is that 5% above greatness... this is what makes the difference for me”. Over time I found that he was absolutely right. Whether it’s, Rock, Classical, Country or R&B, it’s the very top of the heap that cut’s through and make the difference. Last night we were fortunate to have on of the top Hip Hop guru’s working at The Studio. Dre came into the studio, worked his magic, and within a few hours came up with his own brand of brilliance; proving once again that it’s the last 5% that really counts.