In the studio: Royal Priest
In the first of our new series of interviews about recording and production techniques, we speak to Solomon Alufo’oa — aka Royal Priest — about how he puts his dub-inflected reggae rock songs together.
Solomon (who’s from Solomon Islands – perfect!) explains how he achieves the dramatic dub echoes that you can hear in his Pacific Break entry ‘Consult Jah’, as well as sharing his thoughts on the music scene in his homeland, the possibilities of his preferred software and how simple he believes it is to produce music if you have access to a computer.
Download “In the studio: Royal Priest” MP3 (5.1mb)
Do you agree with Solomon? What’s your favourite tool for recording music?
Leave your comment below… or, if you have Facebook, visit our Do-it-yourself recording discussion to share your tips and experiences.
Comments
Bill
Nice production, Solomon. How many people are in your band? Can you duplicate your production in a live situation or do you have to use tracks? I was surprised to hear that you use Cubase. I use that as well and I find it has pretty much everything I need. Out here the most popular software program was Adobe Audition and I still use that for simple recordings. Things are changing though and many people here are moving to software that easily create grooves and beats like Mixcraft. I prefer a live drummer and will probably always use Cubase unless I can one day afford to get ProTools-M-Audio.
Loved the song and as I said the production is great!!
Walt
Great song and production. I love the combination of real instruments and “in the box” stuff. Very well done. Are the horns Native Instruments? It’s always great to hear an interview with an artist and hear how they approach what they are doing.
Solomon
Thanks Bill, I have 6 Band members and I’m preddy sure to use my dub- Inflicted reagge series on live performence ratter than using tracks.
I’m looking forward to hear from you more.
Keep Jamin.
Solomon.
Bill
Lucky man, Solomon. Including me there are three guys in my band while most of my recordings included layered guitar lines. They still work live but they have to be pared down somewhat. Still, we’re mostly known as a live band and the turnout it always good. Good luck to you!
Walt
Hi Walts
thanks for comment. In the box stuff, the horns that you heard is not native instruments but I duplicate our Pan Pipe stuff originally made in our Islands.
Thanks Man
Solomon
Harold Maesulia
I went to high school with this talented dude. He has a natural raggae voice and it’s so nice seeing him in this competition. Good Solomon!!
Walt
Sounds cool, Solomon. You know when I was asking about “Native Instruments”, I was actually thinking about the Native Instruments software instruments company (like the Kontakt sampler).
I’ve been working on some reggae tracks and have been playing with the “Sax and Brass” soft synth. I find it can make a very realistic sounding horn section if you take your time working with it.
Keep the groovy beats coming!
PS: I think the pan pipe sound with roots reggae is a great combination!
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