The Bank x Chicago Public Schools Present: Men of Honor

In 2009, Chicago Public Schools launched an urban leadership program through their Office of School Turnaround.  The program focused on creating a mentorship group for high school students to allow them to address issues in their community through, among other efforts, creative expression.


One of the results of this program was an excursion into music.  Directed by the Project Manager from the Office of School Turnaround, a group was put together featuring students from Harper High School, located in the south side neighborhood of Englewood.  The group was aptly named Men of Honor, and during the course of the leadership program, they recorded a song called "Streets Ain't Me."


This leadership initiative has received much praise from the Board of Education, and aims to accomplish even more this year.  Among the other activities planned for 2010, the Men of Honor will be creating a full length album which will be produced, recorded, and mixed at The Bank.  We're proud to be involved with this project, which will give kids the opportunity to live out their dreams and learn about the various steps of the production process.  Check back here for updates as the project gets underway.  
    

Watch:  Men of Honor, "Streets Ain't Me" 

-TJ

The Bankover: Part 1

If you follow us on Twitter, or one of our other social web hangouts, you may have noticed at some point the mention of a re-vamp/rehab/overhaul/makeover going on at our facility.  Well, it's true- The Bank's being upgraded!  Because of that, I've been out of the loop online, so I just wanted to bring everyone up to speed as we continue working to make our studio even better! 


What's past is prologue.


Back in 2007, Wes and I discussed a few things we could do in the studio to not only be more appealing to clients, but also to increase our productivity where it relates to songwriting and beat making.  Not to say we were slackin' on the beats, but we both share a tremendous amount of responsibility throughout the day-to-day, which can get in the way of making time to be creative.  Perhaps if we were living in our parents' basements with no pressing obligations, we'd be free to tap out bangers every day, but that's not the case.  


Additionally, the studio configuration we had was somewhat cumbersome and often prohibited us from utilizing some of the analog synths and hardware we have in the arsenal.  If you listen to anything we've made over the last year, you may notice that the majority of sounds are sampler instruments and/or Logic plugins.  Not that there's anything wrong with those types of sounds- we're avid fans of Logic and there's some incredible instruments to be found in there; we just feel that they're often severely lacking in depth compared to the lush juiciness of an analog synth.  This applies to drums as well.  Even with the outrageous flexibility of our DAW's sequencing capabilities, there's just nothing like the swing of an MPC...that's open to debate for you beat makers and audio gearheads out there.


Fast forward to February 8, 2010.


After finishing our last project and a brief excursion to The Land of Bubbles, we began a project we've dubbed "The Bankover," (The Bank + Makeover).  For the last three months, we have been working tirelessly to streamline our production process and add improvements to the studio setup.  These adjustments will allow us to implement the full capabilities of the lab and make use of everything The Bank has to offer.  These are truly exciting times, not just for us, but also for the recording artists, musicians, and producers we work with as well!


Check back here for updates; as of today we still have a few more weeks to go until we're up and running, but I'll add new posts and pics as the process comes closer to completion.


-TJ   

"Miami Affair"

The 2010 Winter Music Conference kicked off this week in Miami Beach, so we thought it was only appropriate to share a track we made about those hot Florida nights.

"Miami Affair" is a song from Doug Rich, a brother from the Chi we had the opportunity to work with last year.  The track features appearances by Virus and Bruce Blacc, with R&B crooner John-Jon on the hook.  "Miami Affair" was produced, recorded, & mixed at The Bank and mastered at Sterling Sound, NYC.  Doug's full length album, Boot Camp, has yet to be released.

Download:  Doug Rich, Miami Affair  

-TJ

Weird But True: 'Mastering: The Movie' (via gearslutz.com)

This is one of many bizarre but true-to-life animated videos floating around youtube and the gearslutz message board. Surely they were created by an audio engineer, because the situations depicted in these shorts take a candid poke at situations we regularly deal with: trying to work with clients who, in today's realm of cheap production and reocrding solutions, simply do not understand the value of professional mixing and mastering.

Mixing and mastering in itself is an artform. Just as musicians use tools and vocabulary creatively to express themselves, engineers employ their own cache of terms, tools, and tricks to enhance a recorded performance. As an artist, a good engineer is your strongest ally when it comes to the quality of the music you release, yet today it seems the love is all but gone.

Technology has evolved to the point where anyone with a computer can download torrents and/or install plugins to music software in order to simulate the process of proper mixing/mastering. However, there are elements to mixing/mastering techniques that require a skilled professional (aka human being) with a trained set of ears to balance levels properly and bring out the subtle nuances that make great music, well...great!

-TJ

'Playas' Only!

We work really hard, so it's a MUST that we play hard too.
Here's a short video we made on vacation, it features a beverage we came up with and dubbed 'Playas' Only.


The name comes from "playa," the Spanish word for "beach," and a pun off the song "Playa's Only" by R. Kelly and The Game.  So in effect, the drink's true title is "Playas Solamente" or "Beaches Only."  A fitting name, considering our location.


To make a 'Playas' Only, mix the following:

• Chilled glasses with ice
• CIROC premium vodka
• Tropica'l "Uva" flavored fruit bevarage (if you can get this in the U.S., please tell me where!)
• Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry
• Red Bull
• 1 grape per glass (mashed bananas work well too)

Serve and please enjoy responsibly :-)

-TJ