KC Porter - Producing Ozomatli with Trilogy and RMX
It’s always a major event when
KC Porter shows up at the Latin Grammy Awards. As the winner of
“Producer of the Year”, he’s worked with a wide range of artists from
Ricky Martin, Carlos Santana and the late
Selena. He’s also been a success at crossing over mainstream acts to the Latin market with artists such as
Janet Jackson, Bon Jovi, Scorpions, Chaka Khan, Toni Braxton, and
Boyz II Men, to only name a few. KC is not only an in demand producer, but also a gifted arranger, keyboard player, singer and songwriter. With his long history of utilizing the power of software for his many musical projects, Spectrasonics is always right there with him. One of KC’s recent productions is
Ozomatli’s new album
“Don’t Mess with the Dragon”.KC describes his process of working with Spectrasonics instruments this way: “For me the first thing I boot up is
Stylus RMX when I want to get creative,” said Porter. “I also use
Trilogy a lot to start writing.” Porter added, “
Stylus RMX is perfect for me, it’s got everything. It helps me start the canvas. Without a doubt everything I’ve written and produced over the past few years - since it came out - has used some Spectrasonics software. From Santana’s Supernatural to this new album with Ozomatli.”
“On the Ozomatli album I used Stylus RMX on many of the songs that I helped write. I collaborated on a lot of the songs,” Porter explained. “We’d lay down a groove with Stylus and then add parts to it. On most of the tracks we’d then have the drummer play along with Stylus, and then use the real drum parts mainly in the mix, although there is still a lot of RMX in there too. It’s important to keep the music sounding raw for the sound we wanted for Ozomatli. Live drums give you that. We did the same with Trilogy for bass parts. For the songs that I started, I used Trilogy bass a lot. But the bass player would record the parts live eventually. A few of the more synth-oriented Trilogy bass lines have remained too. But the Spectrasonics products really help me to arrange and work out the songs.”
Ozomatli live on stage
“The new Ozomatli album is a little more pop sounding than their earlier albums. But the band is very musically diverse so there’s a lot of styles and feels.”
Porter concluded with his preference for songwriting, “I always start with a solid groove - Stylus RMX gives me that… and it’s extremely flexible. Having that palette of RMX is really important for my work. It’s the foundation.”
For more info on KC Porter visit Studioexpresso
Also see KC Porter’s website
For more info on Ozomatli visit Ozomatli.com
