ELEMENT7D DOING HIS THING

After seeing Element7d perform in Houston I became a fan. If you ever get a chance to check him out. DO IT. You won't be disappointed. Well here is a story that Joe Gross from the Austin American Statesman wrote about how Ele makes his beats. Well maybe I can get more info on Element and post it up for you guys. Thanks for reading. Enjoy.
http://www.austin360.com/xl/content/music/xl/2005/08/25beats.html

Hip-hop artists and others can produce high-quality sounds
By Joe Gross
August 25, 2005

Ask the rising Austin hip-hop artist Element, also known as "Ele," and he'll tell you: His home studio, essentially a desk in the living room of his South Austin apartment with a good microphone and some equipment, is held together by spit and baling wire.

Hip-hop artist Element is, well, in his element when he's in his living room. The rapper, whose real name is Deon Davis, pushes his equipment to its limit.

The studio monitors are run through one of those one-piece stereos you get in high school (it belongs to his wife, Brook, and yes, she's owned it since high school). His Dell Dimension 4100, which is running the popular production program Cubase, is missing its shell. There are external hard drives and one turntable for sampling. A Focusrite preamp and a Yamaha RS-7000 sampler/sequencer are both plugged in.

"People get into home recording because they don't have the money to go to a studio," the 23-year old rapper and producer (government name Deon Davis) says. "But then you realize you don't really have the money to keep up a studio. I need to do some upgrading. Right now, it's like there's a V-8 engine in a Mini Cooper. The wheels are gonna fall off any second."

And yet, he plays a track recorded on this rig that sounds completely professional: banging beat, smooth guitar lick, well-mixed ... the works. Then it starts cutting out and skipping.

"Let me run this another way so it puts less stress on the computer," Davis says, laughing. But the point is clear: If he can make beats that sound this dope on equipment that's falling apart, imagine what he could do with a few grand worth of new stuff.

Unlike rock bands, hip-hop has never needed much physical space to be produced: two turntables and a microphone, as the song goes. Now, hip-hop production is practically virtual.

"What people are setting up in their homes really are real studios," leading Austin rapper Bavu Blakes says. "If you've got your own space that you're already paying mortgage for, you might as well use it."

Finished tracks are produced in bedrooms and e-mailed to collaborators, who load them into their home studios, tweak them and e-mail them back.

"A lot of rappers will just get a sound card and a compressor in their laptop," Blakes says. "If you're on tour, you go to the hotel room, plug in, get the track, record your vocals in the computer, and send them back. You don't need to set up a session with a producer."

Tee Double is 32, so he's been collecting gear for far longer than Element. His home lab in his East Austin house includes an ASR-10 sampler, Akai MPC 200XL sampler, keyboards, Alesis ADAT, Teac reel to reel, Gemini turntable, Behringer Eurodesk analog mixer, live instruments and much more. "I'm a pawn shop freak," Tee (real name Terrany Johnson) says. He points out the ASR as his pride and joy. "Too many keyboards come with pre-set sounds. The ASR is blank; there's nothing on it. If you can make music on an ASR, you're a real producer."

Without a day job, this veteran of the Austin hip-hop scene works on beats full-time, working on dozens a week. "The best part about having a home studio? I can make a beat at 8 a.m. and let it play for hours while I think of what to do with it."

But more than anything else, home studios mean independence: As Johnson put it: "I just love being my own boss."