MASTERS OF PERFORMANCE

Through the ages, there have been a number of famous blind African American male entertainers in Gospel, Blues, Soul and Pop but few as unilaterally gifted as Ellis Hall. What other man can claim to have written 3,800 songs, sung at the funeral of Helen Keller at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and before Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, Africa, been a member of Oakland Soul band Tower of Power and a lead voice for the animated California Raisins, been nominated for a Ovation Theater Award for his very first stage role in “The Gospel At Colonus” (in which he sang, acted, and walked the stage and stair props mostly unattended), and penned the official song of the city where he grew up: Claxton, Georgia. Welcome to the unprecedented greatness of Ellis Hall.

When it comes to music, Ellis Hall does it all. He is a seasoned and accomplished vocalist in possession of a powerful 5-octave range. He is a songwriter, arranger, producer and educator that teaches clinics in which he records all the parts of a song in 45 minutes. Ellis’ first instrument was drums before he went on to master piano, keyboards, guitar and – his favorites – upright and electric bass. Across a career of 40-plus years and counting, Ellis Hall has proven himself as an all-around performer that has entertained audiences on five continents, sharing stages with giants ranging from James Taylor, Natalie Cole, Patti LaBelle and Toby Keith to Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Bobby Womack, George Duke and Sheila E. His reputation of excellence earned Ellis the moniker, “The Ambassador of Soul.”

As a teenager in the late 1970s, drummer Gulli Briem became a founding member of Icelandic jazz-funk fusion band, Mezzoforte, whose 1982 hit, “Garden Party,” brought them international success. Briem went on to have a successful solo career by continuously pushing past traditional genre limitations, applying his musical skill set on records ranging from jazz to funk to New Age and world music. Recently Briem recorded tracks on a forthcoming solo album by Steve Hackett (Genesis), which will be released in early 2019.

Looking back, Briem recalls Mezzoforte’s interest in the studio side of things. “We were always very enthusiastic about the recording process,” Briem said. “When we were 15 and 16 years old, we would ask to be let into professional recording studios at very low rates, so we could learn how to record music and make it sound as good as possible.”

Mezzoforte’s success garnered Briem a host of recording opportunities over the course of his musical career, which now spans over four decades. “So today we are all producers in our own rights,” Briem said of the members of Mezzoforte. “When you’ve been doing this for as long as we have, there are no other options but to go for the most brilliant quality you can imagine. And RME is right there at the top. The gear is just impeccable. It reaches such a high standard that it makes you want to create.”

Alongside his work with Mezzoforte, Briem has worked as a studio musician with acts like Madonna and on his own side project, Earth Affair. While Briem admits he gets phenomenal sound quality recording drums with his Fireface UFX interface and Babyface Pro, he says the reason RME tools have become such a mainstay in his process is because they’ve helped him simplify his recording.

When it comes to navigating the music industry landscape in the Internet Age, guitarist Lari Basilio has been a pioneer in fusing instrumental music with video performance. Her 2015 LP, recorded live in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was released on both CD and DVD, and contains 10 tracks performed live, a mini-documentary on the making of the album, plus behind-the-scenes footage.

Her YouTube channel is full of performances, lessons and gear demonstrations, which have garnered a following in both South and North America.

More recently, Basilio said she has been recording her forthcoming LP at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, which is set to release in early 2019. This past month, she went on tour with the G4 Experience and took her Babyface Pro with her.

“The Babyface Pro is making my work easier in many ways,” Basilio said. “It’s a very portable interface, and I can bring it with me everywhere. When I’m on the road, my Babyface Pro is always with me, and it lets me record with the high quality that RME is known for. And, since I like to use some guitar plugins, the Babyface Pro offers me the best low-latency technology.”

Guitarist Michael Batio uses RME’s Babyface Pro audio interface to record guitar and vocals, not only because of the superb sound quality and easy-to-use functionality it offers, but also because the Babyface Pro allows for extremely low-latency, no matter how many tracks he’s recording over. “With latency, there’s a split second difference between what you actually play and what gets recorded,” Batio said. “Even in milliseconds, it can really screw up the performance being recorded. With the Babyface Pro, there is zero latency.”

The former lead guitarist of Los Angeles-based glam metal band Nitro, Batio has recorded upwards of a dozen albums over the course of his solo career. Setting him apart from most artists is his advanced knowledge of music theory, as well as his fretboard mastery, sweep picking techniques and showmanship — particularly with his ambidextrous double-neck guitar playing. Batio was voted the “No.1 Fastest Guitar Shredder of All Time” by Guitar One Magazine. So, he can’t afford even the slightest bit of latency when he’s tracking guitars. “I’ve used a lot of different interfaces,” he said, “and the Babyface Pro is the best one I’ve ever used.”

Now, recording out of his own studio, M.A.C.E. Music located in Northern Illinois, Batio has used the Babyface Pro to track both guitar and vocals because it lets him record as many tracks as he needs.

“It’s great because it’s basically like sculpting something out of clay — you have the dialog there, and you can ask, ‘where do we want to take it?’ And you start molding it from there,” Barber explains, adding that he usually starts the creation process while the film is in primary shooting to insure he has enough time to create the perfect masterpiece. “The evolution never really stops. The film’s editor will usually get involved from there as you continue to produce this musical sculpture.”

From the occasional set visit to continued meetings with the writer and editor, Barber begins recording music immediately as well as contacting musicians when the score calls for a full orchestra.

“Whether it’s pencil and paper, or in the computer, I’ll start sculpting the sonic pallet after the first meeting,” he explains. “I might start with a few easy scenes — 30 seconds here, 30 seconds there. I’ll map out the project in a protagonist and antagonist timeline or emotional high and low points, then I’ll send those ideas back to the editor to share with the director. This is in addition to your typical spotting session — when you sit down with the director and possibly a few other people to discuss the musical journey of the film.”

An avid user of RME products since his days working alongside Hans Zimmer, Barber’s entire studio now revolves around an RME backbone — from his HDSPe RayDAT multi-channel PCIe interface to his much-loved Digiface Dante to RME’s proprietary mixing and routing software TotalMix.

But possibly Barber’s favorite piece of RME equipment is his MADIface XT which serves as his main interface. Whether it’s at his home studio or a dubbing stage, Barber reaches for his MADIface for its 394-channel count.

“I route everything into my MADIface thanks to its high channel count,” he explains. “From there, it goes into my main Mac where I do all my writing then the mix goes back up to the MADIface and gets shot into a Pro Tools rig. The Pro Tools session then goes to the engineer for mixing.”