Nurturing young talent

Situated in the heart of the mother city is the Red Bull music Studio – a fully-fledged
music recording and production studio, which has been growing in leaps and bounds
over the past few years.

Launched in 2007, the Red Bull Music Studio is firmly established in the industry as
the perfect space to explore South Africa’s diverse musical talent. A non-commercial
initiative, the studio predominantly targets undiscovered musicians with the aim to
provide them with free recording and promotional solutions. Over the past few years
it has helped nurture thousands of musicians across an array of genres, including
electronica (Das Kapital), hip hop (Tumi And The Volume), house (Black Coffee) and
rock (Machineri).

The studio is also very much about working with big names. But instead of simply
providing big-name acts with a professional working space, it encourages them to
collaborate. Some of the big names that have collaborated at the studio include
Freshlyground and International house music act Nickodemus, local rockers Ashtray
Electric and Afro-electronica giants Gazelle, as well as incredible songstress Zaki
Ibrahim and London-based Dubstep group lv.

That aside, the studio regularly hosts ground-breaking musical endeavours such as
the “Skills that Paid the Billz’, where Cape Town’s hip-hop community produced and
released an entire album in one day. “A Third World Perspective’ saw 20 musical
minds from around the country chosen to participate in a mini Red Bull Music
Academy at the studio.

As a way of taking the creativity out of the studio and bringing it to the public, the
Red Bull Music Studio also releases free compilation albums each year and curates
stages at two of South Africa’s biggest festivals, Oppikoppi and Rocking the Daisies.

In the studio

Run by lead engineer Steve “Audiophile 021’ Elsworth and Richard “Tha Third’ Rumney,
the facility is divided into two working spaces – one suited for music production and
live recordings and the other customised for dj set recordings.

The main studio runs on a Mac Pro Quad Core with 8 gigs of ram and a djm 800
Mixer. A combination of the Digidesign 003 sound card and jbl lsr2326P studio
monitors delivers sound, and a Roland td-10 V electronic drum kit is set up to meet
all the studio’s drumming needs. Other top notch gadgets in the studio include an
Elektron Machinedrum, an M-Audio Axiom 49 Key midi controller, two Line 6 guitar
amps, a Focusrite Red 8 Analog pre amp and a Numa Studio Logic electric piano.

The other studio also boasts an impressive rig, including the Akai mpc 2500 sampler,
an M-Audio Axiom 25 midi controller, a Roland Juno 60, two Technics turntables, two
Pioneer cdjs and an M-Audio Axiom 25 midi controller. Producers also use an array of
virtual instruments and plug-ins and a varied selection of microphones, including the
Shure ksm 44 and Neuman tlm 103.

Red Bull music Studio features