After a successful sweep through Miami in March, New York City in June, Atlanta in September, Las Vegas in October, and Los Angeles November 8-10, 2007, Remix Hotel 2007 has dazzled thousands of music lovers and is gearing up for another cutting edge five major city event with Remix Hotel 2008. Hosted at the SAE Institute of Technology on Sunset Blvd., Remix Hotel Los Angeles 2007 exceeded expectations as top producers, engineers, DJ’s, recording artists, songwriters, and musicians came together with experts to experience the latest music audio technology on display with an hands on learning experience enhanced with networking and master classes along with incredible unexpected surprises such as a question and answer session with Grammy Award Winner Producer 9th Wonder (Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, Mos Def. De La Soul, The Game, Little Brother, and Sean Price) on opening day. Hank Shocklee (Public Enemy Founder, President Shocklee Innertainment) brought in hard hitters in the industry with Apple also hosting demos, classes, and guest speakers. Master class was available with Josh Gabriel on the 8th, DJ Rap on the 9th, and T-Pain on the 10th. Producer/Composer Charles Goodan (Beck, Linkin Park, Santana, Dust Brothers, Smashmouth, and No Doubt) was one of the many high profile elite panelists. Topics for the Shocklee Innertainment Panel Series included Build Your Team Day on Thursday, Nov. 8th, Session Science Day on Friday, Nov. 9th, and The Art of Production Day.
As far as cutting edge high tech audio and sound equipment goes, Remix Hotel provided the latest including not only Apple but names such as Korg, Yamaha, Gemini, Cortex and iKey with high level industry representatives there such as Alan Cabasso, the President of GCI Technologies. One of the most fascinating and fun versatile products was the iKey Plus Portable USB Recorder that is only a miraculous two pounds but delivers dozens of options and is also rechargeable. It has Mic Input, Phono Preamp, LED VU Meter Display, and Headphone Output, and this gem can be used to transport to USB Storage Devices and is compatible with ipods as well. It can transport live music as well as your vinyl record collection into MP3 or WAV and record speeches and live DJ and Karaoke performances along with several other options such as an acoustic guitar performance. Local musicians such as Alestar Digby went crazy over the M-505’s which were on display, which he already owns one stating that, “By far the best studio monitors on the planet. Super crisp…from hip-hop to rock, my M-505’s cover the entire spectrum of music.” Drummer/Producer Tal Bergman (Billy Idol) agreed with Digby stating that, “From film soundtrack to electronica to live bands, the M-606’s are my preferred studio monitors to track and mix with. They accurately represent any style of music and I love them.” Jason Longobardo, Sales and Product Specialist for GCI, was seen spinning with DJ Journey (www.myspace.com/bigjourn76) and DJ Jacquie Jack (www.jacquelinefinnan.net) on the Gemini CDT-05 hybrid CD/Turntables and the CS-02 12” rack mount mixer, and Director of Photography Michael Diamond (Pimpin’101 starring Ice T and music of Busta Rhymes) stopped by.
So Remix Hotel goers everywhere seemed to be in great spirits having an unforgettable industry party where they met fellow music lovers whether they be DJ’s, producers, engineers, performers or technology experts. It wasn’t all serious, people were outside the music venues planning after parties, post event gatherings, and some were just happy to connect up with old friends and too make new ones. Attendees were walking around loaded down not only with tons of pamphlets and information but brown Remix Hotel free t-shirts as a souvenir along with lots of fond memories of the event that was similar to NAMM but on a more intimate scale with the event welcoming not only seasoned pros but those just musicians and producers just getting starting to get serious a chance to learn and explore cutting edge technology that will fit their musical lifestyle and expectations. If you want to go next year all you need to do is visit the registration site at www.remixhotel.com.
For further information on Remix Hotel 2008 and Remix Hotel Los Angeles 2007 highlights go to www.remixhotel.com, www.Shocklee.com, www.korg.com, www.apple.com, www.yamaha.com, www.ikey-audio.com, www.geminidj.com, www.cortex-pro.com, www.sae-la.com, and www.gci-technologies.com.
