Snoop Dogg Using Avalon Vt-737sp

Snoop Dogg was recently featured in EQ Magazine (April 2003) covering his new album, new label, and a few recording techniques.

Here are a few excerpts from the article:

"When Snoop refers to his studio (aka Tha' Chuuch), he actually refers to several of his studios, which served as the nucleus of production for his most recent release, Paid Tha Cost To Be Da Boss. Snoop's engineer, Dave Aron, Clarifies: "We have been recording either to the TASCAM MX2424 hard disk system or to Pro Tools because it's easy to take the tracks from place to place, studio to studio - quite a bit of recording was done at other studios. Snoop has a few different studios: Two at this house and one at his other house. But the setup is pretty much the same at each one: Mackie D8B, Pro Tools, TASCAM MX 2424's, and Avalon 737sp's.

I have the same exact studio at my house as well, so I can take the tracks there and work on them. Even some of the produceers we work with have the same gear at their studios, so it's interchangeable. I can put tracks on disc, take them to Snoop's house to do vocals, bring it back to my house, mix, take a disk back to a producer's house, do more over dubs and mix. We don't have to work in one place so it gives us a lot of flexibility. I even did tracks with Bootsy Collins - though not for this album; for the soundtrack Undercover Brother - who we work with a lot..."

..."Usually we go through the Avalon 737 for vocals and I cut the track flat with maybe a bit of compression set for fast attack and fast release to just catch the peaks"...

..."When it comes to recording vocals, Snoop typically has a clear idea of what he wants to do when he gets into the studio. He'll listen to the track and decide who will be on it (whether it's him alone or him with other guests). While the beat is playing, he'll write the lyrics, right there on the spot. When he's ready to record the vocal he'll ask me to put the beat up and off it goes."

"Doggy Style Records was a dream I had... I saw a lot of artists who couldn't stay in position because they didn't have the patience or talent, and a lot of artists who needed a chance to be heard."

Click here for a link to Snoop Dogg's Web Site