From The Editor: This One Is Different

On a Monday in mid-August, 15 talented, creative, emerging music makers will be flying in to LAX from around the country, each of them picked up by a driver and dropped off at the W Hotel in Hollywood, where, after checking in and freshening up, they’ll meet in the lobby, all of them strangers, and be taken out for a night of fine dining as they get to know one another and talk about what they might expect over next three days.

In the morning, they’ll again meet in the lobby, this time bound for Larrabee Studios, a world-class, multi-room facility in North Hollywood, where they’ll be greeted by the studio’s owner, 18-time Grammy-winning mixer Manny Marroquin for the inaugural Larrabee Studios Creator Seminar. Then, over the next 72 hours, they’ll take part in a one-of-a-kind creative, collaborative and intense and immersive music-audio-production boot camp, curated, arranged and produced by Marroquin and powered by Sony audio, the team behind the groundbreaking 360 Virtual Mixing Environment and MDR-MV1 open-back headphones.

Manny and Sony will be joined by others, all of them volunteering their time, including Grammy-winning songwriter/producer Jason Evigan, A&R executive/manager Chris Anokute, A&R executive Evan Lipschutz, Grammy-winning producer/songwriter John Hill, and Grammy-winning producer/ artist Terrace Martin. There will be workshops, one-on-one sessions, group projects, business tips, mentoring, demos, technologies and all kinds of access, the root idea being that the creation of music is a collaborative process.

For the Lucky 15, who will be selected from the hundreds who applied between June 20 and July 11, it will no doubt be the opportunity of a lifetime. It will also be “all expenses paid.” Flight, hotel, transportation, breakfast, lunch, dinner, entertainment, priceless knowledge—everything paid for. Wow!

When the press release came out in mid-June announcing the event and calling for applications, I thought two things right away. First, that he’s not calling it Immersive Mixing With Manny; he’s calling it a Creator Seminar, and he’s bringing in pros from outside the studio world, but integral to the music world. I like that.

My second thought was, “Is he freakin’ nuts? That’s gonna cost a fortune!” Even if Sony is covering all expenses, there’s the hours of prep, the four days of lost studio revenue. not to mention.… I had to stop thinking that way.

I’ve known Manny for many years. This had nothing to do with revenue and expenses, I was sure of that. But it’s a huge commitment, way more than just “wanting to give something back”—so why is he doing it? In early July, I called him, and after catching up, I asked him that very question.

“We do these seminars, you know, as mixers, in a lot of different places,” he said. “I’ve done a few Mix With the Masters in the south of France, I’ve done stuff in Dubai, Korea, and all over, and I love doing them. They’re inspiring. But when I’m in front of these participants, and I know they paid sometimes five, six, seven thousand dollars just to come see me for a few days—I always think of the 22-year-old me who wouldn’t have been able to afford it. I had the drive at that age; I just didn’t have the means at that point.

“So about five or six years ago, I started thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I could do this without charging anyone? I have the infrastructure of Larrabee, Verse and the new building,’” he continued. “But of course, that wouldn’t be a business model for anyone, right? Then a little more than a year ago—actually, at your Mix L.A. event—I was down in Studio 4 and started talking with Sony. It wasn’t planned; I went in to see about VME. Now, a little more than a year later, everybody at the Creator Seminar will leave with an individualized VME profile of Larrabee Studio 2, where I’ve mixed thousands of songs over the past 27 years. They’ll have my room in their headphones, immersive, wherever they go. I’ve never allowed anybody to do that.”

And what about Sony? What’s in it for them? Well, nothing really, if you think in terms of immediate ROI and quarterly reports—but that’s not the way this group works. With VME, they have an amazing technology in search of a product, and for the past three years or so, the small, dedicated team has been crisscrossing the country and popping up at hundreds of studios to take measurements and gather data, as well as spread the word through a growing presence at NAMM and other events. A few months ago, they opened up VME testing and measurement to outside partners, first with Custom House at GC Pro, and soon after with Advanced Systems Group. Sony has always played the long game. It’s now picking up speed with VME.

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Manny, too, is playing the long game, putting his time, money and talents into supporting the next generation of music creators. It’s genuine. You can still hear that 22-year-old boy’s sense of wonder when he says, “Imagine somebody flying you to L.A. from Oklahoma, South Carolina, Boston, wherever you’re at, and then you’re staying at the W, where you see the Hollywood sign and the Capitol Tower, coming to Larabee with some of the biggest names in the music industry for three days, eating with us at my restaurant Verse, sharing some good food and good knowledge. Can you imagine how impactful that’s going to be for them? It could be life changing. And that’s inspiring in both directions.”

—Tom Kenny, Co-Editor