Jordan Robertson
says
Recording Connection student
Jordan Robertson of his passion for music production.
“I bet I have music notes in my DNA,” he adds, laughing.
From as early as age four, Jordan was figuring out the notes from movie themes.
“I would hear themes from Home Alone, Boyz n the Hood, and I would just go to the piano and start playing,” he says.
It stands to reason that by the time he came of age, Jordan was passionate about becoming a music producer and film composer. He even had his sights set on a particular recording studio in his hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana—namely, Grammy-nominated
Sockit Studio, owned and run by music industry veteran engineer Devon Kirkpatrick, who’s worked with icons like
Jay Z, Tony Bennett and
Timbaland.
What Jordan didn’t know—and what he soon discovered—was that Devon was a Recording Connection mentor, and that he could learn from Devon one-on-one in the studio by enrolling in the program. Jordan jumped at the chance.
“The one-on-one attention, the fact that you’re in a real recording studio, you’re not in a classroom with 20 other students—if you have a question, your mentor is right there,” says Jordan.
In fact, during his very first lesson with Devon, it became clear to Jordan that he had some “blind spots” as far as what he’d taught himself to that point about music production and engineering.
“I brought in some of my original music, and he evaluated my technique that I was using thus far,” says Jordan.
“[I was] using too many stereo tracks on one project, like when you played my mix back in mono, most of my instrumentation was gone…I didn’t even know about that at the time.”
Devon told him,
“There’s really no wrong way, but I’m gonna show you the right way.” Jordan says. His mentor then showed him some techniques for dealing with some of the phasing issues in his recording.
“[It] was an orchestral-type piece, and he noticed the panning of the cellos and instruments,” Jordan recalls.
“He recommended how I should pan those particular instruments.”
The Easy
Jordan proved to be a natural in the studio. After completing the basic apprenticeship, he stayed on with Devon to go through the Recording Connection master’s program. For his master’s assignment, Jordan was able to bring in popular Baton Rouge funk band
The Easy to record.
“The master’s program is excellent,” he says.
“[It’s] focusing more on the fundamentals skills you learned in the bachelors program, but focusing more on the mixing-recording-mastering side.”
Meanwhile, as Jordan wraps up his Recording Connection assignments, he’s wasted no time in working to set up his career as a producer/engineer. He maintains a relationship with Devon where he’s able to work on freelance projects out of Sockit Studio, he networks via social media and word-of-mouth, and he has even found some creative ways to generate income online.
“I started an online music production company, Fiya Records Productions LLC, so that’s up and running online,” he says.
“I offer online mixing. Clients will upload their mixes to my Hightail account, and I will mix and invoice them for payment. Or they could listen to instrumentals that I’ve done, and they can pretty much buy directly from my site.”
For the long term, Jordan hasn’t lost track of his lifelong dream of composing and producing for film and television. In the meantime, however, he’s putting his newfound music production and engineering skills to good use. He says he has plans to continue working with
The Easy to produce a 12-track album; he’s also working with a Christian rapper named
Rock on a Christmas dubstep-hip-hop album, and even has plans to collaborate with a music producer from Brazil on some dance/reggaeton tracks. While his passion is more toward music production, he recognizes the value of the recording and mixing skills he learned from Devon, and keeps a level head about it.
“Being a music producer as a career, if the song doesn’t do very well, you still have the side of recording, which is pretty much a never-ending career,” he says,
“because clients and people always need to record, whether it’s music or whether it’s vocal overdubs for a commercial.”
As Jordan continues building his new career, he is quick to recognize how his apprenticeship helped fill in the gaps for him.
“I learned a lot about myself as a musician and producer since I started with the Recording Connection,” he says.
“My whole work flow producing music has changed.”
