The summer of 2013 is drawing to a close, and all in all it was a great summer for music & music production. Daft Punk got lucky, Jay-Z found the Holy Grail, and Robin Thicke blurred lines with Pharrell & T.I. Thanks to Miley Cyrus, “Twerk” is now a household word, and Pitbull demonstrated that making new hits out of borrowed riffs can still fly. But if your spirits needed a lift, Janelle Monae and her band were only too happy to oblige, with some refreshingly energetic tunes. Folks here at the Omega Studios School were very pleased to see that one of our graduates put a record into the Billboard Hot 100 this summer! That’s right, Stan Greene, a 2009 graduate of the Omega Studios’ School, mixed the song “Don’t Drop That Thun Thun” for The FiNaTTicZ. Stan was the mix engineer for the song, which was originally released in April of 2012. In addition to making it to #35 on the Billboard Hot 100, the song was #15 on Billboard’s Top 50 Digital Songs, #33 on the Top 50 Streaming Songs (with over 2 million streams), #10 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart, and #8 on the Rap Songs chart. And with sales approaching 500,000 digital copies, the record is on its way to getting Gold certification by the RIAA!
I got in touch with Stan Greene to find out more about “Don’t Drop That Thun Thun,” and was excited to hear about how his career in the music industry is taking off. Since graduating from The Omega Studios’ School in 2009, Stan has been active as a Freelance Recording and Mixing Engineer. After completing the program at The Omega Studios’ School, Stan did a three month internship at Omega Recording Studios. He worked at Larrabee Studios from 2009 – 2012, starting out as an Intern and working his way up to assistant engineer. Stan also worked as an assistant mix engineer to Grammy award winning mixer Manny Marroquin in 2012. I asked him about how he came to work with The FiNaTTicZ:
“The short story behind that song is funny. I met the artist through their manager at the time who had me previously mix a different project. He liked my work so much that he connected me with a couple other artists that were looking for mixing and highly recommended me. One of which was The FiNaTTicz. I mixed that song over 2 years ago while I was an intern at Larrabee Studios in North Hollywood, CA in my apt! I was doing some side work with mixing while I was interning like 8 hours a day at the studio.”
Naturally, being a gearhead myself, I asked Stan about his setup:
“I have a pretty cool studio setup in my home. I have an 8 core Mac Pro running Pro Tools (version 10 now) on Snow Leopard (Mac OSX 10.6.8), and I listen back and run all my mixes through my AMAZING Dangerous D-Box. It has 8 channels of analog summing and great D/A conversion that I use on 100% of my mixes. My monitors are Yamaha NS-10’s powered by a QSC RMX 1450 amp and my interface is a saffire Pro 40 but my D-box is digitally connected so that my signal isn’t touching the D/A conversion of the Focusrite.
I have a pretty good sounding acoustic setup in my room, using acoustic sound panels from www.gikacoustics.com. I highly recommend them. Amazing quality, good price, and they look really professional. I usually mix from my own room but if an artist has a budget and wants to go to a bigger studio, I have also done that as well.”
So what else is on the horizon for Stan?
“Another project that I have worked on that is worthy of recognition is from R&B artist Dawn Richard. She is a former member of Danity Kane (MTVs Making the Band) and also Diddy Dirty Money. She recently went solo and I had the pleasure of engineering and mixing both her debut solo EP and also her debut solo LP. Each one has gotten rave reviews!”
We’re going to be keeping an eye on Stan’s work with Dawn Richard, but it’s already getting some great recognition! “Goldenheart” was released January 15 2013 and quickly made it to #1 on iTunes R&B, #10 on Billboard R&B, and #2 on Billboard Heatseekers. Dawn Richard’s “Armor On” EP, released on March 15, 2012, hit #1 on iTunes R&B, and #8 on Billboard Heatseekers. Stan also mentions that . . .
“The album was given 3.5 out 5 stars on About.com, B+/A- on IGN.com and 4.5 stars from the Washington Post. Pitchfork.com gave the EP 8.5 out of 10 calling Richard “one to watch” and placing her as one of the leaders of New Age R&B.”
Stan served as Recording and Mix Engineer on both of these releases. We’re going to be keeping an eye on Dawn Richards, it sounds like there are more great things to come. And we’re definitely going to keep an eye on Stan Greene, who is currently mixing some new upcoming acts signed to Warner Bros and RCA Records. Congratulations Stan, from all of us at The Omega Studios’ School! And keep a close eye out – we’ll follow up with more of our audio engineering graduates to see how successful they have become in their careers.