{"id":48,"date":"2008-07-16T15:34:46","date_gmt":"2008-07-16T19:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cakewalksoftware.wordpress.com\/?p=61"},"modified":"2008-07-16T15:34:46","modified_gmt":"2008-07-16T19:34:46","slug":"cakewalk-artist-spotlight-malik-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/2008\/07\/16\/cakewalk-artist-spotlight-malik-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Spotlight: Malik Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wearing the Many Hats of a Busy Synthesist<\/p>\n

Songwriter, engineer, actor, and film & t.v. music producer Malik Williams<\/p>\n

By Randy Alberts<\/p>\n

If some commercial jingle writers’ first gigs were in garage bands, fewer still of those went on to also write and produce music for film, reality t.v., the Web and hip-hop, pop, dance, rap, R&B and rock artists. It takes a lot of control room savvy and musical chops to wear that many hats. But from this even smaller group of first-call music and audio professionals, there may be just one\u2014Malik Williams\u2014who can say they\u2019ve written a song for a movie in which they\u2019ve also starred.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYeah, I\u2019m a real Hollywood kind of guy,\u201d jokes the 41-year-old Williams, a Bostonian since birth who values his role as father and family man over his Sunset Boulevard connections. \u201cWhat I mean is that I feel real comfortable in front of the camera doing these bit parts. It\u2019s not really something that I\u2019m pursuing as a career. I\u2019ve just stumbled upon this acting thing, but so far it\u2019s been a positive stumble.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Malik<\/a><\/p>\n

Malik\u2019s song contribution and bit part as a cop in Boston Girls, a \u201cdark horror comedy\u201d film released this year, are two recent entries to an impressive credits list. His unique balance of old and new school music writing and production skills have been tapped for a host of song and album (Charlotte Church, Bobby Brown, Elton John, Mya, Britney Spears, Danity Kane, Tyrese, Earth Wind & Fire), feature film (Sony Pictures, Miramax, Disney, Lionsgate, Stage 6 Films) and television (CBS, ABC, MTV, VH1, TruTV, Showtime, HBO, E!, Bravo) productions. If you\u2019ve seen Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Tila Tequila\u2019s A Shot At Love, Pimp My Ride, Cribs and Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew or happened upon some of his various ad spots running on numerous channels, chances are you\u2019ve heard some of Malik\u2019s music, too.<\/p>\n

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“When you think of all the types of projects I work on\u2014film, t.v. shows, ad jingles and hip-hop, pop and rap albums,\u201d says Williams, \u201cyou\u2019ll see my music and audio production tastes are all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sounds Like Vintage Rapture<\/em><\/p>\n

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Malik has also worked with Jordan Knight (from New Kids On The Block) Rich Cronin (LFO) and former 98 Degrees member Jeff Timmons, the latter with whom Williams is currently using Cakewalk\u2019s Rapture extensively. They\u2019re both inspired by \u201880s dance pop and the original synths used to create it way back in the day.<\/p>\n

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\u201cRapture is playing an important role for the new music we\u2019re creating,\u201d he notes. \u201cEspecially for the basses and synthy leads. Rapture authentically recreates those classic synths of the \u201880s. Back then we would\u2019ve used a Roland Juno for these tracks\u2014today, we depend on Rapture for that feel. As we go through the presets looking for sounds, Jeff and I look at each other like, \u2018Wow, that sounds exactly like the old Juno!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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When it comes to personalizing his sounds, Williams says he digs the way he can easily access Rapture\u2019s Elements and individually assign effects to each.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s very cool how Cakewalk has laid out Rapture\u2019s parameters for tweaking sounds after the writing and performing of a track is done. I think I\u2019m pretty good on the post-engineering side of things, but that mode doesn\u2019t even come into my mind until after I\u2019ve picked the right preset in Rapture to write and record the part. When it comes to modern pop and hip-hop music, I need to sound really unique from anyone else\u2019s sounds. I love using Rapture to put my own signature on every sound.\u201d<\/p>\n


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A Man With Many Hats<\/em><\/p>\n

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Of the many roles he plays\u2014father, husband, synthesist, vocalist, engineer, actor, songwriter, jingle producer\u2014Malik has also worn the hat of studio designer and builder. A 20\u2019 x 20\u2019 creative space in his Boston home is dedicated to his busy session work. Besides the usual challenges of getting one\u2019s private studio perfectly tuned to their unique audio and musical needs, Williams particular working style\u2014engineering every take, performing every instrumental part and singing almost every vocal track in his productions\u2014was the toughest hurdle to designing his new space.<\/p>\n

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\"Williams<\/a><\/dt>\n
Williams working on some new music in his home studio with songwriting partner Louie Bello. Photo by Marcus C. Eddings, MCE Photography <\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cOne of the cool things I was able to accomplish was having all my controls in the vocal booth,\u201d he explains. \u201cI\u2019ve got a flat screen on the wall in there so I can run my programs and record everything from right there at the mic. The booth is completely isolated and sound-treated, of course. If later on I hear some clicking from the keys or the occasional mouse-click picked up while I was singing, I can easily clean that up with some simple edits. I also have two video screens in front of me. The main screen is mirrored into the vocal booth so that I can be inside the booth to sing while controlling everything with a separate keyboard and mouse in there. It\u2019s very convenient for me to able to sing and control the entire session at the same time. In fact, that\u2019s pretty cool for any vocalists needing to record themselves from within their vocal booth. Until I set up my studio in this way, I was always handicapped recording a project with my vocals on it.\u201d Williams sometimes collaborates with other musicians and vocalists for the music he produces, but the majority of what he\u2019s done thus far for film and t.v.\u2014and now branching over into some hip-hop and rap projects he\u2019s been taking on lately\u2014has just his vocals on it.<\/div>\n

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Putting The Rap In Rapture<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cIf I have to rap on something, I can do that. If the music calls for a really smooth R&B voice with harmonies behind it, I\u2019ll do that, too. It\u2019s cool having that ability to play all the instruments, produce and engineer every track, and sing every word a song needs for it to be perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Beyond having total creative control over his music, being the ultimate DIY-kind-of-guy must also put more green in Malik\u2019s accounting spreadsheet.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s good, too,\u201d laughs Williams, \u201cbut working this way, most importantly, always makes the client more happy with the results. When they e-mail at 10 o\u2019clock at night asking me to turnaround a new version of the music by the following morning, I can just do it. I don\u2019t have to find and get another vocalist into my studio in the middle of the night to accomplish that. I never have to worry about coordinating the schedules of session players and vocalists. That\u2019s especially important when a client asks me to turn something around by the next morning or, in some cases, even within an hour or two.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Williams has paid very close attention to the evolution of electronic instrumental sound technology since his earliest \u201880s sessions. The resonant ring of a Minimoog filter; the snap attack of a TR-808\u2019s snare; the massive phat of a four-oscillator Mono\/Poly patch\u2014a client just describes what they want to hear, and he delivers. The combination of his tech expertise, musical chops and historical respect for every genre of music make it easy for Malik to interpret any client\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve been either lucky and\/or good at putting my head into the space of whatever the client needs for their show, jingle or album. If someone just says, \u2018I want hip-hop,\u2019 for example, I\u2019ll ask them to describe in more detail what specific kind of hip-hop they want. That concerns not only what genre of hip-hop they\u2019re after, but also from what era that hip-hop was recorded in. That tells me, then, exactly what kind of instruments I\u2019ll use to create that kind of music for them. If they say, \u2018Well, I want some mid-\u201880s hip-hop,\u2019 then luckily\u2014and this goes back to my expertise and knowledge of music and instruments\u2014I know instantly what type, brand and model of instruments, synths, and drum machines were used to produce a particular song from that era.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Luck, it can be said, has had very little to do with Malik\u2019s innate\u2014and intimate\u2014knowledge of all things instrumental and vocal.<\/p>\n

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\"Malik<\/a><\/dt>\n
Malik working on vocals in the recording booth. <\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge advantage for me being a guy who has paid heavy attention to gear for so many years now,\u201d Williams adds. \u201cI\u2019ll research what samples, synths, keyboards, guitars, drum machines, etc., were used for whatever era the client is asking me to re-create for them. I play live drums, too, but mostly it\u2019s keyboards, guitars, bass, and various percussion instruments. Including the vocal style of a given musical genre or specific artist, that\u2019s pretty much everything you need to know in order to produce the majority of music you hear on t.v. and in films. I still own and use many of the hardware synths and drum machines from the past 30 to 40 years. Between those and all the software synths in my computer [laughs]\u2026wow, I have just about every sound, so far, that I\u2019ve ever needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Riffin\u2019 On Dimension Pro<\/em><\/p>\n

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Busy as he is, Williams still loves going to music stores to test drive all things sampled and synthesized. A talented guy behind the desk, as well, he\u2019s nonetheless quick to point out the dominance of his songwriting-jamming right brain over the engineering-post kind of left lobe. Often he has to pry himself away from a music store, though, just to \u201cescape\u201d the time-soaking inspiration he gets from browsing a soft synth\u2019s killer presets. \u201cI\u2019ll end up with about 20 song ideas based just on where those presets take me. It\u2019s just crazy! I hear a new sound and instantly I\u2019m inspired by it to write something specifically for that preset.\u201d<\/p>\n

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When a musician\u2019s right brain has as many soft synths to choose from as Malik\u2019s does\u2014be it in-store or at the keyboard controller in his home studio\u2019s vocal booth\u2014why grab Cakewalk\u2019s Rapture and Dimension Pro from such an exhaustive pull-down menu?<\/p>\n

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\u201cThose two synths really stand out to me as very useful pieces for what I work on,\u201d says Williams. \u201cHonestly, I\u2019ve been using both Rapture and Dimension Pro for everything I\u2019ve done since getting both of those synths.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Malik explains that when choosing which synths to best recreate the specific genre, era or song his clients ask for, many factors come to mind. Some synths are thinner, for example, or prettier, or dirtier, or more atmospheric than others, while others do well for just a particular sound or application he\u2019s after. Others are great all-around types of synths or keyboards that Malik can use to recreate any number of sounds he\u2019s been asked to deliver on a particular production.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDimension Pro takes me back to that all-around kind of synth\/keyboard that does a lot of real sounding stuff really good. It gives me the phatness I want, too, yet when I need something prettier sounding, it\u2019ll do that great, as well. It gives me a really full, great sounding palette of sounds to choose from that works great for any type of production I may be working on at any given time. Simply put, Dimension Pro will do anything. I can do really edgy, hardcore stuff with it on one take, then turn around on the next track to record something really pretty with it. Then for the next track I might use it to pull up those real-sounding acoustic instruments and strings it does so well, which are very dynamic. Regardless of what vintage or new instrument sound I\u2019m after, Dimension Pro sounds real.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A good example of some of his recent use of Dimension Pro is the self-described quirky music Williams wrote and produced for a Progressive Insurance commercial<\/a> that he says has \u201ca retro soul-orchestral sort of vibe\u201d to it. Titled \u201cProjector\u201d\u2014the spot features a Jeep\u2019s headlights with vintage movie projector sounds\u2014Malik recalls layering Dimension Pro\u2019s authentically real acoustic bass, orchestral string and flute sounds over some \u201870s-style drum beats. For another recent Progressive commercial, called \u201cJuggler,\u201d Williams used Dimension Pro extensively to compose a piece of music he named \u201cRhino Walk\u201d for it that definitely harkens back to a specific classic 1961 hit the Progressive creative folks had in mind for their spot.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe client asked me to roughly recreate Henry Mancini\u2019s \u2018Baby Elephant Walk\u2019 for that commercial,\u201d Malik continues. \u201cLike most everything else from that era, that song was originally recorded using eal instrumentation. Any purely synthesized keyboard or plug-in, of course, wouldn\u2019t have been appropriate for that sort of piece. But the sounds in Dimension Pro are very real, so it worked perfectly for that commercial. Both myself and the client were very happy with how that piece turned out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s another feather in Malik\u2019s professional hat: Actor, rapper, musicologist\u2026and quirky ad jingle guy.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYeah, I pride myself on being a quirky sound guy, too. But, really, I\u2019m a hip-hop guy first, so how did this happen? [laughs] How did I get from hip-hop to being paid for coming up with these quirky little music pieces for commercials? Take these Progressive commercials, for example: I can get a lot of music placed and licensed based simply on these quirky, short little commercial pieces that the clients really like. And, the viewers really notice those more, anyway, because that\u2019s the kind of music they tend to like and remember the most from watching t.v. shows and commercials.\u201d<\/p>\n


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Back To The Future With Rapture<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cNow Rapture, on the other hand,\u201d Williams explains, \u201cis for when I need to use a very synthy piece of gear. Rapture is great for those quirky sorts of synth pieces I use a lot for some of the commercials I write for, too. The array of sounds in it are more dynamic than most any other synth I use. I can do some cool synth leads and basses with it, as well as the atmospheric, lush kinds of filler pads I like, too. I can use Rapture on any kind of music application I\u2019m asked to do where killer synths are called for. That\u2019s very important to me because nowadays the synthesized sound has once again made a comeback and become a big deal for film, television shows, commercials and original music albums. Those sounds are all coming back, of course, from the music and instrumentation of the \u201870s and \u201880s.\u201d Malik sometimes mixes and matches Rapture and Dimension Pro together, as well, to create parts that are as unique to new television commercials as they are to his personal musical signatures.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ll sometimes layer a synthy bass from Rapture on top of an acoustic bass part in Dimension Pro. Even when I\u2019ve come up with something on Dimension Pro that sounds plenty phat on its own, I\u2019ll often make it even phatter by layering that same part with a patch in Rapture. That\u2019s also part of the process of placing my signature on every sound that ends up in a film, t.v., or music project I deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Malik<\/a><\/dt>\n
Malik working with Rapture in his home studio. Photo by Marcus C. Eddings, MCE Photography<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Be it music that\u2019s quirky, synthy, atmospheric, funky or not; and be it created using equal parts Rapture, Dimension Pro, a live drum kit, a guitar, a conga, his voice\u2014or all of the above\u2014Malik Williams is one very talented guy who\u2019s an active, responsive listener to boot. Just ask the countless movie execs, music supervisors, reality t.v. producers, advertising creatives and recording artists he\u2019s worked with since the early \u201880s.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBeing able to articulate exactly what the client is hearing in their own head using just a song, some sounds and my voice is what I do,\u201d Malik concludes. \u201cWhen I hit it just right, often based only on some late night e-mail or a short piece of video, and the client loves what I\u2019ve come up with\u2014wow, that\u2019s always exciting for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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———<\/p>\n

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Malik William’s Website<\/a><\/p>\n

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Malik William’s MySpace<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wearing the Many Hats of a Busy Synthesist Songwriter, engineer, actor, and film & t.v. music producer Malik Williams By Randy Alberts If some commercial jingle writers’ first gigs were in garage bands, fewer still of those went on to also write and produce music for film, reality t.v., the Web and hip-hop, pop, dance, … <\/p>\n

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