Chieli Minucci
Queens native Chieli Minucci has a bloodline in the music business: his dad Ulpio was a composer ('Domani") and arranger who worked regularly with the likes of Nat "King" Cole and Julius La Rosa. Serious musical training was the way for Chieli, first at the piano and then, at the ripe age of 8, on guitar.
"Operating my own project studio-and having to develop the engineering and computer chops that are associated, comes as a secondary issue for me. I was trained as a performer, writer and arranger first." After graduating from Ithaca College in 1982 Minucci returned to the New York area and began gigging with rock and R&B bands. When he met George Ginda, his eventual partner in the still-going-strong band Special EFX his interests turned towards contemporary jazz. His early pro experience has helped him build up a session resume that includes work with R&B heavyweights Chaka Khan and Mavis Staple, as well as current pop stars such as Celine Dion, the Backstreet Boys and Jewel.
“My career has three components: the recording work I do with Special EFX and under my own name (currently recording on the Shanachie label, Minuci has had contracts with GRP and JVC), the music I write and record for television shows such as the Guiding Light and Another World, and my touring work.”
All of Minucci's television cues-including those written for Guiding Light which won him an Emmy this year, are recorded in Baci Studio, his place in midtown Manhattan. "I actually have a modest studio, which I use in 2 different ways. As I said, I record all of my production music here, from start to finish. My sequencer is MOTU's Digital Performer 2.2, which up until this time I've simply used as a sequencer, not a hard disc recording system, although that will change."
Digital tracks-horn overdubs, the occasional vocal line, in addition to his omnipresent guitar work, are laid down to a single Fostex RD-8 digital tape machine. "This manner of working has been fine with me, both for the work I do here and when I need to record guitar parts at my studio for some out of town project that's sent to me. However, it's definitely time to move into the world of hard disc recording. My friend Steve Skinner just loaned me his Korg 1212 card and I'll be experimenting with digital recording using it. I'm seriously considering getting a MOTU 2408 card, but I'm currently using a Power Mac running at 225 mHz, and I know that won't be fast enough to really take advantage of all that the Digital Performer/2408 combination offers. So my choice is either spend three grand on a new computer, or put that money into ProTools or another card based processing system and stick with the computer I have. I recently recorded some guitar parts and contributed a tune to Jay Beckenstein's new album. He works up at Bear Tracks on an Ensoniq PARIS system, and that seems like a nice alternative to ProTools. I was really impressed with its sound. And yet, the integration of DP and the 2408 running on a 450 mHz computer is also very attractive."
Lots of project studio owners are moving over to digital consoles, but Minucci is sticking with his Mackie 8 bus analog board. "It's quiet and extremely useful in my set up. The main point for me is that all of this technology has given us the opportunity to bypass the demo studio phase and make great sounding records in our own spaces. Of course, it's nice to go into a major room and work with state of the art gear, but it's not always necessary. Knowing what tools you need is really the pivotal issue, and to me it all comes back to the grounding in music that a player and arranger has to have."
Minucci says that working as a player for great producers has helped immensely in the work he does for himself at his project studio. "I recently was called by Mutt Lange to play guitars on a Back Street Boys track over at Battery Studios on the tune “I Need You Tonight.” The session went nine hours and none of the time was wasted! I'm one of those guys who will hang forever at a session, and that's what happened on this date!"
How could a guitar session possibly more time than it takes to play 3 big league baseball games? "Well, I had to play at least 15 electric guitar parts-plus some acoustic tracks. Jeff's a master; he had his own idea for a three part guitar sound on the verse, which we worked on until it sounded the way he wanted it. Then we'd move onto the chorus, bridge and so on. When those tracks were complete he let me have a go at interlocking three guitar parts throughout the tune. Then, we went back to the beginning and analyzed what we had before constructing a map of what ideas we wanted to keep from all of the recorded tracks. Then I went back and played three more parts, the result of our editing work! It was great!
“I guess the most important thing of all, for me, is learning the technology without ever making the mistake of thinking it can substitute for musicianship.”
Appeared in Mix, October, 2002
