Craig Bauer, owner of the Chicago-based Hinge, mixed several of the key tracks on Kanye West’s latest album, Late Registration, which sold 1.4 million copies during the first two weeks of its release in September. The release was mixed largely at Hinge, where prior to the mix sessions, Bauer purchased and installed a Genelec 7073A active subwoofer.
“It has made a huge difference here,” says Bauer. “Hip hop is all about feeling the low end, and that’s something the 7073 sub really lets you do.”
West called upon Bauer, a longtime collaborator, to mix a slew of tracks for the album, including “Addiction,” “Roses,” “Late” and “Heard ëEm Say,” though their association goes back well before that. West began working with Bauer at Hinge in 1998 with a group called the Go Getters. During the next several years, he produced beats at Hinge for a number of established artists, including Puff Daddy, Lil’ Kim, Da Brat and Wu Tang Clan, and has been a regular at the studio ever since.
Hinge also hosts a pair of Genelec 1034B active main monitors in the control room; other Genelec models in use there include 1034A, 1031A and 1032A models.
On working with West, Bauer recalls, “Kanye is very meticulous about his work. I would get a call at 1 a.m. from him asking me to turn up kick number two by 2 dB. The Genelec 7073 responds to that by giving Kanye and other clients the ability to get incredibly deep and accurate bass sounds, a key to hip hop recordings. Kanye raises the bar for record-making, and Genelec speakers raise the bar for how records can sound.”
For more information on Genelec, visit www.genelecusa.com.
