Gina Fant-Saez: Recording and collaborating online

I first met Gina Fant-Saez at an AES show where she was showing her new Internet-based start-up company called eSession.com. eSession has been in development since winter of 2004 and went into public beta in mid April. Since then, sessions from around the world have used eSession to collaborate. This innovative venture allows clients worldwide the opportunity to hire top session musicians and Grammy winning engineers and the site provides all financials and file transfers required to collaborate with renown talent, regardless of software, hardware or computer platform. There was quite a buzz around her booth and Gina immediately sat down with me and showed me the concept behind eSession. The only thing at the time that I knew about Gina was that she had worked on a record with Kevin Killen [ Tape Op #67 ] several years earlier at her Blue World Music studio in Austin, Texas. Little did I know what a major player she was and the scope of the albums she had worked on for such high profile artists such as U2, King Crimson, Sting, Shawn Colvin, Jimmie Vaughan, Bela Fleck, Nelly Furtado, The Meat Puppets, Sister Hazel and Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum) — as well as teaching engineers like Michael Barbiero the ins and outs of Pro Tools! Her book Pro Tools for Musicians and Songwriters is published by Peachpit Press and has been picked up as a textbook by several major audio schools including Berklee. Her infectious energy is the driving force behind eSession.

How did you get started in the music business?

I have been writing music and playing guitar and piano since I was 11. I was in college at Texas State University in the early '80s and I read in the school paper that a recording studio was moving into the old fire station, appropriately named Fire Station Studios. I went to the studio opening party and convinced the studio manager that I would wrap cables, make coffee, duplicate cassettes, etc. So I got the job and they paid me an hour of studio time a week. I spent two years there, asking lots of questions, wrapping lots of cables, falling asleep on the couch, making lots of coffee and getting to help on albums for Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Eric Johnson, Joe Ely, etc. I decided to move to NYC and finish school at NYU. My first NYC internship was at Mike Mainieri's Centerfield Productions, where I helped recording jingles during the day and helped with Mike's band, Steps Ahead, in the evenings.

So you owned a traditional studio, SSL and the whole nine yards? Blue World Music in Austin, Texas?

I started Blue World in 1991 in Blauvelt, NY — outside of New York City. [Blauvelt is German for Blue World.] I eventually ended up moving my studio into Greenwich Village and then to Chelsea. I moved Blue World to Austin in 1997 and opened in 1998. I was thinking quality of life at the time. Moving my studio to Austin was a very frustrating experience. I had a 48 I/O Pro Tools system and a 96-input SSL and I put this into a very, 2" analog, retro studio town. It was not the wisest decision of my life, but I wanted to live in Austin and I thought I could convince everyone that this was the future. It was a few very lean years of being scoffed at by a lot people — I finally started giving away studio time to train the local producers and engineers while transferring their 2" projects into Pro Tools, which eventually paid off — it finally caught on and now all the retro studios have Pro Tools, many of which I set up and trained them how to use.

How is your studio different today?

Way different. In 2004 I sold my SSL, my 2" Studer, all my outboard delays and multi effects except for my [Lexicon] 480L and my AMS [RMX 16] reverb. I used this money to fund the beginnings of eSession. I also obviously kept all the outboard EQs, mic pres, and compressors and I kept my Studer 1/2", but I haven't used it in over two years. I just saw the way I was working. I rarely used the automation on the SSL. I would set the faders at unity and though I was using the console's EQ and compression on some tracks, I used mostly plug-ins and Pro Tools automation for everything else. In a sense, my SSL was a big expensive summing mixer. Then bookings started thinning as the industry changed and I clearly saw that the future was not bright for most commercial studios, but more and more music was being created in higher-end personal studios. That was when I started creating the plan for eSession. I sold a lot of my gear (at the right time) to do it and replaced the SSL with the Dangerous Music summing [2-BUS] system. My SSL is now in the G Room of Avatar in New York City. I really love the new minimalist approach studio I have now and I can't say that I miss the console or the monthly payments for it. I think of my current studio as the commercial studio of the future.

How do you feel the Dangerous summing boxes hold up against the old SSL?

I could not be happier with them. I tried the API summing system first and thought it sounded great, but each channel had an additional, un-notched volume knob and I thought I would be recalling mixes all over again. I wanted a system where I could go from song to song without worrying about external volume knobs. So I tried the Dangerous and fell in love with it. I have the Dangerous Monitor, MQ, Mixer (for my 480L, AMS returns, my Mac output and my Korg Triton) and I have two Dangerous 2-BUSes. I have a 16-input, 32-output Pro Tools HD 3 Accel system. I normalled all my mic pres to the inputs and normalled all EQs and compressors to the last 16 outputs. I have an Alan Smart C2 Compressor on the 2-mix and the main digital out goes to the Rosetta and then back into Pro Tools. I invited a few prominent producer/engineer clients [to] come try a mix on the Dangerous before the SSL left and compare the two. In every test, the Dangerous beat out the SSL.

So what was the inspiration behind eSession?

I saw the industry changing. Budgets were smaller, digital audio was finally embraced by the recording industry, the Internet and FTP was making my FedEx bill smaller while giving me a larger, world-wide client base without travel expenses. I was emailing QuickBooks invoices, receiving money with PayPal, using my Chat App to work with clients. At the same time, I saw many of my musician friends struggling and I thought, "Why? These people are so talented and capable." Since the big budget albums disappeared, the only way they made a living was by touring. I was thinking that there must be a way to utilize all these talented individuals. They all had home studios that were only used for their own pet projects — not as a means to generate a consistent income. I started wondering, what if the Internet allowed people to hire them? What if I created a web site that could become one comprehensive solution for all the different applications being used to collaborate remotely and what if these musicians could start making use of their home studios — and this could allow them to stay at home with their families rather than tour? What if this website could handle the hiring, negotiating, financial transactions and file transfers, back up and storage? What if clients could work with legendary musicians without all the previous travel expenses and hotel and studio costs required to do so in the past? What if the site provided 24/7 access to all of your audio files from any web browser? So, I called my friend and brilliant producer/engineer, Kevin Killen and ran the idea past him. He was incredibly supportive and encouraging of the idea and so I started putting together a team to make it happen while selling most of my studio to start financing it. Since then, we have attained more private funding.

How do you think it will succeed where Rocket Network failed?

The Rocket Network was a propriety technology built into Cubase, Logic and very briefly, Pro Tools. You could only [collaborate] with the same software you were using. So if I wanted to work with someone using Logic, I had to be using Logic. I had to have the same plug-ins as well — same thing for Pro Tools and Cubase. Rocket's business model was built on how much bandwidth someone used. Do you really want to keep track every time you log onto the Internet, how much bandwidth you've used? It was a brilliant technology built on an impossible business model. If I found someone to collaborate with and sent them a song, I paid to upload it, my collaborator paid to download it, then I paid to download whatever tracks my collaborator added — regardless whether I liked them or not. eSession's business model is based on hiring talent and providing 24/7 accessible disk space. We take a commission of what one of our talent members charges their clients. We're not just providing the means to collaborate as Rocket did, but we're giving people a reason to collaborate. I was doing beta [testing] for Rocket and I kept telling them, you have to combine the talent with the technology. You can't give someone a telephone and then not give them a number to call or a directory where to find numbers. Through my experience with Rocket I realized that collaboration is 50% how you do it and 50% who you work with. With eSession we're addressing both of these issues. eSession is Internet- based and we've created a system that simplifies collaboration using any web browser that allows anyone, regardless of software, hardware or computer platform to collaborate with anyone else. We've taken the complexity out of large file transfers by creating a very simple drag and drop web page called the SongPage, which we hope people will start to think of as the new conceptual reel of tape for the recording industry with files organized and accessible by anyone, anywhere, anytime. For cross- platform and multi-DAW support, we're asking people to post their work in stems — to save download time and compensate for differences with software and plug-ins. Though clients can drag entire Pro Tools sessions if everyone is using Pro Tools — they can also upload stems of their tracks. If the bass player they hired uses Nuendo, the musicians would simply download and import these stems into Nuendo, set the correct meter and tempo and play his/her parts, then consolidate their tracks from bar 1 and upload to the client. We also have a real-time plug-in called Virtual Glass that we're creating for real-time sessions, which will simulate a real studio session where the artist and musician are separated by the glass partition. In Virtual Glass, the partition is a video screen so you can see and hear the person you are working with. We also have a custom chart application called an eChart for clients to create fast and easy chord charts of their songs.

How many musicians are on the roster now?

We have almost 700 musicians and engineers today and growing...

I asked Tony Levin [ Tape Op #33 ] and he said he really liked the extra time he could take to try different parts without the pressure of the studio clock ticking.

We just went into testing over the last few weeks and Tony was the first person we tested the system with. We call Tony the poster boy of eSession. He has been very generous with his time and letting us use him as an example. Tony is one of many musicians who are already making a portion of their living using the Internet in combination with his home studio. eSession will allow these people already working this way to now have a world-wide client base and a comprehensive solution for working with clients — eSession will handle all financial negotiations and transactions, talent is paid 50% before a project and 50% afterwards, immediately — so no more waiting 90 days for a check. eSession will also allow musicians like Tony to do income reports for accountants and keep all their work on one secure server accessible and backed up 24/7.

I would think that eSession would be an invaluable resource for today's computer savvy producer.

I'm betting the SSL on it. I think it might be a slow start because we're asking many people to change their working paradigms and try something new. As you know, people get stuck in their ways but Kevin and I are dedicating all of our time and energy right now to reaching the producers and their management and showing them the site and how it works. We have yet to get anything but rave reviews from everyone we have met with.

I know Kevin Killen worked out of your Blue World Music studio. How did he get involved with eSession?

Back in '98 when I was pursuing an artist career, I sent my music to Kevin because I loved every album he had mixed and produced. Surprisingly, he called me back and came down to Austin on spec to work on my music. Then he personally took my music to a few labels. It was an act of generosity that I will never forget. Kevin and I stayed in touch over the years and he was the first one I called when I had this idea. At first he was just someone I bounced ideas off of. Then he came back down to Austin to work on another project of mine in April of '05. During this time, I showed him what I had started on eSession and I asked him if he would like to partner with me. In June of '05 he agreed. His experience, intelligence and wisdom are a huge part of eSession. This site has become so much more because of his input and ideas. We call him the "eSession voice of reason". He has been instrumental in every graphic, every form and every page.

What are your criteria for being a musician or engineer on eSession? Anyone can be a musician or engineer on the site and

anyone can create a profile. We have two different account types, one we call eTalent members and one called eMembers. An eTalent member is required to have 15 major label credits to be part of our high profile talent database. An eMember is not required to have any credits at all. So, users can choose to search for eTalent members when they need top-notch talent or search our eMember database when they don't. Also, we have a feature called "Hire Anyone" where as long as you have someone's email address you can hire them and pay them through the site. We also have a feature called "Invite Guest" where you can simply give someone login access to specific projects or songs without having to pay them at all. We have tried to build the site with global collaboration in mind and we try not to exclude anyone.

Would an artist who sold 750, 000 albums on an indie label be excluded because they didn't meet the major label criteria? Are there exceptions to the rule?

We do accept indie label credits with major distribution behind the album for eTalent members. I don't believe that label credits define the measure of anyone's talent, but we needed some way to regulate the eTalent membership and to ensure that the eSession.com talent database was comprised of professionals only. We do make certain exceptions if someone has more post production credits than label credits or they have ten major credits and five indies with major distribution. We simply want our clients to know that when they hire an eTalent member using eSession.com, they are going to get quality work.