Wynn-Encore building recording space for DJs
Big news: I have learned that Wynn Las Vegas-Encore is building a music studio for the 34 star musicians who perform at the hotel’s nightclubs.
“It’s gonna be a super high-end affair,” the Wynn’s Jonathan Shecter tells me. He is director of original programming for Wynn Las Vegas nightlife.
This could be significant in the world of electronic music, because Wynn-Encore performers comprise most of the biggest names in DJ-producers.
Just look at who’s playing there in December: Deadmau5, Avicii, Steve Aoki, Dada Life, Calvin Harris, Tiesto, Diplo, Cazzette and Steve Angello.
Shecter says the studio will probably be running by January .
Several months ago, Afrojack told me he wanted Wynn to build a studio, and it would lead to even more press for Vegas and casinos.
“It would be like: ‘You remember that song that’s number one? How dope would it be if we produced it at a studio at XS?’ ” Afrojack said. (Afrojack next performs Dec. 29 at Wynn’s Tryst.)
The Wynn studio (it doesn’t have a name yet) is being built underneath Encore Beach Club in a sort of back-of-the-house area, with guidance from local DJ-producer-engineer Digital Boy.
There will be three rooms, offering a main control room, a vocal booth, a lounge and more.
The idea for a studio has been knocked around for nearly two years, ever since Afrojack’s first show at Surrender. He asked for a studio then, so Wynn workers created a temporary makeshift studio.
Afrojack and Aoki used that temporary studio to cut the hit song “No Beef.”
The new studio will benefit not only DJs but also the hotel’s collaboration with Ultra Records. Ultra has released a few compilation albums through the Wynn clubs.
Shecter says other DJs, such as Diplo and Rehab, have also made requests for a studio.
The reason I found out about this studio is because Afrojack and the two guys in Cazzette recently told me they were hoping the Wynn-Encore would build a studio. So I called Shecter.
“All DJs spend a lot of time here,” Seb Furrer of Cazzette told me. “If everyone got one room with a studio in it, you’d just set up your laptop,” Furrer said.
Cazzette performs Monday at XS.
Cazzette’s Alex Bjorklund said it wouldn’t take long for DJs to get comfortable in a Wynn recording studio.
“It’s all about knowing the room, really,” Bjorklund said. “After a few stays here, you could probably figure out how to mix” in that room.
“If you’ve been mixing in the same environment, you know how it sounds compared to how it sounds in the club.”
Bjorklund said it wouldn’t have to be an expensive studio, since he and Furrer usually record instrumentals with just laptops, keyboards and killer speakers.
“You’ve got to buy expensive speakers,” Bjorklund told me in Cazzette’s hotel suite, then joked: “If you sell that vase right there, and sell that TV, and get rid of a few lamps, you could get a decent pair of speakers.”
But Shecter says the Wynn is not cutting costs, but rather spending an appropriate amount of money for top gear, speakers and the vocal booth.
Afrojack told me he could get a ton of work done in a Wynn studio.
“Artists all come to Las Vegas and spend a heavy load of time there, so it would be easy if there was a studio there.”
Doug Elfman’s column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.
