About Rajeev
My first encounter with audio production began when I received a 61-key Yamaha keyboard as a Christmas gift when I was 10 years old. I first started to compose music using only five tracks with the basic keyboard before moving on to digital audio workstations, or audio programs for short.
When composing music on the keyboard, the first two tracks were always drums and bass. The last three tracks allowed me to be creative when making melodies. Looking back, I feel the restriction of using multiple tracks enhanced my creativity, so it helped me when I switched over to using fully featured audio programs.
When I was a teenager, I was introduced to an audio program called Logic Pro for Macintosh based computers. Then, using a Guitar Center credit card, I bought my first sampling machine, an Akai MPC 1000.
I remember thinking to myself that I have endless possibilities when creating music. With Logic, my sampling machine, and my late aunts record collection, I made a track that landed me my first placement on Berner’s, a well known Bay Area rap artist, Drought Season 2. I then went on to compose a track called Cream on another album by Berner, which peaked at 13 on the Billboards under all the category of all genres.
Currently, I spend ample time songwriting, recording, and mixing my band Westline Drive. Most of the members have been together for almost ten years, so we have an amazing chemistry. During our time together, we have encountered many lead singers. For one reason or another, the lead singers would always quit after a while. We finally landed a very talented singer who has been with us for about three years. Our album is due to come out this year!
I spent my life understanding the multifaceted roles the music industry offers and currently specialize in mixing. I also am an educator at San Francisco State University where I teach basic and advanced audio production. I have also conducted extensive research in the field of psychoacoustics and presented my research in conferences both domestic and international. I am also a live sound engineer for a folk music concert series called SF Live Arts and have worked with Grammy nominated and award winning artists. Lastly, I am currently a recording/mixing engineer at Trakworx Mastering.
If you are interested in recording, mixing, or audio production, I’d be happy to assist!