The Rundown

Technology has become a musician’s greatest ally. Both seasoned pros and amateurs alike are taking advantage of gear that allows them to produce studio quality recordings from their bedrooms while distributing and promoting their music through the Internet.

The studio side of the industry has been challenged by this electronic competition and everyone involved has been developing musical services that are more compatible with the latest trends in studio production.

One of the newer music services that is using technology in an extremely unique way is located right here in the Port City.

LiveHorns (www.livehorns.com) is becoming a testament to the evolution of the music industry and is getting plenty of attention for it.

In the past, musicians would have to travel to major cities if their music required any horns. LiveHorns is making it possible for any band in the world to include a real horn (not synthesized) section to any song they compose. This business was the brainchild of award-winning trumpeter Tommy Vaughn.

“I was asked to play a trumpet part for a friend of mine in Nashville, and all he wanted was for me to send him the audio file through e-mail,” explained Vaughn. “So, that kinda started the idea of putting together more than one player but also a sax, a trombone and multiple trumpets if needed as whole section.”

Vaughn went to the Internet to see if anyone had already started this type of service and found one drummer in the U.K. providing drums. Musicians would send their tracks to the drummer, and he would provide the percussive tracks.

Vaughn patterned LiveHorns in the same manner. Musicians would come to the Web site with their horn needs, and Vaughn would fulfill them by providing “custom” horn sections. LiveHorns is just a click away with musicians uploading their tracks to the site or simply emailing them. It was not long until major label EMI/Sparrow Records caught wind of the Web site and employed LiveHorns to lay down tracks on “American Idol” fifth season veteran Mandisa’s album “True Beauty,” which earned a Grammy and Dove nomination.

With great distances between Vaughn and his clients, one would think that this would be a complicated process, but Vaughn claims that it has been a breeze so far.

“As far as complexity of arrangements, we really haven’t come across anything too complex,” he said.

Stephen Centanni is Lagniappe music editor. Contact him at scentanni@lagniappemobile.com.

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