A Grammy-winning producer and engineer, Chris Carmouche had his breakthrough after meeting OutKast as a young intern – going on to be an integral collaborator with the multi-million record-selling duo. After the award-winning success of Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, Carmouche has built an unbelievable discography, working with Beyoncé, CeeLo Green, Diplo and Tinie Tempah. Carmouche provides a retrospective of his career, of which Waves plugins have been an integral part since he was a young assistant in the studio, fresh out of college.
So while Carmouche’s credits, particularly in the world of hip-hop, are quite outrageous, his breakthrough and ensuing career has seen regular work with Outkast and the solo work of the duo thereafter.
But as a young intern in a studio with the duo, there was a moment where he chose to speak out while André 3000 was recording – a decision that could have sent his career the other way had it been an artist with a bigger ego or a distaste for young studio hands.
“I remember on the first assistant session, we were recording She Lives In My Lap,” Carmouche recalls of the song which featured actress Rosariou Dawson.
“There was a section where André plays the guitar at the very end. When he was playing one of the notes, it was kind of flat. I'm sitting in the control room with the engineer, and I'm telling John that it sounds flat. John was like, ‘Tell him!’
"I was almost too nervous, but I did say, ‘Hey, Dre, I think that one note is flat’. It made me nervous as shit! But André checked it and said, ‘Okay, yeah, you're right, thanks’.
"From that point, it kind of relaxed me to be more a part of the session and have this organic, intuitive type of approach to everything.”