Guitarist Carlos Rios on Tour with Fleetwood Mac

Over the years, Carlos Rios has performed and/or recorded with Madonna, Whitney Houston, Chick Corea, Lionel Richie, Herbie Hancock, Earth, Wind and Fire, Joe Zawinul and many more. He is currently traveling with the Fleetwood Mac Reunion Tour, which commenced in May and is slated for at least 33 dates nationwide. And M-Audio is along for the ride.

In the hands of destiny

All Carlos Rios needed to get his budding career off the ground was a little help—from his mom. The aspiring guitarist began playing in bands while in high school, during which time he met jazz guitarist and recording artist Larry Carlton (Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Sammy Davis Jr., Quincy Jones). Under Carlton’s tutelage, Rios explored the world of jazz-fusion and met industry veterans Jeff Porcaro and Gap Mangione, the elder brother of crossover jazz recording artist Chuck Mangione.

“Gap Mangione had the same manager as [pop/rock vocalist and recording artist] Gino Vanelli,” Rios explains. “So by coincidence, a girlfriend of mine lent me one of Gino Vanelli’s records because I never heard it. When she called to ask for it back she talked to my mom. My mom’s English sometimes mixes stuff up, so she writes down that Gino Vanelli called.”

When Rios received the message, his excitement was only mitigated by the fact his mom couldn’t remember where she supposedly wrote down Vannelli’s phone number. So Rios contacted Carlton, who contacted Mangione, who used his manager to pass Rios’ message on to Vannelli. While watching television at home one evening, Rios received the call that changed his life.

“Hi, it’s Gino Vannelli,” Rios heard on the other end of the line. He quickly responded, “Hey, man, I’m so sorry I didn’t call you. I lost your number.” After a pause, Vannelli revealed, “You know what, I never called. Maybe it was somebody from the office. But come down to the audition and let me hear you play.”

Vannelli wound up contracting Rios to work on “Brother to Brother,” a record which transformed Rios from an aspiring musician to an in demand session artist. From that point on, the momentum of Rios’ success only continued to build.

Embracing the mobile music lifestyle

From his first Roland drum machine to his M-Audio Radium keyboard, Rios has always relished the way technology has enhanced his creative ability. Learning to program a Roland drum machine back in 1980 gave Rios an unprecedented degree of creative autonomy. “I loved having the ability to be able to just do something without having to call a group of musicians,” says Rios. “In L.A., everybody is so spread out that it’s difficult to get people together. So that was a Godsend to me. I realized, ‘wow, I can make music by myself.’ And I never looked back.”

Rios’ recording setup has evolved significantly from that time; he now uses a Mac PowerBook and Propellerhead Reason, Studiophile BX5 monitors, and M-Audio Radium49 and Oxygen8 controller keyboards. While on the road, the portability of Rios’ setup means that he doesn’t have to let a spare moment go to waste. Rios creates music during sound checks, layovers, and downtime in his hotel room. His has also made believers out of fellow Fleetwood Mac band members, several of which now use Oxygen8s and BX5s for personal recording.

“I’ve written so many things in airports with just ear buds in my ears. I’ll eat up three hours and wish I didn’t have to get on that plane. And sound checks are so time-consuming. When you need something to do, what better than to write a song? And the cool thing is, if you like what you’re doing and you’re working with someone back home, you can just e-mail it to them.”

The power of Reason

“Some people mistakenly think Reason’s a toy because they don’t know how powerful it is to be able to have all that at your fingertips,” Rios says. Powerful indeed—the software program has completely revolutionized the way he writes songs. After attempting to go the hard disk recording route, Rios found that it so slowed the songwriting process that he began writing less and less. But when Rios discovered Reason, he immediately felt the freedom to create again.

“Now I don’t have to worry about documenting my patches or what synth I used,” Rios relates. “If you want to write a song and you know what you want, you can get a song out in five minutes or less. You can get the idea in 30 seconds, drums, loops, and everything’s going. There’s a beauty to that simplicity and the efficiency of it. That has changed my life.”

Rios began a recent project for Earth, Wind & Fire, for example, by creating the drum, bass synth and keyboard parts in Reason. He then played live guitar over the tracks before sending it off to the band for completion. He went through a similar process when writing a song to perform at M-Audio’s Winter NAMM 2003 booth with fellow M-Powered artists Tom Scott, Vinnie Colaiuta, and Neil Stubenhaus. He wrote the various parts in Reason, and then e-mailed the files to his collaborators for their suggestions. The quartet then performed their respective sections in front of the excited crowd, while Reason supplied the rhythmic sections live.

Taking on the future

“I know professional guys that work on one small piece of gear that they know, but they’re scared of computers,” Rios continues. “And they just fall back. When it comes to writing they can’t because they haven’t got the tools. Never be afraid of technology, just embrace it because the technology today is what makes everything happen.”

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