At twenty-six, visually impaired Jason Dasent manages Keystone
Audio Recording Studio at No 65 Carlos Street, Woodbrook,
efficiently and with the greatest of ease, because "the studio talks."
"My brother, Dane, was the first person to get me involved in speech
software. He looked around for a long while and finally found we
could make the studio talk. The software speaks and basically runs
the studio's multi-track machine, digital sampler, synthesizers,
modules, compressors, effect processors, etc.
A keyboardist, first and foremost, Jason is basically responsible for
programming and audio engineering at Keystone. Ian John is the
"roadman", and is out on the road marketing. Bruce Chang On deals
with keeping the computers going in the studio and together with
Jason works at improving the systems, and was instrumental in
helping to put together the speech software. While Candace
Alcantara, says Jason is "a jack of all trades, goes on the road doing
some sales, is excellent in the studio with the equipment, and as
female vocalist is a fantastic singer."
Although Jason has only owned his studio for three years, he has been
into music from age ten at St Mary's College from where he graduated
with six O level passes. "I have never done formal music, just short
courses in jazz improvisation with Stanley Ruiz, whom I consider the
best guitar player in Trinidad. An excellent jazz musician; it was one
of the best experiences I have had."
After leaving school, Jason worked in most of the studios in Trinidad.
And although unsighted from birth, with no help from subsequent
cornea grafts, credits his ability to create because "I have excellent
perception, you describe something to me I will know exactly what you
are describing as I see it basically in my mind and work on it."
Jingles being the mainstay of Keystone Studios, Jason demonstrated
by asking me for a thought for a jingle. Baby Powder was my reply.
"When you think baby powder, you think fresh, young, happy,
something like a baby's laugh, you have that concept in your head" was
his immediate response. Working with the concept, Jason got some
music going, explaining "most times I have an idea of a script because
they would give me details, such as, if it's a new brand, appealing to
what sector. Baby's mothers want their children happy and fresh. Then
you have to think of what time of day you would want the ad to run. I
have done so many jingles that it is ingrained in me. You tell me a
thirty-second jingle, I feel thirty seconds ingrained in my head
immediately, and get myself in that frame of mind. "
"I play around with the keyboard and before long start laying down
tracks while Ian gets to work on the lyrics. The jingle begins to take
shape, then we find the right person to do the vocals from our
resource bank of singers headed by Candace." And out of Keystone
comes the final product on CD medium, cassettes, digital audio tapes
or mini discs.
Having worked in most of the studios in Trinidad, Jason, who taught
himself the keyboard, is happy to at last have his very own studio,
bought with help from his brothers and mother "they helped me out a
lot and we have just moved here from Cascade. The foam on the wall
is still to be covered with fibreglass, and with the addition of fancy
lights, we will make the room really pretty."
Jason explained the production if someone should come with a
melody in his/her head: "I form a concept, get the chords from the
melody and lay down all the parts on the computer to form a whole
orchestra, piano, drums, bass, etc, these are the advantages of midi
recording."
"In the case of tracking, we start to work with all the live elements,
singers, guitarists, bass players etc."
The audio engineer stage involves mixing, taking all the parts spoken
about and putting everything in proportion to each other to create a
finished product.
In the very near future, Keystone will offer web pages for clients with
links to their music, biographies, pictures and graphics; and also
electronic brochures on C.D. to jingle clients.
Jason, the youngest child of Lennox and Annmarie Dasent, considers
himself "most times a happy young man" but does have his moments.
He enjoys the studio and treats it like a job with normal hours "except
that being my own business there are flexible times. Last night I
worked until eleven, today (Tuesday) I had the option of coming in for
1 p.m."
Jason has no desire to work for a bigger studio: "I would like to make
our studio that big studio. We plan to make the studio grow and
grow, hoping to diversify a bit offering other things no other studio is
offering, such as, an internet radio station where we can broadcast
our stuff to the world."
Although Keystone does not as yet have its own video equipment, the
studio is aligned with another company to produce videos and will
basically start doing music videos for clients.
Jason's big dream is to get into the film industry: "I would like to do
music for movies, documentaries, and big productions like on the
discovery channel. I want to produce a horror movie real bad. I watch
television and movies just like everybody else, you watching and my
watching is not very much difference. I am just as normal as
everybody else, and can perceptualise it all since I have a little vision."
There was no time for sports, except swimming as a boy scout,
because Jason was always in the studio "from at school I would go
home, do my homework and work in a studio until four in the
morning, then go to school the next day."
For this high technology young man, reading by braille is out: "I really
do not like it, as it makes absolutely no sense, it is slow, with my
speech software I can go on the line and read even Newsday.
Everything is accessible to me by speech software. I had to read a bit
of braille at school but found it didn't make sense. My friends would
read for me. My brother Dane, who lives in Colorado now, always told
me from small: 'one day I will bring you a talking computer' and he did
about five years ago. Now Bruce and I work a lot at configurations to
make speech software work better."