CRENSHAW : Studio a Hit With Aspiring Singers

Poring over a list of titles at the front counter of a recording studio, a brightly painted fingernail tracing the possibilities, Regina Hyde said her choice of a song to sing would be one of the most important decisions of her life.

“I want this to be perfect,” said the bubbly but somewhat nervous 16-year-old. “I love to sing. I want to get paid for it someday.”

She flashed a smile. “My dream is right here.”

Hyde and other aspiring singers have found an outlet for their dreams at In the Mix, a recording studio in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza that makes quality demo tapes. Besides offering anyone a chance to record themselves warbling to the tracks of hit tunes, the studio also offers career guidance, talent-search competitions and seminars intended to educate novice performers about the business side of the music industry.

“We have a responsibility to the talent of the community,” said Charlene Powell, who owns the studio along with partner Ollie Rasbury. “Black people have a lot of talent, and they’ve got to learn the business end so they don’t get ripped off.”

Among those business lessons are how to dispense information on copyrighting music, record demos, market particular styles, improve singing voices or eliminate poor vocal habits. Powell and Rasbury also intern local high school students who want to learn the basics of sound engineering.

“I like the mechanics of the business,” said Brian Ceballos, 17, a senior at Middle College High School in South-Central who has been orchestrating recording sessions at the studio for three months.

Powell and Rasbury also have enlisted customers in a talent-search competition they began in April, which will culminate in a sing-off featuring celebrity judges and a grand prize of professionally done demo packages to be submitted to selected record companies.

Powell, a New York native and a former manager of vocalist Phyllis Hyman, said she got the idea to open the studio three years ago when she arrived in Los Angeles and took a trip to Magic Mountain. “I went into a recording studio there for the fun of it and noticed there were no black, funky tracks,” she said. “Nothing was current.”

Powell contacted Rasbury, who was working in adult education in Colorado but was a music teacher in the New York City public schools. “I was ready for this new avenue,” Rasbury said. “I wanted to get back into music. And I liked the idea of encouraging people to work themselves up to whatever level they wanted to be.”

The pair opened shop last November, offering demos for $9.50 and videos starting at $15. Although In the Mix has a library of more than 200 backing tracks--including rap, pop, gospel and jazz hits--customers are welcome to bring in other tracks or record original material.

“Up to now, I thought of myself as a ‘car singer,’ ” said South-Central resident Carmen Taylor, who had just finished belting out her version of Regina Belle’s “Make It Like It Was.” “This really motivated me. I’m going to go home to practice more, then come back and do another one. Who knows?”

Powell says the whole point of the venture is not necessarily to steer people into singing careers, but simply to follow through on goals: “One girl we worked with had such low self-esteem when she came here, but she eventually made it to the finals of our competition. She was so proud. She realized that you can’t just dream.”