Ryan West Mixing Asher Roth 'Tangerine Girl'
01h 40min
(24)
Engineer and producer Ryan West dissects his mix of Asher Roth's 'Tangerine Girl', from the album "RetroHash".
Learn step by step about the workflow and sonic decisions that combined to create Ryan's signature sound and a badass hip-hop mix.
In this video you will learn how to:
- Get deep and hard hitting drum sounds
- Clean up and manage competing bass frequencies
- Make vocals sound in-your-face and spacious at the same time
- Spice up background vocals
- Create a killer master bus chain to sweeten and glue the whole mix together
Don't forget to download the stems, import them in your favorite DAW and practice using the same tracks Ryan used in this video!
Parts of this site and some files are only accessible to pureMix Pro Members or available to purchase. Please see below our membership plans or add this video to your shopping cart.
Once logged in, you will be able to click on those chapter titles and jump around in the video.
- 00:00 - Start
- 02:28 - Drums
- 20:42 - Bass
- 35:21 - Guitars
- 45:12 - Vocals
- 1:23:31 - Master Buss
- 1:36:52 - Conclusions and Final Mix
00:00:08
Hi I'm Ryan West and it's great
to be back on pureMix.net
with another video for you
breaking down how I mixed
Asher Roth "Tangerine Girl".
00:00:16
Now, I'm gonna show you a couple
different things about this mix
but I think first what
I wanna do is play this mix
with no plug-ins on it,
no effects on it,
just the way I got it raw
from the producers
so you can hear
what we're starting with.
00:01:38
Ok. So, that was
the first verse and a chorus
and that's with absolutely
no plug-ins on it whatsoever.
00:01:42
Although I have to admit,
what I've got from the producers
was a lot better than that.
00:01:45
You know, one of the things
that I talk very ofter is
trying to respect the producer's vision
and how they were
hearing the mix
coming together for the song
during the production process
So, the producers for this song,
JP and Rich,
actually sent me a Pro Tools session
with a lot of their settings on it.
00:01:58
And as I listen to this
for the first couple times
I decided I really didn't wanna
try and reinvent the wheel
I decided I wanna keep
a lot of what they were doing
because the vibe was really good,
the mood was really set very well
and the production was really good.
00:02:10
So, we're gonna start adding
some of these plug-ins back
and I think we're gonna
start with the drums first
and just start adding
a few of these effects
and few of these compressors
and EQs back in
so you can start to get the feel
for the way the drums are set up
and then we'll quickly add in the bass,
the guitars, some of the extra synths
and even the vocals, so we'll be
getting the big picture pretty quick.
00:02:27
As I mentioned when I start to mix
I really wanna get
most of the elements in there
as quickly as possible
so I can hear everything in context
So, I'm not gonna spend too
much time with things in isolation
but I really do wanna go
to the drums first in this track
because after all it's a hip-hop track
and it's really important to make sure
the drums sit in just the right way.
00:02:42
So what we're gonna do is just
listen to the drums
without any plug-ins on them
and then we're gonna start popping in
some of the processing that I had
and talk about why I did that.
00:02:49
So take a listen.
00:03:07
It's not a particularly
complex drum part
But there're a lot of elements
that have some interplay in there
and I wanna talk about
how I'm gonna work with those.
00:03:13
We've got a couple
of different kick drums
and a couple of different claps
and some tambourines.
00:03:16
and actually some sub kick drums that
come in underneath every couple of bars.
00:03:20
I wanna make sure there's enough
room for those sub kick-drums
to come in underneath
the kick drum.
00:03:24
But I also wanna make sure
that kick drum is
right in the right balance
with the rest of the drums.
00:03:29
but also hitting hard enough to
be representative of a hip-hop track.
00:03:32
One of the things I did here was
I duplicated my kick drum track
and I've got one going
straight to the master bus
and I've got one that's
going to a drum sub bus
that's processed a little differently
with some distortion.
00:03:42
The reason I have it set up that way is
because I wanted to have the grit
of the distortion on
the drum bus itself
but I also needed to make sure
that the kick drum
hit in just the right way.
00:03:50
I wanna make sure that
it was powerful,
it occupied the right
low-end space of the mix
and it could give me
that back and forth snap
with the kick and the clap and
snare drum that I really want.
00:03:59
So, as with a lot of hip-hop,
these drums are kind of simple
in the way that I approached them.
00:04:02
I really just wanna get that boom-bap
so that I get the back and forth
between the kick and
the claps and the snares.
00:04:07
that gives the song it's movement.
00:04:09
In this case we have a couple
of different kick-drums,
we have a couple of different claps
and a snare drum, some tom-toms
and a tambourine.
00:04:16
And that kind of really
makes up the whole thing
with the exception that
we also have a sub kick drum
that comes in every couple of bars
and just sort of fills
this low-end space.
00:04:23
I wanna make sure that when
I'm working with the kick drum I'm leaving enough room
for that sub-bass
so that 808 come in underneath it
and sound really big when it does
come in every couple of bars.
00:04:32
So, right now what I'm going
to do is stop talking
and very quickly start
building this drum kit
by adding in the kicks, the claps
the tambourines and
you get the big picture.
00:04:40
I'm gonna just build the whole
drum kit very quickly.
00:05:01
So, this is obviously
a kick-snare combo loop
that they've given me to work with
and what I wanna do is
I wanna give it some more grit.
00:05:07
So, the first thing that
I did was added this EQ just to roll out some of the low-end
that I didn't need in there
and then I added the Decapitator
to give a little bit of grit
to both the snare and the kick
at the same time.
00:05:17
I know it's a subtle sound but when
you take it off and put it back on again
you'll notice is just
a slight change in timbre and that was what I was looking for.
00:05:34
Now, very quickly I wanna get
the other kick drums in there
because they're just as important to
the whole sound of the kick-snare.
00:05:49
With the other two
kick-drums, basically
I'm just rolling off
a whole lot of frequencies
so I can get them just to
fit together just right
with that kick-snare loop
that I was given.
00:06:03
This duplicate of my
kick and snare track
that we're just looking at
really only serves to be a trigger for
my side-chain compression on the bass
(more about that in a minute)
The second kick drum I decided
that I was gonna add
some high and mid frequencies
so they'll get a little
bit more of click
like a little bit more attack
out of the kick drum.
00:06:18
And I thought that would
complement the low-end frequencies
of the kick-snare track that
we were listening to before.
00:06:22
Let's listen to it by itself
without the EQ
and with the EQ.
00:06:36
Ok, so it's a lot snappier
when I put that together with
the first kick-snare loop...
00:06:40
...so, hear the result.
00:06:48
We've also have a couple
of sub-kick tracks
that come in
every once in a while
and I process those in a way where they just can sort of
sit below the kick drum
and not interfere too much.
00:07:05
With the first sub-kick track
I wanted to do a couple of things to it.
00:07:08
I wanted to use an EQ to roll off
the very lowest low frequencies
'cos I just didn't feel
they were necessary
and they were just taking
too much headroom in the mix.
00:07:15
I do a lot of that.
You'll see that more in my mixes.
00:07:18
I also wanted to add a bit of
reverb to it to expand the sound
and give it more depth
in the low-end
and push it back
just a little bit further.
00:07:25
So, I've added just a little bit
of Rverb to it for that.
00:07:27
And then in addition to that I wanted
to dirty it up just a little bit
so again, the Decapitator,
which is one of my favorite tools
for giving a little bit of grit to it.
00:07:33
So, let's listen to it
without that processing.
00:07:49
So you can hear it's gritty and you
can hear some of the little artifacts
that are coming out in the reverb
because we've put
the distortion on it afterwards
so that actually brings out
some of the weird artifacts
in the distortion that maybe
you wouldn't otherwise hear.
00:08:00
Now, I've read the Internet forums too
and a lot of people say
you should never ever put reverb
on low-frequency instruments
but I think that's bullshit frankly.
00:08:07
I think there are no rules to this game
and anything that works... have at it, man!
I mean nobody's written
a definitive book
on whether you should put
reverb on a kick drum or not.
00:08:15
I say try it. If it works, great.
If it doesn't, move on. Something else.
00:08:19
And there's yet one more
sub-kick in this track.
00:08:21
that really what it's doing is just sort
of keeping the beat on the low-end
in different parts of the song.
It's not in through the entire song
but just in through the choruses
and I believe the break down as well.
00:08:30
In this case I just chose add a little
bit of mid-frequency on the EQ
because I just want it to be
a little bit snappier.
00:08:35
So, we've listen to it in bypass.
00:08:41
and believe it or not, yes,
I wanted it snappier than that.
00:08:43
We'll see why in a second.
00:08:48
So as you can hear,
I rolled off a lot of that top-end
and a lot of the plastic-y
part of the kick drum
I just really wanted
that mid-range snap
and the rest of the bottom of
the kick drum to hit in the right way.
00:08:57
So, what we've really done here is
we've just done a bit
of shaping to these drums
give them a little bit of distortion in
parts where I felt it needed more grit
and I think the effect as a whole
was just to glue it together
a little bit more
and make it sound more
like a cohesive rhythm section
Let's take a listen
to everything together
without the plug-ins and then
we'll put the plug-ins back on.
170
00:09:14,494 --> 00:09:16,494
So, without the plug-ins.
00:09:24
So that was a little bit crude
without the plug-ins on it
so what we wanted to do
was refine it a little bit
and that's what I think we've done with
some of our EQ and compression choices.
00:09:41
You hear that distortion on the 808s?
That was actually part of
what we were going for
We didn't wanna make it
sound too pretty, too clean.
00:09:47
We wanted to make sure
it sounded aggressive
So, that's one of the things
that we were after
with our kick-snare combo
processing.
00:09:52
So, one more time
without the processing.
00:10:03
And, with the processing...
00:10:16
In the song there were actually
four different clap tracks
that make up the clap sound overall.
00:10:20
We won't go through
each one individually
but you'll be able to see
from the screen that I've used
the Decapitator again
a couple of times
and also some EQ and some Rverb
to create a little bit of space,
a little bit of depth and texture.
00:10:30
So, let's listen to claps
without my processing.
00:10:42
And then let's add in our processing.
00:10:44
I have a Decapitator here.
00:10:45
Another Decapitator,
another Decapitator,
a few more R-verbs
and a couple of EQs.
00:10:51
So, really there's nothing
crazy going on here
Just a Decapitator giving
a little bit of a drive.
00:10:55
and I blended the mix
back just a little bit.
00:10:57
So I get some parallel processing,
a little bit of the drive signal
and a little bit of
the distorted signal together.
00:11:02
And that's true of each one of these
is nearly a similar setting.
00:11:04
It's really just there to give
a little bit of the depth.
00:11:06
the clap sound they were processed
or rather sampled claps
and I didn't feel that
they had a lot of life to them.
00:11:11
So, that's what I was going for here.
00:11:12
I wanted to add a level
of excitement to the claps.
00:11:14
Just bring it up a little bit,
you know?
Ok, you notice I took
the reverb off really quickly
I just wanted you hear what it sounded
like with just the distortion on it.
00:11:29
But now let's add
the reverb back in.
00:11:31
That gives a little bit of depth and
a little bit of length to the clap sound
and I think really works
in this song.
00:11:43
Ok. So, one more time
without the plug-ins
and with the plug-ins.
00:12:10
It's actually a little bit
unconventional for me, in the way that I work, to add
a reverb plug-in directly to a track.
00:12:15
I usually work on an auxiliary bus
so I can share that reverb
with anything else that
I think might work with it.
00:12:20
But in this case,
if I remember correctly
these particular reverb were on there
when the session came
from the producer
I'd like to mention really quickly
that I think is very important
to respect the initial vision
of the artist and the producer
when it comes to
the sound of the track.
00:12:33
After all they've already
worked on this for a while
and decided that they were
gonna use a particular reverb
or add particular sound in
and so, I try to pay attention
to exactly what they've done
and maybe not even duplicate it.
00:12:44
Sometimes I actually ask
for the original stems
or the original Pro Tools files
so that I don't have to recreate
what they've done
but I can incorporate that
into my mix as well.
00:12:52
So, if you look at my Decapitators
that I've used on all these clap tracks.
00:12:55
There's actually three of them.
00:12:56
There's only one clap track that's not
processed by a decapitator
because I felt like it didn't need it.
00:13:00
In this case I didn't feel like
the same setting in the Decapitator
would actually work for each one.
00:13:05
I listened to each individual sound,
I made a decision
on how I thought
the Decapitator would work best.
00:13:10
So, hence I have three different
settings for three different claps.
00:13:12
When blended together
they make one bigger sound
I also chose only to add reverb
to two of those clap sounds.
00:13:19
So, there was sort of
a push-pull dynamic happening.
00:13:22
If you listen you have
a wet clap and then a dry clap
and it creates kind of a back and forth
between the different claps.
00:13:28
that gives space and
give a little bit of action
and a little bit of excitement
to the drum tracks.
00:13:33
We really quickly will run through
each one of these claps
and you'll see how
different they are
and you'll see that how in the end
the decisions we've made to process it
come together to form one
kind-of unique blended sound.
00:13:42
The first clap I simply applied an EQ,
a Decapitator and a Rverb too
and the EQ is nothing dramatic
it's really just rolling off
some high ends.
00:13:50
So that I can give a little bit more
definition and just not peaking out
over the top of the vocal
too much in the track.
00:13:55
So, that's the first thing I've done.
00:14:03
So, you see, I just rolled out
some top-end there.
00:14:05
Again with the Decapitator
I'm also rolling off
some high-end in there
I've rolled the high-cut down
to about maybe 75%
but then I have also
changed the tone again.
00:14:14
I've added some of the tone control and then I blended back
the mix control to about 50%.
00:14:18
That's where I felt
it sounded best.
00:14:20
And again, we'll listen to it with that
and then without it.
00:14:36
It's very subtle but
that's most of what mixing is.
00:14:38
It's really subtle moves
In this case I thought
some of the drive and distortion
coming from the Decapitator
helped it sort of spread
the sound of the clap a little bit
made it sound a little bit longer..
00:14:47
made the attack sound,
just ever so, slightly different
and it felt that it worked when in
combination with everything else.
00:14:52
This is one of those claps
where I put a reverb on it
because I wanted to
expand a little bit.
00:14:57
I wanted to have more length.
00:14:58
So, that was the goal with both,
the Decapitator and the reverb that we applied
directly to the track.
00:15:15
Ok. So, that's actually pretty
dramatically different.
00:15:17
Once you add in the Decapitator,
the EQ choice and the reverb,
it becomes something different.
00:15:22
The second clap we did not
add any of the reverb to it
It was just basically the same
high-end roll-off on the EQ
just so that I can get it a bit darker and sit it underneath
the other instruments
And then we've used the Decapitator
to give it a little more grit.
00:15:35
Actually it's a lot more grit
on this particular one.
00:15:38
So, here's without it.
00:15:46
Of course that's a much faster
clap track from the other ones
so we didn't really wanna use
any reverb to give it any length
because there really isn't much space
between the two clap drums, right?
I'm gonna use the EQ.
00:15:59
to roll off some of the high-end
and I'll use the Decapitator
to give them some more grit.
00:16:08
So, without.
00:16:12
And with.
00:16:18
Then we have one last clap drum
that I didn't do anything to it
because I felt it fit with
everything else just as it was.
00:16:23
So, no need to process if you don't
find any reason to process.
00:16:26
This is all about
the thought process, the mind-set.
00:16:28
Does it actually need anything?
Does it need compression?
Does it need EQ?
You have to ask yourself
that question every time.
00:16:34
It kind of frustrates me
when I see people
who just add compression or EQ
just because they feel like
it has to be there.
00:16:40
It's a clap or it's a snare.
Of course we must process it.
00:16:42
That's not always the case.
00:16:50
So, it's a pretty crazy sound
but there was a reason
why the producer put it in there.
00:16:53
They had the intention of creating
a little bit of a darker sound
underneath the other claps.
00:16:56
So I left it that way.
00:16:58
So, when you take
all of these together
this is the way it sounds.
00:17:08
Notice that reverb really only lasts
for as long as it takes
for the next clap to come in.
00:17:12
We timed the reverb specifically
so that it felt that the song
was breathing a little bit.
00:17:16
And when we put these together
with our kick and snare loops
and our sub-kicks
you'll get the sense of
how the drums work over all.
00:17:21
Let's take a listen.
00:17:34
We've got just a couple
of percussion elements left over.
00:17:37
And that would be the toms
and the tambourine.
00:17:39
Toms don't come in very often but
let's find a place where they do
so you can hear it. Actually it's just
in the beginning of the song.
00:17:43
So, it's only one small space.
00:17:47
So you can see that they have
a little bit of pan automation.
00:17:49
It was a very basic tom sample
that they've added in
and I just panned it so that the first
couple hits come from the left
and the second couple
hits come from the right.
00:17:56
Almost mimicking what it would
be done with a real drum set.
00:17:58
Of course, these are fake drums
but we have to pretend, don't we?
When it comes to panning
for claps and snare drums
I tend to put that stuff
like right at the middle.
00:18:06
Unless it's very specifically
a big stereo sample,
or it's been recorded in stereo
and there's enough
space left in the mix
for it to be way
out there in the mix,
sometimes I'll consider it
but more often than not
I find it's way more cohesive to have
all of your rhythm section stuff
much more towards the middle.
00:18:21
Especially when it comes
to kick, snare and claps.
00:18:23
It just sounds like
it makes sense more.
00:18:25
And especially if you're
listening in headphones,
it could be a little disconcerting
to have a clap over here
and a clap over there.
00:18:29
Unless it's two things that are
happening at the same time.
00:18:31
and they sound sort of like
they're working in stereo.
00:18:34
We've just have one small section
where a tom comes in
and it's in the beginning
of the song.
00:18:38
It's the only time it happens
And in the case of this particular
tom track is a sample
and so what I did was
I made sure that I automated some
panning to bring it from the left
to the right,
so it sounded more realistic.
00:18:49
I also just used a little bit of EQ
to subtract some low-end
and some high-end,
so that I could just narrow
how much space this was
taking up in the mix.
00:18:56
And then I added a bit of reverb
just to make it sound like
it was in a natural space with the rest of the drums.
00:19:03
So, you hear that panning.
00:19:05
If I take the EQ off
you'll see it's rather boxy.
00:19:11
So, the EQ just
cleans it up a little bit.
00:19:12
And I've used some reverb.
00:19:13
It's basically another hall,
like I have in the claps
but just a little bit shorter so
it doesn't take up as much space.
00:19:24
Our last percussive element
is just a tambourine.
00:19:26
and really we didn't do
too much here either.
00:19:28
I thought the sample was quite good
the way that they've got it recorded.
00:19:31
And so, we also just...
00:19:32
Just used a tiny bit of EQ to take off
some of the very top-end
so it wasn't too bright.
00:19:37
And also on those tambourines
we used just a little bit of that...
00:19:39
...same reverb that we've used
on the claps and the toms.
00:19:43
So, to put it on the same space.
Put it in the same dimension.
00:19:45
and so that the tambourine
was a bit more believable
as part of the rhythm section.
00:19:58
So, taking all together
with all of our processing,
the reverbs that we've used, the EQs,
the distortions that we've used,
I think our drum kit's starting
to come together nice and cohesively
but this is what it sounds like
with absolutely no processing
on my drums at all.
00:20:19
And with the EQ, distortion
and reverb that we added.
00:20:33
Some of those changes are really
subtle, some of them are really big.
00:20:35
But I think all and all it brings
our drums together a little bit.
00:20:38
It makes them sound a little more
glued together as a rhythm section.
00:20:41
I wanna make sure
as quickly as I can I start adding all
the other instrumentation in
so that I can get
the big picture of the mix.
00:20:46
I don't want to work on things
in isolation for too long.
00:20:48
otherwise I'm making decisions
based on things that aren't in context.
00:20:51
So, right now we're just gonna
listen to the bass really quickly
without the plug-ins on it.
00:20:55
There's a couple of different basses
in there. There's a low bass,
a high bass and a fill
and they come in at different times.
You'll hear how they work.
00:21:07
And just a bass that it's playing
exactly the same thing
but one octave up.
00:21:17
Ok. So, now I've got both
of those basses being processed by themselves
just a little bit.
I'm using just a bit of EQ
and a bit of distortion
on the low bass.
00:21:25
But then it's going to a bass bus
where there's a couple other things
happening. We'll detail that as well.
00:21:29
So, let's deal with
the individual processing first.
00:21:31
On the low bass,
I'm really just using an EQ
to high-pass filters
so that I'm not getting
any of that sub-stuff
that I really don't want in there
that it's just eating up
room in my mix.
00:21:41
It's taking away from the available
headroom in the mix.
00:21:43
and it's something
you will never really hear
on almost any system
you play it back on.
00:21:47
So, I'm really just filtering out
stuff that's below 35Hz
And here's without it.
You really can't tell the difference
unless you're listening on a system
that's got a huge subwoofer
and you can really hear
everything below 35.
00:22:08
That's without and with.
00:22:13
You really can't tell
the difference, right?
But the truth is that if I leave
that stuff there below 35Hz
it's really just gonna start
eating up headroom on my mix
and I wanna make sure
that doesn't happen.
00:22:23
The next thing that I did on
that particular low bass
was I just added a little bit of
this SPL Twin 2 Processor.
00:22:28
What it's doing is giving
me some harmonics
and it's giving me some saturation.
00:22:31
It just gives me
a little bit more grit,
a little bit more life
to the bass sound itself.
00:22:40
That's without, here's with.
00:22:49
Ok. So, quickly I'm gonna
move on to that high bass
that's just accompanying this low one.
It's just an octave above.
00:22:54
It's the same part playing together.
00:23:05
So I just loose a little bit of EQ to
cut out some of that low-end again
and just sort of focus
on the mid-range stuff
that I think is really
beneficial on this track.
00:23:19
Ok. So, I'm cutting out,
actually, a lot of low-end.
00:23:21
Up to 200, 220Hz
'cos I really just want
that bass to play the top end
and let the first lower bass,
that we were working with,
fill out the low-end. So, when you
play the two of them together
it sounds like one cohesive track.
00:23:41
So that's what it sounds like
with the processing
and this is what it sounds like without
the processing on both of these tracks.
00:24:04
One of the things that I've noticed
after I added my processing
to the low and the high basses,
because I rolled off a significant
portion of the high bass
and the sub bass of the low one,
it becomes much more defined.
00:24:13
They kind of sound like
they're playing together
in the same space as opposed to
being two separate elements
So, it had the effect of blending
them together a little bit.
00:24:20
Now, what I'm gonna do
on this bass bus
where I've added the two together
and send them over to my bass bus
is gonna further that
down the line a little bit.
00:24:26
I've used another little bit of EQ
and then I've also used a Devil-Loc,
which is another distortion unit
to give it a little more grit and
glue it together even more.
00:24:34
Let's take a look at that.
00:24:44
Ok. As you noticed there's about
six plug-ins on this bass bus.
00:24:47
and they all do something different.
00:24:48
So I'm gonna run through
them really quickly for you
and then we'll start
to go through them
and show you what
each one of them is gonna do.
00:24:53
The first thing I have is
just another EQ
that is just allowing me to roll off
a little bit more of that low-end.
00:24:57
to make sure that it's clear as I want
it to be, below a certain frequency.
00:25:01
I'm taking some of the mid-bass out,
so it becomes a little bit more defined
and then I'm adding in
some high-mid frequencies
so I can hear the top-end
of the bass a little bit better.
00:25:09
The next thing I'm gonna do
is add that Devil-Loc
for just a little bit more color,
a little bit more distortion,
a little bit more flavor.
00:25:14
I want that bass to sound alive.
00:25:16
Right now it sounds
a little bit flat to me.
00:25:18
so the next couple of things
I'm gonna be doing are just
something to bring it
alive a little bit.
00:25:22
So, we're gonna go through the first
three plug-ins that I have on there
and that's, like I said, the EQ,
the Devil-Loc Deluxe,
and we've also added an Universal
Audio "Boss Chorus Ensemble"
and that's gonna give us
a little bit of width,
give us a little bit of modulation so
that it sounds a bit more lively.
00:25:37
So we'll go through them
one by one.
00:25:39
So, with the first just EQ
you'll notice
it sounds just like we were
processing the two together before
but when I add this EQ
it cleans it up a little bit.
00:25:59
Again, what I've done there is
just roll off some low-end.
00:26:01
Took out a little bit of low mid-range to kind of making it a little less
boxy or muddy
and add a little bit of
the high mid-range
to kind of define the sound
just a little bit more.
00:26:09
The next thing that I wanted
to do is add more grit
so I went right to
the SoundToys Devil-Loc.
00:26:13
Why not?
Let's crush it.
00:26:22
Ok. So, that's without
and here's with.
00:26:32
You'll notice that on this Devil-Loc
I've got the mix turned
way down low.
00:26:35
We're set like 1.5 at 10.
00:26:38
So that's not a whole lot.
00:26:39
As a matter of fact, let's play
with it just a little bit
and see how much
we really wanna on there
Sounds like a lot now, but believe me
when you add this into the track
you're just gonna notice that
the bass sounds nice and lively
instead of distorted like
it does in solo.
00:27:03
Ok. So, I think I had that right.
It's just a, you know,
a little bit just there
to give it some life.
00:27:07
And like I mentioned the next thing
that I wanted to put down here
was just something
to give it some dimension.
00:27:11
I really like this Boss chorus
ensemble from UAD
because it actually models a Boss chorus
pedal that I've used to own in the past.
00:27:20
I like the sound of it and
I think it really works here.
00:27:27
So, that's without and
here's with get ready.
00:27:38
So, when I first sat down
with Asher Roth
to talk about how we're gonna
mix this record
one of the things we talked about
was what's the overall vibe?
What do we wanna go for?
And we've talk about colors
and we've talked about themes
and we've talked about imagery
And, you know, one of
the things he said to me
was that he wanted
this to be really trippy.
00:27:53
He wanted to have this nice big-long
delay effects and big reverbs.
00:27:56
He really wanted to sound
somewhat psychedelic
with a more a pure rap tone
overtop of it.
00:28:01
So, that's the kind of thing
that we went for.
00:28:03
I feel like this Boss
bass chorus ensemble
sort of gives it that dimension.
It's a little bit wobbly.
00:28:08
It makes it feel, you know,
a little bit trippy.
00:28:10
So, taken together with
the hard hi-hop drums,
the echoes and delays that repeat
on and on through out the song
and the really big reverbs
this sort of, like, really
trippy-wobbly sound
I think it really works well
with that whole format.
00:28:22
You notice on my bass bus
I have my pan control set
not all the way out.
00:28:26
They're just at about 45 or 50%
of complete left or complete right.
00:28:31
There's a reason for that.
00:28:32
I wanna make sure that my rhythm
section stays glued together.
00:28:34
If I've got this big wide
chorus on the bass
that's happening
way out to the side,
it's gonna start interfering
with some of the delays.
00:28:40
The echoes, the reverbs that
I have on my lead vocal
and my background vocals.
00:28:43
And I really want those to be
the lush things that are way out left and right.
00:28:46
So, I've made that decision early on
to keep that rhythm section
a little bit more towards the center,
even though I wanted this sort of
lush-chorus sound.
00:28:54
The last thing that we wanted to talk
about with the bass really quick
is there's a really
short little bass fill
that happens every couple of bars.
00:29:00
It's just so short.
It's not even a bar long
but I'll show you what
I've done with that.
00:29:04
Now I've sent that through the same
bass bus because I wanted it to have
somewhat the same patina
as the other two basses that
were happening at the same time.
00:29:11
I didn't want it to sound like
it came way out of that field
but I did process it individually
slightly differently
than the other ones.
00:29:18
In this case I believe I added
a slightly different EQ.
00:29:22
I added a MXR flanger
doubler to it,
to give it a little bit
different dimension
and then I've used an Oxford Limiter
just to keep it right in place
'cos there was just a little bit
too much dynamic there.
00:29:31
So, let's go through that real quick.
00:29:34
I'm gonna take that
Boss processing off
and then we'll actually go
through last three plug-ins
that are the bus processing
processor,
which just happen to be a gate,
a limiter to keep it in place
and then we did some side chain
compression of the kick drum
to make sure that the bass
is dug just a little bit
every time the kick drum comes in.
00:29:48
We'll go through that in a second.
00:29:49
So, on that fill bass,
like I said we've just used an EQ here
and I've just rolled off
some of the low-end
so that it kind of sticks out
the mix a little bit more
and it doesn't necessarily occupy
all those low frequencies.
00:30:00
So, here's it without
that EQ and with.
00:30:10
So, you'll see there's no much
low content in there anyway.
00:30:12
It's played higher
up the register.
00:30:13
I just wanna make sure I get any
rumble out of there with this EQ.
00:30:22
And like I told you,
the next thing I added to this
was just this little bit of
MXR flanger doubler.
00:30:27
It's not very high in terms
of the dry-wet mix.
00:30:30
It's about 50% or so.
00:30:31
And it's just giving me
a little bit of movement
that's not otherwise there
on that particular fill sound.
00:30:42
That was without
and now this is with.
00:30:49
Ok. Now, I felt that the dynamic
of that particular sound
was just a little bit
all over the place
so I wanna make sure
that each note still stood up
just as well as the other ones did.
00:30:57
So I used an Oxford Inflator there
just to level the playing field a bit.
00:31:04
And here's with.
00:31:07
So, I can hear each note
just a little bit more clearly
so when that bass part
does come in
it's clearly heard in between
the other notes.
00:31:16
So, taken together you'll hear
this other two basses
that we were working with
through that bus
and then you'll hear a bass fill
come in and just support it.
00:31:38
Next in our bass bus chain
I just have a simple gate in there
just to shut off some of
the noise that's coming
from some of the distortion units
that we've used.
00:31:45
and also some left over notes
and a couple of edits that
weren't so clean in there.
00:31:50
Yes, of course I could dive in and
make those edits super clean
but who has the time anymore?
I don't.
00:31:55
It works just fine here.
00:32:09
So, I was just shutting off the noise
for when there's no bass present.
00:32:12
I don't get any of the noise and
it cleans up the rest of my mix.
00:32:16
I did strap a simpler limiter
across my bass bus.
00:32:19
because I really wanted to
make sure that my bass sound
throughout the entire track
was very consistent.
00:32:23
That there was not
a whole lot of dynamic in it.
00:32:25
In a hip-hop song
we're not really looking for tons
of dynamic in a bass part
unless it's a live bass
specifically played to do just that.
00:32:32
In this case it has to sit just nicely
with the drums
throughout the whole track.
00:32:36
and create sort of a level playing field
between the drums and the bass.
00:32:39
So, that's what
this limiter is all about.
00:32:40
I'm just getting a couple of
dB worth of gain reduction
just to make it sit
just ever so nicely
with the kick and snare.
00:33:05
So you can see, that's only getting
a couple dB worth of gain reduction
only at the loudest point.
00:33:09
It's just really helping me to keep it
in line with the drums just a bit more.
00:33:13
The last thing that's in
this chain in the bass bus
is just a really simple compressor
limiter that has a side chain put on it.
00:33:19
What we've done is creating
a phantom kick-snare track
and by phantom I mean
we duplicated the track.
00:33:25
We didn't send the output of
that kick-snare track to our mix bus
instead, we've sent it to only to the
side-chain input for this compressor.
00:33:32
What it's doing is
informing this compressor
when to duck the bass sound
and when not to.
00:33:37
So, essentially whenever
the kick drum is hitting
and when the snare-drum
hits hard enough
it's gonna cause
this compressor to give me
a few dBs worth of gain reduction
on the bass sound
and the effect that I was looking for
was just to get the bass out of the way
just enough so that the kick drum
sounds like it's hitting consistently
and stays in the same place
throughout the track.
00:33:53
This is one of those key
things in hip-hop
that help glue your mix together
and make it sound cohesive
from begin to end
when you use it properly.
00:34:00
Ok. So, here is
the bus bass compressor
with the side-chain added to it
and you'll see that I'm just getting a
couple of dB worth of gain reduction.
00:34:06
every time the kick hits.
00:34:20
So, it's pretty subtle while we're just
listening to the bass by itself
but when you add the kick and
snare and all that stuff back there
you're gonna notice that
the bass gets out of the way
just a little bit more
than it did before.
00:34:28
So, let's put all those drums back in,
listen to it with that compression
and without that compression
running out the side-chain output.
00:34:47
Ok. Here's it with
that side-chain compression.
00:35:02
It's just letting that kick drum
be the dominant thing.
00:35:05
It's not fighting the bass.
00:35:08
Whenever that kick drum comes
in is just ducking the bass.
00:35:10
ever so slightly about two or three dBs
just to get it out of the way.
00:35:14
Kind of a simple really subtle thing but in the long run it works for the
push and pull of the beat of the track.
00:35:20
There's just a couple of guitar tracks
that fill out the rest of
the instrumentation for this track.
00:35:23
It's really simple stuff and I've done
some really simple stuff with it.
00:35:26
I'm gonna show you the first guitar
which I've just used
a little bit of EQ
and then I used
a particular effect on it.
00:35:31
to give it a stereo spread and
a little bit of a tremolo feel to it.
00:35:35
And the second one is just
a really simple arpeggiate.
00:35:38
Not arpeggiate
but staccato kind of guitar
where I've panned it
all the way to one side
and then I've created a very short delay
and panned the delay to the other side
so that I'd get a bit
of a stereo effect.
00:35:48
The effect is that it kinds of comes
around both sides of the vocals
but let's the vocal live
right in the middle
while still hearing
plenty of that guitar.
00:35:55
So, the first one I had is just a chord.
00:35:57
It's strummed very slowly
but I wanted it to sort of
spread around the track.
00:36:02
Let's listen to it without any effects
on it first and you'll see what I mean.
00:36:22
You'll notice in this track that
there's some sort of bleed
from either headphones
or from the other room
where some of the things
were being recorded.
00:36:29
Likely it's headphones in this case.
00:36:31
But you know what? There's really
no effective way to get that out.
00:36:34
and as a matter of fact when
you put this guitar in
with the rest of the track
you don't even hear it.
It sorts of cancels itself out.
00:36:39
In any case I also think it adds
a little bit of extra grit.
00:36:42
It's just some noise in the track
that otherwise it's pretty clean.
00:36:45
The first thing that I did with
this particular guitar was
to use some EQ to just
to clean it up a little bit.
00:36:50
I thought there was really nothing that
we needed below a certain frequency
and I think that was
around 200Hz or so.
00:36:55
It was a little bit muddy so
I pulled out some of 300Hz
or somewhere around that.
I think it was 400 actually.
00:37:01
And just added a bit
back in around 2.8 or 3k
to just give a little bit of bite.
00:37:05
Make it poke through
the tracks just a little bit.
00:37:07
So, here's that same guitar again
just with the EQ engaged
and like I said, we're just
filtering out some low-end
and adding a little pop
in the mid-range
Also I forgot to mention that
I curved out everything above 7k.
00:37:30
because I just didn't feel
like it was necessary.
00:37:32
It's just noise and it's really
some air on the top of the track
it didn't even need to be there.
00:37:35
It would just be interfering
with the vocal
and all the effects that I want to
peek through ahead of that anyway.
00:37:41
So, one of the things that I thought
could be a good idea for this track.
00:37:44
Like, I experimented with a few things
I experimented with some stereo delays.
00:37:48
I experimented with some choruses.
00:37:49
I experimented with
a whole bunch of different stuff
but what I came up with was
this watery-chorus vibe preset
from the Soundtoys Crystallizer
that essentially takes the whole thing
and pushes some out to the left
and pushed some out to the right
and gives me this sort of
vibe effect to it.
00:38:02
So, it's a little bit of a kind-of
a tremolo with some modulation
and I've set it so that it has
a little bit of delay on the right side
so that it has much more
of a stereo effect.
00:38:11
So, again without that plug-in.
00:38:24
Ok, kind of boring right up
the middle mono kind-of-stuff, right?
But here's where you can use some of
these plug-in presets to your advantage.
00:38:31
and give a nice lush
warm feel to it.
00:38:46
So, I thought that was
really nice effect.
00:38:48
and it's kind of filling some
stereo space around the vocal
or around the rhythm section
which is mostly centered
in the center of the mix.
00:38:54
The other guitar in this track,
like I said, is just doing
a little bit of
a percussive staccato thing
and I also wanted that
to be more in stereo
because it doesn't come in at
the same time than this track does.
00:39:05
As a matter of fact it comes in
whenever that track doesn't happen
and it's only in
the second verse of the song.
00:39:12
So, I just wanted it to have
this nice stereo feel to it.
00:39:14
But now, one of the ways
that mixers back in the day
when they only had a tape machine and
a console and some outboard effects
would get something
to work in stereo like this
it's just to create
a really short delay,
pan that short delay in one direction
and pan the mono element
in another direction.
00:39:29
What that does is create a stereo image
that sorts of seems that it
bounces off from the left and the right.
00:39:33
It's very subtle because
the delay time is very short
but I think the effect works
just the same.
00:39:38
So, without the delay effect on it
the guitar panned to
the left sounds like this.
00:39:51
I should mention first that
I did use some EQ on it
I've, again, subtracted some of
the lows to make it more clear sounding
and added some high mid-range,
I think around 2.4(Hz)
just to make it
poke through a little bit.
00:40:02
I've used an 1176 compressor in here
so that I can tame
the dynamics a little bit.
00:40:06
I want this guitar to sit
right in the same spot
throughout the entire
passage where it comes in.
00:40:11
Without the compressor
and the EQ it sounds like this.
00:40:21
With the EQ
and compressor engaged.
00:40:31
So, the dynamic is
tainted just a little bit
so I can keep it in one spot. It's stays
right where I want it in the mix.
00:40:37
The third plug-in that I have in
the chain in this particular guitar is
what I call a little bit
of a cheater plug-in,
but it's not really it does
something really specific
and in this case what I wanted to do
is make it sound like
the guitar was re-amped.
00:40:46
I wanted it to sound more like
it was coming from a small amplifier
out in the middle of a large live room
that maybe had a
10" speaker to it
and just kind of give it
a really specific type of tone
that you only get
from that kind of amplifier.
00:40:59
So, in this case I used
the Chris Lord Alge
CLA Guitars plug-in
and it allowed me to re-amp the guitar
I put it in the clean setting.
I didn't want much more gain.
00:41:08
I just wanted it to sound like it
was coming from a speaker cabinet,
in which case this worked really well.
00:41:12
I also used a little bit
of their EQ section
and add a little bit of bite to it
and a slight slap-back delay to it.
00:41:18
So, without this plug-in.
00:41:29
And with the plug-in.
00:41:38
You know I can't really tell you all the
reasons why I like the way this sounds
I just do.
00:41:42
Sometimes that's really
what it's all about.
00:41:44
You try a couple of different things.
You imagine how it may want it to sound
and you just keep working
with it until you get it there.
00:41:49
and in this case when I put this on
I felt like it really
did something for the track
and so I left it there.
00:41:54
Let's go back and
talk about that delay.
00:41:55
Now that we've got our guitar sounding
the way that we wanted to
panned all the way left
I wanna add that delay to it.
00:42:01
And really I've just used
a Waves H-Delay here
and a very quick setting.
In this case
it's timed to the tempo map of the song
and it's at 1/64th D
which is basically a sub-division
of 1/64th of a note.
00:42:15
and I filtered a lot of the low-end
and some of the top-end
and then I've got absolutely
no feedback on it
so it's just really one
delay coming back on.
00:42:22
It's like a really short slap delay.
00:42:24
And so, I panned that all the way right.
00:42:26
And so, what's happening
that you're hearing
first really quickly
the dry guitar.
00:42:30
and then you're hearing this slap
come back on the right side
just right after it
very, very quickly.
So, here's without it again.
00:42:44
And then all of the sudden
we've got stereo guitars
when we add
this little slap back in.
00:42:47
So, here's with that delay.
00:42:57
So, that creates a nice
little ping pong effect.
00:43:00
even though it's so quick
you don't notice it.
00:43:01
It just sounds like a stereo guitar.
00:43:03
I wanna describe really quickly
how I used this delay on this guitar.
00:43:06
I put it on an Auxiliary send
because I wanted to be
able to pan the delay
wherever I wanted to put it in the mix.
00:43:11
In this case I put it all the way right.
00:43:13
I also wanted to be able to control
the dry signal of the guitar
and put that wherever I wanted to.
00:43:17
In this case I put it all the way left.
00:43:19
So, when I have it set up
on an auxiliary, like that,
it just allows me the flexibility
to process the delay by itself,
do whatever I'd like with it,
add reverb, add crunch,
pan it wherever I'd like to,
while keeping the dry signal
exactly as I have it.
00:43:31
Because there's not a lot
of instrumentation in this song.
00:43:34
There's not big lush pads or anything
that's taking up a lot of space.
00:43:37
I wanted to make sure that I treated the
guitars in a way where they would occupy
a nice space in the stereo dimension.
That gives some movement left and right.
00:43:44
So, that's what I've done
with both guitars.
00:43:46
The first one we've used the Crystallizer
on to give it that vibe sort of effect.
00:43:49
where we've just sort of
operating nicely
and modulating back and forth
between left and right
and then in the next section
where this guitar comes in,
the one with the shorter notes,
I wanted it to sound like it was
bouncing back and forth a little bit.
00:44:01
I think that really complements
our centered rhythm section
elements really well.
00:44:06
So, we're gonna have our drums
the kick and the snare and the claps.
00:44:09
We're gonna have the bass
and a couple of the other elements
that are more centered
then we have both of this guitars
and the tambourines
that are operating in stereo,
left and right.
00:44:19
Sort of giving us this
shaking-sort-of effect.
00:44:22
Because our lead vocals are
also gonna be centered
and there's gonna be lots
of delays that are behind it,
which you'll see in
just a few minutes,
it gives us the impression that
it's a wide stereo track.
00:44:32
There's a lot that's going on in
the left and right portion of the mix
and the centered image
is staying quite stable.
00:44:37
So, I think in this case
the way that this mix is gonna
end up working
is that you're gonna get all this
nice candy in your headphones
with the hi-hats and the delays
and some of the reverb stuff and
the way this guitars are working
while the main portion of the rhythm
section and the lead vocal
are gonna be right up the middle.
00:44:53
So, I think that's gonna form
our stereo image for this mix.
00:44:57
So, we've run through
that stuff really quickly
and we've sort of made some
pretty quick decisions
about where we wanted
everything to sit in this mix
and of course we'll go
back and refine it later
that's part of the mix process.
00:45:06
You make some pretty quick
decisions to keep the urgency,
keep the feeling
of experiencing the mix
so that you're not spending
too long on things on isolation.
00:45:13
So, I'm gonna go ahead
and quickly get
one of the most dominant
vocal elements into this mix
so that I can hear how everything
works in context.
00:45:20
There's a track that goes
through out most of the song
I think is only out during the verses
where he's doing this
"do-do-do-do" thing
and you're about to hear it in a second.
00:45:28
It's very spacey,
and it's got, I think, four tracks
and at times some additional
tracks that come in
and we've kind of do
a pretty good job
on keeping that stuff panned
left and right
so that, it becomes this
sort-of big spacey thing
I'm gonna play it for you
in just a second here
with no effects on it,
with no EQ or no reverb
or anything like that on it
and you'll see that it's just
a basic set of vocal tracks
that once that we add our effects
to it it's gonna become
almost like another
instrument in the track.
00:45:54
Ok? We'll take a listen to it by itself.
00:46:13
Ok. Kind of weird by itself but
once we've get done with it
you're gonna see how it
actually works in the track.
00:46:18
One of the first things
that I think about
when I'm looking at a group
of background vocals like this
is whether I wanna process
them individually
or whether I'm gonna
do it on a bus.
00:46:25
In this case they seem like they
are gonna work together pretty tightly
and they were recorder fairly well
so I think I'm gonna try
and process these on a bus
and that's exactly what
I did in this case.
00:46:34
All I've done here is just
used a simple EQ
just to subtract a lot of the low end
like most of it.
All the way up to 600Hz.
00:46:42
So there's almost nothing
there below 600Hz
and then I sculpted out
a whole bunch of the high-end too
and I think everything
above 4k is gone.
00:46:49
I really just want this to live in
sort of this radio dimension.
00:46:52
So, that's why I used this
EQ the way I've done it.
00:46:55
I've taken almost everything
in the high and low out
and then I've just used
an 1176 compressor
just to crush the dynamic
so that I get it to sit in the mix
exactly where I want it to.
00:47:04
So, with just the EQ engaged
here's how it sounds.
00:47:22
Ok, and like I said
I used an 1176 in this case
I used the 1176 LN
from Universal Audio.
00:47:27
I think it did the job fairly well.
00:47:29
Take a listen with the compressor in.
00:47:47
So that's a pretty big move to sculpt
out all of that low-end and the high-end
and, I felt confident that
the producers will like it
because I believe that in the rough
mix I heard something similar to it.
00:47:57
So, what I was doing was trying to
stay with the original vision
and stay with their vibe
and trying to take that
and import it into my mix so that it
works in context with everything else.
00:48:08
In this case,
I was having a lot of dialog back
and forth with the producers
and we were exchanging ideas.
00:48:14
and they actually explained to me that
they felt really comfortable with me
making any of this kind of decisions
and I know that since
we live in Pro Tools' land
we can always come back
and make other decisions later.
00:48:21
We can save what we have
and we can try something different.
00:48:24
If the producer doesn't like it
or the artist doesn't like it
we can try something different.
00:48:27
That's the beautiful thing about
hard-drive space. It's cheap
and we have a lot of it.
00:48:30
So, why not try things like this?
You can make bold moves
and if it doesn't work out
you can always come back
and try something else.
00:48:36
And don't be afraid of second guess
what you've done.
00:48:38
If it doesn't work
try something else.
00:48:41
I wanna go back and
listen to this in context
with everything else
that we've done in the mix.
00:48:44
Make sure that it fits.
00:49:06
Ok, I think that sounds pretty cool.
I mean it's a little bit weird
but "hey! I like weird".
No problem with that.
00:49:11
So, the next thing that
I really wanna get into is
let's add some of those effects that
we were talking about back in there.
00:49:15
I have a different couple
of things going on in this.
00:49:17
I have a half note delay.
00:49:19
I have a hall reverb.
00:49:22
And I have a second hall reverb
but I believe they
have different lengths.
00:49:24
So, I'll bring those up
in just a second here.
00:49:27
So, as I mentioned I have
a half note delay happening here,
there's not a ton of feedback
on it because at half note
a little bit of feedback
goes a long way.
00:49:34
You don't want to go ring on
forever and ever and ever.
00:49:37
As I do with a lot of delays
that I work with
I've added some extra processing to it.
00:49:41
In this case is basically equalizing.
00:49:43
I've taken out almost
everything below 400Hz
and almost everything above 7k.
00:49:48
The reason is because I just want this
delay to live in a very narrow space
much like the bus
of backing vocals
that I'm adding it to.
00:49:56
I don't want the delay
to be bigger sounding
than the actual track itself
so, I filtered out some
lows and highs
and made it poke through just
in the middle just a little bit.
00:50:03
So, if we add that delay back in
you'll hear it.
00:50:25
Now, you're gonna notice
how that delay
seems to sort of expand into
the background of the track.
00:50:30
It seems like it's a bit further away.
00:50:32
The way I've done that it's
just my EQ choices
are filtering out the high-end
and the low-end
and also I'm gonna use some
of the same hall reverb
that I've used on
the auxiliary bus itself
on the delay return.
00:50:42
So the delay itself it's going
to the reverb bus
and it's adding more depth,
the more spacial dimension to it.
00:50:48
So, it allows me to push that delay
further back behind the vocal
and make it sound like it
has a lot of front to back depth.
00:50:56
So, I'm gonna take that
reverb off really quick.
00:50:58
Let you hear that delay without it
and then we'll put it back on.
You'll see it's a pretty big difference.
00:51:15
Ok, let's put that reverb back on.
00:51:27
So, in my book that creates
a lot of depth.
00:51:30
That creates the sense that the delay
is happening way behind the vocal
and, as I discussed earlier, one of the
things that Asher Roth and I talked about
and the producers talked
about with this mix
is we wanted a lot of dimension.
We wanted it trippy.
00:51:41
We wanted to be able to
hear it like way back into it.
00:51:44
For the listener to become sort of
enveloped in these effects.
00:51:47
These delays that are happening
around the vocals.
00:51:49
That's the whole point of it.
00:51:51
I'm gonna go ahead and
just remove that delay
just for now so I can show you
the reverb that I've added to this track
and you'll be able to hear it
a little more clearly.
00:51:59
So, I've got two different reverbs
operating in this particular bus.
00:52:02
We have two different halls
as a matter of fact
and they both come from
the UAD Lexicon 224.
00:52:07
I have one that is at
about 2 seconds long.
00:52:09
and I have one that it's nearly double,
it's like at 5.7 seconds long.
00:52:13
And they're set just
a little bit differently.
00:52:14
One has more high frequency while the other one has
more of a darker tone to it.
00:52:18
So, we'll add the first one
and you'll be able to hear
just this reverb below.
00:52:29
So, what it's doing is really
just giving a little bit
of dimension to the vocal.
00:52:32
It's making it sound like it
belongs in a physical space.
00:52:34
I happen to know that these
vocals were recorded very dry,
no ambient effect around it.
00:52:38
So, I wanted to make sure that
they sounded natural to my ear or so.
00:52:41
That was the whole point
of this first one.
00:52:42
But I also wanted something
that was a little bit longer.
00:52:44
So, I picked another hall reverb from
the Lexicon 224 from UAD again,
gave it a little of pre-delay
so that it wasn't sitting right on
top of the vocal
just sort of it came in a few
milliseconds after the vocal wrapped up
and it's also got a little bit
more treble decay on it
and a bit more depth.
00:52:58
So, the effect is just a bigger reverb.
00:53:01
So, here's without it.
00:53:07
And with it.
00:53:14
Pretty big, pretty long,
that's what we were going for.
00:53:17
We wanted something that
was a little bit more expansive
and push the reverb back
behind the vocal
the same way the delay does.
00:53:22
What you're gonna see is when
I put this delay back on it
that delay and that reverb
sort of marry together
to push the effect way behind
the vocal and give us a lot of depth.
00:53:30
Ok, so we've went through these two
different reverbs that we've added
and a lot of times I feel like
that's one of the tricks
to making a vocal sound really great.
00:53:36
Especially a lead vocal,
is to use two different
types of reverbs.
00:53:39
A lot of times I'll use
a small reverb
like a room type reverb
where it's just giving some ambience
or some dimension to the vocals
so it doesn't sound like
it was done in a vacuum,
which doesn't sound
natural to my ears.
00:53:50
And then I'll use something more
lush like a plate or a hall reverb
to give it some depth
and some length.
00:53:54
That's something you'll find
I often do in my mixes
and I think it works really well,
especially
when I want a much more lush reverb
I first use that short reverb to give it
the dimension that I need,
to make it sound more natural
then adding that second lush reverb
gives it a whole lot of space and
that really makes it sound sexy.
00:54:10
So, we've talk about
both of those reverbs.
00:54:12
We've had a shorter hall reverb
and a longer hall reverb
and I wanna add that delay
back in now
because it's gonna give
you the whole context
of how we push
the effects behind the vocal
and that's what we wanted. We want that
sort of dreamy sound behind the vocal.
00:54:23
So, let's add that delay
back in right now.
00:54:39
So, you see how that decay
of both the delay,
the way that it's EQed
and also the reverbs
they're not necessarily
right on top of the sound,
you can still hear
the vocal rather clearly
but you'd still get all this washed
of this beautiful effect right behind it
and it sorts of takes
its time to fade away.
00:54:55
So, as this part comes to an end
it's sort of transitioning
to the next part
just by the decay of these effects.
00:55:01
So, I'm gonna put everything
in context for you
I'm gonna take this stuff out of solo
so you can hear it with the drums
and the bass and the guitars
as we processed them already.
00:55:31
You can see the way we're using
these background vocals
and they way we've using these
effects that we've added,
yeah, they are big and
they are really there.
00:55:38
There's no mistake.
There's a lot of effects on it.
00:55:40
We're using them as another instrument,
another element to the production.
00:55:43
It's just not a vocal for
the sake of having a vocal.
00:55:45
But it's there rather than an added texture.
00:55:47
and they give a certain vibe to it.
00:55:48
So we treated them that way.
00:55:49
Just as another effect,
another instrument
that works the same way that maybe
a guitar or a keyboard does
just happens to come
from somebody's mouth.
00:55:57
In this mix we have a number of
different background vocals groups
that we've treated somewhat similarly.
00:56:01
We've made some different decisions
about how much to compress
or how to EQ it just right,
whether we wanted more
low-end or less low-end.
00:56:08
And we also had the
lead part of the hook
which sings the "sweet Tangerine Girl"
lead line.
00:56:13
We did something slightly
different with those
so I'd like to show you exactly
what we've done with that.
00:56:18
We've created a bus and
all those four backing vocals
rather lead vocals for the hook,
go straight to that bus
and we've got them EQ'd
the way we wanted them first
and we've got them compressed
the way we wanted them
just like we did on the last group,
and we've of course added
delay and reverb
in much the same way.
00:56:33
We also added some Dimension D
and we'll take a look at
that in just a second.
00:56:36
But one of the other things that
we did with this is
we chose to process
a particular type of effect on
each of the individual tracks
for a very specific reason.
00:56:45
Each of these tracks are tune
just ever so slightly different.
00:56:49
Asher as a vocalist is not
classically trained
so some of his vocals may tend to
wobble a little bit in pitch or timing.
00:56:55
So, one of the things that we
chose to do in order to give it
a little bit of a psychedelic
effect was to process
each individual track with
a flange effect
so that it gave us more of
that sort of wobbly effect.
00:57:06
We wanted to enhance that,
not get rid of it.
00:57:08
A lot of times with R&B tracks you're
gonna be working with Auto-Tune
or Melodyne
or even TrackAlign, you know,
so that you can get them
to be perfect.
00:57:17
So that they align perfectly,
so that their pitch is perfect,
so that each consonant and syllable
happens at exactly the same time
That's not at all what
we wanted here.
00:57:25
What we wanted here is
to keep it really loose.
00:57:27
And as a matter of fact
we wanted even to enhance that
by giving it some more dimension
with this flange effect.
00:57:32
So we've listened to
the individual tracks.
00:57:34
It's not particularly remarkable.
00:57:36
They're just individual vocal tracks.
00:57:38
Take a listen.
00:57:46
Ok, if we go through each one
of these four tracks
you're gonna hear very much the
same thing so let's listen to one more.
00:58:00
So, that's enough of that.
I won't subject you of anymore of that.
00:58:03
But what we wanted to do is
we wanted to enhance that collectively
so on each one of these I've just
taken Avid Digirack Air Flanger plug-in
and given it about 50%
of this flange preset
and really all it's doing
is just giving me
a slight wobble with
a little bit of feedback
and not too much depth on it.
00:58:20
You'll hear it's very very subtle.
But taken collectively together
it gives us a really nice effect.
00:58:24
So, take a listen to just one
of them with that effect on it.
00:58:34
Ok, now here's all four of those
tracks without the effect
and then we'll play it with the effect.
00:58:48
Ok, so you can hear
that they're all
a little bit different
in pitch and timing
which kinds of gives us a little bit
of trippy psychedelic effect
but now add the flange to it and
we take it another level further.
00:59:14
So, there was a reason
very specific reason why I didn't end up
using this flange effect only on the bus
and chose to put it on
the individual tracks instead.
00:59:21
The reason was that when
I put it on the bus
it kind of gave the same patina to
all four tracks when blended together.
00:59:27
When I had it on the individual tracks
it seemed like the flanger
was responding
to the dynamic of
each individual track
and gave me a little bit more
depth and dimension.
00:59:34
and made it just wobble
a little bit more.
00:59:36
It's a little bit cooler effect
in my estimation.
00:59:38
So, you wanna try things like that
you wanna try processing things separately
and you wanna try it both
on a bus as well.
00:59:44
You'll notice that there's a difference
in the way some processing responds.
00:59:47
In this case on the bus we
added a plug-in directly to it
and I have to tell you that this is
not the way I normally do things
I like to do things
on an auxiliary return
but I think that this particular reverb
was added by the producers
before I got the track
and I thought it sounded cool
and I didn't wanna get rid of it
and I left it until the end
and I found eventually that it worked
so I ended up leaving it that way.
01:00:06
There's no reason
to change things that work
Sometimes when the producers
got a really great idea,
why try to recreate it?
There's no point
You're just doing extra
work for yourself
and possibly missing an opportunity
to get something great that
the producer already did
So, in this case we added
a little bit of that Rverb
A little bit more of a little bit.
That's actually a lot.
01:00:31
But then we also added
some of the quarter note
or rather the half note delay
that I've used in the other track,
a little bit of that first hall,
which is the shorter one,
and then I also added some
DimD or Dimension D.
01:00:41
I'm gonna show you that really quick
and I want you to hear that by itself.
01:00:45
This plug in is also made
by Universal Audio
and it's a recreation of
a Roland Dimension D.
01:00:51
And really what it does is
it creates a little bit of modulation
and a little bit of pitch shift
at the same time.
01:00:56
It creates an unique stereo effect.
01:00:58
The way I have mine set is
button 1 and 2 depressed
which creates a specific type of effect
and different combinations
of these buttons
create a different type of effect.
01:01:06
So, let's listen to it without it.
01:01:15
And with it.
01:01:24
So, I know that's really subtle but I'm
gonna go ahead and exaggerate that effect
so you can clearly hear what it's doing.
01:01:37
Almost like a chorus but not quite.
01:01:39
It's not really giving
as much modulation
but it is giving us a little bit more
of a stereo type of effect.
01:01:45
When I add my delay and
reverb back into that
I get the sound that I was looking for.
01:02:11
So, this is just as a recap of what
we did with these hook vocals,
we process them individually
with the flange,
we sent them to a mix bus
that's got a little bit of EQ, it's got
an UAD LA2A compressor on it
just to smooth down
the dynamic a little bit.
01:02:26
We've added some reverb, delay
and some of the Dimension D
to give it some space.
01:02:30
The way I have these panned is
since they're all the same note
I've got two that are
in the 45 degree position
and two that are in full panned
left and right position
to give me as much spread
as I can get out of those.
01:02:40
So, let's play it back one more time.
01:02:51
You can see I'm just getting
a couple dB worth of compression.
01:02:53
I really just wanted to smooth out
the top-end of that.
01:03:03
Put our reverbs and delays back in
and this is where we end up.
01:03:21
We got a couple more vocal group
busses to work within the song
and we've worked with them
in a very similar way
as the last couple that
we showed you
where most of them were processed
minimally on the individual tracks
but we've used EQ compression and
some sort of an effect on the bus
and these two are no different
with the exception of fact
that I chose to do something
different with the first verse
than I do with the second verse
and it's really really simple.
01:03:44
In the first verse we have
just a group of six vocals
that have a little bit of individual
processing and some stuff on the bus.
01:03:52
So, this is what it sounds like
without any of the stuff on the bus
and any of the stuff in
the individual tracks.
01:03:57
It's just a gang vocals,
some high notes and some low notes.
01:04:11
Ok, so in this case I chose to process
them similar to the hook vocals
which is I sculpted out a lot of
the low-end, some of the high-end,
I compressed them with an
1176 compressor
and I thought they needed de-essing
so I add some of that to it.
01:04:23
So, let's go through those
really quickly one by one.
01:04:26
So, in this case I used
the standard Digirack
7 band EQ, just to sculpt out
the frequencies I want.
01:04:32
I used the Universal Audio 1176 LN
compressor to control the dynamic
and to push it forward just a little bit
and I basic Waves De-esser,
just because I thought it
needed a little bit of that.
01:04:41
So, with the EQ engaged
it sounds like this.
01:04:56
Then I used the 1176 to give me
some dynamic control.
01:05:12
So you're hearing a little bit
of sibilance.
01:05:13
That's what I've heard
when I was mixing this
so that's why I chose
to put the de-esser on it.
01:05:16
Just to catch those esses.
01:05:31
The thing that I did differently
on the first verse
was that on the lower notes
I've added that same flanger that
we've added on the hook parts.
01:05:38
I wanted it to just give me
a little bit of change
on the attack and release
envelopes of the sound
so that it just gave me
a little bit more texture
a little bit more distinction
for those lower notes
so I'll go ahead and engage those flangers
and you'll hear the difference.
01:06:01
And of course you know in this track
we're not gonna let anything get by
without throwing a ton of delays
on it and a little bit of reverb
Remember we said that we're gonna
use the delays and reverbs
like another instrument in this track.
01:06:27
It's gonna fill up space
and give us this depth
that we couldn't get otherwise.
01:06:30
As I described
I wanted to treat the second verse
a little differently than the first
because there's a couple more
tracks in the second verse
that it gives it a little
bit more depth
and that was intentional on part
of the artist and the producer.
01:06:40
But I also wanted to process
it slightly differently
to make it a little bit heavier
sounding. So, what I've done here
I haven't used the flange again.
01:06:47
I wanted something different
for the second verse.
01:06:49
What I've done here instead of
using the flange to make the texture
of the low notes different
I did not pass the low notes
through the same bus
as I passed the high notes through,
I process them differently.
01:07:00
The high notes on the second verse
are going through the same
bus processing as the first verse.
01:07:04
So, they're going through that
same EQ, the 1176 compressor,
the de-esser and the same delay
and reverb as on the first verse.
01:07:12
And so, I'm allowing those to have the same sort of sound
as the first verse does
but the second verse I've gone ahead
and process the low notes
completely different.
01:07:19
They are on a completely separate bus
and they are much more full sounding.
01:07:22
I've let all the low end pass through
and become deep and rich sounding.
01:07:26
So, the second verse sounds
a little bit bigger,
a little bit meatier, a little bit more
exiting than the first one did.
01:07:32
I think that's one of the
key things to mixing.
01:07:33
It's having things evolve over time
so that the song can build and build
and then drop you off a cliff
when there's nothing happening
in a break or a bridge.
01:07:41
It's one of the things
I love to do as a mixer
is create those moments of excitement
and then take it all away and then all
of the sudden there's this emptiness,
this void that you can
then fill back up again.
01:07:49
So, here's what I did with the
high-notes on this second verse part.
01:07:52
Like I said I passed them through
the same bus as the first verse does.
01:07:56
So, you'll hear it's got
very similar sound.
01:08:14
Ok, it's that same thinned-out
almost radio-like sound.
01:08:18
But like I said for the second verse
I really wanted those lower notes,
the bass notes,
to have a little bit different
texture than the first one.
01:08:24
I wanted them to be more full
and process them slightly differently
so I did a couple of things to them.
01:08:29
I'm gonna go ahead
and play those notes for you
without any of my processing on them
and then we'll go ahead and
add in what I've done
and you can see the difference.
01:08:42
Ok. So, what I started with
initially here
was not too different from
the other busses
I work very similar on
background vocal busses
in that I use an EQ first to sculpt
the sound how I want it to be
and then I use something
like an LA2A or an 1176
to control the dynamics the way that
I think they oughta be control.
01:08:59
In this case the first EQ that I use,
again roll off a lot of the low-end
and some of the high-end.
01:09:03
So, here's what it sounds like
without that EQ engaged.
01:09:11
While I have a lot of
that low-end rolled off
it's not nearly as much
as on the first verse.
01:09:15
So, these low parts are gonna
have a lot more depth.
01:09:17
A little bit more weight to them
than they did on the first.
01:09:20
I went ahead and added
the 1176 after that
to give myself some dynamic control,
to push that vocal forward a little bit
so that it was present right
in the front of the mix.
01:09:39
Ok. So, that's with the compression.
01:09:41
So, sort of the same scheme
that we were using
but then here's where it's a little
bit different with this track.
01:09:45
Instead of using a flanging effect
I've actually used
the Soundtoys Crystallizer.
01:09:50
with an effect that called Chorus on it
and really what it is
it's just a mild chorus
And I've only used a touch of it
just to give a little more
dimension to the vocal.
01:09:58
So, here's without it.
01:10:04
And with it.
01:10:09
It's really, really subtle.
01:10:10
but it makes a difference when
you add them with everything else.
01:10:13
And in the same way that
I used the de-esser last time
I thought that it needed
a touch of de-essing
so I added it at the end
of the chain here.
01:10:26
A lot of people use de-essers
just as a functional thing
to control sibilance.
01:10:30
I actually believe that it's a big part
of the way modern vocals sound.
01:10:34
So, if you're working on a track
that needs to sound
like it's really modern,
it's really forward
I think de-essing after your
compression and EQ scheme
can give it that last little push
that makes it sound really modern.
01:10:45
So, I tend to use it quite often.
01:10:48
And again on this same bus
we've gone ahead and add
our half note delay
and a little bit of our
shorter hall reverb.
01:10:53
The one that's at three seconds.
01:10:55
So, this is what it sounds like
with all of that stuff engaged.
01:10:57
That's gonna be the EQ,
the 1176 compressor,
our Crystallizer,
our de-esser
and our effects.
01:11:24
So, if we add our high note back in
that's processed by verse one bus
and we add this low notes in
that are processed by this new bus
here's what the whole
verse two sounds like.
01:11:46
You'll notice that the low note
on this second verse
is much more pronounced
that it is on the first verse
and just for comparison let's go back
and take a listen to it.
01:12:07
In comparison to the second verse.
01:12:23
So, that has the effect
of giving the second verse
a little bit bigger dimension
than the first one does.
01:12:27
Again, we're building
the song over time.
01:12:29
We wanna make sure
it gets more exiting
and then when there's a break
we really drop them off a cliff
and then bring them back
for the hook out.
01:12:35
In this particular song
there's a lead vocal rap.
01:12:39
but it only happens for about,
I think, 16 bars out of the entire song.
01:12:42
This is a little bit of a departure for
Asher in terms he usually writes
but I think it worked really great here.
01:12:47
'cos what he was going after
was this really trippy thing.
01:12:49
So, you've got all of these delays
and these vocals that are coming
stacks of different notes
and different parts
and it creates this
really lush effect.
01:12:56
But when we get to this verse part
where he's just rhyming
we want that to sound relatively
dry, crisp and clear
like most MCs like their vocal to be.
01:13:05
Although I didn't want it
to be 100% dry
because 100% dry actually
doesn't really sound natural.
01:13:09
If you guys work with rappers a lot
you'll hear them ask you not
to put any effects on your vocals
and I get ask that a lot too but
almost 99% of the times
I usually sneak something in there.
01:13:19
It's usually a really short delay
or a really short room type of reverb
that just gives
a little bit of dimension.
01:13:24
'Cos a lot of time these guys
are recording their vocals
in very dry vocal booths
and that doesn't sound natural to me.
01:13:29
It doesn't sound like it belongs
with their rest of the production.
01:13:31
So, I'll generally sneak
something in there.
01:13:34
They won't notice it and they'll say:
"Yeah, that's great"
"It's clean. I like it. No reverb"
But there's actually a little something
there to give it dimension.
01:13:40
So, that's what we did in this case.
01:13:42
Asher's lead vocal was kind of dry
and I'm gonna play it for you
with nothing else on it,
just the lead vocal, and you'll hear.
01:14:13
Ok.
01:14:13
So, that was a pretty clean lead vocal
it was tracked in a dry environment.
01:14:17
You do hear some headphone bleed
but because the rap it's fast enough
and the music it's playing behind it
you really don't hear
the headphone bleed too much.
01:14:23
If it was more severe than that
or if there was more space
in-between his words,
I'd probably try to gate that out
or going on very carefully clean
it by editing that out
and doing cross-fades
and get it really neat.
01:14:34
In this case I think it works Ok
because you're hearing the beat
behind it and just sorts of blends in.
01:14:38
So, I don't treat lead vocals
drastically different
than I do some of these
background vocal busses.
01:14:44
My thought process is very similar.
01:14:46
I try to use something similar
like a Digirack EQ
or any type of basic EQ
that I can just filter out the kind
of frequencies I don't want.
01:14:55
So, I just used the basic EQ
where I've subtracted
pretty much everything
below 88 or 90Hz
and in this case I felt like
I needed to reduce
a little bit of the muck or
the mud that was down there
and I found that right about at 150Hz.
01:15:08
So, I took out about 4 or 5dBs
worth of that.
01:15:12
So, with that EQ engaged,
just that simple EQ engaged
it sounds a little bit cleaner to me.
01:15:15
Let's listen to it without it
one more time.
01:15:25
Ok. So, not dramatically different
but we've cleaned it out a little bit.
01:15:36
So, for a vocal like this, which
has rather quick cadence,
I wanna use a compressor where I can
adjust the attack and release controls
so I can get them to work fast enough.
01:15:44
If the compressor is too slow
like a Fairchild
or an LA2A
it may not react quickly enough
in order to move
with the flow of the track.
01:15:53
So, in this case I again chose
an 1176 because it let's me do that.
01:15:56
It's got an attack and release control
and I can control the input gain
to get just as much
or as little compression as I want.
01:16:02
So, I again went with
an 1176 from Universal Audio
but I happen to pick a different
version of it this time.
01:16:08
I use the 1176AE
this is just a different rev of the 1176
hardware version that
they've modeled
and it reacts a little bit differently.
01:16:18
I think in this case
it's a little bit grabbier.
01:16:20
It allows me to set my attack
and release in a way
that it let's its transients go through
but still controls the dynamic
in a way that I want
and pushes the lead vocal forward.
01:16:27
That's kind of an important
aspect for hip-hop mixing.
01:16:29
You want that lead vocal up there.
01:16:30
It's the most important thing other
than the kick drum and the snare.
01:16:33
It's gotta be right up there,
super present
right in front of the mix.
01:16:36
If you have a vocal that's
buried in a hip-hop mix
it just doesn't sound right.
01:16:40
Try it and you'll see
what I'm talking about.
01:16:42
So, again I've used this compressor
just to sort of bring it forward,
control the dynamic and let enough
of that initial transient through
to make his words sound snappy.
01:16:58
So, without it.
01:17:14
Ok. But I didn't wanna stop there.
01:17:15
Usually what I do to this point
is I make sure that I put the vocal
back in with everything else
so I can hear it in context.
01:17:20
I mean otherwise how can I figure out
how it's supposed to sound
if I don't hear it with
everything else, right?
Let's do that right now.
01:17:43
So, I really like what
that 1176 did to it
but I also wanna compress
just a very narrow region
of the upper mid-range of this vocal.
01:17:50
I felt like it could use a little bit
more compression between 2 and 4kHz.
01:17:54
It was just poking it out just
a little bit too much for me.
01:17:56
I wanted to smooth it out
So, I used the Waves C4
and just that band engaged
couple of dBs worth of compression
smooth it it out just a little bit.
01:18:02
So, let's hear it without it.
01:18:11
Ok, and with that compression.
01:18:21
So essentially what
it's doing is functioning
as a de-esser, for the most part.
01:18:24
It's really just catching
some of the sibilance,
some of the poking out frequencies
that are happening between 2 and 4k.
01:18:30
I thought it just smoothed
it out a little bit.
01:18:31
But then I went ahead and used
a regular de-esser as well
to catch the stuff that was above 4k.
01:18:35
I felt like I wanted to process
that differently
so I used a standard
de-esser to do that.
01:18:52
So, what I described
you before was
that I wanted to use something that give
that vocal a little bit of dimension
'cos it was recorded in
a sort of dry environment.
01:18:58
In this case I chose to use
Universal Audio Cooper Time Cube.
01:19:03
It's got a setting in here
called "vocal dimension"
which I started with but
I played with it a little bit.
01:19:08
It really all it is
is a really short delay
that's different from
the left and the right.
01:19:13
You have one dimension
that's panned left
then one dimension that's panned right.
01:19:16
and you can use a very subtle EQ on it.
01:19:19
You've got a bass and a treble control.
01:19:20
It just allows me to sort of settle this
ambient zone for the vocal to be in.
01:19:24
So, you've heard it dry.
01:19:34
Now, I've just added some of that
Cooper Time effect,
like I've told you, to it
and this is what it sounds like.
01:19:50
So, it's just creating a little
dimension around the vocal
so that it doesn't sound so lonely
and monophonic right in there
in the middle of the mix.
01:19:56
Instead of what I would
normally reach for
which would be a room reverb,
to add a little bit of dimension
to an otherwise dry sounding vocal,
I've chose to go with the
Cooper Time Cube
'cos it just seems to have
a bit of modulation to it.
01:20:08
I don't know, there's a little
bit of voodoo on this box
and I can't explain all the math that
goes on behind the scenes with this
but I use my ears and that tells
me that it sounds good.
01:20:15
So, let's take a listen to that.
01:20:16
In context in the mix and see
what that vocal dimension does
to the lead vocal.
01:20:49
I think that adds a nice dimension
to it. Makes it sound more exciting.
01:20:52
That's one of the things that
when I go and process something with
a compressor or and EQ or anything,
Does it sound better?
Does it sound more exiting?
Does it add more life
and energy to a mix?
Those are the qualifiers
I use all the time.
01:21:02
If I'm asking myself if it's good or not
does it meet any of those criteria?
If no then chances are I might
go and try something else.
01:21:10
I've also added just a touch
of that hall reverb on it.
01:21:12
The shorter one that's
like 3 seconds long.
01:21:14
Just to give it a little bit more depth.
01:21:15
Remember we talked about using a
couple different reverbs in conjunction
to give a nice depth?
Shorter room reverb along
with a longer hall one
gives you a nice space.
01:21:32
Now it sounds wet when
we have it in solo
but let's put it back in the track
a lot of that reverb disappears.
It just serves
to add ambience. A little bit
of excitement to the lead vocal.
01:22:17
One of the things that I would
like to point out really quickly is
we made some pretty drastic decision
with those background
vocals that are doing:
"do-do-do-do
do-do-do-do"
Right? Pretty drastic.
01:22:26
We chopped off all the low end
a lot of the high end,
put a ton of reverb and delay on it
but did you hear it floating behind
the lead vocal there in that verse?
It put it so far behind it.
01:22:34
That it wasn't obscuring the lead vocal.
01:22:36
It became another instrument,
it became an ambient effect
that went way behind everything.
01:22:40
Created this really nice
space trippy feeling.
01:22:44
Now, we have a whole bunch of adlib tracks
that are googled
behind this verse
and they're just kind of peaking up
here and there and
we've done very simple things with them.
01:22:52
They're just bust over the same way
some of the background vocals
are bussed over. Treated very simply
with a little bit of EQ,
a gate in some cases to clean it up,
a little bit of a LA2A compressor
and a de-esser
and we've added some of the reverbs
and delays to those as well.
01:23:04
Now, they are not huge
elements of the song
and we could go into detail
how we process them
but it's really simple stuff.
01:23:10
Just a little bit of EQ and
a little bit of compression
to put them in perspective
with everything else.
01:23:13
There's a couple of other elements
that happen in the song
that only happen in
very few specific places.
01:23:17
Like in the bridge of the song
we have a couple of claps.
01:23:20
We also won't go into detail
how we treated those
because it's very simple.
01:23:24
It's just a bit of the same
type of processing
we used on the claps that
go throughout the song
with some Decapitator, maybe a little
bit of reverb and some EQ.
01:23:32
You're gonna notice that
I'm not one of those mixers
that spends an awful amount
of time worrying about
what's on my master bus fader
very early on the mix.
01:23:39
And there's a really
specific reason for this.
01:23:41
This is something that mix engineers
like to argue about a lot.
01:23:45
I don't think there's any
argument to be made about it.
01:23:47
I think that whatever
works for you is great.
01:23:49
I don't find it advantageous
to have my compression
and EQ scheme
and whatever else I'm gonna
use on my master bus
to be there early on,
so early on in the mix
that I'm mixing for them
instead of anticipating how
they're gonna lift my mix in the end.
01:24:05
And that's really what I'm looking for.
01:24:06
I know that if I get my mixes
as close as I possibly can,
before I even get to that stage,
that it's gonna be another lift.
01:24:13
Another level of excitement.
01:24:14
I can use them as enhancement tools
rather than to fix something
that I'm doing in the mix
or correct some deficiencies I had
from the beginning of the mix.
01:24:23
I want them there to be
another level of excitement
so that by the time
I get to this point in the mix
is where I feel like
I have my foundation built
and my levels are relatively
in the right place
where I want them to be and
everything's feeling just so good
that by the time I add
my master bus limiter or compression
or my EQ or my tape saturator
or whatever it is that I'm gonna use,
it's just another level of excitement
and it makes me go:
"Yes, man! That's awesome!"
"I just took my mix to another level."
I don't feel that I've been fooled
from the beginning of the mix
I feel like I got another opportunity
to make my mix that much better.
01:24:53
So, that's where we're at now.
01:24:55
We've got our foundation built,
we have everything sounding
the way we want to
at least in a general way.
01:24:59
And so, we're gonna start adding
some of this processing
that's gonna glue the mix
together a little bit,
maybe give us some EQ choices
to smooth out some rough spots,
maybe add some high-end or
low-end where we think we need it,
and something that will glue
the mix even further
and I'm gonna show you what
one of my secret tools is for that.
01:25:13
It's not so secret.
Most of you guys know about it
but I like to use it in
almost every mix.
01:25:17
So, let's take a look at this.
01:25:19
Like in a lot of my individual channels
and some of my sub-mix busses
I like to use a very simple
Digirack Avid EQ
and just subtract the stuff
below a certain frequency
that I don't think it's useful
and I don't think it's helpful.
As a matter of fact
I think it's just eating up
headroom on my mix.
01:25:34
So, if I missed it anywhere on my mix,
if I missed the opportunity
to high-pass something
that's got some stuff that's
coming out below 30 or 35Hz
I'm not gonna miss it here.
01:25:43
So, that's the first thing that I do.
01:25:45
I'm always gonna roll off
at least everything below 30Hz
and depending on
the style and type of music
maybe even higher.
01:25:51
A lot of mixes I've even done recently
some rock mixes, I've rolled off
everything all the way up to 40/45Hz.
01:25:56
Even higher than that.
01:25:57
The mind set that I use is
I'll start rolling off frequencies
and I'll keep going up
and up at a steep filter.
01:26:04
Usually somewhere between
18 and 24dB per octave
and I'll roll it up until I hear
the mix change dramatically.
01:26:10
Once I reach that point I know
that I must back off a little bit
so that I keep the sound of my mix,
I keep everything in context
but I'm just getting rid of those
sub-frequencies that I don't want.
01:26:19
So, that's what I did here.
01:26:20
In this particular case
I found out that if I roll it up to
about 31Hz I didn't miss a thing.
01:26:25
I want this to be nice and big,
I want that low-end because
that's the type of track it is.
01:26:29
It's hip-hop after all.
01:26:30
So, I can't roll off too far.
01:26:31
I still want that to live
a fairly big life underneath
the entire mix.
01:26:36
So, I'm not gonna go too far with that.
01:26:38
So, usually the next thing
that I do on my mix busses is
I'll go for some sort of
mix bus compression
and when it comes to hip-hop
almost nothing beats
an SSL-styled compressor.
01:26:47
I used a couple of different ones
from a couple of different companies.
01:26:49
In this case I've used the SSL G Series
bus compressor from my UAD collection.
01:26:54
I thought it really worked the best.
01:26:55
In this type of compressor
what you're gonna expect
it is a very reactive
type of compressor.
01:27:00
Again, it's got attack and release
controls settings on it.
01:27:03
So you can make it move
as fast as you want to
on the transients on the attack side
and you can make it release
as fast as you want.
01:27:08
So, you can time the attack and
release to the tempo of the song.
01:27:11
So that the compressor seems
to breath in and out
the dynamic of the song and that's
what I'm looking for with this.
01:27:16
So, as I described this SSL compressor
has a bunch of different settings on it
that allow me to make it work
as fast or as slow as I want it to.
01:27:23
Because this is a bit
quicker tempo song
I wanna make sure that I have
a relatively fast release time
and I wanna set the attack
so that I'm really not
squashing the kick drum
and the lead vocal
when they come in as
the loudest part of the track.
01:27:34
I'm really just trying
to grab the transients.
01:27:36
When I use a bus compressor
on my mix
I'm really not trying to get
a whole lot of gain reduction.
01:27:40
Usually between 2 and 6 dB
worth of gain reduction
is about what I'm shooting for.
01:27:44
Because I'm really not shooting
to reduce the dynamics
what I'm doing is I'm trying
to glue the mix together
just a little bit.
So, I'm using the compressor
just to sort of make it sound cohesive.
01:27:53
So, I'm usually shooting for
couple of dB worth of gain reduction
with a medium fast attack
and a fast release.
01:28:00
Just something to grab those transients.
01:28:01
So that's what I'm doing here with this
SSL G series compressor from UAD.
01:28:22
So now we'll add that compressor in
and you'll see it. We're just getting
a little bit of gain reduction.
01:28:42
Ok, I'm gonna play the same loop and
I'm gonna play the same loop in and out
and then in then out.
You can hear the difference.
01:28:47
Mainly what's affecting is
the attack on the kick drum
'cos it's the loudest thing on this mix.
01:28:51
You have to remember when you
put in something on the master bus
whatever the loudest
thing in your mix is
is gonna reach that
threshold point first,
especially if it's a bus compressor
or a limiter.
01:29:17
So, you notice what it does is it makes
it sound a little bit more grabby.
01:29:21
It's like that kick drum and the snare
and the lead vocal are trading places
as the loudest thing in the mix.
01:29:26
The reason why I think that glues
everything together
is because it's giving you,
like, the same patina
of gain reduction across the entire mix.
01:29:32
Now, I don't wanna do
too much of that
but just a little
can be the right flavor.
01:29:36
After this SSL series bus compressor
that we have on the master fader
I felt like I needed
a little bit of an EQ action.
01:29:41
In this case I wanted something
that was very neutral
So, the first thing I wanted to go
for was the Dangerous BAX EQ.
01:29:46
It doesn't add a whole lot of color
but it's a very musical sounding EQ
and I get just what I wanted out of it.
01:29:51
All I've done with this EQ is I've added
a little 18k to the mid channel
and a little bit of 84Hz
to the mid channel.
01:29:57
Just to give a little bit of bass to the
bump and a little bit air to the vocal.
01:30:00
Now, on the mid side of the EQ,
rather the side part of the EQ
I've just added maybe
about 5dB worth of 4.8k
and that just really kind of give me
a little bit more definition
on the side channels.
01:30:11
Makes it sound a little bit wider
and the low frequency stuff
that I added in the center
gives me a nice pump on the low end.
01:30:17
I'm gonna go ahead and
play it without the EQ
and then we'll take out of bypass
so you can hear the effect.
01:30:39
On listening back to that
I think maybe I've added
just a little bit too much on the sides
I'm just gonna back it off
just a little bit
and just a little bit of the high-end
on the mid frequency
and see where we end up.
So, let's take a listen again.
01:31:06
I like what that's doing.
It may not be my final choice
but again I always go back and
I look at these kind of decisions again
and make sure that they're
all working together in the mix.
01:31:13
So, I'll often time revisit
these decisions
once I get to the very end
which it's to say
my next plug-in
which is my little secret,
which I like to use often.
01:31:22
It's actually not a secret.
01:31:23
It's just the ATR-102
from Universal Audio.
01:31:26
This ends up in 80% of my mixes.
01:31:29
The thing that I really
like about it, is that
it is that last level
of gluing everything together
Now, back to when we weren't
printing to DAT machines
or printing back into Pro Tools
this was the choice of professionals.
01:31:39
You would print back into an
Ampex ATR-102 machine
and that is the final that would
go to the mastering house.
01:31:45
These things added a certain
dimension in character
that up until recently were really
hard to get in plug-in land.
01:31:51
That's why I use this thing
as much as I possibly can
wherever I find it could fit.
01:31:56
It's not just useful on the master bus
it's also useful on
let's say your drum bus for adding
a little bit of depth and punch.
01:32:02
And it all really depends on what
tape formula that you choose
and how you set the thing up,
how it responds to you.
01:32:07
But the only thing I've done is
taking off the noise and switch it
from the half inch setting
to the quarter inch setting.
01:32:12
I find that this gives me
just enough lift
and enough excitement to the mix that
it's worth using it in almost every mix.
01:32:18
So, let's check out what
this thing sounds like.
01:32:20
Again, it's subtle
but as the last thing in your chain
it's just another opportunity to give
you another lift to your mix
that really it's kind of hard
to describe. It's almost intangible
but you'll know it when it's there.
01:32:31
So, I'm not gonna use
a hard bypass on this
I'm gonna use the bypass
on the machine itself
because it doesn't create
a thump when I put it back in.
01:32:55
So again, without it.
01:33:13
In this case I don't think
I'm hitting with too much level
I can actually get this tape machine
emulation to work a little bit harder
if I boost a little bit of
the gain coming out of
my SSL bus EQ.
01:33:24
So, I'm gonna put both of these
plug-ins up at the same time.
01:33:27
and I'm gonna use the make up
gain on my SSL compressor
to push just as much level
into this ATR-102 as I want
to get it to react the way I want to.
01:33:35
I'm gonna start getting
a little bit of gain here.
01:33:53
Ok. So, that's really sounding
good to me. Let's go ahead
and try that tape machine on bypass
and then back in again.
01:33:59
You'll notice that the effect
is more pronounced now
because I'm actually pushing
more gain into the machine.
01:34:03
The reason for that is because
Universal Audio has taken the pain
of model every circuit on this.
01:34:08
That means from the input cards
to the tape head to how it reacts
going to magnetic tape
and then how it sounds coming back
off the sync of the repro head.
01:34:32
So, you hear that
the tape machine's effect
is sort of a little bit exaggerated
you're gonna hear that the claps
and the snares are a little bit more
crunchy, a little bit more smashed,
the low-end is a little bit bigger
and even the high-end is
a little bit more expanded on it.
01:34:45
And in my case, because I'm sitting
in-between two really great monitors,
I can hear that the stereo image
is a little bit more enhanced.
01:34:51
So, those are the four things
that I'm using on the master fader
in this mix that I feel
give me the biggest lift.
01:34:56
So, what I wanna do
for you really quickly is
I'm gonna create another mix bus
one without this plug-ins
and I'm gonna keep the one with it
and then we're gonna be able to
go back and forth and listen
to the different ones.
01:35:06
Ok. So here's our mix with non
of our master bus processing on it.
01:35:08
We're gonna listen to that for a sec
and then we'll spot to the other one.
01:35:11
Not only you're gonna hear
a major level difference
and we can actually correct for that.
01:35:15
Maybe we will do that so you can
hear the difference in the texture
rather than the difference in the level.
01:35:19
But you're gonna hear
a huge difference in the texture
and that's coming from
the SSL bus compressor,
going into the BAX EQ and then finally
going into the ATR-102 tape machine.
01:35:27
Here's it without.
01:35:45
Ok. So, pretty big level
difference so let's just
let's make a small change just
so that the levels are exactly the same
between the unprocessed
and the processed master bus
so we get more of an idea of
exactly what's happening there
other than a loudness change.
01:36:59
That's a pretty dramatic
difference if you ask me.
01:37:02
Especially once we've got to
the point where the levels
were just matched so perfectly.
01:37:05
You can tell how the snare and
the kick drum are reacting differently
to both the master bus compressor
and also to the ATR-102 that's there.
01:37:12
So, pretty big difference.
01:37:13
That's why I say I like
to wait further on in the mix
until I apply this kind of stuff
because now I can
make sort of creative choices.
01:37:19
I can't tell you for sure that's exactly
how this is gonna end up this mix.
01:37:23
but those are the choices that seemed
to make most sense to me right now.
01:37:26
In a mix like this I would
tend to go back
and re-visit some of things
a little bit more.
01:37:29
Now, we did end up making
some very specific choices
and this mix it's actually
already been released
and you're welcome to go
listen to the final product
and see if you can tell the difference.
01:37:37
But we did end up using was
some version of this settings that
we're using on this mix right here
and they were very close
I assure you.
01:37:43
But that's it man, I mean
I think you can make
a pretty dramatic difference
if you wait until further into the mix
rather to mix into these things
to create a sound from the beginning
and not marrying yourself to it
you can use it as a creative edge down
the road towards the end of your mix.
01:37:56
Well, thank you for joining me
again here on pureMix
It was a pleasure to be back
and work at Flux Studios again
with all this great equipment.
01:38:03
See you next time. Peace.
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- Universal Audio: 1176LN, 1176AE, LA-2A, Cooper Time Cube, Lexicon 224, MXR Flanger/Chorus, SPL TwinTube Processor, Roland Dimension D, Dangerous BAX EQ, SSL G-Buss Compressor, Ampex ATR-102
- Waves: C4, CLA-Guitars, H-Delay, C1 Gate, R-Verb, De-esser
- SoundToys: Decapitator, Crystallizer, Devil-Loc
- Avid: EQ3
Asher Roth - Tangerine Girl on iTunes or Spotify
In addition to many Platinum, Gold and Diamond RIAA certifications, he's been twice nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy and has a further seven nominations to his credit as a mixing and recording engineer.
A skilled multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Ryan also produces music for major label artists, film and television.
As of 2017, over 70 million albums have been sold worldwide that contain a credit to Ryan West. After moving to NYC from Youngstown, Ohio in 1997 he took a job at Sam Ash Music Store in Times Square where he began to buy recording equipment to record his own projects. A self-taught recordist, Ryan was approached by a music store client who needed help recording in his home. The client turned out to be an influential producer and A&R with Island Records. Over the following 12 months or so, he worked tirelessly to improve his abilities while recording Gospel artists like Dee Dee Warwick, Benjamin Love and others. At this time, Protools Digital audio Workstations were quickly gaining traction as the future of studio recording technology. From that early stage, Ryan developed an impressive level of speed and accuracy while recording and editing. He soon found out that those skills were exactly what the NYC hiphop community wanted and needed.
Taking the helm as chief engineer at the now defunct Soho Music Studios exposed him to top hip-hop artists and their production teams. For the next 4 years, he developed his skills as a recordist and mixer while he built relationships with artists and producers who were on their way to the top. One of those producers was Just "Just Blaze" Smith. Signing on with his management N.Q.C. Management in 2003, Ryan began a whirlwind of work with Blaze and some of the world's most successful artists and producers. He hasn't stopped working since.
Ryan helped forge the sound of hip-hop and rap music as we know it today by working with artists such as Emine
Eminem
Kanye West
Usher
Ritchie Havens
T.I.
Rihanna
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