It's day 2, and it's time to review the previous day's takes to see if everything is gelling with the programming and the pocket is tight.
In this episode, Jacquire goes through his entire performance editing process live on camera and has his assistant, Danny Pellegrini, record drum samples of the kit.
See how Jacquire King:
Looks for moments to comp the bass guitar
Explains his approach to editing drums by hand instead of using beat detective to preserve the pocket
Edits in the middle of the transient to get a smoother edit transition after pulling the clip back
Reviews his edits and adjusts as he goes
Discusses his preference for batch crossfades across his edits
Explains a little known Pro Tools preference setting that helps him speed up the editing process
Edits the bass to sit in the pocket with the edited drums
Demonstrates his technique for hiding edits that cannot sound natural
Has his assistant, Danny Pellegrini, tune the drums and record samples of the kit
Watch Jacquire King mix "Keep The Light On" from Oak & Ash. Only on pureMix.net
00:00:22 Day 2, we're getting the day started here
before the band comes in in about an hour,
I'm going to just do
a little bit of listening to the session
from our work from yesterday.
00:00:34 I know that I have to comp together
the bass part and then I'm going to
just have a fresh listen and tighten up
some of the rhythm section stuff.
00:00:43 It's a great performance but we've got
some programming and stuff.
00:00:47 There's a few parts in the performance of
the drums that push and pull a little bit
but I just also want to make sure that
the programming is going to sound nice.
00:00:56 We're going to get into that,
I'll comp the bass first,
and then we'll go through
tightening up the rhythm section.
00:01:01 I believe this is the last playlist
that we recorded last night... yeah.
00:01:05 We made some notes here
about some comments on takes
so I'm kind of using those as a clue
of where to start looking.
00:01:13 I'm going to make a duplicate playlist
of the bridge, and then...
00:01:17 Something I don't like about Pro Tools
is the order it puts the playlists in.
00:01:21 I'm just going to start listening back.
00:01:23 I think our first note was 23,
but I actually think 25
was the full take that we liked.
00:01:51 That's the one we're liking
but it didn't finish.
00:02:05 The pocket doesn't feel as good to me.
00:02:23 I like the way 25 sounds
up until about this fill.
00:02:29 I'm just going to grab this.
00:02:35 I'll put it in my playlist.
00:02:47 I think it's just a little bit
of a timing thing,
this fill feels like it's
a little too pushed.
00:02:52 I'll just leave that as is for the moment.
00:02:54 I'll clean that up,
I think the bass performance
is there.
00:03:25 I just need to find the conclusion here.
00:03:31 A little chugging part.
00:03:58 It feels like what I want.
00:04:04 It doesn't need a whole lot of tightening.
00:04:06 What else is going on?
Let's see where the transition is here.
00:04:28 I think I have the bridge part
for the bass.
00:04:31 What I'm going to do now is
turn off my guitars and my bass.
00:04:36 And I'm going to put
a little bit of click in here too.
00:04:55 I'm just balancing the click in to where
it's really just barely audible
and blending in.
00:05:01 When the drums are pocketed
really well to it at that volume
it will just make an appearance
and just kind of be a little bit of a clue
of where things are maybe not
as tight as they should be.
00:05:12 My goal is not to put the drums,
like, strictly on the grid.
00:05:16 There's a few moments where
there's maybe a snare hit
that's a little early or a little late,
just a few bars here and there
that push in sections.
00:05:26 As we see, I'll just be kind of doing
some general tightening in an overall way
and then there will be specific moments
along the arrangement of the song
where I will probably do stuff
that's a bit tighter.
00:05:37 So, first thing to do
is to make a duplicate playlist.
00:05:40 Every time anything is done,
any sort of change,
I just document it in a playlist.
00:05:45 So, once we do this, I'll make
a new playlist and put the fades in,
and then I'll make a new playlist
and consolidate the files
just so that, for any reason, if we want
to go back and look at what the work was
there's a very clear path of the progress.
00:06:04 The first fill feels pretty good,
it is pushing a little bit.
00:06:07 This one feels like it's pushing more,
I'm just going to slip this back
a little bit.
00:06:16 But I'll leave the last hit as it was.
00:06:25 And...
00:06:27 ...I'll do the same...
00:06:30 ...here.
00:06:35 Occasionally I'll use something
like Beat Detective
not so much for the time correction
but for, like, cutting stuff up.
00:06:41 This isn't as intense of a job
so I just kind of do it by ear.
00:06:45 And another thing that I actually do
when I start...
00:06:48 just because I have a performance
that's a whole take,
I'll just go through on the grid
and block out...
00:06:56 at a minimum I'll sort of block out
each section,
because of the way that I go through
and move things,
I don't want to be moving the whole file.
00:07:05 Because I start at the beginning
and kind of work down
the timeline chronologically.
00:07:09 I'm going to put some
cuts in here.
00:07:14 It doesn't have to be
anything too specific,
I definitely want to do it
where sections change.
00:07:29 It's fine that it's pushing
at the top of the section,
that feels like very natural energy.
00:07:34 It settles in very quickly.
00:07:38 At least on this first snare hit.
00:07:40 This kick drum is a little behind.
00:07:44 I'm just going to move it a little bit.
00:07:47 I'm selecting it with a little bit of...
00:07:50 a little bit of space in front of it
and then I'll just snap it to the grid.
00:08:08 Like I said, I'm not trying to make
every note super-on-the-grid.
00:08:13 I'm using the grid as a visual reference,
trying to use my ear as the
most determinant factor, and then
all the in-between stuff, the hi-hats,
the smaller in-between syncopated rhythms,
I generally try to leave those alone
and leave those connected to the
other parts of the performance.
00:08:36 I'll do a little bit of listening before
I dive into this and make an assessment.
00:09:06 Well, at least for the verse it feels like
the second half settles in
a little bit more in terms of being
not as ahead as the first part.
00:09:15 I'll just kind of...
00:09:16 I'll look at it a little more closely.
00:09:18 You can see where
it's not pushing quite as much.
00:09:23 The way I've cut it
I've left a little bit of the snare
where I made this cut ahead of the grid,
so that when I quantize it
it's still pushing the feel a little bit.
00:09:37 Which feels good and natural.
00:09:38 I'm not looking for it
to be exactly on the grid,
I'll just listen from there and see
what further adjustments...
00:09:46 To separate, I'm using Command + E
and then Command + 0,
that's what quantizes it to the grid.
00:09:52 The quantization is to
the Grid selection I have.
00:09:56 If I were to cut
in-between where my grid is
and I had a much larger scale,
it would throw it way off.
00:10:05 The Grid Resolution value needs to be
similar to where I'm quantizing to,
otherwise it will throw things out.
00:10:13 Let's undo that and let's put
our grid back in eighths.
00:10:20 Back to listening.
00:10:48 I need to put some Pre-roll on.
00:10:54 I generally do
half a bar of Pre-roll,
and eight bars after is probably
and usually more than enough
to listen to what I'm doing.
00:11:43 Sometimes I just grab it and slip it
as opposed to making a cut and quantizing
because this is definitely feeling
too far ahead.
00:11:53 Let's talk about the in-between stuff,
the hi-hats here.
00:11:56 They're moving around
the grid a little bit
but that's the feel of the performance.
00:12:00 I'm not trying to make this robotic.
00:12:02 I have a cut here.
00:12:03 Depending on how I've shifted things
for this current edit I'm letting
these hi-hats be in time
and the performance connected
to the end of this section
where the snare drum is.
00:12:14 Depending on how things are lining up
I might pull it over this way,
it just depends on what feels natural.
00:12:21 Let's see if one is better than the other.
00:12:32 Actually, what feels better to me is this.
00:12:35 It's just a slight change
but it doesn't make this kick drum
feel as pushed
because the hi-hats that are associated
with this region
were just slightly behind.
00:12:47 And so when the kick drum came
it just made the kick drum feel pushed.
00:12:49 It's not that the kick drum
isn't in a spot that I wanted,
it's just the stuff that comes before
is just telling our minds
and our internal timekeeper
the relationship is not good,
and it's not necessarily and simply
the fault of this kick drum.
00:13:04 It's what's preceded it.
00:13:05 Often times when you're editing things
you have to take into account
the other information around it.
00:13:15 This kick drum is the middle of the verse,
and so it is pushed a little bit
which feels natural because
I know from listening to the song
that that's also where
the chord progression repeats,
and so that's going to be
a natural feeling
of a performance of sort of starting
the progression over,
that push feels natural.
00:13:43 I can feel where this is a bit behind.
00:13:51 I feel like I need to move it
even just a little bit more.
00:14:01 I don't mind that this kick drum
is a little behind
but I'm going to split the difference.
00:14:10 I'm trying to just listen to this
and maintain the musicality of it.
00:14:13 I'm trying to do a big job,
a bigger gesture,
and if I don't get every minor detail
of it right at this moment,
as we add instrumentation
and the vocals are there,
if there's something that
I want to fine-tune later
and tighten up a little bit more
or just shift in a certain way,
I'm sort of deferring that
decision-making until later.
00:14:36 I'm not just simply looking at this as
how tight the drums are
to the click track or the programming,
it's about maintaining the musicality
of the performance.
00:14:46 Because I've made the mistake in the past
of kind of overdoing an edit
early on in the process.
00:14:51 Hopefully that's been some years ago,
but it's just a thought to share.
00:15:27 Which often happens,
as the feeling of approaching a change
in a section happens,
things start to speed up a little bit.
00:15:34 I'm feeling that at the end of this verse
into the pre-chorus
the snare drums are going to push
a little bit more than the verse has been
in general, but it's signaling a shift
in energy, a new section that's coming.
00:16:00 The snare drum feels a little bit late.
00:16:09 Okay.
00:16:12 I'll split the difference here
with what's going on.
00:16:15 Brian is a great drummer
and I'm just, you know,
we're tightening this up
to fit a certain aesthetic.
I'm paying attention to
the things that he's doing.
Not just the pushes when sections change,
but also the way that this kick drum
is a little bit late.
00:16:31 It's putting a stop, a period
on what's been going on,
and I think what he's performed
and it being a little bit late
feels correct to me,
at least in this context.
00:16:44 So, I'm just taking cues from what
I'm hearing and seeing as the performance.
00:17:39 I'm sort of preemptively
making sure that my...
00:17:44 my transitional places between my regions
are already preset
in places where,
when I do a batch crossfade,
that they're just going to drop in nicely
and I don't have to review stuff.
00:17:59 But I do need to be paying attention
to the little things
like this, where the hi-hat is leading
and I don't want a double hit there.
00:18:06 I'm trying to pay attention along the way,
I'll check my work at the end,
and of course, I will listen to
all the transitions.
00:18:37 I like to move in multiples
as often as I can, I guess.
00:18:42 The bigger offender here
to my ear is the kick drum.
00:18:45 The snare drum kind of went by okay,
but I'm also observing
that it's a little bit farther ahead
than what I've been using as my sort
of window of 'feels good and looks good'.
00:18:56 I'm just trying to keep the
human element of the performance
and I'm moving those two things together.
00:19:04 The time in-between,
that's where the feel is,
so I'm trying to maintain it
as much as possible.
00:19:10 Since I have moved that back, I'm also
observing and just wanted to check out
where these hi-hats are falling
right down here.
00:19:49 Okay, so I've gotten about
halfway through the song,
I've been learning some things
about the feel along the way.
00:19:55 So, what I like to typically do at this
point before I get all the way to the end,
is I'm just going to go back
to the top
and just listen, and I'll sort of see
how I feel about
the way I'm affecting the performance,
to see if it feels like I've overdone it,
underdone it,
whatever, get an assessment
and sort of see
if the things that I learned
about the feel along the way
you know, maybe in the second verse
are better than the first verse.
00:20:23 I'll double-check myself
and just kind of educate my...
00:20:26 my thought process to finish.
00:21:19 It was feeling pretty good
until that point,
I just heard a kick drum in the chorus
that felt a little bit late.
00:21:29 Not late according to the grid,
but it is a bit late
in sort of the feel,
so we'll just see if moving this over...
00:21:38 ...from the snare drum helps it.
00:21:45 It's a little bit in-between
so I'll have to move it individually.
00:22:07 The Pre-roll ran out.
00:22:27 The tom and snare drum
should push a little bit more.
00:22:59 I felt these hi-hats pushing quite a bit.
00:23:01 I can't pull them over from here because
then that changes this kick drum edit,
so I'm just simply going to...
00:23:09 ...move these just a touch.
00:23:58 Okay, that catches up to where I edited.
I made a few changes
and I feel good about the path I'm on
so I'm going to just carry on.
00:24:17 Fantastic. I had reviewed my work up until
getting into the second chorus, so I'll
just listen from the second pre-chorus out
and sort of do a little bit
of a similar review process.
00:29:19 Great! I've done the review process,
I'm going to now do a Batch Fade.
00:29:25 We'll make another duplicate playlist
and then I'm going to do a Batch Fade.
00:29:31 I like to use Equal Gain.
00:29:38 Different philosophies on that,
do what makes you happy.
00:29:42 Typically I put in
5 milliseconds Crossfades,
Create new... yeah,
it's all about creating new ones.
00:29:50 If I had put anything in there,
because sometimes you have to,
but I didn't really hear
needing to do it on...
00:29:55 especially things that have
a lot of low frequencies,
like toms, you might need to put
a longer crossfade in there
to get the edit to sound smooth.
00:30:02 I didn't hear anything
when it was going by
so I'm going to do a Batch Fade.
And it makes me think...
00:30:08 I'm pretty sure that in the Preferences...
00:30:11 The whole time we've been listening
in the Preferences of Pro Tools
I've got it set up
so that across all edits
there is a 2 ms crossfade
that's just sort of buffered
into the playback.
00:30:22 That doesn't exist if you were to
consolidate and commit the audio,
you actually have to put
the files in there
for Pro Tools to be able to render it
into a consolidated file.
00:30:34 But the whole time we've been listening
we've had a 2 ms crossfade,
which is shorter
than what I'm putting in
in the Batch Fades
and everything went by fine,
so I really trust that the...
00:30:45 the transitional points
that I made for my edits
will be good with a 5 ms crossfade.
00:30:52 As a rule I just keep that on.
00:30:54 We're not slowing things down
by having to put fades in all the time,
we're not hearing clicks and pops,
it's just something working
in the background to speed things up.
00:31:03 We have...
00:31:07 ...our Batch Fades in. I'm going to now
make another playlist
and I'm going to make a selection
on the grid.
00:31:16 I'll put it back in the highest
resolution of bars,
and... just select here from the end
to the intro, to where the count-in is,
and then I'm going to consolidate that.
00:31:34 My edited drums have a new,
fresh, consolidated playlist.
00:31:38 If and when I do further edits to this,
unless I need to go back in time
to look at what it was
or what I did, or grab
a different performance
from a different playlist,
I will continue from this,
what is now playlist 13
and do any sort of further edits.
00:31:58 If I want to move anything
I'll make a playlist 14, make the edit,
15 for crossfades,
16 for another consolidation of it.
00:32:07 Now I want to quickly look at the bass.
00:32:15 We'll make another playlist because 30
is the playlist that we made
for editing the bridge,
so 31 will be my editing playlist.
00:32:35 I'm also going to do this, a similar thing
with the bass that I did with the drums
before we really get going.
00:32:41 I'll separate the sections.
00:36:21 Similar mindset here
with editing the bass,
just trying to maintain
as much of the feel.
00:36:26 So, something that's happening here is
maybe because of the edits,
maybe because of the performance,
this note is feeling
a little too short here for me.
00:36:36 I'm bringing this over from...
00:36:39 ...the right half of it because of just
the way that I've shifted these forward,
so it made the note even shorter-feeling.
00:36:46 And so, if I bring this back
over from where it was,
this now is more natural
to where it was played.
00:36:54 The duration of the note overall was
too short, but what I'm getting to is that
in the way that I'm doing this,
I'm going to hide this edit in the bass
by placing it underneath the snare drum.
00:37:06 The snare drum will distract our mind
and ears from the fact
that we might hear a little bit
of an edit here,
because the snare drum is certainly
going to be loud and it's very present.
00:37:16 It's going to cover that up a little bit.
00:37:24 And actually, this feels
just slightly ahead.
00:37:39 And a lot of times I have been
putting fades in, but in a place
where the regions are not going to
connect well unless I...
00:37:46 I can't put the fade in between the notes
because of the edit,
the other one is already starting
before where I want it to,
so I'm going to make it happen
in the tail end of the previous note.
00:37:58 And instead of relying
on a Batch Fade which will...
00:38:02 I know it will be too short
for this particular spot,
so I'm going to put in a wider fade
and give it a little ear check.
00:38:12 It's all good.
00:38:27 This is the perfect instance of where
some more context has made me sort of...
00:38:31 I'm not going to completely change my mind
about the kick drum being late here
for this end of the section,
but I'm going to move it forward.
00:38:39 Just while we're thinking about it
I'm going to
create a new playlist,
a duplicate playlist.
00:39:25 Cool. I'm going to
put my crossfades in
and listen from the top.
00:39:34 Just a little bit longer crossfades here.
00:39:39 I mentioned earlier that sometimes
you have to put crossfades in for toms
and stuff that has a lot
of low frequencies.
00:39:45 Like I showed you in the Preferences,
we've been listening to
the automatic crossfades at 2 ms.
00:39:50 Everything's gone by pretty well,
but I know that 10 ms is going to be
a little bit more forgiving
for the low frequencies on the bass.
00:40:01 I'm going to give this a context listen.
00:45:19 Good to go, so,
one more playlist now that I have
my crossfades in the bass.
00:45:24 I've checked it all
and I've made a few changes
on the drums as well along the way.
00:45:28 I'm going to consolidate that
and now we are ready to
make the drum samples
that we didn't finish last night
and just carry on, look at the guitars,
and carry on with the rest of our day.
00:45:40 - Alright, so now we're going to take
some drum samples.
00:45:43 We take drum samples for a myriad
of reasons. Sometimes we like to use them
for edit points, if there is an edit
that we can't smooth out,
and in other instances
we actually like to use them
to blend in with the recorded drum
so that we can have
just the sound of the drum
with a little bit less leakage.
00:46:04 We usually also do this
for documentation,
and sometimes, if it's a great sample,
we can use it on another project as well.
00:46:12 Typically when we get drum samples
we try to do them
right after we're done getting the take.
00:46:18 In some instances we're moving pretty
quickly, so we move on to other stuff
and we don't necessarily get a chance
to get the drum samples
right after the take when they're fresh,
so we also go through a process
where we like to tune the drums
so that they are in notes
that don't conflict with the song,
and ideally it would be
in the key of the song.
00:46:37 So, if we're doing a drum sample
after the fact,
or if a bunch of time has passed,
we just like to listen
to the drums to make sure
that the tuning did not get out or slip,
either overnight or over a few hours
if let's say the air conditioning
threw them out, or let's say that somebody
came in and just did something.
00:46:59 So we're going to take some drum samples.
Before we do that
we're going to check the tuning on each
of the drums to make sure that we're good.
00:47:06 Alright, Brian. Could you please
hit the snare drum for me?
Alright, that sounds great.
Just hit the floor tom for me.
00:47:24 And now the rack tom, please.
00:47:30 Alright, awesome. Sit tight for a second.
00:47:32 The tuning sounds consistent
with what we tracked on those drums
so we're going to go ahead
and record some drum samples.
00:47:40 Alright Brian, please give me
a few snare drums.
00:47:50 Rack tom, please.
00:47:59 Floor tom, please.
00:48:07 Alright. Can we get some hats?
Alright, great. Can we get some crashes?
- All of them?
- Just one at a time, and then both.
00:48:58 That was the China cymbal.
00:49:03 And both now.
00:49:24 And the ride, please.
00:49:31 Just hit that ride bell.
00:49:41 Hit the bass drum, please.
00:49:57 Alright, that sounds great.
00:49:59 Alright Brian, I think
that's great for now. Thank you.
00:50:02 - Thanks, Danny.
00:50:09 - So, what I like to do typically
when we get drum samples
is just make a note
that samples are on playlist 14,
and that way, if there are
further playlists down the line of edits
or anything that needs to happen
with the drums, which often happens,
we know that the drums
are on playlist 14,
and the samples are there, so that
makes it a convenient way to do it.
00:50:35 Also, it's worth mentioning
that we usually get multiple samples
of each drum,
so we get maybe, like,
four snare drum hits,
four tom hits on each tom,
and then four different kick drum hits.
00:50:48 We've worked with Brian
on this project for a while
so he's used to our workflow, he knows
to hit multiple samples of the drum,
but usually you want to do that
so that you have
either different velocities of the drum
or just different hits to pick from
so that you can pick your golden hit
when you're either making edits
or sampling the drums.
00:51:07 - Now we need to get Brian
to put the tambourine on the hi-hat
and get that sample.
00:51:11 - I'm going to do that
because he just walked out.
00:51:14 - Okay, and we need to put the mic
back where we had it yesterday.
00:51:17 - Yeah.
00:51:19 I'm going to adjust our microphone
on the hi-hat to accommodate
this sample with the new tambo
on top of it,
so I'm just going to raise it up
here a little bit
to a more appropriate position.
00:51:35 - Alright, Brian. We're going to
be doing some stomp
and tambourine overdubs.
00:51:43 Not overdubs but samples,
so just give me a variety of those.
00:51:47 Some stomps, maybe some hits.
00:51:54 We're rolling.
00:52:30 It's sounding great, man. You're a pro!
- Alright!
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Award-winning Producer, Engineer, and Mixer, Jacquire King, has worked with some of the world’s most influential artists in every role you can imagine in a recording studio. From being an acclaimed recordist to mixing and producing multi-platinum records (9X in the case of Kings Of Leon) by superstars like Kaleo, Modest Mouse, Kings of Leon, Tom Waits, Norah Jones, Buddy Guy, Cold War Kids, MuteMath, Melissa Etheridge, and James Bay.
To date, Jacquire has received several awards for his meticulous attention to detail and unique approach to creating records that withstand the test of time.
His discography is well-known for the variety of music encompassed from the past 20 years. When you see Jacquire’s tutorials on pureMix, you will have the chance to sit next to a true master at work, who strives to enhance the artist's vision and serve the songs he helps deliver to the masses.
Great vid. Don't quite get the snap to grid. While you are in SLIP mode? You can do that? Is there a short cut?
Thanks once again.
ben641
2020 Dec 28
Really love the serie, I learned a lot here on every side of the job. Thank you for sharing the producer aesthetics, these great strategies and editing techniques... Fantastic team work
Pearlpassionstudio
2020 Dec 23
Just watch this again and even got more out of your comping technique.. Have to say that I learned more from you, besides Fab, on these tutorial series. Being a drummer and mixing in the studio is very challenging with quantizing drums...especially my kit that is huge and many mics..Thanks
Robert Colwell
2020 Dec 23
Jaquire is amazing in his diligence and care. Nothing but respect for him. That being said....Perfection is boring.
Aggi
2020 Dec 19
Just great! Can't wait for the rest of the series.
mojoboy
2020 Dec 19
Tremendous respect for Jaquire, and yes, I get it, recording art, radio-friendly, that's what the fans want, fans expect this, etc. etc. etc. but it is disheartening nevertheless. No dishing here whatsoever! Just pondering the whole editing/tuning/perfecting thing philosophically I guess. Mainstream AI music is SO close! We won't need humans conceiving, performing, recording, editing, mixing, mastering, perfecting. Yet, instead of focusing on the human elements of music--imperfection in essence--we go the other way. Again, just some thoughts, not trying to be a luddite or anything either.
shane.l
2020 Dec 19
I had noticed when the tracking was being done there were a few fills that didn't have a feel that were complimentary and i wondered why the drummer wasn't asked to perform them better. I see here that edits are done after the tracking so I assume that is one of the reasons the performance was kept. I will admit I do NOT have the extent of experience tracking others as Jacquire (amazing btw), but I personally prefer to have the player "fix" things when tracking. There may be multiple reasons as to why it was done this way...time, punching multiple mics...on and on. Just a passing thought
Pearlpassionstudio
2020 Dec 19
Very interesting with the comping.....Excellent series tutorial.
