As Jimmy continues working through the tracks, he turns his attention to verse 2, works on the rap vocal, explains his preference for mixing templates and starts working on the background vocals.
See how Jimmy Douglass:
Continues enhancing the tom fills
Processes the rap vocal
Revisits his arrangement edits
Discusses why he doesn't use a mixing template
Compresses the background vocals
A/Bs different flanger/doublers on the background vocals
De-esses the vocals and demonstrates the difference of de-essing pre and post compressor
Watch Jimmy Douglass, mix "Light Shine Through" from Jared Evan. Only on pureMix.net
00:00:23 We're gonna raise that
tom fill I mentioned earlier
because I love it so much
and even now when I hear the vocal
it has more
relevance to me.
00:00:31 So we're gonna bring up that
a little bit more.
00:00:35 It was fun before but watch out now.
00:00:38 You think you're having fun, watch!
That's it, I can go home now.
00:00:50 Thank you very much.
00:00:51 Good seeing you guys.
00:00:54 Let's see the next guy,
if it has the same relevance.
00:01:02 He'll get some too,
he might get the same love.
00:01:05 By the way, you know,
sometimes when you do these things,
you make these moves,
many times I see
automatically
copy/paste
to the same time it always happens
but it doesn't mean it's
gonna sound the same
in the next section because
maybe the information is different.
00:01:21 In this case it was a rap
so it didn't really feel like
the other section felt
but I can still use more of it.
00:01:26 But it didn't automatically mean that
I had to raise
this to the other level.
00:01:30 I needed to hear
what it was first
before making that decision.
00:01:33 Or not, I could just put in on there
and kept moving.
00:02:08 I wanna put a compressor on him,
just because.
00:02:11 They come in a little bit low
and maybe I can use
the dynamic to bring them out
and be more competitive with the section
that just preceded them.
00:02:20 So that they'll step
into the limelight and be
accounted for.
00:02:25 And for this I have just the proper,
Mr Smack.
00:02:30 Step up in be accounted Mr Smack.
00:02:32 It's a compressor,
simple compressor.
00:02:37 I believe it's warm.
00:02:40 Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
00:02:41 It has a little even/odd distortion.
I'll put a little bit of that in there.
00:02:49 Lower the attack,
lower the release.
00:02:52 And make the ratio
3:1.
00:02:55 Let's just do that
and see what we've got.
00:03:13 It's starting to sound a little bit over
compressed in that middle section.
00:03:18 When it first came out of the
other section I think it sounded
kind of nice
but let's hear the difference.
00:03:36 It's a little
definitionless
as they would call it.
00:03:40 So we put this in and see how it helps us
come out of this section once again.
00:04:29 He said: 'I've been a
winner stuck in fourth place.'
Very clever. Very clever!
Very visual, actually.
00:04:36 Let's see what else we have.
We have a low vocal that goes with that.
00:04:41 I'd be remiss to leave him out.
00:07:13 I'll put this piece of that snare
back
and see the difference
in that one place.
00:07:28 I like it.
00:07:30 OK, I'm just comparing things,
just checking some of my decisions.
00:07:35 Earlier, when we chopped out those drums,
I thought maybe they may come
in to play something different.
00:07:40 but I haven't really missed them,
the pattern that we've created
seems to sit well with me.
00:07:47 Of course there's this thing called
the producer and the artist,
they want it different but...
00:07:54 It is their record and they're
entitled to how they feel
it should be.
00:07:58 I guess giving a record to a mixer
is kind of like getting a
second opinion from a doctor.
00:08:46 And I think for those backgrounds
I'm gonna make a little Aux.
00:08:49 I wanna control and play with them.
00:08:52 So that they can come out of
another place, and that way I can
do things.
00:08:59 If you have templates for your mixing
you have your Auxes and everything set up
so you
actually get the mixes in
and import them,
and you just basically up and ready to go.
00:09:09 I think of it differently.
00:09:11 I get so many different types of music
between Trap,
I guess Pop,
and all the different stuff
that I don't really have a template
because I let the music
dictate to me how I wanna do.
00:09:23 So it's a little bit slower
and it's a little more like
taking the time to cook the thing,
Like measuring all the ingredients
but
that's just how I do,
they come prepared in packages already
but
I'm in no hurry
I'm enjoying the music,
I'm enjoying the process,
that's kind of why
you'll see me stop
and think of other things
that probably you've already had
up and running
and
yes, I know you can do that,
I just enjoy this,
that's why
I take my time to do it this way.
00:09:57 We're gonna make this the background Aux.
00:10:00 We have a background
Aux already. This will be two.
00:10:03 And this for the pre.
00:10:15 So, let's bus 17 and 18,
that's gonna be very nice.
00:11:19 Slight compression on there.
00:11:21 I use this UAD product, the dbx-160.
00:11:25 For me it feels like,
back in the day, that compressor was used
on background vocals to kind of just
do a little something
without really compressing them,
they kind of just glued them.
00:11:59 Just what the doctor ordered,
it gave them a different dimension
than any other sound
in this record so far.
00:12:05 And now I'll see if I
put a little FX on top of that.
00:12:08 Let's see what's on the toolbox for today.
00:13:31 Let's try this.
00:14:55 De-esser...
00:14:57 On those backgrounds.
00:15:21 Just a little slight de-essing
is getting rid of that little...
00:15:24 that the backgrounds have.
00:15:27 That's cumulatively
collected there.
00:15:29 So that does help a little bit.
00:15:31 The question usually I have
to myself when I use a de-esser,
with the compressor,
is that I always think,
well, put the de-esser on first
because then it won't
compress the ....
00:15:41 But they never quite
sound exactly the same
so you kind of gotta go
for your own and kind of
go front and back and see the difference.
00:15:49 So I'm gonna actually do it
right now that I mentioned it.
00:15:52 Let's put the compressor behind
the de-esser.
00:16:12 The compressor was actually
making it nice and warm first.
00:16:39 Let's live with that for the moment.
00:16:41 It sounds pretty decent.
00:17:06 And I went ahead and
used the FX that they had,
this is a Vintage Verb...
00:17:11 Yeah, Vintage Verb
and EQ_8.
00:17:13 And I raised that a little bit,
that's kind of making the vocals
nice and round
and wonderful.
00:17:22 Let's have a listen to this flanger
one more time,
I might leave it on.
00:17:36 Great! So now we're going
to actually go and inactivate that
so we have no thoughts later.
00:17:41 And let's keep moving on and see
what else we have
that we find interesting.
We have some backgrounds in the middle.
00:18:02 A big harmony.
00:18:04 This is the section we pay the money for.
00:18:13 It's very nice,
they are all really ganged.
00:18:57 A little reverb for those guys.
00:18:59 I just want a nice shiny
reverb we had before.
00:19:02 And we'll actually add a little brightness
on them as well
so they poke out a little better.
00:19:06 Simple, simple, simple.
00:19:19 He has a very homogeneous voice
that really works nice with the EQ.
00:19:22 The grain in his voice is very pleasing.
00:20:09 And...
00:20:11 there's more background vocals here.
00:21:25 We'll find you.
00:21:28 It's just a solo/isolate.
00:21:30 There you are.
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Jimmy Douglass (also known as The Senator) is an American four-time Grammy winning recording engineer and record producer, whose prolific career has spanned more than four decades.
During the 1980?s, Douglass continued to hone his engineering skills while also taking on the role as producer. He engineered and produced established artists including The Rolling Stones, Slave, Odyssey, Roxy Music and Gang of Four.
Presently, he continues to display his versatility by remaining current while drawing from his years of experience. Douglass is best known for bringing unconventional techniques into the studio and encouraging artists to transcend genre restrictions. He is credited with bringing a raw edge to sound and specifically bringing a heavy funk bass sound into rock music. His hard work and immense talent has carved a place for him among some of the most respected engineers and mixers in the world.
