Original subtitles

Vocals.

Those pesky vocals and lyrics.

I'm obviously bringing out some top end and mid range.

I'm really cutting out some top end over here.

And I doubt you can hear this high pass filter, but...

Just on there, just make it...

That's important.

Let's see, I got another EQ here.

And again, look at that.

That's funny.

Where's all that stuff coming from?

This thing.

There you go.

This is a relatively new plug-in for me, AudioThings.

I think I found out, and I think Andrew Scheps turned me on to this company,

and I think it was Wire was the first thing I got.

And then, I ended up getting speakers, and, was it megaphone?

Maybe just speakers, and I don't know.

I think I've got some other stuff.

I remember doing this, we used to have a card that would go in

these Type-A Dolby racks, and you could encode the signal

without decoding it, and it had a cool sound.

I hadn't really thought about it much, but it's just I'm glad

somebody took it on and did it because it's a cool thing.

When you start getting into the extremities of the thing,

it's pretty rad.

I just feel it does that boost of 3k to 4k without getting really harsh.

It's got a silkiness or smoothness to it.

It can be overused, and I've hated it, but just little touches here and there.

The compression in it is quite weird, so if you use it,

check that, because it can fool you.

It did me when I first put it on, and then I heard it on some headphones

and heard all this stuff fluttering.

I've really backed off the, I don't use a quick release on it

or a fast attack because I was noticing it in certain situations.

I've slowed that down so it does it gradually.

I think that's about where it was.

And then, MicroShift, I use this a lot.

Just makes the tone a little richer.

Sometimes, it sounds too artificial to me.

I'll use something else, but in this case, it sounded all right.

I have a de-esser on here, let's see if it's doing anything.

3dB

This bandwidth.

There's a little bit of, in this, I had to be careful with these vocals

because there is a little bit of a, what sounds like a de-essing,

I think it's just her singing into the mic.

Some of the S's disappeared, and that's without any de-essing.

I can't remember.

Sometimes, that has happened to me with other vocalists,

and I actually have to go, it's a different thing

where I have to go in and push the S's.

Let's put these vocals in.

Doubled vocal obviously.

Often, I change the double, I think that's a pretty common thing to do

as far as the tone of it against the lead.

And here, I'm using...

Another AudioThings.

This is really cool.

You have all these parameters you can adjust and all these different models

that you can access.

It's a really comprehensive plug-in.

I love it.

This is another one of my favorite things to use on vocals now.

What I like about it is that I'm using it to crunch it up a little bit here.

But sometimes, if you're not getting enough of that chesty,

the lovely chest voice that people can have, or it actually is hard to ride

because it only resonates on certain notes, I find that with this,

I can actually bring it up and even it out, only put a little bit of it

in with the mix, and take off the top end of the rest of the vocal

so it is only that...

chestiness that can be really nice a lot of the time actually for me.

Another great EQ.

It's a thing where I'm not sure I can tell the difference sonically,

but I love how to use it.

It's just so easy for me to set it and do quickly what I want to do

and change the parameters.

A lot of my decisions are about that

because, I mean, let's face it, you could use anything.

We can use any plug-in.

Records have been made with so much less than this, and good records have been made

with so many different kinds of out board gear that in the end,

did it matter whether you used this one or this one or this one?

Ask me six years from now,

"Are you glad you used the Neve on the drums," or...?

I wouldn't be able to tell.

I find my decision-making often has to do more with how convenient it is to use,

how nice it is to look at when I bring it up, and I understand that immediately.

It's like my colors, I got to have colors, and they all have to be like this,

and I try to keep them the same.

On this screen they're not the same colors that I have at home.

It's harder to adjust because they have more parameters on the new ProTools.

It's important for me not to have to look at everything and go follow it.

I want to come up here and just go, yeah, percussion, drums, guitar,

and the colors help me.

I think here, you'll see me, I'm bringing stuff out,

but I probably did that after I put a lot of this in to bring up some mid range,

because I was losing S's on this without there being...

some of this on there.

Once I had done this, but I had evened it out.

Here, I think if I get this on, it'll bring some of that up.

So now they're... And getting them back in.

I love...

This EQ was kindly sent to me by Dave Pensado, and I really like it.

And in fact, I really like the PRE2, Dave.

I often just don't even use the EQ.

I just put the vocal through that on PRE2 and it sounds better.

It's got a little bit of a mid range boost.

I don't know for sure, but 2.5k or 3k to 4k,

something in there, but in a really nice way.

Really clarifies the vocal.

Let's see what happens with the Devil-Loc here.

There's a little bit more... That's bringing up 2k or 1k as well.

That's not doing really anything.

It's a little more than a tickle, and I've got two of them.

Of course, two is better, always.

Two is always better than one.

Phoenix, it's always on.

I don't even check it anymore because it's always sounded better when I put that on.

I do change it sometimes.

I go between these and just go, oh yeah, that one.

I couldn't tell you the difference except that in the moment, it just feels

oh, that fits.

I really don't scrutinize these things very much.

Let's see what this is doing a little bit.

Controlling some of those bits that are too loud.

I use this quite often, but I'm not using it on this song.

That's just got a really sweet mid range.

Another one of those 3, 1.5k to 3k places where it just has a,

it actually has a characterful sound.

I do find it useful.

I'm not using the Big Freak on this.

I've got Aphex.

I end up using this on every vocal.

This has, it's a similar thing to the Type A,

only the type A has... it's almost elegance.

You can make it, I know, not so elegant, but it's kind of elegant,

and this is not elegant.

It is hashy-sounding, and I like...

Let me see.

I've got quite a good bit of compression on there.

That's unusual.

I can't remember the last time I saw that much compression on my vocal chain,

but there it is.

I'm sure I had a good reason for it at the time.

Call my secretary.

Plate is automated, you heard that there.

I don't think I had a delay on here, did I?

I don't remember where I had the delays on.

I don't think I did.

I don't think so.

I think what probably happened on this is when I got some of these things

like the Type A and the Aphex, because without anything,

I was losing some S's.

I think I remember pushing S's and it wasn't working.

This is conjecture, but I think I went back and started putting this stuff on it

which then brought the S's out more than I wanted,

and I wanted more of that 3k hashiness and all that that does.

And then, I went in and adjusted them after getting all this on there.

I painted myself into a corner, and then worked out a way to just

quickly smooth it out, to my ear, and went with it.

There's an intro vocal here.

Panning, got it over to the side.