Original subtitles

I think I'd like to just say a little bit about... that's all the parts

and definitely not in the order I would have mixed it.

I mentioned it a little bit before where it's pretty... what we say in the UK

or in America, it's pretty willy-nilly.

I can't imagine...

I can't remember what I would have done on this song,

because it's so dependent on the day and my mood

and how much coffee I had that morning.

I'll get into the studio.

My ears may feel a funny way, because some days

my ears are off and truly off.

One is sort of dull and then two hours later, it's fine,

and so it changes my approach.

So I just go with it.

Natural horsemanship, they say you always work

with the horse that shows up.

Don't try to make the horse into something that you want,

but work with the one that shows up.

So that's my horse.

I try to work with it, whatever it is, that day.

I have ways around it.

I can switch the speakers on my console.

So if I need to hear the top end over there, I switch the speakers

and go, "Yeah. Okay, that's fine."

I can go back and know that it's fine, even though I can't hear it as well

in that hour or two.

I can definitely do that.

So I'll just say how it could have gone.

I may have seen all the stuff and listened to that kick, and said,

"Okay, I need my sub..."

Let's get the sub worked out.

I'll get that in there because that's going to be major

how I see everything else in the song.

And to do it, I might have done it soloed, built a trigger, soloed the kicks up,

make sure that it's not flamming, or if it is, that I like it.

That the phase is the way I want it, whether it's dropping the pitch down

and out of phase but lowering it all and then it bringing up, all that stuff.

But while I'm doing that, in between each move,

I might be coming down here and going, "What's the bass doing?

Okay, that's what it is doing."

I might bring it up to full level and then bring it down to -15,

where it's just in the mix so I can at least hear that it's there

because now I know what it sounds like.

It's in my head.

Oh vocal, I better check that.

Then put the vocal in, get a little something on it like that FX 1 one,

the reverb, which is the Space Echo.

I'll just put that on a little bit so it's not just a dry vocal in the track.

And then go back up and bring some of these other elements in

and go, how's that work? Oh, that's sort of bridge.

Oh, that's sounding cool. Oh, wow.

Oh, so that sounds like it's close.

I'll get a quick level and, the snare drum is not really speaking here.

Let's do that on SansAmp because I haven't used it yet.

Oh, that sounds good.

Let's go down here and adjust the Omnipressor.

And, no, that's not going to fly.

Bring up the bass.

Oh, that's not going to fly with the bass.

Bring up the vocal.

I know, I'll spread the SansAmp and make it more like a room sound.

And then it will unclog the center and then listen to it.

Go, "Yeah, I think that's going to work."

What are those crashes doing?

Oh, shit, there's percussion.

Just bring the percussion up quickly.

Oh, okay.

No, I can make those so they're not going to clash with the crashes.

I'll worry about that later.

I want to get the crashes on the kit so they really work.

I know I can do stuff to this to fit it in.

Work on the crashes.

Oh, there's toms.

Damn.

It's getting crowded.

What do I do?

Oh, okay.

No, too much top end, dull amount,

not long enough, can't really hear that they're toms.

SansAmp, yeah, that sounds better.

Oh, I can hear the length now.

Oh, that's a tom.

Too loud. Sneak them in.

All right. What's happening with the bass?

I can get away with more toms, a little more toms, bass.

Oh, guitars. I better check these guitars against that.

Let's put the guitars in.

Okay, now, those are going to work, but let's spread them.

Hold on, that looks weird.

What's that?

That looks like a low thing.

Oh good, it's not.

It's a midrange beauty thing.

I can fit that in later. Get rid of it.

For two and a half hours that's what I'm doing.

Going back and forth.

I try to lose myself in it.

There's no words when I'm doing that, okay?

I'm just being comical here.

That's what I'm doing.

Listening to everything.

I'm changing phase, even the guitar against the bass because there might be

frequencies in there that you hear something change.

Probably not, but sometimes there are.

It's amazing.

Sometimes, you change one keyboard against another

or the guitar against the keyboard, and you...

Oh, wow.

So that's like changing the EQ to me, which you would do normally.

Let's go and change the EQ against the keyboard

and make sure it's going to work together.

Carve out a spot for it, or try to blend them together

so they sound like one sound.

No rules.

No way of knowing it's going to work, to me, until I do it.

And I let myself do all sorts of stupid things that I... in front of somebody,

I'd probably be embarrassed, but the amount of times that it's worked

after I've done it is maybe not a high percentage, but that's enough to...

even if it was twice out of eight, that it would have been

really embarrassing for somebody to see me do that.

If I get two out of there, I go, "Oh, my gosh, that worked. It's worth it."

It's worth the shame, so I do it.

And I might have put that Buenos on this feedback.

Come down here, done a keyboard.

Go, "Ah, nah."

Take the Buenos off.

Okay. Back to the keyboard.

Oh wait, back to the keyboard over here.

Now, what's the guitar doing?

Oh, no, maybe, the Buenos was better.

I can't tell if it's better, but I would leave it

thinking maybe it's better.

If it becomes a problem, then maybe I'd solo the two.

But if I never think about it again,

I don't think about it.

If I get to the end of the song, playing it without trying to make

more moves because something's bothering me, then it's working to my ear.

And that's how I finish.

I do this practically the whole time, and it's like I teeter back,

turn stuff off, turn EQ off, turn compressors off.

Go extreme on the EQ, go less, flip phase.

Turn off the effect, change the panning, level up, level down.

All over the place, drums.

I never stop the drums, I never stop the vocal.

It's the whole thing. So it's a seesaw.

And as I get closer to when I think I'm going to be finished,

the seesaw just stops doing as much until...

And I play from the top, most often, because for me to hear how this guitar

is going to work coming in, or maybe, a keyboard pushing it up,

I'll do the move, and then I'll listen from the top for other things.

And then when it hits that point, I go, "Ah, that level doesn't work,"

coming in after hearing the whole song, doesn't work to me.

So I do that a lot.

So as I'm listening, I'm doing less and less and less and less

and less and less and less and less until I play it from the top

and I'm ready to do a move,

and I get to the end and go, "Oh, yeah, I think there was just this one

little vocal move I wanted to make or... and that's it."

And then I go and hit record.

And then at that moment, sometimes, I hit record and literally 5 seconds,

and I go, "Oh, shit, I got to bring this down. Boom."

I'll bring that way down.

And then it'll get up to here, I'll be recording, and I go,

"Oh, you know, what? That needs to hit harder.

Let me bring this down a dB and a half."

So when that comes in, it really kicks.

That's not too bad, but we all know more is better.

Sounds better to me.

It's a dB and a half on your Stereo Bus.

And then I'll do that, I'll start again.

And once I get to the end and I haven't made a move,

that's when I send out my first mix.

And I usually get sent a little bowl of confetti and a bottle of champagne

from the artist to celebrate that I finished them.

No, I'm kidding.

Then they tell me what they want... what they really want.

And I'd say half the time it's not that.

I bet I did what I wanted to do on the project.

On this project, I think it was very little that she wanted.

She really loved it.

But like I said, half the time I'm working for artists who say,

"No, there's too much... You got to pull this in.

There's too much on the extremities, or there's too much distortion in places.

I don't like the crunchiness of the snare, or can you add more crunch to the vocal?

Vocal up," whatever it is.

But I think it's important for me to do...

I do the mix for me.

That's what I'm doing this for, and I'm hoping that the artists will like it.

I don't feel good if I go in going, "I'm doing this for the artist,

and whatever they want, I'll alter it and get what the artist wants

because it's their record.

I think that's okay. I'm not dissing that, but that's not what I do.

I do the mix for how I want to hear it sound,

and then I'll do it for the artist.

But if I don't do that, I'll always resent myself

for not doing what I wanted to do.

And I get it out of my system, and then I'll make adjustments.

If it's too many adjustments and they don't like the direction at all,

that to me is a red flag that I'm not the right guy.

And I usually say so, because I don't want to go in second-guessing

next time I go in and pan stuff wide, add SansAmp to a snare drum.

I don't want to go, "Oh, last mix they didn't like it, so I better not do that."

To me, I'll quit right then and there.

If I start thinking like that, that's when I don't take a project.

So, luckily, Queen Kwang and me were on the same page,

and I'm really happy about it because I really loved this record.

And that's why I wanted to do this because I think it's one of the better things

that I've done and worked on.

And to me, it was a gift.

And thank you very much, Carre, if you ever watch this video,

and John for bringing it to me.

That concludes our mix deconstruction from Mix With The Masters studio in Paris.