All language subtitles for PART 1_EN

I'm Kevin 'KD' Davis,
otherwise known as KD.

I'm here with
Mix With The Masters.

We're going to go over a song
by Normani and Sam Smith called

"Dancing With A Stranger."

Started mixing in the studio or started
as an assistant engineer in the studio

when I was 19,
right out of high school.

Worked for a couple of studios
around town for a couple of years.

And then one of the main studios
I worked at was called Sound Castle.

From there on, I started gaining
clients as a recording engineer

and started mixing people's records,

and then moved over to different studios
around and gaining clients over the years.

And got a chance to mix on a bunch
of different genres from rap to hip-hop

to R&B, to pop,
all kind of records.

So just experience
through the years.

Well, when I started,
I was mainly an analog mixer

using analog consoles, the SSL,
the Neves, that's primarily...

Most of my career,
I was based in analog.

That was how everybody
mixed back in the day.

So as time evolved and Pro Tools
started taking over the industry,

I started really getting
more into using Pro Tools

with both analog
and Pro Tools together.

But now, I'm primarily in the box with
some analog gear that I'm still using.

Different projects came
to me different ways.

Mainly in the R&B, pop world
is where I make my bones at.

Started working at different studios,
gained different clients here and there.

Got a couple of records
that did pretty well.

And the rest was history, it just kept
growing and building as time went on.

So here in my room at Beach Way Sound,
this was actually a room

that actually had
a 96-channel SSL "K" in it.

This room was... actually,
previously used to be called Pacifique.

It had been here
since the '90s.

And it was
very well built.

One of the best-sounding rooms,
I'd say, in the city.

We got Augspurger monitors.

I'm currently using as my nearfield,
some Focal SM9s, and the Yamaha NS10s.

I like using various
different cheap speakers.

I sometimes monitor
through my iPhone

or I'll use a little JBL
little handheld party speaker

just to kind of listen to see
what it's going to sound like

in a normal environment,
in a regular environment.

I'm currently using a
Slate Digital RAVEN for my monitor.

And some of the outboard
gear I use are the NTI stereo EQ,

the Avalon 2055 stereo EQ.

Just different pieces of gear that have
the signature sound that add

to some certain sounds
that I like to use.

Mainly I'm using my outboard gear
on vocals and the overall Bus Mix,

but most of my stuff
is in the box.

When it comes to summing,
I would think to each his own.

For me, I tried summing
in a couple of different boxes.

And I did hear a slight difference, but it
wasn't enough of a difference to me

to say, "This sounds
dramatically better."

And for me, I work on a lot of records, so
it's like I have to get to the next song,

and it was just easy
for me to stay within the box.

So when I'm changing over different songs,
I don't have to do as much

outside of the session
to get what I need to get done.

But like I said, it's to each his own,
some people like analog summing.

For me, it just it's quicker and it's
easier and I'm able to achieve the sound

that I want within the box using different
gear and just using different sounds.

I spend a lot of time
just conditioning

the sounds that are really important,
conditioning those so they sound good

before I even actually put in effects,
getting anything to it,

just really the base signal,
getting it sounded really good,

so when I get the final product,
it feels like as if I mixed it on a board.

So as far as the outboard
gear that I use on the Mix Bus,

the only really piece of gear that I use
that's analog is the NTI Stereo EQ.

There's a setting that I have on there
that I just... I don't really change it.

I just poke it in
when the mix is close.

And I always find that when I poke it in
and put it in the spot in the chain,

it just makes the mix
wake up and open up.

It's a slight EQ, but it just does
something to the overall mix.

And I don't really put that in until about
80% or 90% ready to go with the song

and I got it
sounding pretty good.

I've never used the UAD version,
but the EQ that I have,

I think it's slightly different
than the UAD version.

It's one of
the older models.

So I haven't seen
this model in the UAD

but it's just something about running that
analog, and maybe it's just in my brain,

but it just feels good when
you're running the mix outside

and bringing it back in
through an analog piece of gear.

It gives it
a different character.

I actually use a couple
of different frequencies on it.

There's a nice bottom end to it
that it adds and a nice air bend

that the NTI's
known for.

But there's also some
midrange stuff that I dial in.

And I just find that when
I pop it in on whatever song,

it just works,
it brings the song alive.

Everything's really subtle.

It's not really
over-dramatically EQ'd.

It's just adding different
things in the chain

to see how it makes the song
sound better.

And sometimes I might not
use anything.

I might just slap NTI
and some slight or nothing

and just let it ride if it feels good.

But it really depends on the song.
Every song is different.

The other analog gear
I use is the 2055.

And I primarily
use that on vocals.

There's just something about the top end
of that older EQ that sounds sweet.

I haven't really had a lot of EQs
that duplicate that sound.

So what I'll do is I'll get a vocal,
and I'll just listen to it raw

without anything on it.

And I'll start doing a couple of little
things to it, which we'll go over.

And then I'll throw this EQ on it just
to kind of... if it needs some more body

or if it needs some more top or whatever
it might need, just a slight change to it

just to give me the character so I know
I'll have something to work with.

Then I'll rerun that back and print that
and then work off of the printed new vocal

to start
the mix with.

So the song we're going to start with
today is a song by Sam Smith and Normani

called "Dancing
With A Stranger."

The first thing I do when I get a song,
I just listen to the reference track.

And I go over that a few times
as I'm playing in the background.

Just listen to it, getting
myself familiar with it.

Because a lot of times, this is the first
time I'm ever hearing the song

and the producer's
been living with it for a while.

So I want to understand what they love
about it, what I think could sound better,

but at the same time,
keeping the essence of what they created.

So I'll go and I'll start
playing the reference.

And as I'm playing the reference, I'm just
listening to where the vocals are sitting,

I'm listening to how
the kick and bass is feeling,

what kind of song it really is,
what does it need,

what kind of energy it
may need me to add,

what kind of energy it naturally has,
and what can I enhance?

So as I'm listening to the reference,
I'm listening to the melody,

I'm listening to lyrics,
just seeing what the vibe of the song is.

Familiarizing myself
with the song.

That's probably the first
30 minutes of the session.

I'm just doing that.

And then once I get that going, the first
thing I start with is the vocals.

And I'll strip everything away
and just use the vocal, the lead vocals

by themselves, just listening to what's
going on, what may they need

just to get it to an area

where I can start really
working with it within the mix.

So on this particular song,
Sam Smith is singing the first verse,

and I'm just getting
used to his vocal.

So right now we're
monitoring the reference.

Just getting an idea of the spacing
that I might need to add to the vocal

or to the song itself.

Now that I'm hearing what's going on,
I'll just listen to Sam's vocal by itself,

just to hear what he's got going on,
to see what I may need.

So I'm listening to Sam's vocal,
just getting an idea what he might need.

He's got a nice
round tone to him.

Kind of bring it up with a little bit of
R-Vox just to bring his level up overall.

Very subtle.
Nothing crazy.

And after listening,
then I'll just move on to see if he needs

just any slight
compression.

And I like to use
the Softube TLA-100.

I used to use the analog
version a lot for summing.

But this is very similar
to the analog version.

And I also like to use it in parallel
a little bit, so I'll add a little bit

of the original signal in
with the compressed signal.

Again, nothing major,
just some subtle stuff.

And then after that,
I'll go to my analog EQ,

which is actually
the Avalon 2055.

So that's actually
sitting in my rack.

And so what I'll do is I'll go over
and just dial in some top end.

I might dial in
a little bit of midrange.

Just a little bit, nothing crazy,
just to get it to where I know

that it's a ballpark range
that I have something to work with.

So as I'm rerunning the vocal
that I'm doing some work to,

I'll run it through the Mix Bus,
but I won't have anything on the Mix Bus,

so I'll leave that just blank because
I want to have it as close to the sound

that I made and I can always
manipulate it later through the Mix Bus

within the mix session.

I'll usually bypass whatever I have
on my Mix Bus channel.

And I'll rerun the vocal through the gear
that I mentioned before and make a new,

fresh vocal stem for it,
a lead vocal stem.

So I might break it up into sections
like a verse or the chorus or a B section,

but usually, I'm doing
a verse vocal or a chorus vocal.

I might do one whole vocal it just
depends on how the song is set up.

In this case, we got
one lead vocal for Sam.

He's got a little octave vocal
that I'll make a stem for.

And then Normani has her lead vocal,
and she has a slight

one little adlib track
that we'll add.

So it'll be four vocal
stems for the lead.

And then there's a couple
of little background parts

that I will maybe
do a stem part too.

But it's really two vocals,
so I might not need to stem that out.

I might just bring that
into the session as is.

So the process of me doing the leads
will just consist of me running right back

through the Mix Bus and starting
from scratch from there.

So once I've run all the passes, then I'll
create what's called a mix stem session.

So I'll close this up.

So now that I have the vocals into my mix
session, I'm still listening to the song

just vocals only, just seeing
what's going on with it.

And I might add the drums
and bass just to build a foundation.

Because to me, that's the foundation
of the song, is the lyric, the melody,

and then the rhythm section.

And then we can put
everything else around that afterwards.

All right. So now that I have
the vocals in the mix session,

I'll start with the leads
and put a little tune on it.

In this case, I had a little bit of
Auto-Tune on there.

Then I followed it up with a little 1073
because I like the way

the midrange
sounds on this.

And one of my favorite...
Using combination EQs,

I like using the Neve
1073 followed by an SSL.

The Neve gives me the roundness,
the nice round part.

And then I can dial in
the top with the SSL.

So in this case, I'm kind of boosting
a little bit of some lows in the 1073,

and a little bit of midrange around 3.2,
and a little top end, and then after that,

I'll go into
my SSL EQ.

And I'm boosting maybe
a little bit of 800 around there,

just seeing what it sounds like.

So now that we're getting through it, I'll
listen to see if there's any frequencies

that are bothering me
that need to be tamed down.

So I like to use
the Pro-MB by FabFilter.

It's real clean, real transparent
sounding, but it gets the job done.

So right now I'm taking my little top
off using it as DS'er.

And some of the
high midrange.

So it's not as harsh
in the high midrange area.

And then I'll actually put
another DS'er just back there.

So I'm using it subtly because I think
the song had a lot of SS going on

that I need
to smooth out.

After that, I might follow it up with just
a little bit of R-Vox just slightly

bringing the vocal now
that I've got it where I wanted to.

Just bringing it together, kind of
gluing it together like a slight glue.

Nothing dramatic, just all slight subtle
things as I'm building the mix.

And so as I'm listening to the vocals
and I add in the kick and the bass

and the snare just
to build that foundation,

I'm just starting to throw in
different sounds.

I might throw in the famous
keyboard sound that they put in there

just to see how that fits
in space with the vocals.

And then it determines
what kind of verb I'll pick.

Because I want the verb to work with
everything else that's going on the track.

So in this case, I used
the Valhalla Dirty Plate.

Which is a great-sounding verb.

And I also use a little bit of slight
chorusing to just make the vocal sound

a little wider,
just a little...

so it can dominate
the track a little bit.

I like this Valhalla
Space Modulator.

This sound I got a little preset
that I have on there that I like to use.

And I'll maybe take off a little high end
and spread it a little bit.

Just give it
its only little thing.

And what I found is it just
gives the vocal that extra oomph

that it needs to just sit
in the track correctly for me.

And then I'll just play with the levels
and get a blend between

the foundational pieces, the vocals,
the drums, the bass,

and then start adding
stuff in as I go.