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I'm Kevin 'KD' Davis,
otherwise known as KD.
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I'm here with
Mix With The Masters.
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We're going to go over a song
by Normani and Sam Smith called
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"Dancing With A Stranger."
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Started mixing in the studio or started
as an assistant engineer in the studio
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when I was 19,
right out of high school.
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Worked for a couple of studios
around town for a couple of years.
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And then one of the main studios
I worked at was called Sound Castle.
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From there on, I started gaining
clients as a recording engineer
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and started mixing people's records,
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and then moved over to different studios
around and gaining clients over the years.
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And got a chance to mix on a bunch
of different genres from rap to hip-hop
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to R&B, to pop,
all kind of records.
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So just experience
through the years.
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Well, when I started,
I was mainly an analog mixer
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using analog consoles, the SSL,
the Neves, that's primarily...
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Most of my career,
I was based in analog.
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That was how everybody
mixed back in the day.
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So as time evolved and Pro Tools
started taking over the industry,
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I started really getting
more into using Pro Tools
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with both analog
and Pro Tools together.
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But now, I'm primarily in the box with
some analog gear that I'm still using.
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Different projects came
to me different ways.
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Mainly in the R&B, pop world
is where I make my bones at.
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Started working at different studios,
gained different clients here and there.
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Got a couple of records
that did pretty well.
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And the rest was history, it just kept
growing and building as time went on.
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So here in my room at Beach Way Sound,
this was actually a room
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that actually had
a 96-channel SSL "K" in it.
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This room was... actually,
previously used to be called Pacifique.
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It had been here
since the '90s.
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And it was
very well built.
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One of the best-sounding rooms,
I'd say, in the city.
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We got Augspurger monitors.
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I'm currently using as my nearfield,
some Focal SM9s, and the Yamaha NS10s.
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I like using various
different cheap speakers.
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I sometimes monitor
through my iPhone
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or I'll use a little JBL
little handheld party speaker
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just to kind of listen to see
what it's going to sound like
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in a normal environment,
in a regular environment.
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I'm currently using a
Slate Digital RAVEN for my monitor.
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And some of the outboard
gear I use are the NTI stereo EQ,
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the Avalon 2055 stereo EQ.
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Just different pieces of gear that have
the signature sound that add
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to some certain sounds
that I like to use.
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Mainly I'm using my outboard gear
on vocals and the overall Bus Mix,
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but most of my stuff
is in the box.
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When it comes to summing,
I would think to each his own.
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For me, I tried summing
in a couple of different boxes.
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And I did hear a slight difference, but it
wasn't enough of a difference to me
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to say, "This sounds
dramatically better."
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And for me, I work on a lot of records, so
it's like I have to get to the next song,
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and it was just easy
for me to stay within the box.
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So when I'm changing over different songs,
I don't have to do as much
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outside of the session
to get what I need to get done.
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But like I said, it's to each his own,
some people like analog summing.
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For me, it just it's quicker and it's
easier and I'm able to achieve the sound
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that I want within the box using different
gear and just using different sounds.
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I spend a lot of time
just conditioning
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the sounds that are really important,
conditioning those so they sound good
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before I even actually put in effects,
getting anything to it,
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just really the base signal,
getting it sounded really good,
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so when I get the final product,
it feels like as if I mixed it on a board.
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So as far as the outboard
gear that I use on the Mix Bus,
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the only really piece of gear that I use
that's analog is the NTI Stereo EQ.
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There's a setting that I have on there
that I just... I don't really change it.
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I just poke it in
when the mix is close.
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And I always find that when I poke it in
and put it in the spot in the chain,
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it just makes the mix
wake up and open up.
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It's a slight EQ, but it just does
something to the overall mix.
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And I don't really put that in until about
80% or 90% ready to go with the song
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and I got it
sounding pretty good.
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I've never used the UAD version,
but the EQ that I have,
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I think it's slightly different
than the UAD version.
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It's one of
the older models.
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So I haven't seen
this model in the UAD
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but it's just something about running that
analog, and maybe it's just in my brain,
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but it just feels good when
you're running the mix outside
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and bringing it back in
through an analog piece of gear.
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It gives it
a different character.
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I actually use a couple
of different frequencies on it.
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There's a nice bottom end to it
that it adds and a nice air bend
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that the NTI's
known for.
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But there's also some
midrange stuff that I dial in.
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And I just find that when
I pop it in on whatever song,
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it just works,
it brings the song alive.
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Everything's really subtle.
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It's not really
over-dramatically EQ'd.
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It's just adding different
things in the chain
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to see how it makes the song
sound better.
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And sometimes I might not
use anything.
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I might just slap NTI
and some slight or nothing
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and just let it ride if it feels good.
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But it really depends on the song.
Every song is different.
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The other analog gear
I use is the 2055.
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And I primarily
use that on vocals.
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There's just something about the top end
of that older EQ that sounds sweet.
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I haven't really had a lot of EQs
that duplicate that sound.
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So what I'll do is I'll get a vocal,
and I'll just listen to it raw
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without anything on it.
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And I'll start doing a couple of little
things to it, which we'll go over.
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And then I'll throw this EQ on it just
to kind of... if it needs some more body
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or if it needs some more top or whatever
it might need, just a slight change to it
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just to give me the character so I know
I'll have something to work with.
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Then I'll rerun that back and print that
and then work off of the printed new vocal
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to start
the mix with.
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So the song we're going to start with
today is a song by Sam Smith and Normani
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called "Dancing
With A Stranger."
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The first thing I do when I get a song,
I just listen to the reference track.
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And I go over that a few times
as I'm playing in the background.
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Just listen to it, getting
myself familiar with it.
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Because a lot of times, this is the first
time I'm ever hearing the song
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and the producer's
been living with it for a while.
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So I want to understand what they love
about it, what I think could sound better,
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but at the same time,
keeping the essence of what they created.
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So I'll go and I'll start
playing the reference.
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And as I'm playing the reference, I'm just
listening to where the vocals are sitting,
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I'm listening to how
the kick and bass is feeling,
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what kind of song it really is,
what does it need,
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what kind of energy it
may need me to add,
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what kind of energy it naturally has,
and what can I enhance?
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So as I'm listening to the reference,
I'm listening to the melody,
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I'm listening to lyrics,
just seeing what the vibe of the song is.
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Familiarizing myself
with the song.
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That's probably the first
30 minutes of the session.
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I'm just doing that.
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And then once I get that going, the first
thing I start with is the vocals.
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And I'll strip everything away
and just use the vocal, the lead vocals
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by themselves, just listening to what's
going on, what may they need
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just to get it to an area
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where I can start really
working with it within the mix.
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So on this particular song,
Sam Smith is singing the first verse,
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and I'm just getting
used to his vocal.
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So right now we're
monitoring the reference.
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Just getting an idea of the spacing
that I might need to add to the vocal
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or to the song itself.
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Now that I'm hearing what's going on,
I'll just listen to Sam's vocal by itself,
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just to hear what he's got going on,
to see what I may need.
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So I'm listening to Sam's vocal,
just getting an idea what he might need.
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He's got a nice
round tone to him.
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Kind of bring it up with a little bit of
R-Vox just to bring his level up overall.
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Very subtle.
Nothing crazy.
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And after listening,
then I'll just move on to see if he needs
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just any slight
compression.
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And I like to use
the Softube TLA-100.
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I used to use the analog
version a lot for summing.
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But this is very similar
to the analog version.
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And I also like to use it in parallel
a little bit, so I'll add a little bit
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of the original signal in
with the compressed signal.
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Again, nothing major,
just some subtle stuff.
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And then after that,
I'll go to my analog EQ,
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which is actually
the Avalon 2055.
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So that's actually
sitting in my rack.
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And so what I'll do is I'll go over
and just dial in some top end.
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I might dial in
a little bit of midrange.
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Just a little bit, nothing crazy,
just to get it to where I know
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that it's a ballpark range
that I have something to work with.
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So as I'm rerunning the vocal
that I'm doing some work to,
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I'll run it through the Mix Bus,
but I won't have anything on the Mix Bus,
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so I'll leave that just blank because
I want to have it as close to the sound
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that I made and I can always
manipulate it later through the Mix Bus
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within the mix session.
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I'll usually bypass whatever I have
on my Mix Bus channel.
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And I'll rerun the vocal through the gear
that I mentioned before and make a new,
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fresh vocal stem for it,
a lead vocal stem.
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So I might break it up into sections
like a verse or the chorus or a B section,
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00:10:02,716 --> 00:10:07,185
but usually, I'm doing
a verse vocal or a chorus vocal.
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I might do one whole vocal it just
depends on how the song is set up.
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In this case, we got
one lead vocal for Sam.
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He's got a little octave vocal
that I'll make a stem for.
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And then Normani has her lead vocal,
and she has a slight
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one little adlib track
that we'll add.
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So it'll be four vocal
stems for the lead.
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And then there's a couple
of little background parts
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that I will maybe
do a stem part too.
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But it's really two vocals,
so I might not need to stem that out.
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I might just bring that
into the session as is.
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So the process of me doing the leads
will just consist of me running right back
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through the Mix Bus and starting
from scratch from there.
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00:10:46,340 --> 00:10:51,629
So once I've run all the passes, then I'll
create what's called a mix stem session.
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So I'll close this up.
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So now that I have the vocals into my mix
session, I'm still listening to the song
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just vocals only, just seeing
what's going on with it.
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And I might add the drums
and bass just to build a foundation.
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Because to me, that's the foundation
of the song, is the lyric, the melody,
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and then the rhythm section.
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And then we can put
everything else around that afterwards.
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All right. So now that I have
the vocals in the mix session,
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I'll start with the leads
and put a little tune on it.
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00:11:25,656 --> 00:11:27,908
In this case, I had a little bit of
Auto-Tune on there.
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00:11:27,909 --> 00:11:30,787
Then I followed it up with a little 1073
because I like the way
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the midrange
sounds on this.
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00:11:32,463 --> 00:11:36,882
And one of my favorite...
Using combination EQs,
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I like using the Neve
1073 followed by an SSL.
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00:11:42,233 --> 00:11:46,692
The Neve gives me the roundness,
the nice round part.
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00:11:46,693 --> 00:11:49,172
And then I can dial in
the top with the SSL.
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00:11:49,173 --> 00:11:56,814
So in this case, I'm kind of boosting
a little bit of some lows in the 1073,
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00:11:56,815 --> 00:12:03,450
and a little bit of midrange around 3.2,
and a little top end, and then after that,
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00:12:03,451 --> 00:12:07,004
I'll go into
my SSL EQ.
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00:12:07,005 --> 00:12:09,926
And I'm boosting maybe
a little bit of 800 around there,
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00:12:09,927 --> 00:12:11,830
just seeing what it sounds like.
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00:12:11,831 --> 00:12:16,566
So now that we're getting through it, I'll
listen to see if there's any frequencies
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that are bothering me
that need to be tamed down.
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00:12:21,022 --> 00:12:25,898
So I like to use
the Pro-MB by FabFilter.
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00:12:25,900 --> 00:12:30,680
It's real clean, real transparent
sounding, but it gets the job done.
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00:12:30,681 --> 00:12:34,400
So right now I'm taking my little top
off using it as DS'er.
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00:12:34,401 --> 00:12:36,150
And some of the
high midrange.
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00:12:36,151 --> 00:12:40,340
So it's not as harsh
in the high midrange area.
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00:12:40,341 --> 00:12:44,240
And then I'll actually put
another DS'er just back there.
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00:12:44,241 --> 00:12:48,264
So I'm using it subtly because I think
the song had a lot of SS going on
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00:12:48,265 --> 00:12:50,065
that I need
to smooth out.
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00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:55,830
After that, I might follow it up with just
a little bit of R-Vox just slightly
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00:12:55,831 --> 00:12:59,610
bringing the vocal now
that I've got it where I wanted to.
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00:12:59,611 --> 00:13:03,925
Just bringing it together, kind of
gluing it together like a slight glue.
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00:13:03,926 --> 00:13:08,725
Nothing dramatic, just all slight subtle
things as I'm building the mix.
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00:13:08,726 --> 00:13:14,793
And so as I'm listening to the vocals
and I add in the kick and the bass
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00:13:14,794 --> 00:13:17,542
and the snare just
to build that foundation,
218
00:13:17,544 --> 00:13:20,313
I'm just starting to throw in
different sounds.
219
00:13:20,314 --> 00:13:24,026
I might throw in the famous
keyboard sound that they put in there
220
00:13:24,027 --> 00:13:28,395
just to see how that fits
in space with the vocals.
221
00:13:28,396 --> 00:13:30,856
And then it determines
what kind of verb I'll pick.
222
00:13:30,858 --> 00:13:34,573
Because I want the verb to work with
everything else that's going on the track.
223
00:13:35,715 --> 00:13:40,137
So in this case, I used
the Valhalla Dirty Plate.
224
00:13:40,138 --> 00:13:43,427
Which is a great-sounding verb.
225
00:13:43,428 --> 00:13:50,617
And I also use a little bit of slight
chorusing to just make the vocal sound
226
00:13:50,618 --> 00:13:53,160
a little wider,
just a little...
227
00:13:53,161 --> 00:13:55,156
so it can dominate
the track a little bit.
228
00:13:58,300 --> 00:14:00,548
I like this Valhalla
Space Modulator.
229
00:14:00,549 --> 00:14:04,528
This sound I got a little preset
that I have on there that I like to use.
230
00:14:04,529 --> 00:14:09,208
And I'll maybe take off a little high end
and spread it a little bit.
231
00:14:09,209 --> 00:14:11,963
Just give it
its only little thing.
232
00:14:11,964 --> 00:14:17,235
And what I found is it just
gives the vocal that extra oomph
233
00:14:17,237 --> 00:14:21,348
that it needs to just sit
in the track correctly for me.
234
00:14:21,349 --> 00:14:25,231
And then I'll just play with the levels
and get a blend between
235
00:14:25,232 --> 00:14:29,208
the foundational pieces, the vocals,
the drums, the bass,
236
00:14:29,209 --> 00:14:32,131
and then start adding
stuff in as I go.
22532
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