Original subtitles

Let's check out what Chris's vocals sound like.

We're going to see what I can do to him this time.

So let's look at what we have.

It looks like Chris has given me...

We have a vocal and a vocal double, right? It's broken up to a couple of pieces because...

I think that those three tracks will fold down to one.

He has a bridge vocal line.

He has this B section vocal line every time.

I can see that. Right? And then it looks like in the chorus, the two answer lines, each time he has separated out.

If we look at those audio files, they pretty much don't overlap, do they? They're pretty tight hand-offs but it sounds like one performance.

So we will just solo his vocal without anything on it, obviously.

We're going to start by looking at what we did before.

Now, I know from my previous endeavors with Chris that probably the only thing I would do before it got to me is giving him a little L1'ing, or an L1 limiter, so let's just open one of those.

It's basically just to top it off, so we're going to look at his vocal playing with that limiter on it and see what we're doing to him.

Let's play verse 1 and see what it sounds like.

I'll just go here to verse 1 since I got the wheel, kids, and when I get the wheel, it's scary for everybody else.

You don't want to be in the car I will be driving.

But we don't see much going on, it's just a topper, right? It's just a grabber.

So there's his hand-off leading into the chorus.

We just saw the three hand-offs, there's a slight overlap in there but it kind of works.

I'm not going to make a big deal out of it.

All our L1 limiters are set the same, so it's really all the same performance just broken into pieces, obviously.

You see that he sang the one vocal.

They have a few different lines, they're flowing in, and there's a few that were added to make the whole thing.

And there is a vocal double that corresponds to the same thing that the top vocal is doing.

The exact same breakouts with the vocals.

We're going to give them the same treatment, so all the same L1 setting.

And I will bring them back on our console here, and I think we're going to start off by just listening to what his vocal sounds like in the track with those settings.

I want to go back to the blue one.

- [Nik] I'm just going to see if I should bring that up.

- So we're just going to change one patch in our patchbay.

We're going to have him going through one of our blue compressors in the rack.

All he's getting is L1, to me, and then I'll use my compressor, my blue 1176.

I'll use those in my insert chain, so we'll hear what that sounds like.

So what we're doing is we're here using my outboard blue limiters, which are moving considerably well there.

Adding about 9 dB at 3 kHz, 9 dB at 8 kHz, maybe taking off a little bit of 100.

I like his voice to be really full.

So just, you know, he's taking the compression real well.

Now, if you listen right now you'll hear that.

This is listening to his vocal completely dry.

Now, we go pretty dry with him so we're not going to pile it on.

So for this, we'll look at our tempo.

Tempo is 146, so let's go find out what 146 means to me.

Real simple, go over to this delay, type it up to 146, and we just go back to the note value.

Okay.

411.

So, we set these delays up here to 411.

If I put them both the same, it's not going to be stereo.

I'll back this one up a little bit, and then, make this one a little higher.

Our delays are going to be stereo.

So that's our tempo, there's our quarter note, we lock that into our delays in case we want to use them at all, right? Very simple. That's about the only setting back here we changed, besides the reverbs.

So we have that in case we want to use it, and I can sit here and see if any of it works.

Any of it I want to use.

Any of it that's important.

So I'll just play the vocal and see if any of these effects work with his vocal.

So, we'll just go back to the chorus.

All I was using was just checking to see if my effects were working.

I'm going to turn them back off.

So you saw that I set some delays, okay? So all I'll do for him is I have those delays left and right and I have the returns over here.

And I'll season to taste if I think they're necessary to put in, maybe just the chorus.

So they're ready to go.

I also have a little slap over here which is my Tape Eliminator right here, which is very simple.

It does one thing: 15 IPS tape slap.

What's 15 IPS tape slap? It's basically, if you put a tape on a tape machine at 15 IPS, it's the distance between the delays.

So this kind of emulates a tape machine going that speed.

And then we have a simple reverb going to his voice, say, a 480, on a vocal plate with a little pre-delay, which I'm going to show you what that sounds like right now.

There's his voice dry, and if we put the reverb in, this is going to be like that.

We'll put it back to a spot where I feel it sounds right.

If we add a little bit of the tape slap...

And if we bring it back, it's going to be this.

If I add the delay in there...

I'll bring that back if you get the next verse going.

We may not use that in the verses.

We might just use what we have here right now.

So we'll check out what else is happening with the vocals.

I mean, this song is very simple, so all we have is a set of backgrounds in the choruses, and it looks like we have a verse 2 harmony, right? - [Nik] Yeah, and one of them might be on the answers in the chorus as well.

- Let's put the same setting that we used for the lead vocal across the other vocals.

We're using a little L1 to top it off, so we're just going to drop that on the other ones.

- [Nik] Just a one-off comp on 19-20, just to see if that's still working with this setup.

- Yeah, sure.

That was it? That's pretty high! So, since it's all the same singer, then why don't you use the same concept for each vocal? Since all the vocals were probably recorded the same way, if you treat them all with a similar type of compression they're going to blend a lot quicker, a lot easier, so we're going down that road with them.

Let's check that vocal harmony in verse 2.

So let's use the same EQ that we're doing on the vocal to the backgrounds, all the same, so they get exactly the same EQ.

It just makes it blend better, so let's hear the chorus.

Vocals now... backgrounds have the same treatment as the lead vocals.

So, it's really only five faders: vocal, vocal double, backgrounds, there is one comp in the backgrounds where a super high part comes in.

That blend is pre-fixed, we're happy with it.

And then one extra mono vocal, so it's not really that...

it's not really that horrible, it's pretty simple.

So, it really gives you a small playing field here to deal with.

We take the vocals as far as we can, so then we put our vocals as you can do in Pro Tools where you have a couple of groups.

We have our lead vocal on one fader, our backgrounds on another.

The only thing I need to really worry about riding are these two faders rather than the five, so I keep that simple with the VCA grouping.

Now that we've gotten all the things individualized, what I'll do is I'm going to go across it and see if there's any more "hot sauce" I need to add to anything to make it cool.

So, make sure it's exciting enough and make sure it's where I want it to be.

So I'll just check it once from the top, and let's see what happens there.

While we're here, let's just turn that verse 2 guitar up two more dB.

This will be something less to worry about.

So, what happens is once you put everything in, the first things that you were looking at may start to feel dull.

You look at, "Okay, what other elements can I clear up?" So, I'm like, "Oh, the hi-hat, ride, cymbal tracks, a little bit more of that.

The overheads, give a little bit more shine to them." It's always the snare drum.

It's always the snare drum!The snare drum has always got to be as exciting as the vocals.

So, what happens is we push those two together.

So now we've done the refinements of, once you add everything together, you want to go through and only EQ inside the mix.

So we're EQ'ing inside the mix, not separate, okay? So once you've gotten everything on a place where you want it, and you're playing it all together, then you go, "Oh, what's inside the mix that I want to tweak?" So I just did that, I topped off a few equalizations to the drums.

And you want to make sure that that snare drum, that pesky snare drum, is as exciting as possible.

At that point, I'm comfortable with everything I have now.

Now I can turn my automation on, which is VCA automation, which is a lot simpler than Pro Tools automation.

Even though it's all the same, it's recording your moves, okay? The difference is I could probably back up and punch in, and not have to worry about moving faders because they don't move, they just write those moves.

So, that's what I'll do next, which is very simple.

On this, I hit one button, I go back to the top of the song, I hear a cricket, there he is.

That tells me that all the lights are red, just like you'd see in Pro Tools.

It's red, it's ready to go.

A big difference here that you can't do that I can do is my faders are exact level.

If I move them into a position and rewind and join my automation, it's going to pick up exactly where these faders are.

In Pro Tools it's not necessarily going to do that because when you roll back, it rolls back, and the faders move.

You can't really do that, so, I'm just letting you know that, that I can set up new levels and then punch in.

That's something that I can't necessarily do with Pro Tools because this is VCA and that is non-VCA.

That's Absolute, so, here we go, the simplest part of the job here is automating it.

I will do that.

Knowing that I want the song to start a little bit without all these effects, I will just peel them back, mute them.

And, it starts with the vocal, so I can literally do this quietly.

And it has my pre-roll on it, so let's see what I can do with Chris's song here.

So, I got my start point, I can just go right back here, and...

To the top, and...

...drop it in, and then rewrite it here.

I fine-tuned it. I'll go to the top of the chorus and drop in.

I can punch him right at the top of the chorus, I'll make a move right here.

I also want to do one other thing, so we'll go back.

I want this chorus to be a little bit wetter.

There's a little guitar moment here with some arpeggiating guitar, let's hand-pan it, okay? Hand-panning means you make it go left and right, manually.

Keep that, and then we can work over that.

I'll make sure it's not too much.

So what we're doing there for our second B section, you see I'm doing a little bit of a delay move.

My delays are on a fader, so I can ride them wherever.

So I see there's this moment where he's holding a note, let's make it do something cool in the hole there because we can, right? Because it just makes that section be a little bit different.

We just add it right to the automation, quickly.

A little pickup on the guitar, why not? So we just keep connecting the dots, so, we're building a song that's like, I'm not going to sit here and do, "Oh, let me just do the guitar moves in one pass.

Let's do these guitar moves." Okay? You got to do it all in one pass.

Now, you guys can do it any way you want, but for me, I want to hear this song in completion as I go, and if I do anything on the second pass, it's just to fine-tune something I can undo, right? or I want to refine.

Let me go back and drop in, because as the chorus was playing, I'm like, "Okay, it's a little bit out of control here." Now, I've got it right where I want it, go back, and...

...drop right back in.

And then this guitar here is kind of getting noisy.

Then our solo is over.

We'll go back to our last little B section, let's see if we want to fine-tune that.

I want to make sure our stop is exciting here.

Double check this B section one more time.

Now we'll make sure our vocal is not too loud in our bridge section there.

We'll just try the solo one more time here.

We add a little bit more shine to the solo because it was slightly dark.

I don't want the solo to be too loud, right? So what we do there is we got a hole coming up.

The effects we're using on the vocals are going to be too messy in the break, so we just want to make that a little bit drier so he stands out front.

So, a little trick right there when I mute those. We did that.

So they drop in here, in the solo.

Right there, we write our fade.

Boom! It saves that.

There's pass one.

So what I showed you there is that...

I hear it one way in my head, I want to make sure I get it that way, all in one pass.

I hear a mistake, I hear a better balance, I back up, I join, I back up, I correct.

Section A, I get it great, and I move into section B.

It's not that great, I come back, I punch in section B, I just keep moving forward, right? I don't just go forward and then, "Oh, I'll do another pass. Oh, I'll do another pass." Every pass you make in a mix is a pass toward boredom, okay? If you can't do it in a couple of passes then you're doing something wrong.

When it's like pass two, pass three, pass four, that doesn't work.

Imagine that everything is a live show and you got to get it balanced and do it live.

Okay? Put some excitement into it.

Then go back and say, "Okay, I got 90% of it, 95%." You go back to, "Oh, now, toward the end, I'll get my drum balance exactly how I want it." So, then go and just punch in your drum balance so it stays static, which is what I'm going to do right now.

So, I'll take pass two.

Very simply.

I'll say, "Well, you know, the drums, by the end of the record, were the exact balance I want," so boom, boom, boom.

Those are all in Absolute.

They're fine.

Toms.

Then, what am I going to do now? Let's get his vocal right.

I don't want him too loud, right? And that's how we do that.

So, refining the lead vocal on top of the mix.

You know, when you do the whole pass, by the time you get to the end, certain things are, like, right in the spot you want them to be, so...

a lot... as you saw, I didn't do any moves to the drums, I just did some static moves.

Once I got that balance, this kind of song...

you know, I had it to the point, it was set it and forget it, it didn't have to move, so, besides a couple of minor EQ moves, I got it where I wanted.

It's done. For me, I'm good.

So I'm just going to listen back to it.

I've been listening to it so quiet because, like I said, it has to be exciting at a low level.

So I'll check it a little bit louder, make sure that there's...

...not some cow in there mooing that I didn't hear.

I'll make sure it's super exciting, so, 'It's Not Over' there, put to bed quickly, and revisited eleven years later and three days.

Let's see how I did.

Let's do a 'bye-bye pop' on that 'Blown away', right? All right, the very first line of the lyric, 'Blown away', it seems like there's a big pop on it.

The old 'blow'. There it is.

When he said 'blow', it moved a lot of air and made it pop.

If we even look at the waveform, it looks like a kick drum.

So, we create a preset that gets rid of the pops, and we spot-correct it, which basically means you take the least amount of the audio file, you render it with a high-pass to get rid of the 30 cycles.

It happens so quick you don't notice it, so it just makes that big thump go away.

It's like de-popping, right? Thank you, Mr. Nik.

We will listen to that now.

It's one of the things you do with the vocal: create an EQ setting so you can stamp and render the little spots where the pop is.

You don't have to be rolling this low end off.

It's just to get rid of the pops.

And it's normal, the guy is moving air, you know, when you don't have a pop filter.

I'd rather have a good performance with some pops in it than not, so, it's your job to, if you hear it and it bothers you, to get rid of it. So let's see what we did.

So, yeah! We crank it up and it rocks, and then we make a couple more refinements and now it's ready to print.

So we just realized when I turned it up that maybe the bass was slightly too loud, and maybe the snare drum...

It's always the snare drum! It wasn't loud enough! You know, and we see if something is too dark, if something is too bright, so just a couple little things we were checking there.

It was all just...

...EQ changes, so...

And just a slight balance change, so, we'll run that now.

We got a 2-track we can take it to? - [Nik] Sure.

There she goes! 'It's Not Over' is now over.

So we finished that, made that all work.

We hit End, we call it 'UP 1'.

And then we take a snapshot of it for posterity.

So we take our recall picture, and you'll get the screen.

1985.

Here we go! A night in the wood.

And then we can play it back and see what it looks like.

And we'll look at the channel for you.

Boy! Okay! Let's play Tetris! And there it is as we left it.

It works, it's not sexy, it's not...

...iOS 10, it's like iOS -10.

And there's two mixes and a final, and bye-bye Louis! So there you have it, 'It's Not Over', completed here today for pureMix, with CLA!