Original subtitles

sup everybody nadia Amendola here at my

studio at eight to five records and I'm

stoked to be back with sonic scoop this

new installment of making the mix

throughout the week I'm gonna be

breaking down a mix for a song called

blah blah blah

by giulianat Wilson this song is

essentially produced and mixed

simultaneously so if you're not a mixer

and you're just a musician or a producer

I think you'll benefit equally from

these videos in each video we're gonna

break down every single track in the

entire mix but today I want to give you

an overview I want to show you what my

template looks like in logic we can hear

what we're working with and ultimately

how I got from the demo stage to where

we are today we've got a lot of ground

to cover so first things first hit pause

go to WWE Liana Wilson comm or click the

SoundCloud link in the description below

and listen to the full mastered mix just

a side note Juliana is 13 years old and

we recorded this song when she was 11 so

we're gonna take a moment of silence to

feel bad about ourselves now be the time

so for this first video I want to

discuss the production of this song how

it began and how it got to where it is I

got a phone call a few years ago from a

pretty big corporate client and they

said hey we need an original music for a

TV commercial overseas yesterday can you

get it to us so probably within six

hours or something like that wrote a

track sent it out got paid it was done

it kept coming back to me as being a

song that could be something else I

thought it could be cooler and from day

one the client wanted the only vocal

they wanted aside from pads were na na

na or hey hey hey something very

universal when I did land on na na na

and the way it was tracked I instantly

heard blah blah blah and I called a few

songwriting buddies three to be exact

and it wasn't really becoming the song I

thought that it could be not until I

sent it to my favorite Canadian

songwriter Helen Austin who gave it

everything that it needed everything

that I couldn't bring

the table but let's listen to the

original track that was used for that

client for their commercial

you

so pretty cool for a corporate

commercial a little corny by design but

again it had a vibe that was intriguing

to me let's listen through it one more

time so we'd never have to listen to it

again but I want you to pay attention to

some very specific things because this

was the basis of how bla bla bla in its

current form came about listen to the

intro section which was considered the

verse right it's a pretty cool bass tone

really thin kind of unique simple back

beat on the drums and then percussion

wise we have these knocks cool that then

goes into me trying to be the Beatles

again nice little vocal pad three-part

harmony with some sound effects and harp

stuff like that and then we launch into

this chorus that is just huge full of

energy there's a lot of synth action

going on so let's pay attention to those

very specific elements as we listen to

this demo for the last time ever

all right from a song perspective the

structure is there the chords are cool

there's a lot of cool parts going on but

when we're talking about making a record

especially a pop record for a 13 year

old badass this ain't gonna cut it

so what are the things that I liked from

the demo that I wanted to keep and what

are the things that we're just not gonna

work style listicle e so let's mute this

and never look at it ever again

so the first thing that I knew wasn't

gonna work was just this kind of lazy

Charlie Watts kind of backbeat with this

thin bass right it was a cool vibe but

it wasn't gonna do the trick this though

seemed to work and seemed to give it

energy and a percussiveness that moves

everything this is just the bass

so that gave me my inspiration

initially all right we also kept all of

the same melody guitars from the

original track and those sounded like

this from there the original demo had as

I said just that simple backbeat I

wanted something a lot cooler so we've

got a bunch of drums in here and I can't

wait till we talk about just the drums

because there's some really cool stuff

happening but as a whole we have some

reverse drums we have a soft 808 kick a

kick with some delay another snare a big

kick some lo-fi hits slow fire fix and

now the verse started sounding like this

all right so now we've got a vibe going

and now this story this is starting to

feel like it can work on Giuliana's

record on top of that we had some swells

so we have them track stacked which we

are going to talk about and these swells

are made up of three things

Oregon piano and synth and they're very

similar to the swells that were in the

original demo okay from there now that

we have a little bit of top-end

information going on and I'm leaving all

the room in the world for the vocal pop

song mixing 101 right there was me

faking the Beatles I my ego wanted to

keep that in the song so I took it I

effected it and I made it this thing

that wouldn't disrupt the lead vocal and

I pretty much made it feel like

something that someone wouldn't even be

able to tell oh that's Maddie singing

where that's anyone singing at all

here's what that sounds like

all right now for the chorus there were

a few things in the original chorus that

I absolutely loved the since we're not

one of them I was not crazy about the

sins but I did love this twelve string

guitar so let's check out this twelve

string guitar

we also took in all of our pianos I

added live bass we brought in our

percussion which was a tambourine and a

shaker and we included our harp and our

vibes which were our colors that we were

using in the demo

now like any good pop record should I

knew this chorus needed to punch people

in the face when it kicked in and the 12

string guitar kind of reminded me a

little bit of Jimmy Page and Led

Zeppelin so what better than to make

believe I'm John Bonham now for a second

and throw in some gigantic live drums

big difference from the original I hope

you have it in your head because I took

out all the things I hated and brought

in all the things that it needed to be

what it is the full chorus with vocal

ended up being this

and sorry hate to do this to you but

let's just make sure we remember what

the corny demo sounded like

from that to this

I think it's killer hope you do too so

before we move on to anything else

because in every subsequent video from

here on I'm gonna talk about every

single thing going on in this mix and we

have 77 tracks which is not that much

but it's also not a small session

there's a lot of really cool effects

going on let me break down the session

for you the way I have it template it

out so when you're watching these videos

you know exactly what's happening at all

times so let's start with the output my

2buss right here and we're gonna get

into why I'm doing these things but we

have a chain here we have a fabfilter

pro-q to a virtual mix Brack the UAD

Manly and then we have hardware yes all

the shiny things you see in front of me

are not just for show so we're gonna

also talk about incorporating outboard

into and in the Box mix in or arrange

window here you see I have a track stack

called effects bus and this is where I

have most of my core effects so I have

my EMT plate my lexicon verb my Valhalla

vintage verb sorry and H delay a stereo

delay the reason I like putting them on

my arrange window are because if I'm

sending a lot of sources out to these

specific verbs and delays I want them to

be very visible number one but number

two I also want to use them I want to

visualize them like tracks that way it

keeps my mind in automation mode right

at all times nothing's ever kind of just

chillin you know I want to go in and

give it some movement when it gets in

there so that's why I keep my effects

bus like that right at the top of my

session all right moving on down if you

know how I mix this will seem very

familiar I have my live drums right at

the top in red when we get to our drum

video we will talk about all the cores

the core elements of the kit and how we

got the drums to sound like they did

before we bounced it

a stereo file underneath that I have

another set of live drums except these

are in Reverse and I cannot wait to show

you that moving on from here we have

some electronic kicks and elements those

are in orange a delayed kick an 808

snare some big kicks

low-five snare hits low v snare effects

big Tom's and then we move on to our

percussion tambourine in a lighter shade

of orange shaker and then our base so

our base is Brown it's just a color

palette then I like every mix gets the

same color we have three bass tracks on

this song we have a reamped synth bass a

live bass and a distorted bass then we

move on to piano which is in this

greenish blue color chorus piano and

then we have a piano low piano high and

those are all subbed out to a bus called

hard piano we have another track stack

I think logic 10 had just come out when

I was mixing this song so there are

track stacks everywhere I'm actually

using them as folder stacks pretty much

because when I'm you know I try to keep

everything as organized as possible when

I'm working on a vocal I don't need to

be looking at seven guitars so I click

this little triangle BAM I know where my

guitars are they're still there except

I'm off to look at them but in this

guitar stack we have our 12 string

guitar

let's see some waveform action there we

go we have our melody guitar left melody

guitar right and then a melody guitar

right a little off-center these are in

blue we also have an orange left which I

can only assume is pretty distorted an

orange right now we have our colors we

have our harp sample our vibes and a

choir from here we have a track stack of

swells now the reason why I'm using a

track stack here is to use three

elements to make one sound so in this

case it was backwards organ

backwards piano and a backwards synth we

then move on to vocals which I always

color some form of purple or pink Madi

BG Vox that's me dark purple right here

we have crowded FX which is a really

cool thing I threw in to kind of help

the transition between going into each

chorus so we'll get to that and then I

have my Vox stack so in my Vox deck we

have our lead vocal which is being run

through a de-stressor once again when we

start talking about outboard and how I'm

using it I will go over all the settings

in my de-stresser and why they end up on

every vocal track I mix under lead box

we have glitch which is a really cool

plugin that i had found when i was

mixing this song that does what it says

except in a really cool way so we'll go

over that lead box too which is usually

my second de-stressor I like putting the

chorus and the bridge on my lead Vox too

because I almost always will compress

and EQ those slightly differently than

my verse vocals and instead of doing all

that in automation that's when I do use

the beauty of digital and just make

another track underneath that we got a

lead box double some stereo vocals vocal

left vocal rights harmony harmony too

and then we have our blah blah blah hook

so these are twelve tracks of me Juliana

her mom and my friend Danny Stoddard all

screaming blah blah blah at the top of

our lungs so that is how the session is

laid out we are gonna start the next

video

breaking down every single thing and

every single thing that I use to make

this mix