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James wanted to have a sense of what he had,” recalled O’Donnell, “which was many musical ideas, including melodies, but only a few lyrics. Steve has worked with James since 2000, and Jimmy since 1991, so they are familiar with James’s music and approach, and part of James’s vision was to have these guys play his stuff. Basically he comes in, plays us what he has and they listen and then start to join in. In 2010 we tried a lot of arrangement ideas, and laid them down, after which James went off and wrote lyrics and more music.” In The Barn This is exactly the course I was looking for. I don’t use Logic and I am not a huge fan of Tech House. But Jono explains music production and mixing techniques in such a way that it really dosent matter the type of genre or the DAW you are using. He explains why he is using a certain plugin, why he is making the changes etc Ski’ was written by three producers, Wheezy, Outtatown and BabyWave, and rappers Young Thug and Gunna.“Hell yeah,” agrees Bainz, “that’s often my biggest thing! Some rappers get so married to the demo, knowing every sound, that there’s not much you can do. Thug spends a lot of time making sure that everything is the way it was when he was working with the roughs. So my job is to clean things up and make the beat sound better. But in some cases I may change things or clean something up too much and the rapper doesn’t like it. Not much. What I use is this: a MacBook Pro, in my studio together with a PCI chassis with two UAD Octo Cards, and the Metric Halo ULN8 soundcard. When I’m travelling I use the same laptop with a UAD Apollo Twin soundcard. I have two sets of headphones, but frankly, I don’t mind which I use. I’m also happy to work with anything for monitors. I used to use Genelecs, and I really like the Yamaha NS10s. But it does not matter.”

Now 28, Carlo ‘Illangelo’ Montagnese takes the modern approach to making music to an extreme, with every significant move done in software. Unsurprisingly, Montagnese also learnt his skills in typically 21st-century fashion: he’s self–taught, and the Internet is his main source of information. From comparing the amount of money placed on a horse versus the total on the race you can tell if a horse is overweighted in the market or underweighted. My mother plays piano, and my brother is a rapper, and my little sister is a singer, and I was like: ‘I can’t sing or play the piano, but I love music, so what can I do?’ I went out and did some DJ’ing and I found out about Fruity Loops and a lot of other programs. Some friends of mine started rapping, and I decided to build a studio in my house so I could practise creating beats. My friends and I used to do battle in making beats, and obviously I lost, but once I figured out how I could change the sound of an 808, add distortion, reverb, delays, EQ, edit music, I fell in love with that, instead of with programming and playing music. I really enjoyed making my friends sound good and doing creative stuff with their voices. That drove me towards engineering. I love art, and there’s something about how engineering allows you to draw with sound.” Because of the way James’s schedule went, we ended up mixing everything at his and my place, on my Yamaha DM2000 desk. It has four banks of 24 channels, and 48 channels at 96k, plus some very good internal EQs and effects, like reverbs. For me it’s great to be able to work with faders, and although we went digital through the DM2000, I think it did sound better than just staying in the box. In general, going out of the box will give you a wider image, with more depth, and the Yamaha will also do that. Particularly for a project like this, going through a mixer sounds much better. I plugged analogue outboard into the Yamaha console inserts, and also connected outboard to the Pro Tools hardware inserts. Some of the hardware included my Vertigo VSC2 compressor, which I love, and the TC Electronic 4000 as my main digital reverb.” In The Mix James Taylor (left) and Dave O’Donnell at work in the former’s Barn studio. Photo: Spencer Worthley

Verse lead vocal: Antares Auto–Tune EFX, FabFilter Pro–DS, Pro–Q2, Pro–MB & Timeless 2, Waves Vocal Rider, H–Delay & Doubler, UAD API 560, 1176 & EP34, SoundToys Little Radiator & MicroShift, Audio Ease Altiverb. He thoroughly covers all the major aspects of music production that our students are constantly asking about. How do you get inspired to start an idea? How do you fully develop an idea and how do you mix and master that idea to a fully polished idea that is done?! All done in a fresh new way.

There has been a 13–year hiatus since Taylor’s previous album of new material, 2002’s October Road, punctuated only by an album of covers called, well, Covers (2008), a few live albums and a Christmas album. In interviews, Taylor indicated that modern life was simply too busy for him to take the time off he needs to write. The other major challenge for any older artist is to come up with something that’s not only relevant today in terms of music and lyrics, but that can also compete in today’s sonic landscape. In writing and producing material for his latest album, Abel [Tesfaye, aka the Weeknd] and I were in so many different studios and locations, and we were travelling so much, that I did not have a solid reference point. Sometimes I was sitting on a sofa with headphones on, sometimes I’d be in a studio working on NS10s, sometimes I’d be in Abel’s spare room using whatever speakers were there. In every place we used different mics, different mic pres, different monitors, and while it may have appeared like a nightmare to bring all that together, the technology makes it easy to do that. My job during this stage is to get everything into Pro Tools, and I'll be making extensive notes and I'll also be polishing the sounds in the box, using EQ and compression and so on. Many of the sounds needs some massaging to get the blends right. I generally use a Neumann M49 on Justin, and if we don't have one, a U87, going into a Neve 1073 mic pre and then a Tube-Tech CL1B compressor, going straight into Pro Tools, which was running at 44.1/24. We don't do vocal comps, because Justin knows what he wants. He listens to himself, and when he wants to touch something up, we punch him in and we move on. We don't end up with five takes of the same vocal. This makes working with him very fast and very easy.Deep in the middle of 2020 and of the pandemic, YSL hatched a plan for another Slime Language album. The concept of the Slime Language compilations is to showcase YSL’s artists, as well as a large collection of guest artists and Thug’s close friends. And so Slime Language 2, which also became a Billboard number one, features the likes of Travis Scott, Drake, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, Big Sean, Skepta, Future, Kid Cudi, Meek Mill and many others, as well as Young Thug and Gunna, of course. Based in Los Angeles, where he has his own studio, Bainz has been working for Young Thug and his YSL Records since 2017. One of his first credits with YSL was as engineer on the label’s Slime Language compilation album, released in 2018, and he engineered and mixed much of Young Thug’s debut album, So Much Fun (2019), which went to number one in the US. Engineer and mixer Evan LaRay explains its appeal thus: “With ‘Bodak Yellow’ it is Cardi’s vocal performance that really takes the record to the next level. I don’t think anybody else could get on that beat the way she does, and then there’s what she wrote and raps about. The vocals are what makes it a great record, and the beat and the vocals together control the song. It’s a simple beat, really just the main synth, the 808s and the hi-hats. The producer, J White, put in some amazing drum sounds and 808 textures, with a lot of energy. The second 808 sound almost functions like a bass. When you hear that part in a club or in a car, it moves you. And as a mixer, I had to make sure to enhance everything and make sure that it translates.” Fight To Flight Then in 2010, when I was 22, I moved to Toronto. I had a room at Dream House Studios, and behind every wall another producer was creating music in a different genre, which made me feel very uncomfortable, as I was working my way through a lot of insecurities. During that time I went to LA to have meetings with people, but nobody was interested. No matter what music I was working on, it wasn’t going for me. The main thing I did during this period, and still afterwards, was developing my techniques. At one stage I was mapping out the different frequency octaves in different keys of songs, and I would visually approach mixing with these different frequency ranges in mind. It was like maths. I literally had vocals rolled off at certain frequencies because it opened up for this other sound to come in. I drove myself absolutely mad! I don’t do that at all any more, but I had to go through it. It was a step along the path.”

That’s a lot of plug-ins for a handclap sound! Matt Schaeffer used multiple distortion and saturation processors in series to create the effect he was after.“Yes, there are lots of plug-ins on the claps! I added eight plug-ins to give them the right amount of punch and grittiness. The signal chain is the SSL E-Channel, UAD 610, SoundToys Devil-Loc, Avid DVerb, Valhalla Vintage Verb, UAD 1176LN, the SoundToys Little Radiator and SoundToys MicroShift. I like to boost the input with the 610 as well as the top end with its EQ, because that plug-in adds some pretty cool harmonic distortion. The Devil-Loc and the Little Radiator also add some dirt. I have the two reverbs on the inserts because I did not think I was going to use these settings anywhere else, and I like to compress after the reverb, here with the 1176, because it brings out more ambience. The MicroShift adds a stereo effect to keep the claps out of the centre, in this case to make room for the snare. As a producer I see my job as making sure the songs are great, by getting great performances, and doing whatever it takes to achieve that,” explains O’Donnell. “It can include choosing the songs, and working on any aspect of them: the tempo, the key, the lyrics, to the structure, parts and so on. With a different artist it can mean a lot of guidance, but with an artist like James you know the songs and the performances will be there; it’s just a matter of capturing these the best you can.” We are working hard to get the remaining issues brought over as soon as possible but this conversion and reformatting will take time, due to commitments to producing the new issue each month. The Barn is a property built about 15 years ago on James’s land,” explains O‘Donnell, “about 300 feet away from his home. It’s a very functional, modular kind of space, which he uses for rehearsals and recordings. The main room is just a great acoustic space, not so large as to be too reverberant but also not so small that you get a lot of early reflections. It’s a great–sounding room, and inside it we have a couple of makeshift rooms. We use one as the control room and another as a booth for James to be in, plus there’s a small room with the piano. Nothing is 100 percent isolated, either between rooms or from the outside, but it’s out in the woods so it’s relatively quiet. With no permanent control room or recording gear available at the Barn, Dave O’Donnell set up a temporary working area to house a selection of his own equipment and rental gear. The album was eventually mixed on this Yamaha DM2000 digital desk. Carlo ‘Illangelo’ Montagnese is the musician, beatmaker, producer and mixer who has played a central part in propelling the Weeknd to worldwide fame. He’s also a man who’s happy to answer any question put to him — until I ask what hardware he uses in his studio and on the road. This elicits a long pause, and the thoughtful reply:As Chris Godbey mentions in the main article, the other big hit from The 20/20 Experience 1 of 2, 'Suit & Tie', was written Compared with the sessions for 'Mirrors', the stem session from which 'Suit & Tie' was mixed is relatively simple. The art of music production lies in serving the song — and working with James Taylor, Dave O’Donnell felt that modern production trends would hinder his aim of capturing emotive performances. I work fully in the box, on my six-year-old MacBook Pro, with a UAD Apollo Twin soundcard and Octo Satellite, plus Audio-Technica M50X and Beats Pro headphones. This setup allows me to work anywhere, also at home. I love my A-T headphones! The Beats are not that great, but many people listen to them, so I use it as a reference. It’s not for final decisions, but more for the vibe. At Fight Club I use Yamaha NS10 monitors and the Augspurgers. The NS10s are my favourite monitors. If I go to a studio to mix, I make sure they have the Yamahas — but I can mix on headphones, because the current direction in music is not about hi-fi. People listen with earpods, in the car and so on. It’s rare for people to listen to good loudspeakers. It’s the new generation. I want to bring a hi-fi quality to the records I work on, but everything is about feeling. You can have the most amazing-sounding record ever, but if a song doesn’t have a feeling, it won’t translate to this generation. So that’s my main thing: everything has to have a vibe. I’ve recently started doing things more by the rules, or the guidelines, but I normally go with how it feels to me. Does it feel good? How does everybody else in the room feel? I’m Thug’s full‑time engineer, but also sometimes record Gunna, though he has his own engineer, Flo Ongonga. In the past, when Thug and Gunna were in Atlanta, Flo would record them, and here in LA I’d record them, and neither of us would sleep for days. But since Covid, with them working so much, I go to Atlanta to work with Flo and when we work here in LA, he comes over to work with me, so it’s both of us in action at the same time all the time.”

Two massive hit albums in a year was a pretty good return on 20 days' work for Justin Timberlake, producer Timbaland — and engineer Chris Godbey. Engineer, mixer and producer Carlo Montagnese likens his work with the Weeknd to painting — and he’s not afraid to use plenty of colour! Tasked with helping the five–time Grammy–winning Taylor in making sure that Before This World could hold its own in 2015 was the album’s engineer, mixer and producer, Dave O‘Donnell. From his Studio D, an hour’s drive north of New York City, O’Donnell gives a detailed account of the making of the album, which began in January 2010, continued four years later, and involved recording sessions in Taylor’s wooden barn, hotel rooms and various studios across America. At the end of this process, during the final mixdown, O’Donnell found that he was making a slightly different record than he had in mind... I had some plug–ins over the stereo bus, even though I have driven myself crazy over the years with many different stereo bus plug–ins, and in the end found that it doesn’t matter. You can get to the same point using different plug–ins. On this song I used the Slate Digital VTM virtual tape machine, which gives you the flexibility to decide how much you want to push the bass in the Settings tab, and which has very realistic hiss noise. On History Of Man I actually used tape, to hear what it would do to my sounds, and when I used the VTM, I found that they dialled that sound in spot on. I also used the Pro–MB, very subtly, just to glue everything together in the song.The Member’s Newsletters are the ultimate way to get well researched and consistently profitable selections. The “Hints & Tips” section provides the best trading opportunities of the day and the “B2L” section provides selections based on a unique formula only available on InsideTraxs.

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