Carrying on my research on producer Mike Dean I came across an interview he conducted with Jake Brown from Tape Op he answered a few questions, one of his responses were particularly interesting.

“When I first started mixing at Rap-A-Lot, back in 92, I did early records for the label like Player’s Choice by Too Much Trouble and 5th Ward Boyz’ Ghetto Dope and Gangsta Funk. By the mid-1990s, I’d mixed Scarface’s The Untouchable album and then the Geto Boys’ Da Good Da Bad & Da Ugly. Then I mixed Scarface’s The Fix. When I’m mixing, I start out with drums. For me, it’s all about kick, snare, and vocals; everything else is just extra . That used to be my philosophy, and it still is. You’ve got to understand the relationship between notes and frequencies, because every note is a frequency and every octave is double that frequency. If you understand that, and you can see that in music then, when you’re producing, you can make sure its harmonically correct.”

Acknowledging what Mike Dean said I particularly focused on the kick when mixing “OneTake” ensuring it was felt and present throughout the entire mix. I boosted the mid range of the kick to allow it translate better on different systems. I also added distortion to it to give a more “dirty” sound.

This post relates to learning outcome 3

References

https://tapeop.com/interviews/122/mike-dean/

 “Rick Rubin is often described as favoring a stripped-down sound.  Many of his most notable records emphasize performance and live authenticity, seeking to recreate the feel of an artist playing for you in your own living room. They avoid excessively dense arrangements and effects like reverb”

“we see how this is not a rigid production doctrine that Rubin imposes on the artists with whom he works; rather, he is usually adaptive to their artistic visions and helpful to bring out their distinctive styles.”

 These are two very powerful quotes I have obtained from the journal Reduced By Rick Rubin: Production Process, Pitfalls, and Impacts by Jared Paul) and I believe they describe the aesthetic and workflow of a Rick Rubin record.Looking in particular at the first quote I have tried to emulate this production style on the track “Rage”, I have used minimal reverb and have tried to capture the energy of the artist.

 This post relates to learning outcome 2

References

Reduced By Rick Rubin: Production Process, Pitfalls, and Impacts by Jared Paul

Available at http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.496.2436&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Whilst carrying on my research about Rick Rubin I came across the fact he started annotating song lyrics on the website Genius (formerly ‘Rap Genius’). He has poured forth his views on many songs that he worked on, including tracks by Kanye West, Slayer and Jay-Z. He has also commented on a number of tracks that he didn’t work on and his comments are often illuminating.For example on the Tom Petty album, ‘Wildflowers’ Rick Rubin begin talking about room acoustics.

“You could do a computer rendering of exactly what the best-sounding recording studio would be, and you could build it, and it still might not sound like anything. I mean, there are weird rooms that’ve been there for a long time, and a lot of people have recorded in them. Sound City is a good example. It was not very well designed, acoustically. But it sounded good!”

Although I have only been recording vocals this semester I can apply Rick Rubin’s approach and try different recording rooms to see what effect they will have on my recordings.

This post relates to learning outcome 2

References

http://mcrow.net/rick-rubin-pro-blog/

Today I watched a second interview with Young Guru on Pensado’s Place, once again Young Guru talked about some interesting production techniques and some important professional practices he does.

When asked about the fear of work getting leaked,at 21:42 Young Guru said he “never transfers files over the internet” followed by “I take the main computer offline” at 21:56. These basic acts ensure the security of the work Young Guru is producing with these famous artists such as Jay-Z. Although I am not working with famous artists I still believe I can learn from Young Guru. I believe the concept of security/privacy for an artists work is very important and are an essential professional practice for any producer. Therefore I will make sure I back up all my studio sessions on my USB just in case my files ever get corrupted.  I also will refrain from posting these tracks on my social media, to respect the artist’s approach to release their own music in any way they see fit.

At 33;54 when asked about whether he cuts the low end of a record for commercial levels Young Guru replied said “I present the song the way I want it”, he went to say if the record needed any changes he let someone else do it. I think it’s very important to have faith in the record you produce, because mixing is a very personal thing and even though you compromise with the artist in the creative process. If you are both happy with the result then I think it is important to just believe in it even if others don’t straight away. I will be applying this mentality to my work and hopefully it will allow me to grow in confidence as an artist.

This post relates to learning outcome 5

Today I watched an interview with Young Guru on Pensado’s place. Throughout the interview Young Guru explained his production techniques when working on The Blueprint 3.

At 19:58 he says “I’m trying to make the artist the best artist they can be, not who I think they should be”. he goes on to explain how important it is to understand that as a producer you are working for a client and you should be willing to to make the client happy with the work produced even if you personally don’t agree with some of the choices made. For me personally I need to understand that every artist I work with may have a different vision for their music then I do and although I will have my input, ultimately it is the artist’s music.

At 21:25 he describes the track empire state of mind as a”pop record constructed in a hip-hop way”, he goes on to explain how the track uses a drum loop and sampling. My track inspired by Young Guru’s production techniques mimics a pop record constructed in a hip-hop way, there is a programmed drum pattern on a loop and although I have not used any samples all the instruments have been programmed in using sounds on the DAW Fruity Loops.

Empire state of mind is a song driven by piano and at  24:45 Young Guru called the piano a  “mid-range eater” he the explained why it is necessary to boost between 2000khz-3000khz for female vocals he called it  “magic range”. My track inspired by Young Gurus production techniques is also driven by the piano. So from today’s research I have learnt how to better blend my female vocalist with the piano.

This post relates to learning outcome 5