Today I carried out some more research on producer Mike Dean, I watched an interview of him on Pensado’s Place. The most interesting thing I learnt from this interview was Mike Dean’s workflow in regards to mixing.

Whilst being asked about his mixes becoming a lot more minimalist at 19:58 Mike Dean says “If you have something in your song you didn’t turn up loud you should turn it off”. Relating this back to his work on Travis Scott’s Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, everyone song on this album is extremely loud and in your face.

At 34:49 he also says he doesn’t use templates when mixing because it limits what he can do.

At 46:31 Mike Dean explained how he doesn’t like to work in studios too much and works mostly in hotels, with some KRK Rookit 8’s with a sub. He went on to explain how he runs his speakers straight from his interface to his speakers.

From this interview it seems that when Mike Dean is mixing he doesn’t over complicate the process and is very confident in his ability. For some of mixes I will incorperate these techniques by trying to not overcomplicate a song and having faith that sometimes less is more.

This post relates to learning outcome 3

Carrying on with my research on Jeff Ellis and his interview with Sound On Sound Magazine I will be focusing on his mixing processes during this blog post.

Jeff is a self taught mixer and said that he has done most of his learning through trail and error

At 13:02 Jeff explains how he starts every mix by crafting the aesthetic of sound through his PMC speakers,after he listens on his Pmc’s he plays the mix through his Pyles which simulate a phone speaker(low end reference speaker). He will then transfer the mix to his MacBook pro speakers. At 16:43 Jeff states “make a mix too balanced on MacBook speakers it is going to sound dull on everything else, you have to find a balance”.

When mixing he listens to the mix really quietly because he says listening to music loud when your trying to mix “ruins your ears for the day” and will hinder your ability to mix.At 17:15 he said “you listen loud straight away your ears are ruined straight away”

Jeff also listens to how well his mixes translate on the headphones Beats By Dre. Although these headphones are notorious for being extremely bass heavy, Jeff explained how a lot of people are listening to your music on them. So it’s important to make sure you mixes sound good on them.

From this research I have learned the importance of making sure your mixes translate on a wide range of systems so they are a lot more accessible. As well as using the main monitors in the Multitrack studio, I will be doing the majority of my mixing on the mono cube at a relatively low volume. With the hope that if I can make the mix sound good on the studio’s mono cube it should sound good on a wide range of systems. I will also be seeing how my mixes translates on headphones specifically beats by dre. For my audio project I will incorporate these techniques Jeff Ellis uses in my mixing process,

This post relates to learning outcome 4

Today I have been researching the importance of punctuality I have been reading an extract from the book Managing conflict and workplace relationships (James O’Rourke, Sandra Collins)

“a lack of concern for punctuality can be interpreted as a lack of consideration and professionalism”

punctuality is an extremely important thing to have when working in the professional environment, as it shows to your client that you are invested in working together. Showing up late can show disinterest and can offend your clients. When arranging studio time/meeting with my artists I will make sure I always arrive early so I have adequate time to set up the microphones and pro tools session to maximize the time we can spend together recording and making creative decisions.

This post relates to learning outcome one

Today I started my research on Frank Ocean’s recording/mix engineer Jeff Ellis. Jeff worked extensively on Frank Ocean’s Grammy winning album Channel Orange and today I watched an interview with him and Sound On Sound Magazine, where he detailed many aspects of his production techniques. In this blog post I will be focusing on his vocal tracking techniques.

Throughout the course of this interview Jeff was very vocal on the importance of working with good artists, at 6 minutes he said “don’t let the engineering get in the way of the art” this was followed by him saying  “to make great art, you need to work with great artists” at 9 minutes and 58 seconds. Jeff detailed that whilst working with Frank Ocean they would have a lot of free form sessions where they would have no real direction, but would sit down and develop ideas together he would often have multiple instruments set up and have an SM58 inside the control room so any ideas could be recorded quickly.

When it came to the actual vocal tracking of Frank Ocean at 6 minutes and 40 seconds Jeff explained how he used a Neuman u47 microphone, he described the microphone as “not very bright” which he explained was a useful thing to have because when the mixing phase begins the vocals will undergo multiple layers of compression and by the time all this compression has happened the vocals will have naturally became brighter. He also talked about how he doesn’t cut off a lot of low end from a vocal recording because he loves the chest voice and describes it as emotional.

From carrying out this piece of research I can apply this vocal tracking workflow of Jeff Ellis by trying to make sure I work with talented artists to produce good music, I can also  use a Neuman u47 in some of my vocal tracking session and leave in the low end of any male vocalists I work with to try and bring emotion into these tracks I am mixing.

This post relates to learning outcome 4

Full interview is available at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izZMM5eHCtQ&t=442s

Carrying on with my research on Young Guru I further examined his interview with Sound On Sound Magazine, I was particularly interested in Young Guru’s workflow when it comes to mixing.

When asked about his workflow for mixing Young Guru said “More and more people mix as they record, but I don’t like to do that, because usually I’m tracking to the [MP3] two‑track, and I will have been listening to that for a long time and its sound gets kind of ingrained in me……After I’ve laid down the mix, I’ll run each individual audio track via the board and print it back into a new Pro Tools Session with effects, EQ and everything on it, and at the right level. So in my stem Session all faders are set to zero. If I later want to change the level of the snare, all I have to do is change it in the stem Session”

Young Guru’s point about refusing to mix as he records is a very sensible production technique I shall emulate when I record my own artists, by separating the mixing and recording processes it will allow me to give my ears a break and start the mixing process with no premeditated ideas on what the mix should sound like.

By creating a second Pro Tools session for his stems where all the faders are set to zero, it streamlines the whole mixing process making it easier to create a final mix. This is a technique I have already started to use in my own work.

Full interview available at https://www.soundonsound.com/people/secrets-mix-engineers-young-guru

This post relates to learning outcome 5