My second track called “One Take”  is based of the production techniques Mike Dean used on Travis Scott’s album Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight. I have referenced the song “Pick Up the Phone Ft.Quavo”. Although the two songs are different musically and sonically, I wished to capture that same level of energy in my mix and make sure the listeners attention was firmly on the MC. From an earlier blog post I identified that a key production technique used by Mike Dean is minimalism in an interview with pensado’s place he said “if you can’t turn it up loud then don’t use it”. I have incorporated this ideology into my mix of One Take, this song has no hook and is all about the artist showing off his ability as an MC. This is why I have done minimal automation on the instrumental and used minimal production techniques so I don’t take attention away from the MC.

This post relates to learning outcome 3

The first track I have produced based of the production techniques used by Rick Rubin on Kanye West’s album Yeezus is called “Rage”. Although I referenced the album in its entirety I focused particularly on the track “Black Skinhead”. The mix of this song is very loud and in your face and I tried to recreate this in “Rage”, I created a simple yet effective drum pattern  to help move the song forward. I also used a lot of distortion on the vocals to add energy to the artist’s voice similar to how Kanye West sounds on “Black Skinhead”.

On “Black Skinhead” there is a very distinctive scream that plays on the instrumental to make sure the listener is always paying attention, I recreated this on “Rage”  by blending multiple sound effects together, shifting the pitch and adding processes such as reverb. I have attached before and after audio clips below.

This post relates to learning outcome 2

Rick Rubin is an American producer and former co-president of Columbia Records, Rubin is the co-founder Def Jam Records and has had a major influence on Hip-Hop music.

Today I have carried out some research on a few of the production techniques Rick Rubin uses, I watched an interview with him conducted by Zane Lowe. One of the most interesting things I learnt from this interview is the way Rick Rubin runs his sessions.

At 13:01 Rick Rubin says “The goal is to create a setting where an artist can be completely vulnerable….completely free to be themselves” he goes on to explain how important it is for an artist to feel comfortable in the studio and how every artist requires a specific environment.

For example at 13:38 he says “not having anyone else in the studio can work……if their friends are there they may perform for their friends”

This level of artist and environment management is essential if you wish to create good music, and I will be incorporating this into how I run my studio sessions. I will also try to run multiple sessions with the same artist so a relationship can form making them more comfortable.

This post relates to learning outcome 2

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