daily.redbullmusicacademy.comPosted Dec 5, 2020, 10:15 AM UTC
Ayyyoo!!
Always record!
This is the top reason for having a “record track/cut track” method in your pro tools tracking/recording template. “Quick punch” engaged w/ 99bars post roll. Input monitoring engaged always. This is known as the drag and drop method, because you record regions only on your cut track and drag or copy paste the regions to your tracks below.
When in “quick punch” the artist is even just “listening” to the session playing back And starts harmonies before you had a chance to hit record you can press record anytime before stoping playback (as long as track is armed) and trim it out to where the artist started doing something interesting.
It’s wild in the music business. separate your ego these things:
things that obviously help the “song”
things that don’t
It’s all about the song at the end of the day it’s also about the team around artist/producer(s) and their abilities to accentuate, to add to those element and the common goal of making the best song possible. Don’t add things simply because you can. Ask if it’s really helping the song/production. Is it necessary? Remove (or don’t add) fillers. Simpler the better. Make the kick and the snare loop interesting alone, add and make the main vocal more interesting and consistent and then start adding in other stuff to your rough mixes. Refer back to the producers rough mix and full tracking rough mix if you’re mixing it.
Some of the most talented tracking engineers are the uncredited co-producers, arrangers, composers and co-mixers of your favorite songs/albums/projects.
Still no engineer/mixer credits section in Spotify as far as I know.
Great idea using a cut-track, I never thought of doing it like this before but it makes a ton of sense.
Yeee, cuts down on session size too... you can save as delete out the cut track and then send that session copy out. Only keeper takes included then
RIP to the amazingly talented Seth Firkins, who helped establish Future's breakthrough sound through his legendary mixtape run between 2014-2016. Lots of great takes in this interview.
This is so true. As a vocal producer and often engineer on sessions with other producers... When you've got what you need move on.
I've seen inexperienced producers wasting hours with "try one where you just 'go for it'." or "how about one with a different vibe?" The singer gets tired, bored, and frustrated, and has nothing left when you're at the end of the session and you really do need them to belt it out for the chorus or adlibs.
That being said, I will never say no if the artist asks to do one more.
Managing a singers stamina is truly an art form. Knowing the song and how it sits in their voice goes a long way. And like you said, keeping them inspired is critical. Trust is critical though- the singer needs to trust that if you ask for one with a different vibe and it seems stupid to them, there’s a reason that you need to grab it. This only comes with turning around great accapellas consistently.
Totally.
YES.
Also, 99% of the time, if you didn't know what vibe it should be on the first take, you didn't do your job. Don't have them sing it a certain way ten times in a row and then chime in with "what about this approach instead?" You've wasted 10 takes, and if the singer's smart, they'll know it.
Disagree a little bit- I often I know what emotion I’m trying to get from the song, but the way the demo singer got there may be different from the way the artist does. If you know their voice well, you probably won’t have this problem, but sometimes it takes a little discovery and exploration to figure out how to get the emotion out. Sometimes that means just hanging out and relaxing, sometimes it’s talking about the song or the vocal performance we’re going for, to get on the same page, but sometimes you just gotta try shit and see what makes your goose bump. To me, the job is to get there however you need to get there.
I also find that most singers are bad at pacing themselves because they just like singing (or hearing themselves?), so I’m definitely not counting on the singer being smart about voice management; I just regularly ask them how their voice is feeling if it’s something I know is taxing, so they are at least thinking about it.