- [Jay] Some mics give you this thing that I hear in my ear
that's like this sizzling digital bullshit noise.
So sometimes, things over 20k need to be taken out
because they don't sound good.
I don't do this most of the time, but a lot of the times with rap vocals,
times with rap vocals, I'll have to do it because I want to center my vocal.
I want that vocal not to be the hi-hats.
I don't want the vocal...
I mean, that air is desperately needed, but sometimes you get mics
that add this digital thing that I cannot explain,
and you have to take some of it out.
So I'll just show you with and without.
Once again, tuning the hi-hat to the lead vocal now.
- [Audience 1] The duplicated track on the sample, is it correct like that?
- What do you mean, correct?
- If I remember well, you added another EQ.
- So, you have the top track?
- No, the bottom one.
- Oh, yeah. What happened?
- I feel you hear it in the track, it's so strong.
- What happened to it?
- Now it was just popping out.
- Yeah. No doubt. Thank you.
I think we're good now.
Thank you, brother.
Then we throw these backgrounds in,
9 times out of 10, I keep their EQs on the backgrounds.
- [Audience 2] Are you a fan of using Trackspacer to create space for the...
- Yep. That's going to be next after I put these background vocals in, yep.
As you can see, Trackspacer is already grayed out,
ready to go when I'm going.
But yep. No. No. Don't ever ask.
No... Keep asking.
I wish we had more questions.
- [Audience 3] [inaudible].
- Yep.
- Can I ask regarding the Soothe?
- Yeah.
- So, it is just the "Voice of God" preset from the get-go,
and then you just mix into it?
- Yep.
Voice of God preset from the get-go,
and then I find the fundamental frequency that I...
It's already at 7k. It defaulted at...
So, yeah. Well, 8k.
And that's basically where all the spice is coming from, 7 to 8k.
So, I don't have to really, really touch it. So, as you can see...
God, this plug-in is good, it's so good.
So, it's just simple stuff.
They have these ad-libs that are going, "What, yo?"
But they're going straight down the middle.
Obviously, we don't want that.
So, we did the pan left, right, left.
- [Audience 4] This is not so much technical,
but I'm just curious on your opinion.
Do you ever...
Listening to her voice and her voice has a very specific,
how do I say, color.
There's this breakup, I don't know how to explain,
but it's like a breakup happening in her voice,
which is probably just her natural voice or her projection,
not so much the technical side of the recording.
How do you weigh that? What's your opinion on it?
Do you ever sit back and think, "Okay...
Can I better this, or can I figure a way out
to make it come across as even more effective?
- No. This is a shitty vocal recording,
so you try to make it the best that it possibly can be.
You can't fix a shitty vocal recording.
You can make it better, but you can't...
You do the best you can.
What I used to do early in my career is
I would have a vision of what a great mix would sound like,
and you do everything that you possibly can to get yourself to that great mix.
But sometimes you don't have the material to get to that great mix.
It's impossible.
So, you got to tell yourself, and I've been doing this so long, like,
"Okay. I know that I can get this vocal, which is a three, to a seven.
It's not going to be a 10.
But I know what they've been used...
And that's the other thing, you got to kind of be aware
of what they're used to.
And they've been listening to this spicy as hell.
So, if you take too much of it off, they're going to be like,
"Oh, it's not as exciting as it possibly could be."
So, I don't chase a bad vocal.
I just make a bad vocal as good as I possibly can,
and I go on to the next.
- [Audience 5] Jaycen, do you ever get sent only wet vocals?
- Yes. All the time.
- So how do you deal with that?
- So, say for instance, I get a wet stem.
If you get a wet monotrack, you're done.
I don't know who does that, but if you get a wet monotrack, you're done.
But let me go to a stereo track.
So, this will be a stereo track.
If this was a vocal stereo track, and you're like,
"God, I need more of the vocal and less of the wetness."
I just go to center...
- Or just bump up the mid? - Huh?
- You just bump up the mid? - No.
Not on the...
Yes, but in a sense, I decrease the sides, where the reverb is.
And it's a great trick to get the reverb out at the center of the vocal,
which obviously is sitting.
And you'll hear a very, very, very drier vocal.