- [Audience 1] What's the difference? You use Trackspacer for...
- [Jay] Oh, so let me show you. Yeah. So let me show you.
- It's on the backing vocals? - No, on the lead.
So, once I dial this in, just say, for instance, the effects came back,
everything sounded amazing, a miracle happened with this lead vocal,
then I would put Trackspacer in, which was already
defaulted to the lead all left because you only can do mono,
but it still doesn't matter.
I have it always at 10%, normally.
The attack time is defaulted at five and release.
But usually, I'll go to J Start and have a faster attack because,
obviously, I want it to dip when the vocals dip and a fast release.
- Can I ask you why you choose Trackspacer
instead of Soothe for this?
- Trackspacer came out before Soothe, so I haven't been able to even...
I have so much workflow, I haven't even been able to switch out
the Soothe with Trackspacer to even try it.
But Trackspacer just works so quickly and easily, and it's been in my thing.
But the main reason why is, is I had it before Soothe
and it's just been... stayed there in my...
But I'm pretty sure Soothe probably sounds better.
I just haven't dialed it in yet.
- How much amount do you put?
- Ten percent.
- So I use...
You see the lead all aux? - Yeah.
- This lead all aux, obviously, is going to all vocals.
But I'll also have it feeding my side chain for the Trackspacer.
So, every time the lead vocal hits, I don't have it on the backgrounds.
I don't have it on the backgrounds, I just have it on the lead.
- [Audience 2] Jaycen, you're doing this after you're done with the vocal mix and..
- Yes, because sometimes you don't need it.
Sometimes the vocal's sitting great
and you don't have that mid-range that's stepping over in the vocals.
But when you do have a plucky guitar or moments that are...
This is a great, great tool to use, but I always put that on after the fact.
I never pre-think about it, like,
"Oh, I'm always going to use Trackspacer."
No, Trackspacer's a 50-50 coin toss if I need it.
- I have another question.
- Yes, sir.
- You didn't use much mid-side processing on your mixing,
just like... as I have seen, just PS-22 to spread or something like that,
but didn't use much mid-side?
- Don't use much mid-side.
Fortunately, enough on this track, there's only one.
Now if it was multiple, I would.
So with this one, I liked how it sound.
And remember, we used the shed spread.
Basically, reprocess the signal, gives it a little modulation,
and puts it towards the outside.
So it makes it a little bit bigger.
So now it sounds like, instead of having one left-right guitar,
now you have an extra guitar and an extra guitar on the outside.
So, it just makes it sound thicker.
So, I'll do a before and after, just again so you can see.
Without.
With.
And that's the Double Metal Guitar Widener J preset.
The acoustic one is just as good as well.
Strings one is amazing.
- [Audience 3] And you said you use that on vocals sometimes?
- Background vocals.
It's not a very good plug-in for mono, but for anything that's in stereo
and you want it to be fuller and thicker and a little bit outside the speaker,
it just gives you a wider stereo spectrum
where people are just like, "Man, why does this seem so wide?"
Because it's outside the speakers.
- Sometimes on background vocals, it depends from artist to artist.
But sometimes in some mixes, it's very hard to get that separation
between the lead vocal and the backgrounds.
What kind of tricks... - EQ.
- So, for example, your lead's always going to have the proximity effect, right?
- Yeah.
- So you want your background vocals to be behind the mix,
so you're going to get rid of that proximity effect.
You're going to make it thinner and stand out more.
Or you'll find out what the fundamental frequency is
on your lead vocal, and you say it's like 2K.
You go to your background vocals, take out 2K drastically,
and add 3K or 4K, and that'll separate it, if that makes any sense.
Always try...
I tell people, if it's a double, then, yeah,
you want to kind of EQ it the same.
But if you have background vocals and you want to make them stand out
and you want the separation, you got to EQ them differently than the lead.
You don't want to take your, "Oh, I got a great lead vocal.
Let me take that down and put it on my background vocals."
Now your background vocal's going to sound just like your lead.
And even though they're stereo, and you might like that
because you want it to sound fuller and like a double effect.
But if you want them to be distinctive, you always,
which I try to do, is have distinctive backgrounds,
EQ them slightly differently.
So, you'll give, say, the backgrounds a little more top end,
but not in the same place as you gave the top end on the lead vocals.
So, say, if you go 8K, 10K on the lead,
you might go to the backgrounds 5K, 6K if that makes any sense.
And then one thing with backgrounds, too, is they're support vocals as well.
So you'll have a lead vocal and you'll be like, "Man, this lead vocal's shit."
And it doesn't have anything at 300 hertz, and I really need... or 250.
Go to your background vocals and enhance that 250.
And it won't even... It'll sound fucking amazing.
Be like, "Yo, when those background vocals in, it comes in so full, so lush,"
because it's supporting that vocal frequency that's missing.
This game is a marathon.
It ain't a race, and you're only as good as your last mix.
You know what I mean? You can't take a mix off.
You can't take a mix off.
That's the biggest mistake you could do.
You'll lose a client.
And keep exploring, keep fishing and keep finding your vessels
because when you find the people who hear like you,
it just makes the experience so much better.
You get the fire emojis, you get the heart, heart, heart,
heart, heart, heart, hearts, so on and so forth.
Like, "I can't believe you did this for me."
But if you're just the guy that's sitting back waiting for the call,
that ain't going to be it.
There's so many people out here.
It's like, "Hey, I don't know if you know who I am, but I mix for dah, dah, dah.
I really, really, really love your shit.
I feel you're going places.
If you need any help, hit me up, or give me a call,
or send over some files and I'll show you what the fuck I...
I really think your shit can do."
And next thing you know it, you do that a thousand times,
you'll get 10 fucking clients or 10 people who hear, and it's the music.
Once you hear their music, you'll know if you can mix.
Like, "I'll mix the shit out of this, and this shit is terrible."
And the crazy thing is, is you go on the SoundCloud charts,
or if you go on the Apple Music charts, you'll see a lot of fucking rappers
in there that they don't have mixers, they don't have anybody.
And you just got to approach them and see them.
I mean, I get hit up all the time.
I see a check mark, I'm like, "Who the fuck are you?
Oh, shit, you got 24 million followers in India.
Let me see what you're all about."
You know what I mean? "You have 7 million followers in Argentina."
I have no idea who you are.
And next thing you know it, these guys are changing your lives
because they're giving you music that you love to mix
and you truly care about.
- When you're dealing with new clients, do they usually go
to management first, or do people just go to you?
- They go to management.
But as soon as you become that mixer, you're going to lose clients.
So I always like to have a personal relationship with my clients.
So I like when my clients call me for the mix and then they'll be like,
"Oh, we'll talk to Terry about the paperwork and stuff like that."
But the initial conversation, I always like to have it.
This is the other thing, you will lose less mixes
if you demand the artist to either do a listen-to or come by the studio.
Because if they come by the studio, if you really want to lock them in,
you start the mix from start to finish with them,
then they got nothing to fucking say and you'll get the fucking mix done.
So, if I have a client that I know has 850,000 notes,
instead of going over the 850,000 notes, I'll be like,
"Yo, pull up to the studio, let's mix this record together."
Now they're fucking involved.
They're hearing their kick and their snare,
and at least you get the mix done in a day as opposed to,
and that's the lost art.
Now a lot of mixers don't want the client to come in,
but I think that's where the disconnect is because they don't feel
that they're a part of the process.
You're already the enemy anyway because the record company or whoever
told them to use you.
You know, there's a way to befriend them
before you even start going down the process.
When you're in the mix studio, like, all right, they're sitting on the couch,
you're starting to, I know it's teach, you're like, "Why do you want to be here?"
But that's how you have to convince in their ear.
Because If they hear it in their ear from start to finish,
they don't get afraid.
And if something jumps out, they can tell you right then and there.
Like I said, you're always going to have 50% of the people that's not going to
understand your mixes and 50% of the people
are going to think you're the greatest thing in the world.
You just can't take offense to the 50% of the people
that don't understand because it's not you.
It's the rough mix, and/or they have a terrible ear.
- Do you usually mix off one side?
- Yeah, I fucked up and went under Dave Pensado, and Dave Pensado
mixes on that fucking side.
So, of course, I mixed on that side.
And now when I try to mix straight up the middle, I'm like,
"I need that off-access listening."
So it has nothing to do with like, "That's Jaycen's secret.
He's mixing on the side."
I fucking followed my mentor because he mixed on the side.
He never mixed straight up.
But I do straight up when...
The detailing part.
So, once I send it to them for the wash and wax and it comes back,
then you'll see me up here very, very low, detailing.
Takes me about 30 minutes.
But I get to really have fun then because now I got my effects,
everything's sounding fucking halfway decent.
And now I'm approaching the mix from a level where I respect it at.
So now imagine approaching the mix at this level.
So now we're approaching it for...
Now I'm starting the mix basically over again.
Now it's only going to take me 30 minutes to an hour to dial it fucking super in.
But imagine that, or starting from here.
You start from the rough, you're already fucking bummed out.
Like, you put all this effort to get it to this level,
and that takes something out of your soul.
So, that's why you got to give your soul 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour,
two hours before you hit it again because you'll never see it the same way.
You'll never see it the same way. You got to give it a little bit of a...
Let's see what we're here on the LUFs.
Let's guess, I'm guessing 7.5.
And we didn't even look at it.
It's just following the gain structure.
Come on now. Look at that.
That's all I'm saying, bro.
And does it sound like it's minus 7.5?
- No.
- Fuck no, it doesn't sound like it's minus 7.5.