Episode 3
Show Notes
Live With Matt Rad - Episode #3
May 26, 2020
w/ Jon Castelli - Week 3
Show notes by: Bradley Will
Jon starts a mix with low end and vocals first.
The vocals are everything. Lyrics, melody, and performance should all be on point when producing.
The vocals should sound good before you mix.
Monitoring:
Jon:
Get the right monitoring setup.
Put distance between you and the walls.
Be cognizant of room nulls.
Don’t put yourself right in the middle of the room. Move around the room until you find the spot where the room sounds best.
Monitoring is the most important of all the things. Save your money to get some high end monitors so that you can be objective about any other gear upgrades you intend to make.
PMC’s have the highest SPL without distortion. You want something with as high of a headroom as possible without distortion.
A common critique is that PMCs are bright. Because they are not distorting/saturating the high end people are hearing how bright the music actually is.
The music is bright. Not the speakers.
ATC’s have a rich midrange cloud. The drums don’t hit, but the chords sound tight.
Master mixers can create the liveliness and dimension while still maintaining the density.
Any headphone recommendations? Jon doesn’t have an answer. He uses Beyerdynamic T100, but they’re probably out of the budget of most people.
Matt:
Matt Uses Outkast’s ‘Speakerboxxx Intro’ track and it’s 808 bass walk-down to measure the low end response of a new listening environment when you use it for the first time.
Brightness In a Mix:
Jon:
There can be a focus at 11k and not 9k or 10k. Start getting very specific in how you handle the high end.
Has a hi-cut on at 27k on his master buss. He is -10 to -4dB with this on every pop mix. This achieves the effect of the high end that he’s looking for.
Jon can hear the difference between 11k and 12k, so he’s not just doing a 10k shelf. There’s a lot of wash-iness up in that range that can trip you up.
Jon thinks pop music has been way too bright for too long of a period.
Michael Jackson records and Usher’s Confessions are the right kind of bright.
Jon uses an LPF on the sides to focus the high end and round off the top end.
Low End:
Jon:
What makes something sound modern to him is how deep or how punchy it is. Start by getting every low end element in phase.
If your low end elements aren’t in phase, it doesn’t matter how much boost you do at 60 Hz. You can do up to +20dB boost and still get poor results.
Jon doesn’t nudge any more than 10-100 samples along with a phase invert to get his low end in phase.
Try pitching your kick down one semitone to recalibrate the low-end. Sometimes you want a kick and the 808 to be out of tune just enough to get the rub.
Historically 808 drum machines may actually be 30 cents flat. The kick and the 808s should both have attacks. Just make them slap together. Put them in phase.
Misc:
Everyone is freaked out in the process of record making. Your value as a professional is to help everyone calm down.
Surround yourself with people who help your taste evolve.
