Episode 22
Show Notes
Live with Matt Rad - Episode 22
Oct 13, 2020
w/ Jon Castelli - Week 20
Show notes by: Bradley Will
The Differences Between Treating Organic vs. Synthesized Sounds:
Jon has an overall theory on this that he’s been doing for the last 15 years.
Some people think it is his style.
Jon tends to always treat organic instruments synthetically and synthetic sounds organically
This could be processing synth sounds through tubes.
Super bright synths, he tries to warm them up.
For Bob Dylan-sounding acoustic guitar he’s going to try to push it away from the 60s and more into the modern sound. Like what they might do on a Kanye record.
Jon wants to be as competitive as possible. He doesn’t try to make records that sound like a throw-back. He wants them to stand against contemporary electronic music.
Matt thinks of things the exact same way.
Eric Valentine is very good at making organic sounds super tight and larger than life.
Organic instruments. Lots of tricks to pop transients out, compress, or do whatever can be done. You do this in order to compete with electronic instruments.
You want something to sound unique, but you don’t want it to sound weak or wimpy compared to other songs.
The last ten years in pop have been about balancing the organic with the synthetic elements. How do you treat the in-your-face sounds as organic sounds and grunge them up a bit? How do you take the duller organic sounds and make them compete with super-bright stuff.
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Q: Would you ever do a live mix?
Jon:
I would, but I think it might be boring for others to watch.
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Jon is on a new way of mixing right now that he’s been trying for the last 3 weeks. Jon is trying something more additive with a very specific single tool. Spectre Saturator, by Waves Factory.
Spectre by Waves Factory: A 5 band parametric additive-only saturator.
He’s now using that on everything.
There is no crossover, which avoids the phasing-issues.
Jon is aiming for competitively loud mixes that are also dynamic.
He can get away with it with this additive saturation.
The two traditional ways to get density are
1. More parts
2. Compression/distortion.
The Ozone 9 exciter has a crossover and will compromise the low-end when used down there
Instead of just reducing some boomy-ness on an EQ you use a dynamic EQ so that it only cuts when the vocal goes down low.
Sometimes Jon will automate saturation for certain words of a vocal in order to give them emphasis, instead of doing a simple level ride.
Jon has tried clipping syllables.
JST Clipper plugin to mimic the Fruity Loops clipping sound.
He’s doing this to approximate the clipping character that one might hear on old Nina Simone record.
Some vocals he gets come in so flat that he does this to introduce some character.
Kanye’s vocals on 808s and Heartbreak:
Lots of distortion. No reverb. Weird delay. Automate up distortion on certain lines to add intensity.
It’s the same idea as doing a reverb or delay throw to emphasize a phrase.
Transients For Bass and Drums:
Jon:
Don’t ever use linear phase EQ when you’re filtering low-end. Otherwise use it very sparingly.
Fabfilter Pro-Q video for linear-phase will demonstrate the effects of linear-phase. You’ll never be able to unhear this.
It obscures transients and adds pre-ringing.
The phase bump on EQs is what gives their characteristic sound.
Jon likes the Dangerous Bax EQ on the low end because of it’s phase pop.
Summing:
Jon is anti-summing box. He doesn’t think it’s the answer.
He DOES think that coming out of the box and hitting some sort of analog “wall” will help to keep the low-mids intact that people usually cut when mixing in the box.
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Matt finds Ableton tough to get very loud competitive mixes in.
The minute Jon stems things out from Ableton to Pro Tools it sounds better.
The reason Jon thinks this is is because Ableton is built for stability. Pro Tools is more vulnerable to crashes.
Ableton reduces the sonic quality to prioritize stability.
Jon thinks you should mix it into Pro Tools when finishing.
Jon thinks the “cello frequencies” of 200-500 are the musical low-mid ranges.
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Beginner tips for meditation:
Matt: Waking Up app.
Jon: Jon uses Headspace for sleeping meditations.
Matt: It’s worth looking up the Sam Harris podcast in which he talks about meditation.
Meditation is like stretching for your brain.
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Do you send tracks through separate busses to do broad strokes?
Matt:
Yes. Though he doesn’t treat them much.
Jon:
Yes. But never to change levels. Maybe something to control the low-mids on a keyboard bus so he doesn’t hit his tubes too much.
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Favorite mixing/producing peers? Who do you like?
Jon:
Blake and Omer who did the 24k Goldn record.
Guitar focused hiphop drums combos w/ emo vocals on top.
He did Ty Dolla Sign on Song Exploder.
He’s got great bass playing.
It’s super organic and musical, but very modern and in your face.
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Q: Do you sidechain much?
Jon:
Rarely, but yes.
If Jon is saturating a sound he may need to enhance the sidechaining again.
He’ll side chain low-end
