Episode 70 - Bainz
Show Notes
Live with Matt Rad - Episode 70
Oct 26, 2021
w/ Bainz - Week 3
Show notes by: Bradley Will
Mixing Young Thug’s Album ‘Punk’
Matt:
It’s common for hip hop artists to be writing and recording to 2-track mixes of the beat, and it’s not until the song is selected for the album that Bainz will receive stems with which to mix the song.
Bainz:
Once I got the stems and did a few mixes Thug wasn’t feeling the changes and told me to stick to the rough (2 track) mixes. He also told me not to get the record mastered. He wanted it to be raw.
Despite this there were still a few songs that got proper mixes and weren’t just the roughs.
On the 2-track mixes I still did some basic Izotope RX processing for de-clicking and things like that to clean it up.
It’s not how I would have liked to do things, but at the end of the day it’s Thug’s album and that’s what he wanted it to be. We’re just there to facilitate his vision.
Alex Tumay says that this happened to him on past Thug albums, but it’s the first time it’s personally happened to me.
The entire record was recorded in a massive living room that was converted into a recording space. This presented some new sonic challenges because of the not ideal setup of the recording/monitoring space.
We were using a pair of Bass Boss PA speakers as mains, in addition to our usual monitors.
Jeff Bhasker was present. He had a Moog, Juno, and either a Fantom or Triton. He was generating music ideas and Metro Boomin was doing drums.
Q: What do you do once a large album like this is released?
Bainz:
I just chill out and relax. Because leading up to this I’ve been so busy and haven’t gotten enough sleep. It’s been a lot of physical and emotional stress.
Q: How did you get into Thug’s world?
Bainz:
I was working at Crosby Studios in Burbank with James Fauntelroy. My good engineer friend Sean put me on the session with Thug.
I was reluctant at first because I’d heard some horror stories but was convinced by my friend who insisted that I take the gig.
For half a year I would be doing vocal tracking with Thug 2-3 days a week on a 24/7 schedule. It’s pretty grueling.
Eventually I started mixing the records and doing everything else for the label.
Die Slow was the track that inspired Thug to do an entire record in this style.
Most of the record started as guitar loops from Thug. Then Metro Boomin’ or Charlie Handsome would add drums.
Q: How do I get my break? How do I get gigs?
Matt:
You’ve got to do great work and then the people around you talk about you.
Bainz:
That’s what happened to me.
Matt:
There are a lot of engineers/producers who are constantly group texting with each other and then exchanging ideas.
It’s a lot of sharing knowledge and coming up together.
Bainz:
It didn’t always used to be like this. I think a lot of it is through the internet and this new generation.
Q: Who’s the next person to come up through YSL?
Bainz:
YTV Trench and T-Shine.
Q: Because the sound of music is changing so frequently these days how do you adapt?
Bainz:
Every now and then I hear a new record that’s got the snare of the hats super loud, so I’ll deliberately match that and honor the producer’s intent because it kills the vibe if you dial it back.
Matt:
It’s only a matter of time before the next generation comes out with music that is going to sound “wrong” to us.
Q: When going to other studios to record, what do you prep for? What do you bring?
Bainz:
I always make sure that the vocal mic is in the control room.
If there is a sidecar for the computer I always move the computer monitor and keyboard onto the console bridge, because I hate using the sidecar.
Sometimes I’ll bring my own laptop or interface and plug right into the existing setup.
I make sure that the computer keyboard and mouse are within quick reach of Thug so that he and I can trade places easily.
I always bring my iLok and hard drives.
We always record directly to my disk and never the local network, in case someone attempts to steal the material off of the local computer’s hard drive.
Sometimes I’ll disable the network options on the computer to help prevent that possibility.
I have to be careful that nobody steals the files.
Just recently someone went to the T-Mobile store and ordered a replacement SIM card for my cell phone line and attempted to hack my phone line and Facebook account.
This has happened to other engineers before.
This was obviously very targeted because it’s 3 days before the record came out.
There are attempts every week on my password.
Don’t ever click on a Dropbox link, in order to prevent phishing.
For this reason I never keep anything in the cloud.
I only keep local hard-drive backups. One on my person and one at home.
Matt:
A similar thing had happened when I was working with One Direction. Fans had hacked the Sony email servers and I was forbidden from sending any files. No song titles. No abbreviations. Nothing.
Bainz:
If I email the label any deliverables and include the password in that same email the label will get so mad at me because it’s insecure.. We always only text the password to each other.
Mike Dean will use the Keka app to encrypt the .zip file as an added layer of protection.
Q: Do you have a target loudness (LUFS) when you deliver to mastering?
Bainz:
-9 LUFS is loud for me. I don’t do -6 or -7 LUFS because the low-end suffers at that loudness. -9 or -10 is a good spot.
Q: How do you create stereo space with mono guitars?
Bainz:
Sometimes I’ll do a haas delay where one channel is delayed by a few ms.
Sometimes I’ll pan the instrument off to one size with a little bit of room delay.
I’ll also use the SSL Fusion for some stereo width.
I like the Neural DSP stuff is great.
I’ll use the multi-voice harmonizer from the Tim Henson model for vocal effects, too.
Matt:
I’m using the Neural DSP Cory Wong amp for all of my clean guitars and the Plini model too.
Q: Effects on verb/delay returns?
Bainz:
I usually have 2-3 different verbs:
Plate: Bricasti M7 w/ a little bit of multi-band (compression) going in.
Chamber: UAD Capitol Chambers
Delays:
I’ll have a static one side-chained to duck off of the vocal.
I don’t want to use the same delay effect each time, so in order to quick-test which one is best for a song I’ll have numerous mono channels each set up with their own delay preset. Then I’ll just drag a snippet of the vocal file onto each track one at a time to audition which is going to be best.
Each of these different delays will also have an effects chain on it that could include a Futz Box, a flanger, or some chorus.
They’ll be set to 100% wet so alI I have to do is drag a copy of the vocal clip to the channel and let it run in parallel with the dry channel.
If I make a preset that I like it will get added to the template.
They’re all organized by delay type (slap, 8th note, 1/4 note, etc)
I’ve released a .pdf of this setup as part of the July issue of Sound on Sound magazine.
This setup is way quicker than having everything on sends and setting them up each time I want to audition them.
Matt:
Preparation is everything.
