(00:02) Steve Dierkens, Chris Selim, how's it going? I feel like I'm good. Good for you. Thank you. How was breakfast? I was going to say I had a I had an omelette. That took a while. That took a while. It took a long time. Yeah, it took so long. I think you actually posted a story about it. I know.
(00:21) It sat there for so long. It was that long. It was such a first world problem. But we we made it. We did. Here we are. And and and I will just say you you did say one of the I was getting up to go to the bathroom while whilst waiting and I was like I'm just going to hit the hit the bathroom and you looked at me grown middle-aged man.
(00:45) You said you go boy with a straight face. I just looked right at you and I'm like don't ever say that again. Then we started laughing and I was hearing you laughing like with the echo and everything on the rest man you can hear me from the bathroom. Oh yeah. You go boy should be illegal. And here we are. And here we still are as friends.
(01:08) So I'm going to let that one go. Yeah. Recording this podcast. That's right. So now important thing here. Okay. for all you watching on YouTube or listening in your car while you're um I don't know making cooking or cleaning the house or something you know whatever you do while listening to podcast please Chris just wants to say you go boy you go boy whoever you are just like you know you go boy so important thing to leave a uh leave a feedback on Apple podcast Spotify go on YouTube if even if you're not uh watching the podcast just go on
(01:43) YouTube subsc Subscribe to the YouTube channel. It helps a lot. A lot. Okay. So, if you want to help the the podcast, help us out, please do so. We'll bring an omelette. It's might take a long time. Bring an omelet. It probably be faster than where we just were. Probably. Wherever you're coming from, chances are it will be faster.
(02:04) So, what's the topic today? I I think the topic today as as discussed is vocals. Okay. And I think we had an interesting conversation about drums. Yes. Which was kind of cool. And it kind of turned into a multi-art thing. And so the thought was, let's let's walk through vocals kind of from the start of the process to the end of the process.
(02:20) And it happens that you sing. I I I attempt to sing on. I do. I do. You did quite a good job on one of my videos. Oh, thank you. I really hit song on the spot if I recall. I'm singing through the channel MK3. It's the channel next to me. That performance. It cuts you right here every time. I sometimes dream about it.
(02:45) I watched myself and felt it. It wakes me up. I felt what I was feeling in the moment. Totally get later. That's how the good ones go. You go boy. Stop it. Do you ever do you ever wonder if that happens though to people like like you listen to a really good vocal performance. Do you think like years down the road they listen to that and go still hurts me as a performer? I'm sure there must be some. Right.
(03:10) like some of those class like Springsteen just gutting it out like do you think 30 years later he's still like when he hears it or is he like ah cuz you never know what happened the studio during that time you know you never know what happened or where that comes from exactly that's a what the artist was going through and stuff of that too bring like a smell it brings you back to the moment it does it does so yeah I guess I guess vocals in a multi-part format do we start at the beginning and just go until until we stop until we
(03:41) stop. I think that's a good plan. So, I guess yeah, we'll just interview each other as we as we do. Except uh I'm not a singer. So, it doesn't matter. You still record singers. I Yeah, once. I did a lot lot of those. So, that's relevant to the conversation. It is. Here on our, you know, audio podcast. I recorded good singers. Yeah, exactly.
(04:03) I recorded good singers and bad singers. There's all the ones in between, of course. How what percent of singers in your career have been just like this is a good singer? Oh, a good really good singer. Yeah. Or you're like that's a good singer. Yeah. Something like, you know, you have goosebumps, you know? Yeah.
(04:20) H I would say maybe I don't know 10%. Yeah. Like you know. Yeah. Between 10 and 15, not more. Like something like we're talking about like you're impressed and it it just makes you feel something, you know? It's the the the thing in my head that that I use is it's they just have a thing that you can't package or or write down that whatever that thing is. That's the 10%.
(04:44) We just like I don't know what they're doing the same thing the last person did. And even the lyrics don't aren't brilliant, but for some reason I just feel he I feel funny. Even to compensate, you know, the other person had like a way better microphone, you know, and better lyrics and better training and better whatever.
(04:59) And this this kid comes in who's never taken a class and just does a thing. Yeah, that that's a that's a small percent of people. Yeah, totally. So, I would say like yeah, 10% I think is fair. And do you think I would I think there's less of those people making it big these days in my opinion.
(05:16) I don't think making it big has to do with talent. Correct. Funny enough. Correct. Some of those the goosebumpy people I'm finding tucked in in Spotify, right? Like on I've never heard of this person, but you might like them. That's where they are so often now. or playing the subway for some reason.
(05:35) So sometimes like you're in New York City, you're walking around like and you stop walking this guy, you know, stop. I know. Walking through the airport and you're like, "Wait, what is I feel weird at the airport?" Yeah. Anyway, so I guess I guess the process then starts with the person uh obviously and and how much energy and thought and time do you put into at this point in your life and career? Uh this person comes in and they're chatting with you.
(05:58) you've heard their demos and you go, "Okay, I got to put a mic on this person." Do you reflexively know where you're going mic choice-wise at this point? Or are you like, "We're going to try seven microphones to see what fits you." I have an idea. Maybe not seven, you know, but I'm probably going to end up with let's say let's try these couple of mics, you know? So, you're like a two or three. Yeah, some idea.
(06:17) Not more than that. Do you often go outside of that past that into four and five or is it normally within that you're like this is great? Can happen. But at some point when it sounds good, I don't want to like waste too too much time. But when I get the sound, okay, so yeah, that's the one. Let's just move forward.
(06:33) It's that part of getting older. You're like, I've just got limited time left and this sounds great. Let's keep going. No, but I think with experience, you know what's important. Yeah. You kind of focus on what's important basically. You know, when you kind of cuz you can go on and on and you know, jump into that rabbit hole and it's not going to get any better for hours.
(06:51) A being a beinging for hours. Is it going to make where you're like, "Oh, I still got goosebumps coming out of the speakers, so we're good. Let's get that." And it's not always the best mic. No. Often not. No. Often. This mic, this stupid mic, this stupid mic has made so many records in the world. Major hits.
(07:08) So many records made with this mic. This one. No, I mean, not literally. Well, maybe this one. I think this one actually. No, it's No, it's upside down like this. It's upside down. It's reversed. Can't make a hit. So, no. Yeah. So, not this one, but yours. Yeah, mine. So, so you got you got your mic. How much energy is going into your pre selection? Less than microphone selection.
(07:29) Yeah, for sure. Same. For sure. When it comes to Yeah. tone, color, and stuff, it's all microphone. A preamp, you know, you go like just a good preamp. Yes. You know, and you kind of know, do you want it do you want it solid and clean or do you want to put some color on it? And it's kind of category A or B.
(07:43) This go like API or ne, you know, and you go on this point. Yeah. Yep. Uh, and then and then are you processing on the way in these days? Mainly for monitoring purposes. Okay. For the singer. So you're not recording. However, for vocals, I love to record with compression. But honestly, for most of my life, I just recorded clean. Same.
(08:06) Okay. But I just recently, for the past couple of years, start to experiment more with recording vocals with a bit of just a bit of compression. Just a bit. And why would you do that? Why would I do that? To to establish a good foundation. That's it. Just to And it makes me like get to um maybe a f a faster final product when I mix in less time.
(08:30) That's it. That's like, you know, the only reason. Mhm. Um, and I remember even back in the day when I started to uh experiment a bit with recording with compression, I was manually depending on where I was in the song, I was manually playing with the gain knob, you know, I I still do that. So, you have like that singer going on and I had compression going on.
(08:52) So, you don't want to overcompress those big high notes and, you know, bunch of energy going on. It's like you at that point it was okay, manually gaining the knob down. Mhm. you know, bring it back after it. Like that was part of my job because I kind of liked the I do like a vocal sound with a bit of compression on.
(09:12) It does add a bit of silky type of Yeah. character to it, you know. I don't know. It just sounds closer to a final product than And for me, it influences decision making. It does. It does for me. And most importantly, it does make the singer feel better. Yes. to hear himself or herself with some dynamic control. Yeah. And and no matter what, I I'll always add some going out to them on their headphone feet.
(09:39) They always get a bit of compression. Yes. And and often times it's more than a bit like it's it's record ready and it doesn't matter. You don't record it. Correct. Correct. But people respond to it. They do. It's very interesting. They do. If you take it away like you can see people like back away while they're singing. They're scaring themselves. Right.
(09:55) So like for me while recording vocals this is the most important part for the vocal is to have a good monitor mix that includes compression whether I record with it or not. Correct. It doesn't matter that much. I have preferences depending on what I do but y it does like like I told you like most of the recordings I I worked on it was like everything was clean. up.
(10:19) I And I I became a huge fan of constant, you mentioned it with compression, but for me, gaining the preamp constantly like I'm constantly like I'll pull the thing out of the rack and bring it over closer so I so I can so I can twiddle that gain knob, right? And it's fun, honestly. It's fun. And and it does change the emotion. It does.
(10:35) There's something to that that you know, the chorus is loud and as during that pop, you pop pop two clicks down, right? And again, it's going to be more constant. Yes. While mixing and while working on the rough mix without even starting to mix. They're not reacting to what they're hearing as much. Exactly.
(10:48) They're hearing what they they're hearing a mix. Yes. Right. And don't forget that, you know, if you work back vocals afterward, that recording is going to play back, you know. Yeah. Over and over. Over and over again. So, you go into these big spikes and stuff, so you better like, you know, record it the right way.
(11:06) Um, sending a reverb has always been a weird thing for me, okay, to singers to to, you know what I mean? It's like we talked about the drum thing, like, do you want drums processed? Some drummers love it, some drummers hate it. And so yeah, typic typically for me I won't I won't if I'm singing I hate it. I don't ever want to hear it.
(11:21) You don't like it which just messes with the pitch for me. Yeah. Like it is doing a chorusy something's happening like reverb comes in some form digitally especially, right? And something's happening. But yeah, even sending it like I I never It's always on the thing. It's on the template, but I never send it unless they ask for it. Okay.
(11:38) And even then I'll just kind of give them a little bit of salt, right? Because it does affect a performance. It does. You get comfortable. It's like getting photoshopped. So, do you think most singers you work with who you worked for past years uh enjoy recording with reverb on or not? Or they don't? Doesn't matter. The experienced ones want it or they don't immediately like before we start.
(11:59) They're like, "And hey, can I get a touch of reverb?" And they'll go in and take one headphone off or not. They know they know what they want before they start. And I'm like, "Yep, here it is. Dink. Can I unmute?" It's it's the it's the 19-year-old dude who's like, "Ah, how far away do I stand from the mic?" And like, that's the guy where I'm like, "Do I give it to him or not?" Cuz every song he's ever heard has reverb on it, right? But he's not going to hear it in himself.
(12:21) And he doesn't know what to do with his headphones. So, that's always an interesting one. So, sometimes I'll experiment a bit. I'll I'll kind of do it as they're singing and see if I can hear a reaction from because I never feed it to me. So, I can I can tell if they're if they're sliding differently in the notes.
(12:35) Cuz for us too, when recording vocals, it will influence your decision. Never play reverb. You know, when they're walking from the booth in, I'll pop it on, right, for them to play back. Yeah. So they won't go crazy. Yeah. Yeah. I'll pop the autotune and the reverb on and they're like, I sound great. I'm like, you do. But yeah, the to monitor.
(12:52) And that removing one side Yeah. of the headphone is a very very good way to to record vocals. Yeah. And a lot of experienced singers, they love it this way. And a lot of them hate it. It's really weird. It's just a reflex, right? It is. Any instrument. So, we like to sit when they play guitar, some like to stand.
(13:09) So, like everybody has what they do. And if you ask them to do something else, they get all I usually like to to sit down when I play drums. It's best, especially when you're doing your double kick metal. It's your blast. Your blast beats are tricky when you're standing. Standing up is a bit tricky. Facts. You fall over backwards. I know, man.
(13:24) That's why my back hurts. See a little bandit on your head. Oh, man. Getting old. Pop hurt himself. Oh, so yeah. So I guess yeah, monitoring is a is a a big one and and again like we say in all these conversations, proper monitoring is like the gateway to awesome recordings. Okay. So let's go to that. Yeah. Okay.
(13:46) A bit more in depth into proper monitoring. So what do you think is a proper monitor mix for a singer? Uh for me, I will I will always default to this sounds as close to a finished record as I can make it. So, I want it to feel like karaoke. Okay. But when you when you set up a mix, a Q mix for a singer that's, you know, in the booth recording vocals, how are you going to set up his mix? I I I solo his mix and I make it sound like the thing like the the kick and snare and I'll I'll slap effects on things and it sounds How loud are you going to make
(14:18) them uh their vocals opposed to I I usually I usually start a bit soft and then ask them have them have me turn it up and and it's and that it's it's a bit counterintuitive to you to what you would think and my you know I've only been doing this for a few weeks of course but in that few weeks I've learned that I I find singers panic more when they're too loud.
(14:42) You learned that from my course. Yes, I remember. Yes. Yes. They they do. If singers are hiding from themselves, they get timid and it's it's a weird reaction. Yes. Right. And if and then if I can I can hear if they're over singing more easily than I can hear if they're unders singing, if that makes sense. Okay. Yeah, it does.
(14:56) So, I'll I'll start a little softer. I can hear them trying to get heard, "Hey, is your thing?" But typically, if you say, "Hey, is your voice too loud?" They'll they'll never say yes. Right. Right. So, I I have them ask for more. Do you think there's a point where you have to jump in and fix their like you know let's say you can feel that the performance is not quite there and you know that it might be a monitoring thing the pitch is off a bit you know cuz that's the thing you know if the mix is not loud enough chances are that you
(15:25) know they're over singing over and slightly out Yep. And and if it's too loud they're hiding from themselves. Exactly. You can see them backing like it hurts right like so there's a or they're not going as loud as they were when we practiced it. Mhm. Cuz now they're scared, right? So yeah, you can you can feel it.
(15:42) And then yeah, like to to your question, yes, there's definitely a conversation. Like there for me, there's a point where we kind of do the thing. I we'll run through the whole thing. Headphones are great. Let's sing the whole song all the way through. And for me, that's just a lot of times to get markers and I have a guide so I can see where the bridge is just with the little turds on the screen and and I so that's great and that just sits there.
(16:01) But after that take, I'll usually stop like full stop like come on in, let's chat for a minute and then it's a chat like is your thing too loud? is you're that too loud or the drums too loud? And it's just like be honest. And I'll always say something like, "Nobody's going to hear your mix but you." So it's not embarrassing. It's your mix. I won't judge you.
(16:15) What do you need? And they'll say, "Oh, I need way more of my acoustic and way less of that horrible drummer I hired." Right. So it's that that kind of conversation. Just be honest. And a lot of times I'll come up with something. It is funny after sessions to to look at people's cuz you know, you get the little the little personal mixer. Yeah.
(16:31) And it's so funny to go room to room and look at people's mixes at the end of the end of a six hour mix day. what the drummer had, the singer had, you know, like no, the singer had everything. The drummer had no singer, the the guitarist had no bass player. Like, it's like we don't need people get along. They don't.
(16:46) So many session guys like that guy just throws me off cuz his rhythm's weird or whatever. Anyway, so that that that monitor headphone mix thing is super important and and super important and it's worth the time like like to me from a performance standpoint, it's huge. The other thing I will say is huge in in my 3 weeks of experience is when doing vocal only session, like we've done the band with dates, the whole thing, the singer comes back, we're doing your vocals, we're doing song one today and you're here for an hour and we're going
(17:15) to do song one and then you're going to go home and we'll see you tomorrow for song two or however the schedule works is uh the health of their voice. Yes. And recognizing that and there is something to that where singers get in and uh and I do it all. I'm like, "This is not your day for this song or whatever.
(17:34) " Like, you can hear that happens. You can hear it. That happens. Like, they're singing and I'm I want to clear my throat from the from I want to clear my throat from the cuz there's something cuz they were out too late last night or whatever. So, so having those honest conversations is huge. Like, what are you feeling? And and like any athlete, singers are like, "I'm good. Put me in, coach.
(17:52) " And I'm like, "No, your leg is broken." You know what I mean? Like, I can see the bone coming out your coming out your femur. They're like, "No, I'm good. I put me in." And and singers do that. They're like, "I got six more songs." And I'm like, "You can hardly talk right now." Right? So, so there's a bit of that from the from the chair that you just have to go, "Dude, like I can see your femur.
(18:11) " You know what I mean? Like maybe we should take a day. So, so that's a huge thing is that honest conversation. How you feeling? You know, how the bridge is really high. Maybe let's save that at the end. We'll blow your voice out. Then let's do all the soft stuff first and and kind of building the day. And then that builds confidence for them and you and that you care and you're hearing I can hear the little frog.
(18:32) Why don't you take a sip of water? Like those little moments are huge for the for the tracking thing from a from a human standpoint, right? And sometimes like maybe you need a bit, you know, to be a bit more loose. So let's have a whiskey. Absolutely. I mean, come. I'm already too in. Come come join me. Come and join me. Come join me.
(18:51) I don't even know where I am. The world's way better in my world right now. Yeah, you sound amazing. No, and I think the communication is key, you know, when you when you're dealing with singers. Um, yeah, there's a lot of that. For sure. For sure. Very emotional. Very like way more than the the tough ones, you don't know it's happening, but even the tough ones, it's emotional. It is.
(19:17) Especially if they've written a song that they're doing for the first time. Okay. So, what part of the song do you think is the most important to focus on? Yes. Recording vocals. Yes. What's that supposed to mean? Yes. All the all the all the Yes. Like like like which like which child would you give away? For example, I'm going to keep the cute one for I would actually.
(19:45) I've met your kids, man. That's a tough choice. It is. I have to admit. Okay. I would say uh like for me, of course, everything is important. everything I focus on. But if the first line is not quite there, yeah, or it's not even above everything else, I'm going to work on that.
(20:03) If I was honestly going to pie chart it, yes, the first line is is money. And I would say 90% of the time, the first line you hear on something for me is the last thing we recorded. So we record the song, at the end I'm like, you know what? Go back and hit that first verse again for me before we're all done. I've got the take. For me, I yellow for me. Yellow means yes.
(20:22) So, I've got all I say I've got a yellow take. You're safe. It's funny you say that. I've got a yes, yellow take, but give it to me two more times before we go. But you know what? It's funny you say that because I never kind of paid attention to this, but I've been doing it by default without even knowing because this is what happens.
(20:39) You finish the song. Yeah. Okay. This is a very good take. And you're loose. You know what? Let's work on the first line. And we're we're friends now. We've been through war together for the last 40 minutes. You trust me. I trust you. Your voice is blown from that bridge. we waited to do. Yeah. And sometimes it is war. I'm telling you.
(20:56) Let's hit that first line again. And it's amazing how often it's like that's the thing. Yeah. Cuz we're friends. A lot of it is just we're friends. Like we're okay. You're good. We're good. Nobody yelled at you. I love your song. I love you. This is all good. Go. And also a challenge and something you get used to, you know, is to know when to stop. A thousand times.
(21:12) Okay. So, you start I don't know depending on the singer, there's probably different approaches, but let's say you have like four takes. Yeah. Take one through four. Yeah. Usually usually take four is not the best. Take one is also not the best. Yep. You know, so you know, okay, this is the peak and now we're going downwards. All right.
(21:32) So, we stop. Yep. And we're just going to overdub the rest, you know, and keep the best one and Yeah. And even when comping, we can talk about that later. But, uh, no, the the the for me the biggest confidence builder that that shows up in for me that I found is to say, "I've got it." Like, you did it.
(21:52) We have the we have yellow. I've got yellow all the way across, try to beat yellow. Go. Give me two yellow. Like, try to. And as soon as people are like, "Okay, I'm safe." Like, "I got it." Yeah. Because you got it. I got one in the I got one in the bag. Let's We can use this one. And now now do one, but give me more emotion.
(22:06) And now I've got something I can steal from. So, to your point, I go back to take three, but take four has that thing where they hiccuped on the that one line and they were free to do that or they smiled when they said that line or whatever. So, now I've got things to see. Like, for me, it's the go nuts track. Yeah, exactly.
(22:22) I'll just go like mess it up. Just, you know, that's it. And then we go to do back vocals or whatever, I pull the yellow one up. You take four down there. It's my grab bag of Do you pitch correct as you go? No. Okay. No. No. Oh, it's it's get it as close if like I said as they're walking out from the booth a lot of times I'll just unbypass it and have it slow and low just so the long notes they're not distracted by something I know I can fix later.
(22:47) Oh, you're a nice You're a nice guy. Yeah. Well, it it saves me time. You're a nice guy. No, I save it's selfish cuz they're not going, "Oh god, I got to do that again." And I'm not going, "No, I can just fix it by by unpassing this. I've already unpassed it." Right. So, we just have taken this conversation out of seven notes in the song that were that easy to fix. Yeah.
(23:04) We'll dive more into pitch correction later on, but uh yeah, there's a lot to to talk about there. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I guess we're Yeah, we're we're into singer singer maintenance at this point, which is a huge part of It is the It's the biggest part of the thing. It is like I don't care what mic you put up.
(23:20) If the singer is awful and uncomfortable and and hates you and hates the song and hates what they're hearing and it doesn't matter. So even the way you talk to the singer while recording, the way you know, you need to be very friendly, always positive. I, you know, it's part of the game.
(23:35) I've said many many times that like there's there the most vulnerable state that a musician can be in is after they've sung the song for you the first time on the thing and it stops and this the headphones are silent. That is the most vulnerable place. And when that talk back come comes on what you say seriously will will make the best day ever.
(23:56) Or or you can end a career. You can end a career with a talkback mic with people I worked with that I knew pretty well. Okay, that was the the main joke. You know, the band is in in the control room with me. The singer is he's, you know, singing his take and then I stop, turn around to the band, we're chatting, I come back, talk back on.
(24:16) It's like, let's do one more. The face of the singer is priceless. Only if you know them. If this is a 17-year-old 17-year-old guy with his dreams in this song. Oh man. Yeah. What's that? What's the this time? Can we add some talent? Oh man. Pitch and timing. Oh, you know what we did? And this is not relative to vocals, but it's a very funny story.
(24:45) I was recording that band. And uh the keyboard player was like so excited. It's going to be his first time in studio. He's a keyboard player. And we like we made fun of him like big time. I was like, you know, we talked, the band talked together with me. Let's let's make a prank on this guy, you know, when he comes in. So, so just follow my lead.
(25:06) So, the guy comes in, sets himself up and starts playing. So, okay, let's do a sound check. All right. Got the keyboard sound. So, I said, "Okay, just play one C C note." All right. Plays the C. He goes all along. Okay. D. It goes through all the notes like this, one at a time. and I record and then once he's done I like all right you're good we'll take I'll take care of the rest and then we jump right away to the next okay guitaring the guitar player comes tuned and Eva's like what's happening what is happening and we start laughing the whole thing you know we
(25:43) have on camera the band the band is a family I just sampled your keyboarding we'll work work with it it's getting less funny each year. Like it actually is now it's drums. Just hit each drum once. Exactly. I guess. Yeah. The haha is disappearing from this. Go back to vocal. Yeah. Uh yeah.
(26:09) So singer maintenance is is huge. And yeah, the talkback is like to your point like it's super important and and it's and and there's a there's a piece in there that oft gets lost uh which is honesty. And if you just say everything's great, that's no good. No. Exactly. And if you just say everything's bad, that's no good. Right. And so it's the like that was great, but how about Yeah.
(26:32) Something I usually do, you know, when I think it could be better and it's not perfect and we need to work on it and it's it's not getting any better. It's like, you know, okay, take a break. Come here. I want I want you to show you something, you know. So, let's listen to this part together. What do you think? And and even in, you know, because it and for me it's like by take three, I know where the mistake is repeating. Oh, yeah.
(26:50) And that's when I'll bring it up. A lot of times it's not going to happen again. You mispronounced a word or you went flat on something. It's just it's statistically not going to happen again. Or I know it's not. And I I'll always say like just if you mess up, do it in a different spot than last time, right? Like it's that and and there's a lot of the the trust comes from that kind of stuff.
(27:10) For me, there's a there's a huge, you know, once a singer, you've worked them enough, they do trust you. Like you go, you go faster and faster. It's like, I got that. And they're like, you got that. And we just keep going. Where before they would have been like, are you sure? but they've heard what you've done.
(27:22) And so, yeah, one of my one of my lines I will always say is, I can I can fix pitch, I can fix timing, I can fix intonation a bit, but I cannot fix like the story. I can't fix the vibe. I can't fix what you're trying to sell. Exactly. I can't fix that. So, if if you have to go a bit sharp to sell me on that note, go I got I got that.
(27:42) And we know sell me the note even if it's not perfect, right? And so, there's that. Yeah, come in at a little bit, I can I'll nail it. Just come in like you mean it, right? It's that kind of things. And in those cases, what I do, I do it right away. I just want to make sure I got the take. Yep. So, I'm going to fix it right away.
(27:57) Just correct it right away. Okay. And they go, they go, "Whoa." Yeah. And the next time you say it, they're like, "Okay." Cuz I don't want to end up into like later on editing the session or mixing the session. It's like, "Oh, no. It doesn't sound that good when I pitch correct it.
(28:12) " So, ah, but now the singer is gone. And when you show them the magic trick, they trust you more. Yes. Right. There's something to that where they go, "Oh, you did what you said." They know they can it takes it takes one second to prove it, fix it, prove it to yourself and to them and then go on to the next trust fall, right? So that's a huge part of it.
(28:29) So you don't like you told me earlier that you don't do pitch correction like manual pitch correction on the spot. Manual pitch correction because this is the way I I kind of like to to pitch correct stuff. You know, there's autotune for sure. Yeah. There's the automatic type of pitch correction. I'm a manual guy.
(28:46) I kind of like to Oh, you know% I'm pretty sure you do too. Yeah. Million%. And after a session when I get when I have like everything I need Yeah. I'm going to comp my vocals right away. Yeah. And I'm going to once this is comped, I'm going to bounce this up and I'm going to do my manual pitch correction right away.
(29:04) Like, you know, take a break, go for a beer or whatever. Go to the store, get some a bottle of water, do your thing beer, you know, and bring me one, maybe two. You've heard this vocal. I'm only two. The two It was a two beer vocal. Two whiskey. No ice. Yeah. No time for ice. Waters down my whiskey. Exactly. No.
(29:24) So, you know, especially if you're doing back vocals. Yes. That's a big one. I want to time it and tune it on the spot. Okay. So, manual, that's a different conversation. Yeah. So, I have what I need. I do the thing. Yeah. And then, okay, we'll listen to it. All right. So now I know exactly where I need to work on some overdubs or if I'm good to go and work on the back vocals.
(29:41) And that's that that for me fits in any category like drums. I'll do the quick drum fix. The quick, oh, that was better. This fill was better. Cuz I want to make sure I just do that on the fly. Yeah. I want to make sure I have everything perfect before I move on. And you know, and then I'll playlist right beneath it the one I worked from so I can go back and change my mind.
(29:58) Like that was a fast. I can do that better. Whatever. It's sitting there. But yeah, there's definitely the the comp. I'll call work comp is what I call it. Want to tweak it, throw it up there, and that's what goes to the headphones. Exactly. Yeah. And it just comes off my main playlist. And sometimes it, you know, after you're done all of this, um, yeah, it does happen that you need to get back on song one, even if we're working on song three, because song one, you know, that bridge needs a bit more work, you know. Yeah. Um, they had the
(30:24) weird throat thing that day. Exactly. Yeah, that happens. And you better on day two. Yeah, that happens a lot, actually. Even even looking at a mix session, it'll be like, you know, I call them FL Vox. So, small F, capital L Vox, final lead vocals. So, my FL Vox and then you'll see FL Vox day two. FL Vox day three.
(30:45) So, we'll keep coming back to try that bridge. Especially if you're working on more than one song with the artist. Let's say you're producing like a five song EP, you know, day three, they are warm and amazing and this voice is going to sound great on that song one. Let's redo it quick. Let's do it. And sometimes it's like let's record the whole thing.
(31:02) Yeah, the song won all over again. Everything we tried to do for an hour on the first day is done in one take. Yeah, it's amazing what the walk away and come back does. That happens, too. So, all right. So, let's stop here for now. Yeah. Okay. When it comes to recording vocals, we have more to talk about. You know, singer singer maintenance.
(31:18) I think this this could actually be called turned into a neat neat conversation. I love that. Yeah. That may not be talked about enough. I don't think so. And it's a really important ingredient. It's very important. We should make this a whole episode and call it studio stuff. Oh, with Steve and Chris. I would go more with Chris and Steve. You always do.
(31:36) But because you have the Photoshop and I don't. That's why it's expensive. Hey, sucks to be you, man. There's worse people than me for sure. You go, boy. All right, Steve. The question of the day. Question. Dour. Dour. Don't use more words. I only had one. Don't Don't push it, Frenchie. I was super excited about what I did.
(32:04) And then you've just made it. You made it awkward for me. She didn't talk about I don't think I didn't hear my name in there, so it's good. So Andy Tullus, our our our friend Yes. from from the internet sent a question in. I think it was on actually on YouTube. I think I just stole it right off YouTube. Okay. Important here.
(32:24) If you want to leave your questions, you can use the link uh from our website that is in the show notes of the podcast or you can simply leave a question under the comment section of any of our YouTube videos. And here we are. Here we are. Andy, so this is a cool question. When using samples, uh, drum samples, okay, I think this came out of one of the drum episodes.
(32:46) When using drum samples, should you try to find ones that are tuned to the original drums? Does it matter? Hm, that's a great question. It is. And he ended, "Steve, just know that Chris is a Jedi in the world of mixing." I don't know about that. I And then I think I replied, "YouTube has it's pretty fun. Go on there cuz I I just I go on there and I act just like this, but on YouTube.
(33:10) " I think I said something about Chris being a Jedi at cooking and beard maintenance or something. It's pretty funny. Anyway, yes, man. Um, honestly, I never pay attention to this. Funny enough, I don't pay attention to this. you know, by default, I think it's like, you know, if it's way off pitch, I'm not going to choose it.
(33:26) You know, it's like, yeah, I think it's instinct at this point. I just mainly focus on the um the character of the the sample. Am I looking for a more high pitch type of sample or a fat type of sample? What do I want to achieve as far as the tone goes? Is it going to be more dark, more bright, more heavy, more fat, or lighter and snappy? This is what I look for when it comes to samples because when we talk about pitch, yeah, there's pitch for sure.
(33:58) Unless you have like toms, yes, but that goes a lot with overtones a lot. But tomms more than snar be the place that gets me especially more and I've got the overheads cooking good and that is if we're using samples on become more and more rare. Yeah, for me and for you also. Yeah, we talked about that in the Yeah. snare. If if Buddy's got a little ping ping snare and I want to do like Do you care? No, I don't. I don't either.
(34:27) I don't I don't either. I just use more or less of the original. No. Exactly. And if I like a sample but there's too much overtone, I'm just going to kill it. Yes. Or a plugin or something, you know? Or or just blend in the original. Yeah. Because a lot of times the samples aren't to fully replace, they're to complement or to add to sometimes.
(34:44) Interesting place to land, Andy. It's the opposite now that I'm thinking about it. If he's got a ping ping snare and I want to add some woof woof to it, I get a woof woof sample and mix them, man. Right. So, I love your terms. I These are technical. I've been doing this for weeks, dude.
(35:00) I I'm sure I got that off the internet, man. I probably got that from one of your classes. I'm I'm pretty sure you did. One of your course, the wolf pingping course. That's the only way. The pingponging wolf wolf ping. Yeah. Yeah, the pingponging wolf class. I remember that one. It's one of your better. It's one of the best.
