Bennett : Every song had its own struggles or things that worked really well or didn ’ t work well . So , the first thing that I would do is be like , “ Where is everything going to live , frequency wise ?”
There are a couple things that really helped me out a lot . Like , a lot of times I ’ ll take some sound and kind of split it up – just do a little crossover somewhere and be able have my own track that ’ s just the low end or just the high end .
All of Ashanti ’ s 808s are super distorted and clipped . It ’ s awesome , but the key is I need some usable subs out of it . So sometimes I ’ ll lay in my own sub with just some VST that I have , or something like that . It might be like a sine wave in a harmonic or something like , but I ’ ll sometimes mix that in on some of the tunes . But a lot of the times I ’ ll end up splitting up that 808 into a lowend track and a kind of mid-to-high track , and then I have some control over those two separately . And sometimes the same thing with some of those samples .
Usually , if there is a point where I feel like I kind of need to mute something , that ’ s usually going to come after I ’ ve spent a decent amount of time trying to make it work . Because if she sent this , this is a part of the song and I might as well see if I can get this to work somehow . If I try a bunch of different things it doesn ’ t work out , then I feel like it ’ ll be better if we end up muting this .
But definitely a lot of it is making sure that there ’ s space and that I ’ m able to get rid of anything that ’ s extraneous , frequency wise , off of different elements . Like if there ’ s some weird low-end garbage on some sample , I get it out of there because I just don ’ t have room for any of that kind of stuff .
In addition to that , I just get those drums to slam as much as I can . The 808s are a good example of this where because it ’ s so distorted , it ’ s already super compressed . So , a lot of times I ’ ll end up taking an expander or something and actually bringing a little bit more dynamic back to it .
With something like “ Into the Void ,” it ’ s sort of slamming you most of the time , whereas with “ Black Magic ” there ’ s a lot of ups and downs . So , it ’ s kind of thinking about , when do I need to feel like I ’ m getting blown away by the speakers , and when do I need to imagine myself leaning in a little bit and being like , “ Okay , I really want to listen to this and really capture this .”
I think about music a lot in terms of gesture , I guess . So , the question becomes , “ What is the gesture in this section ? How can
I reinforce that with whatever I ’ m doing with the mix ?”
PS : Ashanti , were you there for the mixing sessions ?
Backxwash : No , I would just send it to Will and he would send it back for my feedback . I think that works best for me . I don ’ t think I ’ m one to micromanage everything . I like to hear something when it ’ s done and then be like , “ Okay , maybe do this or do that .”
Bennett : There ’ s even been a couple times when Ashanti is like , “ This mix sounds great !” and then I ’ m going , “ Okay , but I still want to fix this one thing and I ’ m going send you another version . We can go back to the other version if you like it better , but let ’ s try this .” And then she ’ s like , “ Oh , no , this is great also !”
PS : Do you remember what plug-ins you were leaning on most often in during these mixes ?
Bennett : So , for God Has Nothing to Do with This , I think at that point I ’ d kind of gotten into the whole Acustica thing , and I really love those . So , I ’ ll use the FabFilter EQ a decent amount , as well as the Massenburg DesignWorks EQ . Those are my two go-to all-purpose parametric EQs . Also , Acustica ’ s Pultec series is really , really sweet and I ’ ll use that a lot . They also have this Gold Channel Strip , which is like Neve semi-parametric EQs and stuff . That ’ s part of my go-to vocal colour EQ . It ’ s one of those Neve EQs where I move a dial just half a notch or something and it ’ s like , “ Oh , fantastic , that really did something .” Their preamp is also fantastic . I read something that said that Gold preamp is like dipping whatever you ’ re putting it on in honey . So , I use that a lot . If you push it to break up , it ’ ll bite you but in a sort of pleasing way .
I use Soundtoys a lot , as well . So , I love Decapitator and Devil-Loc . Devil-Loc is my go-to for vocal parallel as well as parallel compression on drums .
For reverbs , I have the Lexicon PCM reverb suite . It ’ s all the same stuff that ’ s in their rackmount versions . I know how to manipulate them and have used them forever . I ’ ve used them any time I recorded classical music , as well as more rock stuff or hip-hop stuff . They ’ re kind of all-purpose , really-good-sounding reverbs . Still with the Soundtoys stuff , EchoBoy is the only delay that I use . Sometimes I ’ ll end up throwing in some Waves J37 , but usually I ’ m using the
J37 more as a saturator than as a delay .
PS : Ashanti , how did you approach laying down your vocals for the record ?
Backxwash : We ’ d just do a bunch of takes and then we pick the pick the best from each section . It takes a bit to get into it , so your first two or three vocal takes will not have as much energy , then you find that your fifth and sixth takes are the best and have the most energy . But sometimes you ’ ll even go for the lower-energy one if it sounds better . So , I think it was just a matter of picking the best takes and laying that down .
Sometimes we would find one take where we just pick the bulk of it . Like I remember we did “ Into the Void ” pretty quick . I think that one was really , really fast .
Bennett : Exactly . To get warmed up we ’ d probably do one full take of the song , and that also gives you a better idea of what ’ s happening in the song . Then usually the first two or three takes , Ashanti would do it and then I ’ d be like , “ Okay , what if we tried this here ?” Or , “ I ’ m feeling like this is the way that this works , so I want you to increase your energy here and then pull back a little bit here .” I think we don ’ t actually do all that many takes . I mean , I ’ ve done songs where it ’ s like you end up with 40 or 50 vocal takes or something like that . But with Ashanti , it ’ s usually 10 to 15 , at most , and usually the last four are what we ’ re picking between . Then we just go through and put up the playlist window and be like , “ I really like this and this ” and kind of put it all together like that .
PS : Which song or two stands out the most in your memory from the sessions ?
Backxwash : For me , I think it ’ s “ Amen ,” only because I felt really lightheaded when doing the hook [ laughs ]. I was screaming at the top of my lungs and I kind of felt lightheaded and like , “ whoa !”
Bennett : You were really going in on that ! And had my ear open to see if someone would knock on the door and be like , “ Everyone okay over here ?” [ laughs ]. I have a video on Instagram from that one of the gain reduction meter on my compressor .
Michael Raine is the Editor-in-Chief of Professional Sound
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