I literally just said to B-Nasty the other day that I was probably done revising the template. We were deciding on what to do with a remaster on his upcoming album, Misery Loves Company. I really get this album. Yes, misery does love some company, like piss in the lemonade or a kick in the face. We all know it, seen it, probably been part of it at some point. 😆
It's been cooked up though, this new mixing and mastering version. Best way to describe it is that it gets all the juice. Very fine-tuned in combination with some mild restructuring, plus a few enhancements. I did actually make it go a little bit stronger than the previous version. I try hard not to overdo it, but I was working on my upcoming album "Cloud" and found a way to make the heavenly vocals that stay right with you. It involved some increased compression; I'll admit. The sibilance is handled more cleanly now, so there's no issue with the increased compression becoming harsh. It just gets the juice, and so does this brand new thing I'm doing for mastering which is really what compelled me to rewrite this template. A template is the starting point for the session that has all the presets and levels preconfigured, so you can really just drop the tracks in place and it's great out the gate. High quality, low cost.
I found an even better reverb for the vocals hitting the notes. The plate we have for rap vocals is real cool already, no need to change that classic. The delays have mid-tones and don't linger too much. I got those frequencies tuned right where they sound lush with a little glow. I also changed the sequence of plugins to maximize that quality. The new reverb is only slightly different, smoother decay, no swirls is the best way I can describe it, and I moved it up out the way of any compression aside from mastering. I was letting it throw into a multiband on the vocal bus. Sounded cool at the time, not anymore though. I much prefer this new sound.
Okay, and one more thing, I finally caved and put a bass sidechain on there. You better know it doesn't affect the bass too much on solo, cause I play bass! The thought of having my dynamics squashed by the kick drum isn't too appealing, but it does so in such a subtle way that it's totally cool. And it lets the kick get it's air time. That compression can be cranked up anytime depending on style. I might as well say it since we're all thinking it, for EDM.
