Here is an extract from Red Bull Music Academy a lecture featuring: Bob Powers where he talks about working with Dilla drums during a session.If you don't know who Bob Powers is he the man behind enigneering and recording for A Tribe called Quest on the Classics. Not to mention Common,Miss Badu,The Roots (mixing)...
Participant: »Jay Dee is a producer I really respect and I know that you engineered something with Common that Jay Dee produced. I was wondering his issue with heavy beats, because his beats are really loud. By that time, were you used to that type of beats because you were doing Tribe stuff and you pretty much understood that whole concept?«
Bob Power: »You hold the mic like an emcee!«
Participant: »Yeah, I’m an emcee, too, so you know…«
Bob Power: »Two things. Number one, with guys like Common, same thing with Tip, I never have the feeling I get it right. I really feel that some of his vocals are too soft on some of the stuff. That said, I mixed a record that Jay Dee produced most of for him, and some stuff for Tribe as well, Jay Dee is a pretty brilliant guy. You know his stuff is really simple , but one of his brilliant things is, the kick he chooses, where he tunes it, and where the bass is in relation to that. People who mix bottom-heavy music will know that that’s like ninety percent of the battle. So Jay Dee’s stuff in a weird way is easier to deal with as a mixer, than it might sound. And that’s another thing, if you know this, if you’re dealing with samples or just drum sounds on their own, where you tune them is absolutely key to both, the feel and the sonics of the track as well. And where you tune the kick drum versus where the vocals are going to sit and where the bassline is, if you haven’t dealt with it, you should.«
RBMA: »Where do you tune them? Within the actual gear you’re using, or…?«
Bob Power: »Yeah, in the sampler. And you know what? I usually follow the groove first, wherever the thing kind of feels the best, is where I’ll sit not saying ‘oh good, it will stay out of the way of the vocals’. No, the groove has got to be solid and feel great. There’s another thing, sometimes you do that and you say, “wow, I really like the bottom of the thing when it’s tuned way down, but I like the pop when it’s tuned way up”, so you know what? You have two separate key maps and you put them both together. You usually have to advance the lower one, because the attack is at the wrong time. And sometimes if you sequence two things at the same time, you get phasing, which isn’t always what you want. Yeah, you’ve got to kind of pay attention to that, but that’s also something you sometimes have to do, or bring in a deeper sound and put it behind it. And you don’t want to hear those things as separate sounds, that’s the other key and that was a big thing in the making of the Tribe records. A lot of times with the early records, we put stuff down and I would say “yeah, but the bass doesn’t sound just deep enough. Do you mind if I double it?” So, modern synthesizers are great and virtual synths are great, but the one truly wonderful thing a Juno 106 is great for, and I still love it although I hate big pieces of hardware, is, it has this kind of ‘subby’ bass thing that you can sneak in behind other basses and you don’t hear it as a distinct octave down, you just feel this thing. So we did a lot of that, too.«
For the entire lecture go here the link look for Bob Powers:
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/TUTORS.9.0.html?id=9&act_session=190
