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Home , Believe Acoustic, Bob Clearmountain, Dave Pensado, Jaycen Joshua, Kuk Harrell, Manny Marroquin

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Paul Tingen Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: ince breaking through to an international audience in 2009 at Josh Gudwin & Andrew Wuepper S the tender age of 15, has at times demonstrated how not to In a transition overseen by long-term collaborator grow up in public. Bieber’s fourth studio Josh Gudwin, teenage prodigy Justin Bieber has album, released last November, was thus a make‑or-break proposition. Three years become a grown-up pop star. after his previous studio album, Purpose was to be his first fully fledged adult project, . In the end, however, Bieber writers’ backing tracks, including Bieber’s and likely career-defining. reduced his team to the bare essentials: just vocals, mixing most of the songs, and in Unsurprisingly, Bieber’s manager, two guys with whom he felt entirely at ease. general being responsible for delivering , and record company took On the writing side, this meant a central the album. It earned him an unusual ‘album no chances, and explored all possible role for Jason ‘Poo Bear’ Boyd, while producer’ credit. avenues to make sure the new album Josh Gudwin held everything together would be a success. Writing camps were on the studio and production side. This Solid Support organised, and Bieber spent time working involved logistics, taking care of album Josh Gudwin has been Bieber’s sidekick for with household names like Rick Rubin and A&R, engineering all the overdubs to the half a decade. The engineer and mixer has

76 May 2016 / www.soundonsound.com Producer, engineer and mixer Josh Gudwin has been Justin Bieber’s right-hand man for many years.

From his studio in Angeles, process of making the album and he has full Gudwin recalls the earliest beginnings of accountability on this one.” what was to become Bieber’s first adult album. “The sessions with Rick were Purposeful Scooter’s idea, and while he and Justin Gudwin, Poo Bear and Bieber engaged were working I was literally just sitting on a proliferation of and Rick’s couch and watching. Kanye and Justin producers in the making of Purpose hook up from time to time and develop big that is impressive even by the sprawling creative plans, but they both end up doing standards of 21st Century pop/R&B their own things, so nothing ever comes of albums. In addition to there were them. We also did not use any material that dozens of others, amongst them Diplo, come out of the writing camps. It was just , Benny Blanco, , Mike Most of Justin Bieber’s vocals on a matter of seeing what was out there. In Dean, Michael ‘Blood Pop’ Tucker and Purpose were recorded in Studio 3 the end, Justin didn’t want outside people Ian Kirkpatric. Normally this would be at the Record Plant in LA. around who he doesn’t know that well, so I was fortunate to be in a position to really enjoyed a fairly meteoric career, studying support his vision and help him create at Florida’s Full Sail University during a solid body of work. 2005-2006, interning at Track Records “Poo Bear also was central in the Studio in LA, working with making of the album, and Scooter always Esther Dean, and most of all studying for gave opinions and suggestions. We had two years with America’s number one discussions along the lines of helping Justin vocal producer, . In the process to find his feet and direction, but a lot of Gudwin clocked up an array of big-name what we did was just writing and recording credits, including TI, , T-Pain, new songs, and seeing what came out. Quincy Jones, , , There were some songs, mostly written Carly Rae Jepsen, and Pharrell by Poo Bear, that rose to the top, and we Williams. However, his first meeting with realised we had to build around them. It Bieber in 2010 proved the most significant kind of naturally progressed. In the end it of his career to date, and Gudwin has took Justin about two years to get clear ‘Sorry’ since worked with Bieber on studio, remix on where he wanted to go. Poo Bear and Written by Justin Bieber, Skrillex, Michael and compilation albums like Under The I knew what Justin liked, and we brought in ‘Blood’ Tucker, Justin Tranter & Julia Michaels. Mistletoe, Never Say Never: The Remixes, many other songwriters, and when Skrillex Produced by Skrillex and Michael ‘Blood’ Believe, , Journals, and came in it went one step up again. But Tucker. Live At Madison Square Garden. Justin was directly involved with the entire

www.soundonsound.com / May 2016 77 inside track Josh Gudwin & Andrew Wuepper: Justin Bieber

Andrew Wuepper

“I have always known that I wanted to be a professional mixer,” says Andrew Wuepper, and he proved unusually tenacious and inventive in achieving his goal. Wuepper attended the Conservatory of Recording Arts in Arizona before moving to LA in 2006 with the aim of working at Larrabee Studios — where, at the time, three of the world’s leading mixers, , Manny Marroquin, and , were carving up most of the international pop charts between them. “I was, and still am, fascinated by how you can change the way a record is heard and felt by manipulating the sounds in them,” explained Wuepper. “That whole world was like a rabbit hole for me: I needed to find out how to do that. I wanted to work with the biggest mixers, and they were at Larrabee, so I sent my resume about 50 times to the studio. They turned me down every single time! Finally, at the 51st time, they called me for an interview about an internship. I got the job, and worked for about six months cleaning floors and the toilets, and doing anything I could to get noticed. One Mix engineer Andrew Wuepper was brought in by Josh Gudwin towards the end of the album of the biggest things I did as an intern was to production in order to meet punishing schedules. finally work out how to get the floor in one of the hallways clean. It was a concrete floor but also more general things like how to keep house. He plans to retain most of his outboard, with shiny paint to make it look like marble, files organised, how to deal with clients on the but not his SSL. and it always looked dirty. I looked up what phone, how to manage a really heavy workload, “I’m so comfortable mixing in the box now, concoction of chemicals would do the job, and and so on. Having that down is half the battle and have a Chandler summing mixer for a little I managed! It was a mixture of Pine Sol and to becoming a successful engineer and mixer, bit of that sweetness that sending the signal Windex. That got me on the radar. because it is a business too. When you have through electronics adds. But the plug-ins are “After about six months, Dave Pensado those things kind of on autopilot and you don’t so good today, there’s no benefit from working needed a new assistant, and there were five have to worry about them it leaves more space on a large console any more, other than that people in line before me to get that position — in your brain to be creative. Technically I was it’s fun. Recalls are a disaster, and it would the studio had six runners at the time. I didn’t doing everything for Dave, from setting up his have been impossible to do the Justin project think I had a chance to get that job. But Dave sessions to lining up the tape machines to laying on a desk. Producers like Skrillex and Diplo is very particular about whom he works with, things out over the desk, so that all he had to and Blood have like seven or eight synths all and the five people in front of me did not work do was come in and push up the faders and turn compressed together feeding side-chains to out in the first week. So he gave me a try, and the knobs.” something else and so on. With today’s modern two days later I was his new full-time assistant! After two years with Pensado, Wuepper production techniques, spreading things out It meant that I basically jumped into a hyper went on to work as producer Stewart’s over a console slows you down dramatically. mixing boot camp. It was straight into the engineer, gradually becoming his full-time Also, I am bouncing around studios all the frying pan. From my third week in I worked mixer as well, and clocking up all manner of time and need to be able to instantly recall 15-18-hour days, seven days a week, for nine big-name credits, including Beyoncé, , mixes I did in one studio in another studio. months straight, without a single day off! , and even one And finally, I am mixing five or six projects at “This was in 2007. Dave was mixing with Justin Bieber. Wuepper went freelance in 2011, the same time now, so I’m pulling up five or six Jaycen Joshua at the time, and they were using and set up his own studio, featuring an SSL songs every day, working on this for a couple of two rooms, so I was the assistant mix engineer desk and a wide selection of outboard gear. At hours, working on something else for a couple for two rooms. It crystallised a lot of things into the time of writing he had closed this studio, of hours, and so on. Of course you can only do my brain of how to do things. Not just mixing, and was busy creating a new facility in his own that in the box.” indicative of a scattered and disjointed battling for the highest chart positions monitoring system. I bring my own main album, but in fact, Purpose hangs amongst themselves. monitors, the ATC SMC25As, which are together pretty well, which probably “We began work on the album in 2013 also my favourite for mixing, as well as my contributed to the album’s remarkable and for the last year we worked full-time NS10s and little Bose Freestyles. commercial success. After ’s 25, on it,” says Gudwin. “I kept an overview “Justin loves that studio, and regards Purpose is probably the most successful of the entire project, and managed all the it as home away from home. Sessions album of the Winter of 2015-2016, and files, and the contacts and exchanges with can take place anywhere, but when you at the time of writing it had already the writers and producers. We wrote and remain in once place it’s easier to maintain spawned four major hit singles, including recorded in various studios, in LA, Atlanta, consistency and make sure things always three UK and US number one hits — New York, Toronto and even as far away sound the same. I did almost all Justin’s ‘What Do You Mean?’, ‘Sorry’ and ‘Love as Greece, but mostly we recorded at the vocal recordings at the Record Plant, apart Yourself’ — with ‘Where Are Ü Now’ not Record Plant in LA. The SSL 3 room is one from for a couple of songs, when I was far behind. At times these songs were of the best sounding rooms in LA. I love the not available. It’s a pretty easy process,

78 May 2016 / www.soundonsound.com inside track Josh Gudwin & Andrew Wuepper: Justin Bieber

‘What Do You Mean?’

Formant shifting in SoundToys’ Little AltarBoy Written by Justin Bieber, Jason ‘Poo Bear’ helped create an experimental ‘radio’ effect on Boyd, and Mason ‘MdL’ Levy, and produced some of Justin Bieber’s backing vocals. by Bieber and MdL, ‘What Do You Mean?’ is another light-footed EDM pop track with a de‑esser. This effect track gave more depth Jamaican ‘tropical house’ influences — and to the vocal and made him sound more like an another global chart-topper. The song’s Pro angel! Underneath that are two ‘Radio’ tracks Tools session is simpler than that of ‘Sorry’: [which sound like they could have come of its 67 tracks, 20 are Levy’s music and beats, straight from Peter Gabriel’s ’80s Fairlight 30 are lead and backing vocal tracks, seven experiments]. I used Auto-Tune to pitch are unused Gudwin effect tracks, and 10 are the vocals up, and then put on a SoundToys the standard aux effect tracks Josh Gudwin AlterBoy, which changed the formant, and loads into all his projects. Pro Tools clip names then I’m filtering 350Hz and below. reveal the sources of all Levy’s sounds, which “Below the ‘radio’ tracks are all my vocal include Shocking Expansion 2, VES2 samples, delay tracks, in green as usual, with the bus for Samplephonics, Kontakt 5 and EDM Spire, all delay throws at the top. One delay track, with the song’s characteristic flute sample ‘Splaater’, is a flutter delay with Auto-Tune apparently coming from Spectrasonics’ and the Cooper Time Cube, and the other two Omnisphere and ReFX’s Nexus. The 25 lead have the Waves H-Delay and SoundToys Echo vocal tracks are to a large degree Gudwin’s Boy. They’re both quarter-note delays, but creation: he split the lead vocal up over several with different feels. Below the delay tracks are tracks, and created several tracks of vocal some ad lib tracks, and all the actual lead vocals, effects from the lead vocal. pulled out over several tracks. Most of them “Mason works in Logic, and his stems are have my regular trio of UAD SSL Channel, pretty good. I did a few edits to them, but other LA2 and Waves C6 plug-ins, and all vocals than that didn’t treat them very much. I EQ’ed are sent to the ‘JB Buss’, on which I have the the clock sound with the UAD SSL Channel FabFilter DS de-esser, a Manley EQ doing to cut some mid-range to make space for light cuts at 330Hz, 560Hz and 3kHz, and then Justin’s vocals, and added some reverb from a a whole bunch of sends to my regular aux tracks Dimension D. I also boosted mid-range on the at the bottom: a hall reverb, a plate reverb, a loop to make it cut through, and I had a UAD light quarter-inch delay, a light ping-pong delay Neve 1081 on the kick. I love the UAD stuff. It and a Dimension D. rocks! The bass had the UAD LA2 compressor “Further down are four Justin backing vocal to even it out a bit, and the piano has a Waves tracks, which go to a bus above them, ‘JBG1’, C6, boosting low mids and compressing the on which I have the SSL Channel, boosting highs, and some more Dimension D. The main highs and cutting lows and doing some heavy synth has the SSL Channel again, boosting high compression, a UAD 33609 compressor, and mids and low mids to create a bigger cushion, then the Waves Enigma [phaser/flanger] and the flute sample has the UAD ‘blue stripe’ on a Mutron setting, adding some sweeping 1176 compressor, hitting it pretty hard. sounds. The sends are once again hall and “There were a few more complicated vocal plate reverbs, a quarter-note and a ping-pong effects, like the ‘JG FX’ track, on which I used delay and a UAD Roland Dimension D. Once the Vitalizer doing some spatial expanding, Justin had decided to go with my rough mix, a UAD Fatso to thicken it up, and I then I spent another half hour on it, doing some EQ cut some low mids with an EQ, and used adjustments, and that was it.” because Justin has been doing this for so Basically my job is to capture him in the long that he has a very good knowledge right way, and then I design his vocals of how to sing in the studio and the and place them in the track. techniques that are used. Sometimes we “I use various microphones to record will do a few takes and I will comp that him, like the Sony C800G, Telefunken later, sometimes I record him line by line. ELAM 251, Neumann U47 or U67. It

80 May 2016 / www.soundonsound.com inside track Josh Gudwin & Andrew Wuepper: Justin Bieber

The mix of ‘Sorry’ was partly done at Henson Studio D, as were various other sessions for the album. minutes, bro.’ So I learned to do a rough This photo from one of the Henson sessions shows the room’s SSL G+ console with, left to right, mix very quickly, and at the end of the day, engineer Peter Mack, Josh Gudwin, producer Maejor Ali and Justin Bieber. that often is the sound of the record. The depends on the sound we want. It’s pretty already comes from the producer. Skrillex rough mix is often more important than intuitive. We simply pick a mic, he starts is really good at creating his own sounds, the final mix, because it sets the direction singing and if it isn’t right, we try another and I then create vocal sound designs to for the song, and if the artist likes that, you one. We like to keep it moving. The mic go with that. But with other tracks I often don’t want to lose that by redoing sounds pre usually is a Neve, and I like to use the go in heavy to create additional sounds and so on. So my final mixes almost always Tube-Tech CL1B compressor on the way and effects. Once I get the session from the are refinements of the rough.” in, because it’s smooth and gives me the producers, it’s pretty much just me. control I’m looking for. After that everything “Every song is different, and therefore Getting The Rough is in the box, apart from some hardware every vocal requires different ’verbs ‘Sorry’, the second single from Purpose, effects I like to use right at the end of the and delays. Justin gives me full creative a US and UK number one, is a good mix, for which I go through a few specific freedom when it comes to his vocal sound, example of the way the album came into channels on the desk. For the rest my but if he doesn’t agree, he’ll let me know. I being and of Gudwin’s mix approach. sessions are entirely inside my laptop, so I edit the vocals as I go, and I groove them, “Originally Skrillex was going to do his can travel and set up anywhere. I have an in real time. When Justin walks out of the own mixes,” says Gudwin, “with me just expansion chassis with an HDX card and vocal booth, I like things to sound as good doing the vocal mixes, sending him the two UAD cards, and can easily plug in to as possible as quickly as possible, also a cappellas. But he was on tour in India any studio.” because he wants to hear it back like that and did not have time to do anything. almost immediately. I then continue adding So he sent me all his sessions in Ableton, Speedy Sound sounds and effects, and get into doing a and I loaded them into Pro Tools and The current direction in R&B/pop sees rough mix, dialling in the finer details. I started to mix off that. I first did a artists and production teams using a lot “I learned about the importance of rough mix, which in this case involved of sound design to chisel out a distinctive speed from Kuk. When I worked with him me digging in for 30 minutes to an hour. sonic identity. Gudwin explains how he went he’d have the vocals recorded and edited I’m not paying a lot of attention to the about creating a distinct sound world for and loaded into the track, and I would technical aspects at this stage, I’m just Bieber’s album, including the singer’s vocals. come in and it used to take me two hours putting on plug-ins quickly to get them “Often a major part of the sound design to do a rough mix. Kuk said, ‘Just take 30 to do what I want them to do. I do a lot

82 May 2016 / www.soundonsound.com inside track Josh Gudwin & Andrew Wuepper: Justin Bieber

‘’

The third number one single from the Purpose album was ‘Love Yourself’, written by Ed Sheeran, Benny Blanco, and Bieber, with Blanco producing. With just one electric guitar, played by Sheeran, a trumpet, a lead vocal and some backing vocals, ‘Love Yourself’ is a rather unlikely worldwide hit. Despite the song’s sparseness, the Pro Tools session for ‘Love Yourself’ contains more than 40 tracks, thanks to Gudwin’s sonic treatments. On top of his 10 standard aux effect tracks, he also split the vocal over numerous different tracks to be able to treat each vocal section differently, and added some rhythmic and atmospheric Jon Hassell- like effects to the trumpet. “It’s a super-simple song,” explains Gudwin. “The guitar was played by Ed, and I overdubbed my buddy Phil Beaudreau playing trumpet. The first time we heard the song it was just electric guitar and vocal, and everybody fell in love with that. Benny tried to add a couple of instruments, but everybody preferred the basic version. Sometimes you have to make the decision to add nothing else, so that’s what we went with. That was easy. Scooter predicted it would be a number one, but even though I love the song, I wasn’t so sure! “Ed’s original guitar was quite noisy and buzzy. It sounded like he was on the road and had just plugged in quickly to get an idea down. So I selfishly wanted a cleaner guitar sound and had a couple of guys coming in to replay the guitar part, but it never sounded anywhere near as good. It just kept sounding too different and without the right feel. So I decided to go with Ed’s guitar and treated it with the Waves NS1 noise suppressor, the Waves GTR plug-in, and filtered it with the FabFilter Pro-MB, and an Avid EQ, taking out around 3kHz. “I didn’t want to add much to the session, but I did continue working on it until it felt right to me. I wanted to maintain the fact that the is very bare, yet also add small things to make it sound fuller than it is. These small additions are like ear treats. When Phil came in to play his trumpet, I recorded him sitting in a chair, with a Royer mic right underneath and just a Neve pre, and no compression. Right after cutting it, loop that I made, a texture thing on which I had and a channel strip, and at the top is his vocal I immediately worked on the sound. I put a the UAD SPL Vitalizer bus, on which I have the FabFilter Pro-2 reverse reverb on it, and a UAD MXR flanger “Below the trumpet section are Ed’s vocals, EQ. I also had the Bricasti on Ed’s voice, as and a delay. The ‘Audio 1’ track has a trumpet on which I have the [Avid] BF76 compressor well as a UAD LA2. Next are Justin’s vocals, of EQ’ing, but carving out frequencies, it to Justin, and he’ll listen to it a thousand some extra help. “I did the final mixes for and only rarely boosting. times, and sometimes the rough becomes the album mainly at the Record Plant,” “I’ll start at any place in the track where the final mix. If we’re going with the rough, recalls Gudwin,” but also at Henson Studio I feel inspired to start. Basically I’ll go in and I’ll just do some final detail at the very end. D, and even did some mixes at Jungle City start scrubbing, like washing a car. I go all For example, with ‘What Do You Mean?’ we in New York. The workload got so heavy the way down the session, and I’ll dig into literally went with my rough mix. The beat towards the end that I asked my buddy the vocal design, and will add EQ and then and song are very straightforward, there is Andrew Wuepper to help me out for the effects, and I’ll do drops and filters and nothing crazy, and the rough had the feel, last two weeks. Even together we were whatever is needed to create space and the vibe, and that was it.” doing 16- to 20-hour days! We’d go to movement. Once I can listen to the session By contrast, ‘Sorry’ was a complicated and fro, with him mixing a song for a few without anything bothering me, that is the session and the final mix took a lot of time; hours and then I would go in for a bit, and rough mix. I’ll put it in a folder and I’ll send so much so, in fact, that Gudwin got in then he’d mix some more. Doing these

84 May 2016 / www.soundonsound.com ‘Love Yourself’

One of the big challenges Josh Gudwin faced on ‘Love Yourself ’ was cleaning up Ed Sheeran’s rough-and-ready electric guitar take. Doing so involved a combination of amp simulation (Waves GTR), dynamic EQ (FabFilter Pro-MB) and noise reduction (Waves NS1).

with I overdubbed in New York. Almost all the regular vocal tracks have the UAD SSL Channel, LA2 and the Waves C6 multiband compressor. These three plug-ins work great on his vocals, so I tend to stick with them. Each of the vocal tracks has slightly different settings from them. They all go to Justin’s lead vocal bus above them, which has the FabFilter Pro-DS de-esser and the Pro-2 EQ. Justin’s lead vocals also go through the Bricasti, and the effect is printed. My own four backing vocals went through a vocal bus on which I had the SSL Channel, and a compressor, but they didn’t do much, nor did the sends. These vocals are very much in the background, I just wanted to add some texture really quickly. Finally, at the top of the session everything went through a Master track, on which I had the UAD SSL channel, mainly for compression set to mid-attack and auto-release — without drums you don’t need the slow attack and quick release — a Massey EQ, boosting 100Hz and 16kHz, a FabFilter Pro-L for level, and the Sonnox Oxford Inflator to add some sheen.”

mixes together was a treat, because normally our job is so self‑obsessed. We started the final stage of the mix for ‘Sorry’ at Henson and worked on it through the night, and then took a 6am flight to New York and went straight to Jungle City and finished the mix that same day/night. Julia Michaels came to the studio to listen and she added some quiet background vocals in the hook. Once I got her parts in, the mix was done. The song was mastered the next day.” Andrew Wuepper adds: “I have known Josh for many years, so it was natural for him to call me one day, saying he was totally overwhelmed with the Bieber project, and would I come in and help him out on a couple of mixes. He was

www.soundonsound.com / May 2016 85 inside track Josh Gudwin & Andrew Wuepper: Justin Bieber

having all the responsibilities for delivering This composite Pro Tools Edit Window screen capture shows the entire mix session for ‘Sorry’. the album, and wasn’t only mixing, but also hook. The music and vocal sounds are Michaels), and finally, in green, a group of still finishing production on some songs, characteristic of the album: light, open, aux effect tracks at the bottom. with parts still being recorded and replaced. smooth, airy, breathy. The Pro Tools mix “This is an actual working mix session, He had to deliver 17 mixes in two weeks! In session consists of about 125 tracks: not and yes, it is big,” agreed Gudwin. “I’m the end he and I finished the mixes of seven unusual by today’s standards, but still not so focused on organisation because songs during those two weeks. I also went considerable. when you’re on deadline, you don’t always with him to New York, because we still had At the top of the session is a master and have time to label the session from a visual to start the mix of the song ‘Children’ — we a mix print, and below that are three group standpoint. The stem sessions that I create were waiting for some files from Skrillex — tracks in red for all drums, all bass, and all from my mix sessions are super-clean, and we needed to finalise the mix of ‘Sorry’. keyboards, followed by nine drums and though. I do usually have the vocal delays They also wanted Josh to be there for percussion tracks, five bass tracks, a mish- as separate tracks, on which I pull the mastering, and on top we had literally gone mash of 16 tracks that include horn tracks, audio I want to treat, and at the bottom for several days without sleep by that stage, some aux tracks and outboard effects, more of the session I normally have a template so he needed a second pair of ears to fall percussion, a piano track and a string track. of aux effect tracks, in green, with a hall back on.” Clear order is restored again with Bieber’s reverb, a plate reverb, and a long reverb; lead vocal tracks (blue) and associated delay three delays — half-note, quarter-note and Sorry State tracks (green), live room and outboard eighth-note — and two ping-pong delays ‘Sorry’ is a 100bpm EDM pop track, with prints, tons of backing vocal tracks (11 by and a UAD Roland Dimension D. They are Jamaican influences in the rhythm, and Bieber, 30 by singer Trevon Trapper, all my utility delays and utility reverbs, and featuring a characteristic five-note horn in light blue, and four by co‑writer Julia they’ll be modified for each session.”

86 May 2016 / www.soundonsound.com “When I first came in,” recalls Wuepper, a sub‑bass, is next to the 808 track, which is sounded astounding, and the rough mix “and we were working on the first couple the track called ‘bs2-1’ at the bottom of the was really good. Many people were already of songs, I showed Josh the template of bass tracks. In my mind, I treated the horn in love with it and the record company had how I like to work. He isn’t really picky and the 808 as one thing. I am thinking of it picked it as the next single, so we were not about how the sessions are organised, but in feelings. Whatever group of instruments going to change the direction. Basically I am, so I asked him if I could move certain collectively adds a certain feeling to a song, our approach was to get it ready for things. He agreed and so we got used to I’ll treat as one entity, rather than treat every commercial release, which involved making working in that format. sure the bass is tight, I always have sub the vocal pops out, that buses at the top of my Andrew Wuepper: “In my mind, I treated the general feel is there, session, in this case ‘All the horn and the 808 as one thing. I am and that the ideas that Drums’, ‘All Bass’ and are already there are ‘All Keys’, and where thinking of it in feelings. Whatever group enhanced as much as appropriate I will also possible. Most of my often have ‘All Guitars’, of instruments collectively adds a certain contribution consisted ‘All Lead Vocals’, ‘All feeling to a song, I’ll treat as one entity.” of detailing the reverbs, Backing Vocals’ and adding processing so ‘All FX’. Part of the that the bass sounded logic behind that is that master faders have piece as a different thing. We wanted the bigger, and making sure the compression a deeper bit resolution than auxiliary tracks, low end to be big throughout this song, treatments on the vocals and drums were so if you are attaching a master fader to and the verses had the kick drum, and in smooth. It really was a matter of bringing control the input of those aux tracks, in the B section the 808 comes in, but it didn’t the track even more to life with a last theory you can push a gain into have enough warmth or low end, so we got sheen of polish.” those aux tracks. that from the horns. “I tend to put instruments together “When Josh and I started work on Vocal Focus that musically sound together, so in this this song it was already pretty close. “Most effects and treatments in this session session the horn sample, to which I added The production was stellar, Justin’s vocal are on Justin’s vocals,” explains Gudwin.

www.soundonsound.com / May 2016 87 inside track Josh Gudwin & Andrew Wuepper: Justin Bieber

“The other tracks didn’t need that much. Skrillex’s and Blood’s drums and percussion tracks sounded pretty good when they came in. I use a lot of UAD SSL E-channel plugins, and I have that on the two kick tracks at the top. I can get a great overall sound using just the compressor and EQ of that plug-in. The first snare also has a FabFilter Pro-Q 2, which is a great EQ, and the second the Xfer Records LFO Tool and the SoundToys Filter Freak, both to get the snare pumping. “There are only three keyboard bass tracks active, and they’re all the same part, which I pulled onto different tracks so I could affect each differently. I prefer that to automating one track. The first bass track has the Brainworx EQ, doing some M-S processing, and the Little Labs Voice Of God, adding some sub. Another track has the Waves Renaissance Compressor, not doing much, and the iZotope Ozone, which is widening and EQ’ing, and the third bass track has the UAD LA2, keeping things in place.” Wuepper: “Josh asked me if I could make the bass sound bigger and fatter, with some more sub as well. So I inserted UAD’s Voice Of God, which really is a subharmonic synth, and I used an outboard Fairchild 670 to control the sub, to make sure that lowest octave would not blow up your speakers! The 670 was one of the few pieces of outboard that we used, the other one This trio of plug-ins makes up Josh Gudwin’s default vocal processing chain: the UA SSL E-Channel and LA‑2A compressor, and Waves C6 multiband compressor. being a Bricasti M7, which supplied reverb to every mix we did for the album. At the is the main lead vocal bus, on which I have Gudwin: “The five green tracks are beginning of ‘Sorry’ you can hear these the UAD 1176, Waves De-Esser, Manley all vocal throws and delays. I don’t like big percussion hits with a big reverb tail, Massive Passive, Metric Halo Channel Strip. to automate delay throws via aux tracks. which came from a ‘London Plate’ reverb The sends are to the generic aux tracks at The top green track is the master track on the Bricasti. I cranked up the reverb the bottom of the sesion: verb, ping-pong for the delays, ‘JB Throw All’, and it has a as much as possible, going too far with it, delay, Dimension D. Below the lead vocal compressor and an SPL Vitalizer. The ‘1147’ and then backed it off a bit. Another piece bus is the print track of a Bricasti outboard.” delay track has the UAD Cooper Time of outboard that we used on the entire Wuepper: “There are two tracks called Cube, with a quick ping-pong-y flutter delay album, particularly on big synth sounds, ‘Bric’ around the main vocal bus; the one that I use to widen, and the track called was the Dolby SR unit. Originally designed above is the print from the Bricasti effect ‘1167’ has a basic eighth-note delay from for noise reduction on tape, it acts like a that was used on the percussion, and the Echo Boy. The ‘A’ insert is Auto‑Tune, high-harmonics generator, a like the Aural the one below is the print of the Bricasti but it’s not working on these tracks. When Exciter, and we found that it added some reverb on the vocal. Next are Josh’s vocal needed, our vocal tuning is normally breathiness and air that sounded cool.” delays. Putting delays on audio snippets done by Chris ‘Tek’ O’Ryan in Melodyne. [ie. copying short vocal clips to new tracks I sometimes do it myself, if I have the time Samples & Snippets and applying delays as inserts, rather do it, in the stand-alone version. Gudwin picks out a few other interesting than automating a send from the main “The blue vocal tracks below the vocal tracks, beginning with a vocal track named vocal track] is a pretty interesting way of delay tracks are the main lead vocal comp ‘vcls’. “That track contains a vocal sample doing things. I’ve not seen anyone else tracks, and on many of them I have the that Blood made of Justin’s vocal. I’m do this, but it makes it easier for Josh to UAD SSL Channel Strip, UAD LA‑2A, and just touching that with the LFO Tool for manipulate these delays and to go deeper the Waves C6 multiband compressor, a bit of pumping, I take out some high into the effect. He can really fine tune the and sometimes also the Pro-Q 2 EQ. The frequencies with the Pro-Q 2, and then delay times and decay lengths and so on. ‘DLYP’ track has a delay pan effect, with the use the SoundToys Microshift for a slight Sometimes the feedback you get with plug- SoundToys Primal Tap delay and Panman pitch-shift/chorusing effect. ‘Sry1V’ below ins can act a little weird, and this approach auto-panner, SSL Channel Strip and the that is the vinyl sound in the track. ‘$JBU’ allows him to have more control.” P&M Vinylizer. ‘White’ and ‘Master’ are

88 May 2016 / www.soundonsound.com printed reverbs recorded in two a different texture to the song, as long rooms at Henson. They are my as it complements the lead vocal and the main plug-in vocal reverbs, and record. As I mentioned, Julia added her the green tracks below are pitched vocals during the final mix in New York, and with the Elastic Audio X-Form her group track also has the De-esser, SSl [in Pro Tools] and effected with Channel and C6. Right at the bottom are the Waves H-Compressor for some effects tracks, with the Dimension D a pumping effect. I pitched the and group delay throws, and so on. reverbs up an octave or two, and I “Back at the top of the session, the mixed them in very low. The ‘PCM’ drums, bass, and keys group tracks each and ‘PC1’ tracks are prints from have the Waves L2 on them, but barely ping-pong delays from the Lexicon touching the compression on that, and PCM42 outboard. they go to the Master track at the top, “Justin’s backing vocal tracks which has the UAD SSL E-Channel, Manley all go to the group track called Massive Passive, Oxford Inflator for ‘JBG1’, on which I have a Waves a touch of processing, and the FabFilter De-esser, an SSL Channel and the Pro-L compressor. Tom Coyne mastered C6 multiband compressor, plus the album with Randy Merrill at Sterling there are a number of delays and Sound. I gave them the option to use the reverbs via the sends. Trevon’s mix without and without my mastering backing vocals all go to ‘JBTR’, bus treatments, and sometimes they did, which has similar effects. I wanted and sometimes they didn’t. But especially to fill the song up a bit more, with the Skrillex songs, they were already and sometimes it’s not the most hitting in a certain way, and many of the enjoyable process for an artist to mixes were done through the mastering sing all these background parts. chain that we already had, which was hard Plus a different vocalist will add to match.”

www.soundonsound.com / May 2016 89 Mix with the best!

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This article was originally published in Sound On Sound magazine, May 2016 edition

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