This time Rob and I would like to tell you about our recent work mixing reggae band Rebelution on their new LP “Free Rein”. This band was particularly fun for me because I’ve been a fan of theirs ever since moving to LA in 2011. I knew what they were used to hearing in their mixes so we applied a similar approach but added our vibes to it. All of the records on “Free Rein” were mixed out of Parkland Studios in Florida except one song mixed by my bredrine Don Corleone. We later flew to LA and made the final tweaks at Paramount Studios West Hollywood with the band. Really cool set of musicians!

Single 1 “Celebrate”

“Celebrate” Video
“Celebrate” is the first single off Rebelution’s LP coming out summer of 2018. I loved the piano melody in the hook. It reminded me of an old rocksteady part so I EQed it accordingly and put it in an old Lexicon plate. I had fun with the delay throws in this song, especially at 0:46 and 0:49 on the vocals. Randomly by chance while I was automating the PCM 42 by hand towards the bridge, I luckily pitched the feedback delay down and back up again in time with the guitar solo around 3:15. It turned out really cool I think. In an effort to totally overdo it I went crazy with the outtro. I added an Air filter gate to the pick guitar and drenched it in reverb while it faded into the distance. Glad the band loved it too ‘cause it was pretty out there!

Single 2 “City Life”

“City Life” Video
Rob’s favorite song on Free Rein is “City Life” produced by Philip “Winta” James. He loved the melody in the verses. A big key to this record is the parallel compression on the drums. He used an SSL G bus compressor from Universal Audio to big up the drums. That thing smacks!!! The bongos on the vamp out used multi band compression to control a very transient dynamic range. The bubble organ has a little bit of air kill EQ to dull it out then an M/S EQ at 6k to bring back the top end around the sides. Also there’s a Puigchild 670 to reign in the control.

Single 3 “Healing”

“Healing” Video
“Healing” is an acoustic guitar and vocal mainly. There were only a few tracks in this Protools session so we had a lot of room to create reverb throws and be creative. I used Vocal Rider in automation mode to balance the vocal.

It’s always great working with Rebelution. They’re very talented and while they have established their sound and direction from a long time ago, they still allowed us to do our thing. Big Respect!

The post Mix Engineer Insights Vol 2 – Mixing Rebelution “Free Rein” appeared first on Niko Marzouca & Robert Marks.

Rob and I mixed the tracks “Keep On”, “Personal”, “Too Much”, and “Get Like”. These songs were all mixed in an SSL room using Protools and outboard gear. Then the outboard effects were recorded back into Protools for easy tweaking. This made recalling mixes a lot easier.

Here is a list of the gear we used:

• SSL 4000 G+
• Lexicon PCM 42 delay
• Sony V77 reverb
• Ensoniq DP 2
• Roland SRE 555 tape delay (My new favorite toy! More on this later.)
• Neve 1081
• Tube Tech CL1B compressor
• UAD plugins

Kehlani SweetSexySavage

Track 2 – “Keep On”

“Keep On” is one of my favorites. It starts off the album driven by a four on the floor kick drum pattern with a funky live bass line. Jahaan Sweet produced it. I believe he’s gonna be one of the next big producers. I started with my usual female R&B vocal chain on this joint. It’s a Massey Deesser going to an Rvox, then C4 with a lot of air added around 15k. Rob ended up putting an L2 on after, which really made it in your face. Love how it came out. Right around 2:36 I automated my PCM 42 the old school way, by hand, and recorded it back in. Then I put it through a Soundtoys Panman and put one side out of phase. All in all Kehlani just sounds awesome naturally so I didn’t have to do much!

Track 7 – “Personal”

Jahaan Sweet also produced “Personal”. It is reminiscent of a 90’s R&B song. The cymbal swells in the beginning go to a Sony V77 set to the “rolling left to right” program. The reverb throws on Kehlani’s vocal were sent to Waves Manny Marroquin plugin set to a large chamber. I feel that gave it a bit of today’s feel. At about 2:56 I went crazy with Metaflanger on the backgrounds. I love doing that! Towards the end of this mix, the snare echoes off into a UAD Re201 set like a dub delay. They can take the Jamaican out of Montego Bay but they can’t stop the damn echoes. LOL. I was also very happy with the way this song came out.

Track 13 – “Too Much”

“Too Much” is sick. I love the panning Rob did on the guitars that start it off. Big ups to the Picard Brothers who got that classic SP 12oo ring sound on the drums. I put some quarter note PCM 42 delays on the verses that I feel make it sound really authentic when the track opens up. It kinda feels Aaliyah-ish, with huge banging drums and an awesome Moog synth line.

Track 14 – “Get Like”

“Get Like” was produced by Boi-1da and Sven Thomas . It has the feel of the 90’s earthquake reggae dancehall rhythm, but with updated production. It’s really cool how the clap and block have added attack from the parallel compression. Rob said he had a hard time getting it to have just enough attack and still maintain the reverb from the ruff. He ended up recreating the reverb himself so he could control the attack. That man is a genius!

In conclusion, the entire Kehlani album is a great listen and we’re very honored we got to mix these records. Big props to Kehlani and Atlantic every time!
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