Page 2: Inside Track: NF 'The Search'

'The Search'

Written & produced by Nate Feuerstein & Tommee Profitt.

This composite screen capture shows the entire Pro Tools Edit Window for Tommee Profitt's mix of 'The Search'. You can download a hi-res large version in the box at the end of this article.NF's label engaged a few professional mixers on his debut album, Mansion (2015), including the legendary Manny Marroquin on one track, but, explains Profitt, "Nate gets demo-itis, like most artists. You listen to a song for so long and you hear it one way, and you don't want it to change. As a result, I ended up by default being the mixer on most of the songs. I mix the tracks as I build them; I never put the faders at zero at the end and start over. By the end of the recording and arrangement process, the track's 85–percent done, and then I do the final mix touches at the end."

Profitt also mixes his own cinematic production tracks, but again, he says, it's by default, and he had no aspirations to become a mixer. "I learnt mixing 101 when I did the degree in audio production at college. But I think that to become a good mixer you have to do it hands-on and practise it a lot. It can take mixing a hundred songs, and you get better and better with each one. You can also get little nuggets from reading articles, like this one, and watching YouTube videos. It's what I did as well. But in the end, you have to figure out how to apply those tricks to your own workflow."

The mix session of 'The Search' is, by modern standards, relatively modest, containing 64 tracks. By contrast, says Profitt, "Some of the cinematic songs that I do have over 100 tracks. When you have that much stuff, the best thing to do is to create bus aux tracks. If I have 15 string tracks, I will put them all to one string bus, and if I have eight brass tracks, I will put them all to one brass track. I will mix the aux tracks, so I don't have to mix 120 tracks.

"I don't, however, have a session template. I will create specific tracks in each session as I need them. I don't want to end up in a rut, where I'm doing the same thing all the time. If had a template with the same reverbs and delays, I'd use them on every song, and they would all start to sound the same. The same if I had templates for specific string and piano sounds. I like to create new instrument channels in Pro Tools, and this forces me to go into Kontakt and go through all my libraries and pick a new sound that I don't always use."

Tommee Profitt's favourite reverb plug-in is Valhalla DSP's VintageVerb.Aux group tracks are certainly in evidence in the 'The Search' mix session. From top to bottom, the session has a click, a master track, four auxiliary effect tracks (green), four NF audio tracks sent to two vocal aux tracks (pink), 24 string tracks, which include a strings aux and a 'LoStrinGHits' aux, plus a string verb aux, two choir tracks, a tubular bells track, three brass audio tracks going to a brass aux, an LCO texture track, seven drums tracks, and 14 sound effect tracks.

"For this song I set up two reverb aux tracks," explains Profitt, "one called 'Voc vrb' and the other 'big valass', both with the Valhalla VintageVerb, and the second reverb one is a bit longer. I also set up a delay track, with the standard Pro Tools ModDelay3 and an aux track with SoundToys Little AlterBoy, and both of these also have the VintageVerb, because it makes these effects sound a bit more spacey. I also have a UAD CLA‑3A on the delay aux, which makes the delay sound bolder and louder."

Vocals

Waves' CLA‑2A compressor was used on all the vocal tracks."The four vocal audio tracks go into two vocal aux tracks, one for his soft, more spoken vocals, and the other, 'NF Verse Hard', for when he's yelling, which NF does a lot. I have to compress these vocals a little differently in each case. All four vocal audio tracks have the Waves CLA‑2A, and I compress his voice a lot, which helps with making it sound aggressive. Each of the vocal tracks also has sends to the main Valhalla reverb, and the delay track, although the delay is automated. I only have it on certain words, probably just three or four moments in the track. The harder vocal tracks also have the other VintageVerb, and one has the Little AlterBoy.

"The two vocal auxes have identical signal chains, just with different settings: FabFilter Pro‑Q2 EQ, Waves SSL E‑Channel, UAD LA‑2A, Slate Digital EQ, UAD Pultec EQP‑1A, FabFilter Pro-MB, Massey DeEsser and iZotope Neutron 2 on the inserts, and a send to the main Valhalla VintageVerb aux. I do have this vocal aux chain saved as a template, and run vocals through these plug-ins, and then I tweak the knobs depending on what is needed. In the case of the 'Hard' vocal aux, the Pro‑Q2 takes out just below 400Hz, the E‑Channel adds some compression and there are some minor boosts around 4.5k and 11k, the LA‑2A does more levelling, the Slate adds some crispness to the voice at 10k, and also cuts some 800Hz and 100Hz, and the EQP‑1A boosts some 60Hz and 8k. The Pro-MB controls two frequencies, keeping the signal from getting too muddy and too harsh, and the Massey is a plug-in I found recently, and I love it. It's the best de-esser I have ever used. It gives you a lot of control, it sounds very transparent, and the dry/wet knob is particularly helpful.

All of NF's vocals are tracked using a Manley Reference Cardioid microphone through this chain of UA Console processors.

"The Neutron 2 is a plug-in I use a lot. It's on many tracks in this session [there appear to be 21 instances]. It allows you to select two tracks and it will then show you where the clashing frequencies are in these tracks. In the screenshot the strings track is at the top and the vocals at the bottom, and when you press Play, it shows in white where the string frequencies mask his voice. So that tells you what frequencies you need to cut in the strings so the voice can come through. There's a Track Assistant to do this automatically for you, but mixing obviously is about personal preferences, and I prefer to do the cuts myself. When you do many subtle cuts, it makes a big difference. I think Neutron is an incredible tool, just brilliant. In general I prefer using EQs to cut, because in these large cinematic sessions you need dynamics and builds, and you don't want things to get muddy or parts to overpower each other."

Profitt makes extensive use of iZotope's Neutron plug-in to show up potential 'masking' issues between tracks.

Strings & Other Instruments

"All strings were MIDI, and then I printed most of the tracks to audio. As I mentioned before, I will layer multiple sounds, to create one big sound. The Novo string library by Heavyocity is great for low string hits. I don't typically do a lot to the actual audio string tracks, except for the Waves CLA‑3A compressor in a number of cases. It's one of my favourite compressor plug-ins because it just sounds bigger and bolder before you even mess with the knobs. Many of the string libraries are a little quiet, so I put the CLA‑3A on to make them feel louder and bolder instantly. Some of the string tracks also have the Brainworx Shredspread, which is a stereo width plug-in, and in general I put that on many strings, brass, choirs and pads, just to give a big, wide picture. It really opens up the sound.

"The choir track also has the Shredspread and VintageVerb, and there are three brass tracks going into a 'Brass' aux, which are tucked in the mix. It's just there to give it a bigger feel. The '12 Horn' track has low brass sounds from Cinebrass Pro, which is an incredible library. I used Berlin Brass for the brass ensemble, and these two are pretty much my two go-to libraries for brass. The LCO Texture track is a drone from Spitfire Audio Strings. LCO stands for London Contemporary Orchestra, and they have a library called LCO Textures, made with just strings or brass. We use lots of drones in NF music. Usually some form of orchestral drone to generate atmospheres that feel dark.

"There are no synths or pianos in this track. It's probably the only NF song without piano. I use Alicia's Keys for almost all my piano sounds, which is another Kontakt library, by Native Instruments, that costs just $100 and it is just really good for emotional cinematic piano. I have 60 piano libraries, and I cannot find one that just gives the same emotion as Alicia's Keys. That is one that I just pull up, and it has been my go-to for years. I don't use many synths in Nate's music. His music is very organic by nature, and real instruments makes it feel the way does. Piano, strings and choirs are the foundation for his sound. I'll occasionally use a synth sound, particularly with other artists, or for remixes, and in that case I use reFX Nexus 2 a lot, and Spectrasonics Omnisphere."

Drums

"There aren't a lot of plug-ins on the drums, other than instances of the CLA–3A on the kick, which I think came from Splice, and one of the snares, and there's a Waves SSL G-Channel on the second snare track. There's an Avid Lo-fi on the 808. Someone showed me a while ago that if you put 0.2-0.3 percent distortion from the Lo-fi on an 808, it makes the bass drop a little lower and feel a little bigger. If you add more distortion it actually loses low end. Lowering the sample rate is like rolling off the top end. I also added some hi-hat loops to the drums. One of the things that I do a lot is to layer three or four or five drum loops, to get lots of movement, and I'll cut out a bunch of low end, and then I have one big kick and snare sample. The loops act like a glue in the middle. There are three hi-hat loops, and the two '060' tracks also are drum loops.

"Below the drums tracks are my trailer effects. They are several big impact sounds, for example for when the chorus hits. The 'Wind' tracks at the very bottom, and the cart and wheel tracks, are for the intro and outro of the song, where you hear wind and shopping-cart creaks. We actually did the song first that way, and then they made the video afterwards, visualising these sounds. On NF's last album we did a similar thing, in a song called 'Outcast' where NF is in a jail cell, and you hear a big prison cell door shutting, and keys jangling. NF's albums connect just like a movie series would. He is a storyteller, and the sounds of his albums flow together, like one story. It is like his own cinematic universe, and I love that."

Master Bus

Tommee Profitt is credited with mastering The Search and his mastering chain is another template-based sequence of plug-ins.

Tommee Profitt's plug-in mastering chain.

"What I did in 'The Search' is pretty much what I do on my master fader for most songs. That first EQ3 seven-band EQ is there purely because the input is turned down by 1dB. If you turn down the input, it is same as turning down the tracks before they hit the master. I like to hit the master channel pretty hard for aggression, but sometimes it is hitting a little bit too hard and it feels a little smashed, so I turn it down 1dB in his case. After that I have the Waves Linear Multiband compressor, and the Softube Passive EQ, and then a UAD Precision Maximiser/Limiter at the end. My tracks pretty much already have good volume before it hits that, so I'm not really turning it up very much. I'm kind of more controlling the peaks with the Precision.

"I feel like we are past the loudness wars. Albums don't need to be as loud any more, and in general I care more about the dynamics and the musicality than I care about making it super loud. However, when you push a little hard against the limiter on the master, there is a window where it feels big and loud without over-crunching it. 'The Search' has a little bit of distortion in the louder sections on purpose, because it feels energetic. But we never want it to sound like it is just peaking and distorting. It is hard when you make really big cinematic tracks, like this one, where there is so much going on, to fit all that in and give everything a place. It is a delicate thing. More than anything, particularly in cinematic music, balancing and volume riding is what makes the big difference."

In Profitt's cinematic music world there are many things that make a difference, the key word in each case being 'big'!