DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH
While many top end mixers have a pre-workout routine that can include a lot of prep work; like conforming a session to a preferred template, replacing existing plug-ins with preferred options or stripping them out to the bare track, Leslie Braithwaite reckons it’s all non-essential for getting the mix right and working fast. What’s important? Giving the artist what they want, which can usually be found in the rough mix.
“Whenever someone sends me a session, the first thing I want to know is: Has the client been listening to the rough?” explained Braithwaite. “If they’ve been listening to it for a long time, I’ll put it on a track in the session, so I can really scrutinise it and lock into what they love about this rough. Then I can A/B it with what I’m doing. Someone who has been listening to a rough for a long time is not going to want something radically different. Especially in my world — the hip-hop, R&B and pop world, where I work with artists like Cardi B and Beyoncé — this is really important.
“With Cardi B, Beyoncé or Ariana Grande, I will work from where they left off. They don’t like things to sound too different from what they had. I will often stick to the existing plug-ins, even where I’d tend to use something different, because in this genre, mixing is more about making it work and getting the vibe right than about getting things to sound perfect. I also don’t typically spend
