In this video, FOH audio engineer Andy Meyer (Janet Jackson, Guns N’ Roses, Bob Seger, Rage Against the Machine) takes a detailed look at the plugins he uses the most when touring with Justin Timberlake.
Andy Meyer Mixing Justin Timberlake Live
Video Text:
hi guys Andy Meyer here I’ve had the
opportunity to mix some really cool acts
in my lifetime way back I remember doing
Laurie Anderson with a performance
artist that was pretty cool I’ve done
different things like Bob Seger I’ve
done some orchestra work rock acts like
Motley Crue Rage Against the Machine
Megadeth’s Janet Jackson and Justin
Timberlake it’s been a great ride so far
a
the one plug-in I gravitated to
initially was the art channel because I
had so many options available to me you
know compression gating the gait is
excellent on being able to key things
with it on and on and on and uh and so
I’d also realized very quickly that I
could build a library of presets with
that exact plug-in and move to any tour
drop them in and go I use max volume as
a big one that I lean on and SSL each
channel as well for tonality changes in
summary Keeling I had to use one plug-in
I carried it with me everywhere and it’s
a one plug-in I had to have it would be
the c6 you can shape tone correct all
kinds of problems say your guitar is a
little too harsh I can compress the high
end energy out of it and warm it up I
can excite the maybe the air in it and
maybe tighten up the low end with it if
I want to do that Justin’s actual vocal
um key component there is the fact that
I have a c6 I remember Justin sings he
has a deep rich voice he sings really
high falsetto which is much thinner and
everything in between
sometimes he cups the mic a little bit
for the sound he wants sometimes he
holds it perfectly
sometimes it’s moving around a little
bit because he runs around he’s
performing as well he’s dancing so that
enables me to really balance everything
I don’t have to chase it all night I
really makes for an easy day as far as
his his actual chain is we come analog
only on him I come analog all the way up
old like old school up the snake right
to front of house to an analog preamp
then I converted a yes and bring it in
the desk it just gives it an extra added
warmth that I really need with his voice
so it works out quite well alright so on
the kick drum we use the art Channel and
the Tweed tech and it’s just a low-end
boost and a high and boost basically
very simple I like to take it all the
way down to 20 Hertz well not really
worry about high passing it cuz the
actual systems high
just a little bit but it gives me that
the deepest riches kick drum sound I can
get I bus all my horns into one stereo
group and I use Renaissance ax and that
kind of thickens it up and gives it a
nice life and then we go from there to
the SSL channel an SSL channel I do some
V queuing and expansion an expansion is
key because it’s very smooth and musical
and it keeps all the ambience out both
my guitar players I do the same thing
with and what you’re seeing now on the
screen is the SSL and if you look up
here under dynamics the actual threshold
as you spin the threshold clockwise when
you get up around 10 15 20 DB you’ll
hear a tonality change in the actual
plug-in it gives it more of a low mid
growl so to speak so it gives it a
really nice sound for guitars and then
at the end of that you’ll see the s1
imager and I just incorporate that in
certain snapshots I’ll I’ll use panning
with it and I’ll also spread the guitar
a little more so that’s kind of a cool
effect too to have instead of you
queuing a little bit of the harshness
out of the overheads I choose to to
compress and that’s why when he lays in
the cymbals and open rides and things
like that it’ll kind of compress that
upper mid energy that gets kind of harsh
so I don’t have to cue that away and
also at the same time I’m exciting some
air in there too and getting some 1012 K
in there as he lays into it makes it
sound a little bit sweeter so it
perceives it as basically maintaining
its same tonality whether he’s hitting
it hard or whether he’s hitting it soft
we’re finally gonna look at Justin’s
input strip okay and the waves
processing there and you’ll notice that
right there we have the c6 and as I
discussed before
basically we’re de-essing in a couple
places we’re cleaning up the upper mids
and low mids and adding some warmth at
the same time again he has he sings in
falsetto he sings rich and thick he
sings high-end you know really high
parts he’s basically got an extreme
range which is wonderful and this kind
of keeps it all together then we move on
to the H comp you’ll notice that what
I’m doing here is basically a mix is
about 70% and I’m getting into that
between 2 and 3 dB kind of averaging it
out a little bit and it gives it to nice
again
nice analog warmth without the analog
setting actually it still thickens it up
nicely and then we’re gonna go to one
knob this particular snapshot has the
one knob turned on the one knob driver
gives a nice distortion to it in certain
effects I want in songs it sounds over
driven down between four and five but it
doesn’t give you that telephone
bandwidth restriction it still is nice
and thick sounding but it gives you a
nice nice edge now we’re gonna move over
to the vocal distortion Channel okay and
basically I use it on an arc so send
obviously the vocal into it and process
and return it first you’re seeing the
SSL channel again I use the expansion on
the SSL channel so it opens nice and
naturally then we use guitar amp right
here and you’re seeing the GTR plug-in
and that that’s been fantastic it
enabled me to dial it in quite nicely
and then the final plug-in on this chain
is the mondo mod and that’s for movement
um there’s a song we do in the beginning
of our second half of our set that is
has a great big giant 20 foot wide
picture of Justin basically and it moves
in folds in and he’s singing the words
and then it folds out and there’s lasers
and all kinds of cool things happening
at the same time so I wanted it to be
more dramatic so not only is there that
full distorted voice but there’s a lot
of movement with it as it fades in and
out and kind of work musically with it
so it’s become a really cool part of
this show
you
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