Award-winning artist, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Emma-Jean Thackray has by no means been one to comply with a traditional playbook, not least in the case of mixing.
Contemporary off the discharge of her new self-produced album Weirdo, Thackray stopped by MusicTech’s My Perpetually Studio podcast (made in partnership with Audient) to share her mixing secrets and techniques and the delightfully “methodology” strategy she takes to constructing the completely different components of her songs.
“Once I’m mixing, it’s about placement greater than anything,” Thackray explains.
“So I’ll normally have the decrease harmonies barely wider heart, after which as issues get increased, they’re going additional and additional away from the centre. Which is, I believe, at all times a great way to form of strategy stuff initially when it comes to the place your frequencies are sitting.”
“After which I prefer to double every little thing, minimal. So that you’ve bought left and proper, after which kind of double them once more and have one in every of them barely nearer to you, one in every of them barely additional away.
“So you’ll be able to mess with how a lot is being despatched to the reverb, and it simply creates not simply house this means, however house this means. You’ve bought the depth and also you’ve bought the wideness of it.”
She additionally makes use of a go-to room reverb to assist construct a convincing sense of house: “The quantity that I ship to every individual could be very barely completely different to assist me kind of create a 3D picture of the room.”
“After which that on prime of me singing the stuff with barely completely different texture of my voice or being in barely completely different positions – away from the microphone or to the facet or no matter – to make it seem to be it’s one mic, like this AE ribbon capturing a bunch of individuals,” Thackray provides.
Technical tips apart, the musician additionally reveals that she goes “full methodology” when laying down components for her information – typically even dressing the half.
“Once I made my Ley Strains EP years in the past, I actually was doing all of the performances and I used to be like, ‘Okay, I’m the drummer now and I’m, you understand, a little bit of an arsehole and I’m feeling offended,’” she laughs.
“After which I’m the bassist. I’m cool, I’m a chill individual, it’s effective, I’ve bought a cup of tea and it kind of helped me be just a little bit additional behind the beat.
Whereas the drummer, who’s offended, is a bit additional forward of the beat.”
Today, she doesn’t essentially want the costume adjustments to get into character.
“I can simply kind of try to embody, like, okay, the place am I going to take a seat when it comes to the groove? Am I forward? Am I behind? Am I this or am I that? I do go a bit methodology,” Thackray concludes.
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