Angad Bains, aka Bainz, works primarily in the Atlanta rap scene. There used to be a time when the red light ruled — make a noise or enter a studio when it is on and you’re dead meat — and artists would come into the studio with carefully prepared songs, with chords and lyrics written down and laboured over for weeks or months. But Atlanta rap culture completely ignores the old paradigm. A relaxed vibe is imperative, and sonic corruption a problem to be solved after the event. Bainz has an impressive credit list. In addition to the artists already mentioned, he has worked with Juice WRLD, Sia, Mac Miller, Quavo, Machine Gun Kelly, Prateek Kuhad and many others. When asked why he thinks he managed to be so successful in a relatively short space of time, he reflects: “I guess I’m really fast on Pro Tools, but also, I’m very adaptable. When I met Young Thug, I really immersed myself in his culture. This is really important. When you work with an artist every day, you have to know where they’re coming from, and how they move. You need to know the technical stuff as well, and if you communicate that with them, it’s the best marriage.” YSL Studio

With more than 15 years of Betfair trading experience, the founder of InsideTraxs has made over 100 VIDEOS. These form the Betfair Trading Academy, which is now considered an invaluable resource to many traders whether Newbies or Experienced. O’Donnell recorded all the material for Before This World to Pro Tools at 24–bit, 96kHz: “I was never a big fan of 44.1, and I feel that 96k is definitely better for acoustic music. With 24/96 I thought for the first time that digital sounded good.” Be Prepared Traditionally educated in the art of recording, Bainz has had to adapt to Atlanta rap’s studio culture. Here, he talks us through his mix of Young Thug and Gunna’s hit single, ‘Ski’. The Member’s Newsletters are the ultimate way to get well researched and consistently profitable selections. The “Hints & Tips” section provides the best trading opportunities of the day and the “B2L” section provides selections based on a unique formula only available on InsideTraxs. I had some plug–ins over the stereo bus, even though I have driven myself crazy over the years with many different stereo bus plug–ins, and in the end found that it doesn’t matter. You can get to the same point using different plug–ins. On this song I used the Slate Digital VTM virtual tape machine, which gives you the flexibility to decide how much you want to push the bass in the Settings tab, and which has very realistic hiss noise. On History Of Man I actually used tape, to hear what it would do to my sounds, and when I used the VTM, I found that they dialled that sound in spot on. I also used the Pro–MB, very subtly, just to glue everything together in the song.When collaborating, people who use other DAWs simply send me WAVs, and I then load these into Cubase, and that’s when my work begins. It’s a process of chipping away at things and building them out. I’ve worked in Cubase for 12 years now, and I’m incredibly fast and efficient with it. I do everything: all my writing, producing, recording, tuning, editing and mixing in one session. Cubase is the one thing I couldn’t do without. But I’ve recently also been playing with Ableton, and that’s fun. I can work in it without looking at numbers or graphical interfaces, I’m just creating and throwing things together without quantising or treating them. After that I Rewire things in Cubase, and get into the technical side and zone in on the details. It’s become an incredible workflow for me. That’s a lot of plug-ins for a handclap sound! Matt Schaeffer used multiple distortion and saturation processors in series to create the effect he was after.“Yes, there are lots of plug-ins on the claps! I added eight plug-ins to give them the right amount of punch and grittiness. The signal chain is the SSL E-Channel, UAD 610, SoundToys Devil-Loc, Avid DVerb, Valhalla Vintage Verb, UAD 1176LN, the SoundToys Little Radiator and SoundToys MicroShift. I like to boost the input with the 610 as well as the top end with its EQ, because that plug-in adds some pretty cool harmonic distortion. The Devil-Loc and the Little Radiator also add some dirt. I have the two reverbs on the inserts because I did not think I was going to use these settings anywhere else, and I like to compress after the reverb, here with the 1176, because it brings out more ambience. The MicroShift adds a stereo effect to keep the claps out of the centre, in this case to make room for the snare. Born in New Delhi, India, Bainz got to his position as chief engineer and mixer at YSL in Los Angeles via Australia, Florida and New York. He recalls, “I never played an instrument, but got into DJ’ing and I was into electronic music. I went to Melbourne to do a bachelor degree in something, I can’t remember what it was, but I hated it. I dropped out and then enrolled in the School of Audio Engineering Institute in Melbourne. I was always into the technicalities behind music and there I realised I wanted to be an engineer. As Chris Godbey mentions in the main article, the other big hit from The 20/20 Experience 1 of 2, 'Suit & Tie', was written Compared with the sessions for 'Mirrors', the stem session from which 'Suit & Tie' was mixed is relatively simple. I work fully in the box, on my six-year-old MacBook Pro, with a UAD Apollo Twin soundcard and Octo Satellite, plus Audio-Technica M50X and Beats Pro headphones. This setup allows me to work anywhere, also at home. I love my A-T headphones! The Beats are not that great, but many people listen to them, so I use it as a reference. It’s not for final decisions, but more for the vibe. At Fight Club I use Yamaha NS10 monitors and the Augspurgers. The NS10s are my favourite monitors. If I go to a studio to mix, I make sure they have the Yamahas — but I can mix on headphones, because the current direction in music is not about hi-fi. People listen with earpods, in the car and so on. It’s rare for people to listen to good loudspeakers. It’s the new generation.

Engineer, mixer and producer Carlo Montagnese likens his work with the Weeknd to painting — and he’s not afraid to use plenty of colour! Two massive hit albums in a year was a pretty good return on 20 days' work for Justin Timberlake, producer Timbaland — and engineer Chris Godbey.James Taylor (left) and Dave O’Donnell at work in the former’s Barn studio. Photo: Spencer Worthley

Again unique to InsideTraxs, we offer a Power Hour, where we provide one to one tuition totally tailored to your needs and experience. It’s easier and more flexible to work in the box, but it does mean that I spend a lot of time making sure the programmed stuff sounds less sterile. One way of doing that is by adding grit. Distortion is a big part of working in analogue, and the way you hit the console can make a big difference. You don’t have that in the box, but you can simulate it. I’ll use various plug-ins to create grit in the box, like the SoundToys Decapitator and sometimes the Waves NLS console emulation plug-ins.”Not much. What I use is this: a MacBook Pro, in my studio together with a PCI chassis with two UAD Octo Cards, and the Metric Halo ULN8 soundcard. When I’m travelling I use the same laptop with a UAD Apollo Twin soundcard. I have two sets of headphones, but frankly, I don’t mind which I use. I’m also happy to work with anything for monitors. I used to use Genelecs, and I really like the Yamaha NS10s. But it does not matter.” I’m Thug’s full‑time engineer, but also sometimes record Gunna, though he has his own engineer, Flo Ongonga. In the past, when Thug and Gunna were in Atlanta, Flo would record them, and here in LA I’d record them, and neither of us would sleep for days. But since Covid, with them working so much, I go to Atlanta to work with Flo and when we work here in LA, he comes over to work with me, so it’s both of us in action at the same time all the time.” As a producer I see my job as making sure the songs are great, by getting great performances, and doing whatever it takes to achieve that,” explains O’Donnell. “It can include choosing the songs, and working on any aspect of them: the tempo, the key, the lyrics, to the structure, parts and so on. With a different artist it can mean a lot of guidance, but with an artist like James you know the songs and the performances will be there; it’s just a matter of capturing these the best you can.” Justin Timberlake's album release schedule appears to be inspired by the proverbial English buses: you wait ages and then several come along at once. Before 2013, the singer had released only two albums in a decade: his 2002 debut Justified, and the follow-up Futuresex/LoveSounds in 2006. After that Timberlake became preoccupied with his acting career, though he remained an active chart presence by guesting on other people's hits, such as Madonna's '4 Minutes', TI's 'Dead And Gone', Timbaland's 'Carry Out', and Jamie Foxx's 'Winner'.

Verse lead vocal: Antares Auto–Tune EFX, FabFilter Pro–DS, Pro–Q2, Pro–MB & Timeless 2, Waves Vocal Rider, H–Delay & Doubler, UAD API 560, 1176 & EP34, SoundToys Little Radiator & MicroShift, Audio Ease Altiverb.We are working hard to get the remaining issues brought over as soon as possible but this conversion and reformatting will take time, due to commitments to producing the new issue each month. Then in 2010, when I was 22, I moved to Toronto. I had a room at Dream House Studios, and behind every wall another producer was creating music in a different genre, which made me feel very uncomfortable, as I was working my way through a lot of insecurities. During that time I went to LA to have meetings with people, but nobody was interested. No matter what music I was working on, it wasn’t going for me. The main thing I did during this period, and still afterwards, was developing my techniques. At one stage I was mapping out the different frequency octaves in different keys of songs, and I would visually approach mixing with these different frequency ranges in mind. It was like maths. I literally had vocals rolled off at certain frequencies because it opened up for this other sound to come in. I drove myself absolutely mad! I don’t do that at all any more, but I had to go through it. It was a step along the path.” In general I’m still more a fan of hardware than of plug–ins,” says Dave O’Donnell, “although during the last couple of years plug–ins have become significantly better, and there are some newer companies making things that are more interesting than just analogue gear emulations. This week I’ve been trying out some FabFilter and DMG plug–ins, which to me is the way to go, to some degree using traditional analogue principles but not necessarily trying to emulate specific gear. Though the danger with some of these plug–ins is that you end up mixing with your eyes, rather than your ears! When I mix I have my screen off to the side, so I can listen without seeing things, because no matter how experienced you are, looking at what happens on the screen changes the way you hear it. Because of the way James’s schedule went, we ended up mixing everything at his and my place, on my Yamaha DM2000 desk. It has four banks of 24 channels, and 48 channels at 96k, plus some very good internal EQs and effects, like reverbs. For me it’s great to be able to work with faders, and although we went digital through the DM2000, I think it did sound better than just staying in the box. In general, going out of the box will give you a wider image, with more depth, and the Yamaha will also do that. Particularly for a project like this, going through a mixer sounds much better. I plugged analogue outboard into the Yamaha console inserts, and also connected outboard to the Pro Tools hardware inserts. Some of the hardware included my Vertigo VSC2 compressor, which I love, and the TC Electronic 4000 as my main digital reverb.” In The Mix In writing and producing material for his latest album, Abel [Tesfaye, aka the Weeknd] and I were in so many different studios and locations, and we were travelling so much, that I did not have a solid reference point. Sometimes I was sitting on a sofa with headphones on, sometimes I’d be in a studio working on NS10s, sometimes I’d be in Abel’s spare room using whatever speakers were there. In every place we used different mics, different mic pres, different monitors, and while it may have appeared like a nightmare to bring all that together, the technology makes it easy to do that.