Nolan Presley Interview: Recording an Atlanta Rap Legend Full-Time

This dude one time was like, hey, you know who you look like? I'm thinking it's gonna be the same shit I always get Justin Bieber. Not even him, but so I'm like, who? You know, he's like, you look like Nolan Presley, 2 Chainz' engineer. I said, whoa. I said, that's me. You know what I'm saying? I am not even thrilled. I don't know why we're having this guy on the podcast, welcoming in some Michigan fan. Bro, all right, before we get into that, we got Nolan Presley. aka 2 Chainz's recording engineer. This dude is a mixed engineer, producer at this point, uh, a friend of ours, except for I guess I don't know. Okay, so recently there's been we're on break. There's been a Michigan Ohio State, there's been a Michigan, Ohio State game. The game. The game. is what it's called. Henry's team uh came out on the the you know, losing end of this uh of this equation.

So guys, like, can we can we be cordial throughout this interview or like I'll be cool if he's cool. Oh, I'm the coolest right now. Of course he is. They won. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, both of you guys have your cool guy shades on at this point. Facts. We both look cooler than you. All right, so Turn That Motherfucker Up, Nolan, was actually like one of my favorite intros to a song off of Pretty Girls Like Trap Music, and that's off Riverdale Road. Yes, sir. And I, of course, had no idea who the fuck you were at that point, right? Because this is like well, and just I wasn't even in like if I was in this scene that I am now, I would have probably like been like, hey, who's that guy? Let me look him up. Right. But like I didn't know at all. Yeah. But like, is there anything better than getting shouted out on a record? On the intro? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, I don't think so. That's the best. As an engineer, it's gotta be like Oh, that was that was yeah, that was a good one. Yeah, yeah. Did you you didn't like secretly keep that? He had to uh ask you to keep that, right? You remember how that went?

It's more like he said it, and I was like, Well, I'm not gonna delete it till he says delete it. It was it was one of those things, you know what I'm saying? That's strategic as fuck. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I didn't make that beat, you know what I'm saying? Maino made the beat. That's what I think. So it wasn't, it wasn't that's not even a producer tag when it happened, it was just he shouted me out. It's an engineer shout-out, which to me is even more legendary. Engineers never get shout-outs. Just me knowing how important and like integral they are into the whole like creative process. I feel like, you know, producers borderline get shit on, like mixing engineers, but like recording engineers, I feel like you guys definitely do not get enough credit. So, like, excited to have this conversation today because obviously you're operating at arguably the highest level as as a recording engineer. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, for sure. So are you his only engineer? Um when it comes to recording? When it comes to recording, yeah, I'm locked in. So but like what happens if you're if you're sick? I'm there still. Okay, yeah, yeah.

Or her take a night off. Like I go home for like vacation or something, you know what I'm saying? It's somebody that I'll fill in his name's C O. Okay, shout out C O. Yeah. So uh he's the understudy of this correctional officer. King C O. No, no, no, C E E O. Okay. C O. That's better. C O. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my that's my man. And so obviously, you know, Henry here is an engineer as well. So I I'd kind of open this up to both of you guys, but it's like, what does an artist get by having that that dedicated like go-to engineer? First of all, I get to know their pattern as far as just like how they work, when they work, you know, you're going to be, they know they can call on you. I know where all the files are, right? I know what they're named. No, that's actually incredibly close, bro. Imagine if you there's five guys and you gotta remember who you recorded which song with, and then you're trying to tell them where it's at, yeah. What folder what it what it might be who made it, yeah. Oh, you know, oh, it sounded like uh yeah, what it's called, artists have a have trouble giving songs names. Like when I go home for like three days or something, four or five days or some shit, you know what I'm saying?

Take a break. Like he might not work for the first couple, it might be a holiday or something, but like the next couple, while he's waiting for me to get there, he's gonna work, right? Yes, and even that by itself, it'd be like six to ten songs or something. I gotta figure out who's got them. I know where they're at, they'd be on his drive, you know what I'm saying? But it's just like what folder they're in, yeah. What are they named? Yeah, so it's like I I couldn't imagine doing like having that many people involved. Yeah, I I've heard horror stories of like um I guess if you record at a just commercial studio, then they'll be like on the studio's computer, like computer, yeah. What I've noticed they delete after exactly every studio that every big studio in the A room, they have a label somewhere near the computer, will delete files. all files are deleted after 24 hours, yeah. Heapses. It's like a liability, so like they're not held responsible. You gotta get your fucking files, dude. How many good songs do you think have been a lot just lost wiped off of a studio's computer? A lot.

Oh, that's Absolutely. Let's pour one out. None of that. That's why they have that I was working on. So we backing shit up. Yes, yeah. How many backups? You do like a cloud backup, hard backup. I got at least a couple. Got one good backup, one good one. I got I got I got like two though. I got like a master backup, okay, and then I got like a duplicate drive. Okay, Which is maybe more current stuff. Exactly. Yeah. How much storage have you gone through with Chainz? Well, there's a couple mother drives. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, lots, bro. But just like what? But bro, days of music. We record we record every day. Yeah, but as someone who has done music and is now doing this whole like 4K video thing. Music is like audio, ain't shit, bro. Audio ain't shit, bro. Audio ain't shit, bro. Throw up your fours. Music ain't shit, like as far as storage compared to these files. Oh videos and shit? Oh, my god, dude. Oh, I can only imagine. Dude, these are like 50 gigs. No, no, 60. No, honestly, any photographer that's been around chains, bro, have like a backpack full of like drives and backups and shit. I'm like, damn, I thought I thought I had it bad.

You're good with audio, bro. You have your one extra, they have literally a backpack full of them. Yeah, like I don't know. That's crazy. Oh my god, that's crazy. Um, all right. So if I'm an engineer, all right. Yeah, have you ever? No. Never. But Henry's probably laughing. He'd be okay at it. Hold on. Did you ever record anybody record a song? No. No, I couldn't even figure out how to just like start the beat over when I was in a session and he was in the bathroom. Really? Yeah, the artist had to tell me how to do it. He'd be good. An artist, artist, a lot of artists can't record. I know. Yeah, they're coming for our jobs. But but okay, so let's let's get back to the hypothetical. let's get back to the hypothetical. I'm an engineer, right? I got this huge rapper, like 2 Chainz level, right? He's he he's asking me, he's like, Ben, I I really want you to be my engineer. Yeah, like what what are you telling me? Like they'd be like, Ben, like before you before you accept this job, like you better make damn sure you know that this is about to happen. you know what I mean? Like, what what do I need to know before I accept the gig? Because now you've been doing this for uh, you know, a while now. You have another job or are you leaving the job to come to this one?

Just so step one, you need to not have a job. No, no, no, no. You just need to make sure that you're not leaving something that you might end up. What if he don't like your work? Now you left somebody else you're working with to come work over here. Okay. And he don't like your work. But this dude did, but you done left him go. you know what I'm saying? Go work with someone else. So maybe have a couple test sessions. Yeah, like try it out. Let's see how a few go. Yeah. Before you just accept the gig. All right, let's dip our toes in the water a little bit before we're just fucking swimming. But I might be saying that because, like, I mean, I have a solid job right now. You know what I'm saying? But like, trust me though, like before, like I was working with bro, it was like, he was like, this is how it happened for me, right? I was working with Schoolie. Should we shout out? Schoolie. Who's his artist. Shout out Schoolie. Oh, we know Schoolie. A big time. Wouldn't be here without him, type shit. So, but what happened was he called, he called me, I didn't even answer the phone because I didn't have his number. Like, I we had known each other through Schoolie, but I didn't have his number or nothing like that.

You know what I'm saying? And I was doing short dogs music too. So like they'll bring me in his sessions after we were done working or stuff like that. So that's how he he even knew who I was, type thing. He called me, I didn't answer, I didn't have his number. And then Tech called me and was like, yo, I think Chains tried to call you. I think you should call him back. And I was like, Yeah, I probably should do that. Yeah. I'll get right on that. Tech. What's crazy though is I actually was driving, it was a lot of stuff going on around the time, but I was driving to go see my grandparents. They were living in Florida. So I'm like four or five, six hours away. I don't know. And I'm realizing like, oh shit. Two chains called me to like work, I think. You know what I'm saying? So I call him back, and he's like, yeah. He's like, what you doing? I'm like, uh, on the road to see my grandparents. What a lame fucking thing. I'd be like, yo. I'm like, I'm I'm like, yo, I'll turn around. I want to work. Fuck my grandparents, bro. Fuck them. I mean They're, like about to die. Like, no, no, chill, chill. It's dark, man.

Chill. I'm just saying. They're in Florida. They're they're chilling there. They're still there? No, they're still here. Okay. Thank God. This is like seven, eight years ago, too. If they had died. No, they're still kicking. That would have been a little. They're still kicking. They're old, but you know what I'm saying? I took a leap of faith that they're still around. No, yeah. Something happened before the cameras got turned on with his dog who's no longer with us. And we're not trying to recreate that right now. You just did. You literally just did. Long live Duke, man. R.I.P. Duke. fuck Duke. Oh shit. All right, all right. Sorry, sorry, I forgot he was a target. I know. yeah. We both gotta beef with this guy. Why do we get him on? Man, this is crazy. He likes Duke's in Michigan. He's So damn charismatic. Before y'all go there, right? We're going. Let's get back. Okay, let's just go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, all right, so he calls. So he calls, I'm like, I'll turn around. He's like, no, it's all good. He's like, when you come back, I'm like, it was like Sunday or Monday type thing. He's like, all right, well, Monday, I'm going to LA. It was like uh, I'm coming either this day or this day.

He's like, well, Monday, I'm going to LA, and I want to bring you out there and work. And I'm like, no, at this point, okay. And you hadn't met him yet. You had no. No, no. So we done met. Okay. Like I met him in the sessions before sessions. And I actually did work with him because like at the time, his other engineer was uh like running late. No, no, it wasn't C O. Okay. No, it was uh it was KY. KY engineer? Yeah, and he had Jack too, Jack Brown, but at the time it was KY, and KY was opening his own studio. Okay. So I don't know why, but like he was running a little late for the session type thing. Classic. Oh, KY. No, but like, you know, they've been you know KY now. Yeah, yeah. KY legend. Yeah, he didn't have to be. I just I just met I yeah, I just met him. Oh, you finally met him? Yeah, and and he told me the story of like Drake and and uh Lil Wayne recording forever. Yeah, and I was just like, it was the one. He's recorded like a classic. Oh my god, hits hits.

But anyways, so so KY's late, he's he's he's running late. And so they pulled me out of a session with um, I was actually recording Short Dog at the time. Wow, fresh. You go by fresh now. They're like, sorry, fresh. But uh Chains needs an engineer. they pulled me out and they're like, yeah, oh Chains needs an engineer. And I'm really looking like, I'm looking at him like because he paying me. Yeah, you're like, can I Yeah, I'm like, bro, you know what this could do for me? You know what I'm saying? he's like, bro, you better go. I'm like, all right, bet. That's a real one. Yeah. Shout out fresh, bro. All day. That's amazing. No, yeah, all day. So go do the session, and uh like TM88 was in there. Oh, love TM. Legend. I had met him before too through uh through an artist named Jonah Cruz and his like management and stuff. Like I used to do camera shit. Oh Y'all probably don't even know that. No, okay, yeah. Everyone did camera shit. Everybody did it, right? But like it was on something. It was like the way in for a lot of people. It was on something,

like when I was in Michigan and I had my little studio set up, it was like, man, it needs to be a camera around. So I really bought it for like the homies to use. And yeah, but then when I moved to Atlanta, it was like, shit, I better put this shit to work. You know what I'm saying? So that's how I was kind of working my move at first to begin with, right? Because like for those who don't know, like a lot of people don't know. I I was an intern at Street Execs. Yeah. That's how I even that's how any of this even happened. How'd you even land that? Yeah, like you come from Michigan, it's like there's tons of people here in Atlanta that are like competing for that role. I mean, man, really, it was uh, it was like a homie at the time. It's funny because we're not really cool no more. Uh huh. I'm in school for the shit, and this was kind of my reason to move down. This is how I kind of like convinced. Like, I moved down here, I didn't know a soul. But you came for SAE then. But I moved here, like I moved here for SAE technically to go to. I'm like, I'm about to move here and figure out this music shit. Yeah, is what like was in my mind.

But I had I had gotten school for it. Cause I was like self-taught and all that, like YouTube shit. Sure. Super like didn't know what I was doing. Mm-hmm. Towards the end of school, you start applying for internships because you think this is how you gonna get in. Yep. Which is like how I got in, though. But like, but but he's like it actually works. But it doesn't work for some people, and it wasn't working for me at first either. Like, I'm applying to studios, doing interviews, Mm-hmm. no call back. you know, all that shit. Like, damn, they're making some some people quit, you know what I'm saying? But I'm like, no, I gotta figure this out. So me, me and dude, like pretty much he told me he had an interview up there. So like next day, I'm like, how did that shit go? Like, I ain't go. It didn't go. I was like, you didn't go. Like, you ain't go. Sent my email in. Heard y'all looking for interns. Hell fucking, yeah.

It's amazing. Got my little interview. That's why y'all aren't cool anymore, bro. Come on, Jack. It was good. It was already going. I mean, it probably was the reason, but it's like that's not my fault, bro. And it's like I didn't backdoor you for real. Cause like you didn't go. Yeah. exactly. And here's the thing. Like, when I got there, it wasn't like I was the only one. Like, they hired in, you know how that shit go, like interns. Like it'd be a few of them. You know what I'm saying? And shit, I did all the intern shit. What'd you do? Food runs. bro. What'd you have to do? What'd you have to do? Blunt runs. Blunt runs. Not too many food runs. Blunts. Hold on. Like a couple gas station runs, you know what I'm saying? But it was like stocking the like we had a little store, like, you know, snacks and shit. So it's like stocking that back up. Then a clean up after the fucking puppy at the studio. Parties, cleaning the ashtrays, wiping the studios down. You know what I'm saying? All that, like. Yeah, you used to mop and shit. Yeah. All that Swiffer. Yeah. Swiffer. That's exactly right there. Like, you know, what I'm saying? Speaking of dogs, we had. Like, bro, it's a it's a I don't even want to say this shit, but it's a video of a schoolie session when like I was super intern, right?

And it's like a someone spilled some lean or some shit, right? This is some expensive shit. I don't even know. Someone could find it. Somebody in your comments might find it. It's like a schoolie session from like 2000 like 15. Okay, write this down. Okay, so you're recording. It's on YouTube. It's on YouTube somewhere anyway. We're gonna find it. And like it's like a part. Someone spills some lean, and I come in there to clean up. It's like literally, they don't even put the camera on me or nothing. It's like I just passed through the camera. Yeah, they're like, they damn near say some stupid shit. Justin Bieber comes through at 33 seconds. Like some stupid shit. Why is every white person Justin Bieber, bro? I don't know, bro. I got called Justin Bieber so many times in my life. The crazy part is I have long hair now, but like my shit was short, like forever. Yeah, dude. No, it was literally just if you were white and you were in music specifically, like hip hop shit. For some reason you were Justin Bieber. I'm like, what the fuck? It was and I'd say there's worse people to be compared to. No, but just What the? it's not the worst thing. It depends on the time. Yeah, I got it. Justin was kind of wild for yeah, I get lots of folks. I ain't even gonna lie. I get everybody but me. One time though, I can't even lie to you.

I can't even lie to you. This dude one time was like, hey, you know who you look like? I was like, I'm thinking it's gonna be the same shit I always get, right? Justin Bieber. Not even him, but so I'm like, I'm like, who? You know, he's like, you look like uh Nolan Presley, 2 Chainz engineer. I said, Whoa. I said, I said, that's me. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's just the coolest, most weird feeling I've had in like a while. Damn. That was cool, though. That is fire. No, some random shit, too. Maybe you get some more of those after this interview drops. You know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah, I might now, you know, put my face out there. Yeah, yeah. Wait, like I did, I did a couple little written interviews, but this is my first video. Yeah, I'll say it on there. It's the first one. Let's go. Yeah. So did you finish the lean spill story? No, so that was pretty, that was pretty much it. It was like I was doing intern shit pretty much, right? So then we then didn't even got caught on camera because it's like 2000, whatever, everything's on camera. So yeah, it's like you look back, you find me doing some cleanup shit. But like, you know, if you look now, like you'll see me on Delta.

Like, shit is inspiring. First class. Bro, shit is inspiring. I get I get upgraded to first class a lot. Because you fly a lot. Because I fly a lot. Like, yeah. Like, even like, like, I just went home, booked my shit on Miles, and then like I upgraded the first class. Like, shout out to 2 Chainz. Like, I didn't even I just like thanks, bro. Yeah. Thanks for the Thanks for the diamond medallion stuff. All that. Appreciate it. bro. Yeah, I know straight up. We've gone to LA a hundred times this year. Maybe. Yeah, literally. Yeah. So all right. So we were talking about this off camera, but I told y'all to shut the fuck up because I wanted to. But damn, I was supposed to get somewhere with all that, though. The internship. That's how you landed it, pretty much, I think is where we were at. Oh shit. shit. So I interned. So interning. So through interning, I did the camera shit is what I was trying to get to, right? Okay. After I did my little intern duties. Like I'd speed through that shit like it's homework. And then be like asking, asking the lady who running the front desk, like, can I can I go sit in there? Like, they the artist say it's cool. The engineer says it's cool.

Like, like everybody cool with it. Go ahead. So I sit up under CO a lot. You know what I'm saying? Watch him work, which I learned a lot too, but I already knew a lot too. And I I would show him my little tricks too. And he he'll be like, When he when I do that, he'd be like, damn, you know what you're doing. So he'll let me run some of his sessions. That's how, you know, what I'm saying, like, kind of how I started doing some sessions in the building. And then me and Schoolie, he got cool because I was taking his picture. And I mean, more than just that, but like when I took his picture. That was the end. It was like we was in the we was in the kitchen or some shit at the studio. Yeah. That's where the best shit happens. Send yeah, send him the pictures that night. The next day he like come in the studio and take pictures. And that was like finally I was like invited in the studio by like one of the artists, you know what I'm saying? And that was a big step for me. Yeah. But finally, then I started like, like, so I I went on a road with Schoolie to do camera shit a couple times. Like, but I was his engineer, meanwhile, too. Cause then he found out I recorded.

Yeah. And he instantly made me his engineer. Yo, this is all right. Like, the the moral of this story, I don't know if you even know what this is, what you're saying, and how valuable. I guess I'm just trying to let the world know, like, I don't know. You don't know how that shit's gonna happen. Yes. You know what I'm saying? But it it if you stay down, it's gonna happen, you know. But and what what did you do? And it's relationships. You you also you addressed a need. He needed photos, he needed video. Like, that was what he needed. He didn't necessarily need you to record him. You just happened to then record and do it very well, and you were already adding value and like bringing him something he needed. like, yeah, and for that, it was like I was in there to do camera shit, and then there was no engineers around. Yeah, and boom. he's like freestyling. I'm I I have the video somewhere, it's not out nowhere, but it's like he he just freestyling over this beat. I'm like, bro, you need to record that. And he like calling engineers, nobody there, you know, all that shit. And I'm like, shit. I'm like, you know, I could record you, right?

How many calls did you? How many calls did you let him make? Snuck that in. You know, like how many engineers didn't answer before you finally were like? It was probably like three. And then he's finally like, I mean, bro. Like, I let him strike out. You know, that's what I do it. Like, I do that. So here's the thing. It was south by southwest. Let him strike out. Yeah. South by Southwest. Three of them. Yeah. I'm like, I'm up. So on the nose. Like, like, it was South by Southwest, though. So, like a lot of the people were gone. Yeah, Everyone's gone. Everyone's gone at South by. Like, and this is like 2015, I think, or yeah. Yeah, 2015. So super lit. South by Super Lit. Like, yeah. So everybody there, but you know, schoolies, schoolies. so like everybody had to drive there, but he was like on a flight the next day or some shit. So he went, he hadn't left yet. Mm hmm. I actually was going with the uh with the artist I first met, TM88 with uh fucking Jonah Cruz. He took me out there on some camera shit. Damn. You gotta think though, like people who are already doing music, like if you like, I do music, especially you just moved here, Like they're like whatever. Cool.

Yeah, you got like, yeah, cool. So does everybody at the fucking gas station? I go in there and get someone that shoot everything, make a mixtape. You know what I'm saying? So it's like it just was a different, like not even approach, but just trying to show like like utility, well, utility player type shit. Like I play center field, shortstop, like what we doing. Like, if you have an iPhone and you know an artist, to shoot content, right? you could just be like, which is impressive to look at it's dope it's dope though, though. at the same time. I think it's dope. I love it. It is like I like okay. Do y'all know Anella Harrow? I know him because of you. He used to record music on his iPhone, man. Yeah. See? GarageBand. Shout out BandLab. Or BandLab. Whatever he was using, bro. Might have been both his producing on there. Yep. Like, I'm talking about kid didn't even have a laptop. And you know what pisses me off? What? We have people in our fucking comments saying that I don't have enough money. I don't fuck. Bro, fuck, this is crazy, that. Right before we started this interview, I was taking a piss outside. Someone said this. The first post on Instagram was Taz Taylor, a tweet that said, I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a studio, multiple rooms, and gear.

And my biggest two songs I've made in the last year, I made fucking around on my laptop in my bedroom. Yeah. It's crazy. So like isn't that crazy? Exactly. Take that down a level, and it means that you can record a fucking song on your iPhone. Yes. Absolutely. Like money should never be an excuse if you have a smart unless you're like not in a third world country. I fucking hate it, bro. You have you have a smart computer in your phone, bro. Yeah. I mean, it might not be the best quality, but I ain't gonna lie, bro. You heard this dude's song you didn't know. Yeah. He produced it and recorded it on his iPhone, bro. This is like three years ago. This ain't no iPhone. What's out now? 15? Yeah, it's like three, two, three iPhones ago. Fans don't really care about quality like that much. They don't really know the difference. Yeah. Yeah. But so not to take anything away from like a solid mix and obviously like great recording engineering, great mastering, et cetera. But like, bro, I was in a session with you and an artist like a week ago, and you sent me the bounce. Where did I listen to that bounce?

On your phone. On my fucking phone. And I was like, this doesn't sound the same. Yeah, I wonder why. Because it was like on your phone as the studio fucking monitors that are right there. It's funny because that's where people were listening, bro. They are. They are. That's why you have to test it. You do phone tests. Man, it's like the most important one. Phone tests, car tests, headphone tests, like these type of headphone tests. Yes. But dude, the phone. The phone is the best test. It's become so important. Computer speaker, but like Nah, but phone- nobody's listening to music. Like folks are listening to this shit in the car. No, computer speaker's good. Laptop speaker's good. But like I might test it on a pill. I got the I got the JBL though. Um Yeah. I got that little bose I take when we go golfing. Oh, yeah. I'll do that test. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's crazy, like phone, how important that one has been. in just the ranking of the tests. I always put car- cars like top. at the top. Phone though, now I think has overtaken car. Because everything. everything. Everybody has a phone. Yeah. Everybody don't have a car. That's that's, that's the real shit that's ever been said on the podcast.

Real shit. All right. Y'all can quote me on it. Yeah, we will. But I think that, you know, this is something that we were talking about once again off camera that I wanted y'all to you know save for for here. Like, what makes a good recording engineer? Like, let's just get fucking into it. What makes a good recording engineer? You want like the easy answer or like the real technical answer? I know you want both, right? But like. I want what you were about to say off camera right now, but you probably don't remember. I don't remember at all. Dude takes one whiskey shot. It's the whiskey mixed with the weed. I'll go first. Okay, let's go. No, yeah, you can go first. And I'll just speak on it after that. Yeah, to me. Because I don't know. It's like this, like kind of like boosting your own ego up a little bit. Because oh, what I do is Well, we need. that's literally why you're here, Nolan. I guess. I guess That's why we got you on. No, you're right. It's several things. It's several things, right? Okay. If I had to wait, I don't know if we have time for several things. If you keep interrupting me, we will not have time for sure. Maybe just like one from you. Can you please can you?

I will okay. You know what? I'm muting him. Oh shit. I'm muting him because he just interrupts me too much. I can't handle it. The power of the engineer. That's what makes a good engineer right there. Right there. Okay, so number one, I would say is the vibe in the room. Um just being able to communicate being chill having a good relationship with the artist is so important because if an artist is un in uncomfortable they're never gonna give you their best work yeah so I think that is incredibly important being able to gel with the artist and you know just the curate the vibe like really maintain it too, yeah, not fuck it up, basically, yeah yeah, that's really your biggest role, yeah, you're back, you're back, you're on the low yeah but like that's your biggest role on the low, like, don't fuck it up, man, yeah, and then, don't fuck it up, that's pressure, bro, no, that's pressure, bro, another one is like, that's pressure like to help do that is like don't let the music stop, yeah, like if they're playing a beat, like if the beat run out, don't make them tell you, play the beat over, loop the fucking beat, that's a big one, just keeping the vibe, you know what I'm saying and then if they're tracking like record everything record everything is huge don't miss nothing even if they say don't record this yeah hey record if you gotta go to the bathroom loop record you know what I mean but that right there the maintaining the vibe because I think we've had you know people on here whether it's producers or artists is gonna be the vibe like you have to understand why you're there you're there yeah for the artist you're not there to set the vibe but like and then you're not there for anybody else other than the artist that's got you there unless like you know he will want you to do this for this person but like when you know like someone tried to be like yeah punch me in when he go to the bathroom like bro what the fuck you think I'm trying to lose my job like I'm straight Wait, people have asked you? like you know how that shit be bro I don't bro folks be folks be bro. I don't know, bro.

Folks be I'm getting my 2 Chainz feature today. Dog, no, not even with not even with him, though. Like, just Whoever. you know, I work with other people too. You know what I'm saying? But like from from like people book me, you know what I'm saying? Like, especially a few more years ago, I used to do a lot of the Street Easter sessions too. You know what I'm saying? More, I'm more now I'm more exclusively Chainz, but I still do work with you know what I'm saying. The squad, yeah, Yeah, yeah. So, but no, folks be tripping, bro. Damn. But like, or just like while he's in the bathroom, the homie's trying to get off a quick eight. Folks, like, let me do an ad lib. Yeah, Damn, bro. What? Yeah, That's crazy. I don't know, bro. You see all types of crazy. But uh uh good engineering, bro. Yeah, what else? What else? I got two more. No, no distortion in the recording. Hello? Yeah, like this ain't peaking yet. Recording too hot. Y'all got good levels in this bitch. Yeah, I'm gonna let you know now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do all the tests too. Yeah, we go in there, test the mic before the artists get in there and yell like they and do the quiet shit when they be doing and make sure all that shit pick up.

Like this shit, this sounds good. We could we can record right here. Yeah, no, actually, it's good enough quality for sure. Do you got any bars? You got bars? I mean, don't worry about it. This is like 2000 like nine. Okay, nine. Yeah, like two thousand nine or something, maybe. Yo, but so I know my role. So we just passed the levels test? Passed the levels test. Good job, bro. No, this thing, this thing has like compressors built in and it's fine. I'll keep Henry, I'll keep Henry around for a little longer. It's compression, EQ. It's got a baby EQ and it's just rolling off some low ends. I ain't gonna lie, though. Like, I'm I'm I'm not really big on EQ and the board. I mean, into the box. Like, I do it after. Yeah, you don't want to commit to it too much. I mean, I'll cut off some lows, but yeah, like even with compression, right? So, like, because that can be one too, like your levels, right? But then you're over compressing. Yeah, it's you don't want to do too much that you can't take back by printing it into the audio for sure. So I agree. Like, like the only EQ I print on is is low uh high pass, yeah, cutting off the lows. Yeah, and then I'll do a little bit of compression coming in, just like a just a tiny bit of like you know, low ratio, kind of squeeze it together a little bit.

Yeah, because it sounds good. I mean, it making your job so much easier when it do come in that good, right? But it's like you don't want to crunch it or like fuck up because like the one thing you don't want to tell the artist is one more time, one more time. You know what I'm saying? They can tell you that shit They can say it. 50 fucking times in a row. But you do not, unless, unless like it's honest input, like I think we should we could do it better or something. Then of course, like you have that relationship with the artist. You don't want to be forced to do it again because you didn't fucking record. Cause you didn't record it or you recorded too hot. Exactly, because the recording was bad recording, which which will happen too, like in the beginning, like especially like like we have home studio, where he's got home studios like here in Atlanta. He's got Cali, Florida, you know what I'm saying? Where it's like our settings are our settings, like, bro. Like, we walk in, the shit works. Actually, so last night I just came back from Thanksgiving and stuff, right? We worked last night, get off the plane, go to studio. And like, we've been doing this thing where we cutting records lately.

Like he got all these, he bro, he got like, like you know, them totes, like you put some jackets in and put them in the attic for the summer, or some shit. Like, bro, he got like 20 of these bitches filled with like all vinyls. So we've been going crazy with them, sampling? Yeah, but long story short, the uh the cord that where the where the the record player plug in reached right across the compressor, and then so last night we go to record, and I'm like, oh I don't know why the mic's not working. And I'm like, what the fuck? I'm like, restep restart Pro Tools and shit, and then like I look over at the compressor, and like somehow, like when I unplugged it, it. It flipped it off. It didn't even flip it off. It flipped the gain all the way to zero. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, I'm like, damn, like all these years in, and it's like it'll be some simple shit. So it's like was it a tube tech? Yeah, it's the CL1B. Yeah, exactly. It's always the CL1B. The best one, right? But those knobs are real tweaky, like they yeah, no, they're very light to the touch. Like, yeah, yeah. So, like, so like y'all are so fucking the tweaky, like, oh my, the CL1B. Hey. shut the fuck up. I'm going to Turn your mic off again.

That tube tech pays me dog facts, facts. Come on, bro. Or as the as the rappers say, that blue one. That blue. one. I'm trying to use that blue one. Yeah, blue one. What's but they know which one they want, though. Yeah, I need that blue one. Yeah, we don't play like chains. Know what that shit calls. Yeah, a lot of some of them guys do know what that shit called. Yeah, because guess what? He paid for that motherfucker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's not cheap. When they do that, they know what it's called. Trust me, they know. It's like 10 racks at least. one of them. So he got a couple. So, what's like the biggest what's the biggest like assumption or like you know, thing that people assume to be true of recording engineering that's just like absolutely false? That is easy. Okay, that you just pressing a button. Which, and even to just wrap up the last question. Um, oh, yeah, you were talking about the settings, like having a clean rough is to me is also very important. Yeah, it's it's a rough, it's not mixed, we get it, but it needs to like you need to be able to hear the vocal clearly, it needs at least a little something where when you're just playing it back, it sounds good enough. Yeah, and then the last one I wanted to mention was speed.

I think speed is incredibly underrated. Like, you have got to be able to boom, boom, bam, move, make moves. Like, if you're really good at video games, you might be good at this. It's but it's like hand-eye coordination, you gotta be able to move because artists are moving fast, they're having ideas fast. It is like a video game, it totally is. And it's like you can't, like game over, is like you fuck up. Bro, it's called duty in that motherfucker. Yeah, so like I'm I I like to think I'm fast. But like CO is fast too. Yeah, you got it the best one. But that's where I learned. Cause like I come where I come from, folks, it's like writing on paper and like for real, for real, like trying to one take shit. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like punch recording was like new to me. Yeah. That's what changed the game for recording engineers, honestly. Yeah, like I don't delete shit. I should probably wash my mouth. But like I don't delete nothing. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm playlisting it or muting it. Yep. I mean, unless it was absolutely nothing that he said. You know what I'm saying? But like if it's a mumble, yeah, like if it was a mumble or something, or like It might've been a great idea. It could have been flipped. I'm telling you, because he'll be like, I

think it's nothing, erase it, then he'll do nothing for like three takes in a row. Then he'll be like, play that last one. Play that one like four takes ago. And I'd be like, oh shit. But nah, I mean, I usually have it though. Yeah, but like it's been times where I'm like, he'd be like, bro, don't delete nothing. I'm like, gotcha. But nah, I never was deleting stuff. It'd just be like, you know, nah, that shit go. It's lost. in the void. Yeah, lost in a void type shit. But um is it is it noticeable? Is it noticeably different now than when you first started working with chains? Like, is it like as far as what? Just just the workflow, the relationship. Like, is it is it? I mean, it's it seems obvious to think it would have improved and grown and et cetera. But like, is it kind of night and day or like how I mean, yeah, it's been years, you know what I'm saying? Like, I've been like, okay, so the first first album I worked on. Let's say first, yeah, first, like the first time you really locked in, The first song that the T TM88 shit was the first song I ever recorded with him. We did two, yeah. And one of them made Collie Grove, the first one, the album. So this is my first time I recorded him.

I fuck around and get an album credit. My first album credit. Like, I done worked on mixtapes and like smaller projects, but it's as far as like I can go buy this shit in Best Buy. Right. You know what I'm saying? So now you fast forward to now. We done did a few albums, a few mixtapes where I done recorded every track, or at least touched every track, you know. And now we just put out Welcome to Colley Grove. The second one. So it's like come full circle. That is full circle, yeah. So what do you think you point to as like, damn, like this has really improved, or you know what I mean? Like, what, what's changed the most? What's changed the most? So pretty much I guess what I was getting at is like shit. We done worked together now for a long time. So I've learned habits, I've learned like what he wants to do. You know what I'm saying? Um what's like an example for our audience, right? Of like okay, so like for example, pretty girls like trap music, right? Yeah, like this was a time, like, man, we recorded, we recorded so much even before that. You know what I'm saying?

But when we got to that, like he was at this point of his career where he just because like you know, the man don't write. He don't write nothing. I've never seen him even write nothing, like a letter, nothing. Like, you feel what I'm saying? Like, I've never seen him write like a letter, like A, B, like that. Like, I've never seen him write a letter, bro. I'm thinking like a letter, to you. Nah, nah, nah, nah. like a letter, bro. Best regards to change. So, so so like I've so during this time, right? He he got he he freestyle, he come off the top, he do, he got like sick of just hearing beats and like wasting studio time. Like, even though he's got studio, he's not paying for like a studio like time as far as hours and shit, right? But it's like he's not sick of wasting studio time listening to beats and shit. So he was like, man, just like load like three or four of them up, and then like I'm gonna go in the booth. And just like my first time hearing it, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be recording. First reaction. I'm doing a song. Yeah, because like how many times you hear an artist, like you play a beat for an artist, he get

he get the vibe in that bitch right there. Then he might say some bullshit for the first couple bars or shit might be hard, but then he get to saying some hard shit and then oh yeah, load it up. Then it's too late. Then he go in the booth, forget how he said it, forget what he said. Uh every time the cameras weren't rolling or whatever, you know what I'm saying? You definitely weren't tracking because you're just playing the beat. Yes. So like and it wasn't even that that happened too many times. It was just like we realized, like, shit, he'll be freestyling. We'll be like, bro, that's that could have been a song. Right. You know what I'm saying? So we just started like he just started going in there. Yeah. And um, so pretty girls like trap music. It was like a lots, lots of songs on there that ended up being like, shit, you know, freestyle like 12 bars of this shit, and then had to go like punch the last couple bars in or some shit. Like, you know what I'm saying? So I knew not to play no beat. Like producer, so new producers are coming, they won't get what we doing, right? Cause this is two changes.

Like, he can have any producer in there any day, which like he does and does, like, unless he'd want to be alone working, you know what I'm saying? But like, so it'd be like, man, I don't even know. I don't want to say no names, nothing, but like it'd be just a be like it'd be people that come through, right? And just didn't get like they're trying to get their beats playing. They're trying to play the beat. And I'm telling them, like, bro, don't play the beat. I'm trying to tell you, don't play the beat. Yeah, you it's gonna be your most fire beat. And as soon as he hears it, and if he ain't in the booth, he going to tell you next beat. Yeah. Cause he heard it already. And like I'm trying to tell them, but like, I'm also like a few months in, and they might have known him for years, type shit. Like, it was like, but I'm with him every day, and I'm telling him this is what he's doing right now. You're with him every session. Oh, I'm saying they didn't know like he done changed his style, the approach. Right. So I'm trying to tell him, like, like, and then he might go use the bathroom or something. They might try to play it. He might play it on a speaker too loud, he still heard it or some shit, or whatever, walk in the kitchen or some shit, and he'd be like, Yeah, no, I heard that one. Oh, so it was that religious.

No, I'm telling you, it's it was that religious. And I heard when we're talking like that, every time he goes in the booth before he works, praise every time. No way. I promise you. What? Every day, every time. And I don't play the beat before that, and I know that too. And it'd be times where same type this is where he go in the booth, the artist be like, play the beat, play the beat, play the beat. He hasn't prayed yet, bro. And I'm like, bro, he doing, damn it. It'd be like, bro, he doing something, or he'll tell me when to play it. Like, and then get to the point where I just tell folks sometimes they bother me. I'd be like, he praying, bro. Like, yeah. But it's like, you don't want to kind of tell everybody that. But it'd be like, Yeah, you know, but it's also like chill the fuck out. Yeah, like chill, He doing it. This is this is ritual, or you know, not mean to say ritual, but like this is this routine. You know what I'm saying? Of like how he does things, you know what I'm saying? And spiritual and so you learned how to keep up with you know what he's what he's doing. With what he's doing, and that's not what we're doing now, but sometimes he'll be like, load three or four of them up, I don't want to hear them. But like, like for this last album, like it was something like that, but it's somewhere we like we looking for a certain type of sound, or he looking for a certain sound that you know what I'm saying, strike him in a certain way. But it's just like learning their habits and also adjusting while they change too, and knowing like reading the room and knowing knowing what they on.

Reading the room, that's a big one. No, reading the room is huge. For the amount of time you spend with them. Like you definitely have to be friends, right? Yeah. Like we're friends. Like, are you close enough to tell him if you think he can get it a take better? Yeah. You'll see, he'll say that. Yeah. And and guess what? That again. And guess what? Sometimes he'll be like, I like it. Yeah. And at that point, it's like, yeah, shit, me too. You like it, I love it. Shit. I just thought you could nail it. You know what I'm saying? But like sometimes it'd be like it's been times where I thought, like, maybe he didn't pronounce it or something, but that's like how he talked. That was the vibe of it. So that's yeah, that's the vibe of it. So I learned that one early. Like, I thought he didn't pronounce this. He's like, bro, I'm from the like South, Like, what's your fucking Midwest bitch? It'd be, Yeah, exactly. Like, bro, how you gonna tell me how to talk, right? But it's it wasn't that. And to me, it was more like, well, that maybe that time it was, but I learned like never do that again, right? Yeah. But like it'd be times where now if I'm saying it, it'd be more like I think the cadence is off. Yeah, sure.

Or like the tone didn't match. And it sound like a punch. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Cause like, yeah, we punch record when it's needed, but it's like you try to make it sound seamless though. Fluent. Yeah, because like, what are we doing? Right. I mean, sometimes some some songs and some rappers do that, where it's like you can tell I'm like I'm rapping over this, and I'm coming like rapping shit. The fact that y'all both just went, but that's the same one. It'd be like this, like overlapping flow. And we're gonna call it that. Yeah. The OLF. overlapping flow, the OLF. Yeah, yeah. The new bar comes in way too early. I'm gonna tell y'all, y'all can take that one. Yeah, we can have that. Whoever wants to. All right, overlapping flow. Yeah, yeah. But that shit right there. It's cool for some people, but I don't fuck with it. But like, yeah, no, like how you how you gonna like we me and 2 Chainz talk about this talk about this, right? Like, how you gonna perform this shit when it's overlapping? It's impossible. Right? And as a listener, like 2 Chainz is someone who's changed that someone was big on like TV tracks and shit. Yeah, and which is like a whole new generation of folks like rapping over their lyrics and shit, which is a whole nother probably thing.

And we're still talking about like other shit, but like, I don't know, man. We could talk about this shot today. And as a as a listener, you like when it overlaps, like I'm missing the end of the first bar, but then the next one's coming in. So I was trying to hear the end of the first bar, but now the next bar has started. It's distracting, right. I'm missing both. I'm not understanding either part. So I'm just confused now. I missed both bars. That's why I'm trying to put the beginning of this one with the ending of this one, and they don't go like that. They don't. They don't. Small short overlaps are cool, but people are getting like way off track with it. You know, I do fuck with like where you rapping and the hook still come the hook come in, and you still got like a bar to go or something. Sometimes it works, you know what I'm saying? Like it do. Yeah. But sometimes it's like fuck, you gotta like shorten this up or something, you know what I mean? But he 2 Chainz don't do that shit. Yeah, Schoolie do it a lot, but a lot of times with Schoolie, you know, like it's just tight. tight. Yeah, yeah. All right, so it's a vibe. You told me you'd come back to it.

I need it. You need it. Just like vibe. Like, I don't want to get too detailed, but it was a fucking vibe for sure. Yeah, we would just say, like, come on, man. Like, like, and that was like the first song of the night that we did. Really? I'm talking about like, okay, we're in LA. That seems like it would have been like a sorry. I just think it would have been late night song, like her last song, you know, of the night. It was late night, but it was the first song. Okay, yeah. 4 a.m. Just getting started. We work late, you know what I'm saying? Like, damn. That song was really 4 a.m. And it was the first side. Sidebar, and it was the first song. Fire. Like, come back from strip club, whatever, you know what I'm saying? Load that bitch up. Like you hear, you hear him on that bitch. You're talking about, damn right, bro. He talking to the through the booth to me. Something that bitch, like we, we fucking whenever we vibing, I'm like, he like, damn right, bro. For real, yeah, like straight up. You know what I'm saying? Like, and I think that was that was one of the beats we just loaded up. We didn't hear.

So that's why I'm looking through the booth like because we both hearing a beat for the first time. And I'm like, this shit hard. And he thinking the same shit and go crazy. But um, it's a vibe, man. Like, we was at the um at a club or some shit in LA, and I don't know, like LA clubs were like closing at like, dude, I don't know, like one or two or some shit. Was this pandemic time? No, it was before that. Yeah, I was like, 'cause like Pretty Girls dropped like 2017. Yeah, yeah, 17. It's like, motherfuckers didn't even know what was about to happen. They didn't. No, we come back from the club, like it was him, Ty, you know what I'm saying? Trey. And shit, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be honest. Like, we had worked with Ty before, but never Trey. And like I record lots of rappers. So, you know what I'm saying? Schoolie Singh, I recorded some singers, you know what I'm saying? But like I record like rappers and like kind of rappers that rap for real. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't, especially like at the time, like with Chains, I don't got to work with everybody. So, like, I my range is expanded, you know what I'm saying?

Man. But like, shit, I was a little nervous. You know, like even yeah, months in, yeah, being there, whatever. All these tracks in. It's like you still get nervous, especially like anytime I work with somebody for the first time, I be a little nervous, especially if I didn't get to go like, like I know Trey's, like I know his songs, but that's like I didn't get to go like listen to some shit and like or this how it sounded, you know what I'm saying? Like, it was more like, okay, I hope I can make it sound like how he's supposed to sound. Yeah, you didn't like technically dive in. But like a secret is, man, like these folks sound like what they sound like, bro. Like, I'm gonna be honest. Like, I gotta get that off my chest too. Oh, you make me sound like 2 Chainz, bro. Like, I can't make you sound like 2 Chainz. You're not him, bro. Your voice doesn't sound like 2 Chainz, bro. Like, make me I used to get a lot with Schoolie. Make me sound like Schoolie, like, bro. You think it's a plug-in that makes him sound like that? Like, you never heard him. Like, there's no Schoolie plug-in. If I go on the track, I'm gonna sound like this, because it's my voice, you know what I'm saying? It's gonna have some melody or some shit to it, but it's like your voice is your voice, bro.

Yeah, it's only you know, I don't wanna say it's only so much you could do because it's a lot you can do. But But I I think that's best far as that. Is probably best when but you're not. Tell that to Travis Scott, brother. Shit, don't nobody sound like him. And if they do, they sound like him. He don't sound like nobody, though. I think there's a lot of people that try to sound like him and they get pretty close. Yeah, but but but it's a lot of effects. Yeah, but okay, but but but yeah, folks try to sound like him, but like that's his shit. Nobody sounded like that before, right? He pioneered it. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say. So, like, if you pioneered something, like folks that sound like that, guess what they doing? They coming to someone like me saying, I wanna sound like Travis. Scott. I need that Travis Scott sound. Exactly. That Travis plug-in. I need that Travis plug-in. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? But okay, good luck, because guess who do all that shit? Mike Dean. Right. You know what I'm saying? You know, it's a vibe. Like, yeah, you know, you had to record. So, yeah, I'm the only engineer there, right? So when we were we've worked with Ty before, and at this time, I think I I think I recorded them that night, but we were also like with another engineer who recorded them, maybe like fell out asleep.

So I just like ended up doing it. We were working at like eight in the morning. So like I ended up recording them before. So I wasn't as nervous about him, but Trey, I was like a little nervous, right? But like, man, Chains, tell me load the beat up. Man, and it's a vibe in there. Like, that's really all like I could say, like, bro, it's just a vibe, you know what I'm saying? Like, people having a good time drinking, you know what I'm saying? So when we load the beat up and it sounds like that, like, and he's telling them, like, I don't, like, they to like play beats. He's like, I don't play beats. Like, he's still in this. So he loaded up, going to booth first. And that shit, come on, you come on. It's a vibe. You know what I'm saying? So obviously, welcome to Collie Grove is the most recent project. Yeah, kind of the full circle moment you talked about. Yeah, just dropped. Exactly. Um, and so like did he and Wayne record that, any of that together, or was that all like changed at his part? Wayne did like you know what I mean. Like, what was the yeah, what was the creative process like there? Man, super creative. Uh it's both though.

Yeah. I guess it like it's both. Like when we we pull up on pull up on Tune and go over there and like Dude, that had to be incredible for you. You know, like we all know. Don't even try, he's like trying to hide that. Nah, like I can't. I mean, nah, nah. He's my favorite artist of all time. Exactly. He's the best artist ever, right? You know what I'm saying? Exactly. You can't be our age and not be obsessed with Lil Wayne. Like, bro, you'd be over, I'd be over there trying to play the same coolness, bruh. Yeah, good luck, bro. Like, no, but like, you know what I'm saying? Like, he knows me. You know what I'm saying? Like, he know I be with bruh. So it's like he, but like, if you don't, if he don't know you, like, I you'd be nervous over there. Um, you know what I'm saying? Like, but nah, it's cool. I'm nervous right now hearing you tell the story. I'm nervous. I'm nervous. No, he's like, of course, like them first couple times, you super, you super like fly on the wall type shit. Mm-hmm. But it's like it's at that point, like in the conversation. I'm not gonna be sitting in the room, not saying nothing.

Yeah. Talk about sports, you know what I'm saying? Motherfuckers talk about everything in that bitch. Jim Harbaugh's sign stealing scandal. That was crazy. Man, you know what I'm saying? Oh god. Yeah, we haven't talked about that one yet. No, no. I mean, you know, my favorite track off the project has to be G6. I mean, the production on that was like G6 is hard. G6 is crazy. I'm just saying, I'm I mean, I mean I got it's a great record. I got I got a little production credit on there. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? For sure. Shout out Is that the goal? Shout out London Jade, loopholes, Papito. It's a lot of it's a lot of production on there. Big Papito is the homie. Yeah. Is that the goal for you? Like, is producer the end goal? Or because obviously, you know, as long as we want James to continue on, yeah. Obviously, his time will come when he wants to hang up, you know, he wants the jersey up in the rafters. yeah. He wants his jersey up in the rafters at one point. I mean, yeah, that's the thing. Yeah. So, like, what, you know, what what's the future look like for you know for you? What are you working towards? I don't know, but that dude that's working on this engineer podcast, I might be coming for his spot. No, no, no. For real though, man. Producer. I am looking for a new co-host.

Yeah, that dude, that dude. Where's he at? Don't be hiding. That guy back there. That guy back there, yeah. Goddamn interns. With that scarlet and gray on. You're right. Exactly. Okay. But no, seriously. what's the... No, For real though, producing, man. I mean, I think that's like, I mean, if you, unless, like, you want to be the greatest engineer in the world, you know what I'm saying? Like the one that did everything, but it's like, it's, I don't want to be like it's folks that do that, but it's like, it's some folks that do that. You know what I'm saying? So shout out to them. Like Jason Joshua. Exactly who's on my mind. Dave Pensado, Mixed by Ali. All these guys, like they're great. Which, which I'm not saying I don't want to be that either. Yeah. But I also want to get into that producing shit. Right. Because now I've got a little taste of it too. Which I always I've always dabbled, right? And I've got some artists that's put that's put some lyrics on beats. You know what I'm saying? And chains has rapped on a few of them before any came out. You know what I mean? And it just happens to be the ones that come out, be like I'd be working on them with other people too. So it'd be dope.

There'd probably be better beats like that too. I don't know. If you're working trying to improve your beats, work with some other people. Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah, learn from them or just collab in general, your beats gonna sound better, you know. And also different, you know. And also listen to other producers who you're a big fan of and try to like recreate their beats. That's a fun one. It's a fun exercise. Try and like make what they made, and you'll just learn something along the way. You know what I mean? That's dope, yeah. I haven't really done that one. So fun trying to recreate a Dilla beat. Man, you heard about these folks recreating people's song. Never I don't want to go there with it. We're going to AI right now. No, no, not even there, not even there. But we're not gonna go there. We're not gonna go there. Henry, we have entered a final segment. The final segment of the podcast. Are we here? Oh, the final segment already? Are we in the final segment? This is where you can really get out all of your aggression and hatred. No, oh shit. I'm just saying. Uh it's a three-part rampage. We're gonna break it down into three sections. I'll explain them as we go. Okay, we're gonna just start with some short answer questions. Here we go. Um, starting with this first one is actually just a favor.

I was wondering if um, because you know, this is the one more time podcast, it started with artists saying one more time in the booth and me hearing them say that. Yeah, is that how it started? That's how it started, literally. So, like for me engineering. So I was wondering if you know, next time Chain says one more time, if you could like save it and then maybe like send it to me on the low, you know what I'm saying? Damn, now this shit is documented. We can cut this part, we can cut this part. No, whoa, we're not cutting it. What's what's your answer? What's your answer? Damn, man. That's tough one. Just him say it one more time. Can you ask him? You can ask him. You don't have to be secretive about it. we have that relationship where I could ask. Just ask him. That's what I thought. Just say, hey, I did this podcast. It's called the One More Time Podcast, which he should totally do. I saved you saying one more time. Do you mind if they use you saying one more time? Yeah. I could ask him. Okay, perfect. Just ask him. That's all I need to hear. But he don't have a problem saying no. That's fine. That's fine too. But that's what makes him great. Every artist say that.

They'd be like, one more time. Yeah. But he do, what else he'd be saying? He says it. Everyone says it. He says a lot of shit though. But that the most. But they'd be meaning different shit. Like one more time is like Let me get it again. Exactly. But like go again. It'd be like, let's do that again. Be like the last take before the one more time that we're working on. So they might be like, he might be working on this take, but that let me get that again, be the bar before that. So now we're going backwards. That's where it comes out. Do you ever work backwards like that? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, like you'll be going down, like you know, it's just like a timeline. Yeah. And then you start like removing stuff. Yeah, we're like, oh shit, it'd be like 4:30. damn, bro. I ain't trying to work backwards at this time. Going back. But nah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He said, Okay, I can I could try. I got I got you. Just yeah, just ask. Yeah, well, I mean, don't hurt to ask. Yeah, dude. It don't hurt to ask. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, Nolan. You know this. Moving on. Y'all just asked me, it didn't hurt. Exactly. We're shooting our shot. I was gonna ask for sure. Moving on.

Uh good job. man. Nolan, let's get three of your biggest tips for aspiring engineers. Just rattle them off real quick. Be on time. Boom. Record everything. Yes. Make sure your artists get the bounce after y'all finish. Bro, and get those files off the studio drives. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's like so many more things. Get get back your shit up. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Those are great ones. Yeah, everything that we talked about really already. How many Michigan wins should be revoked for the sign stealing scandal? This music is killing me. But as a spokesperson for the Michigan Wolverines. I'ma just go ahead and say it. Y'all can do whatever y'all want to our wins last year and the year before that. I don't give a fuck. That was the past. Don't do nothing about this shit. Yeah, we need to need to make the playoffs this year. Yeah, we need to be in the playoffs this year.

But no, I mean, honestly, it's hard to say. So we'll just go with zero games. Yeah. That's what I expected. That's what I expected for sure. Okay, moving on. Nolan, you can party with any three fictional characters. Fictional? Fictional. Damn. It could be a movie character, it could be a cartoon, whatever. Jesus. Man, this is uh sorry, he's not fictional. He was a real guy. I was like, sorry. Damn, bro. I don't know where that came from. I'm sorry. I kind of even missed it because I was trying to think of my answer. So I'll have to end up watching this Watch it back. Watch it back. Three fictional characters? Yeah, you can party with. Perry the platypus. Who is that? I think he made him up. I'm gonna go with like Leonardo. Like the teenage mutant ninja turtle. Yeah, the TMNT. Yeah. Fire. They'll bring pizza. Yeah, and um, one more fictional character. One more.

Complete your party. I'm trying to think where this party. Yeah, right now it's a pizza party. I'm really trying to figure out the pizza, the peri pizza's parry. Damn. All right. Two thirds. The third one, man. Fictional. Yeah. Might as well keep the animal theme going. Yeah, that's where I'm at right now. Cartoons and animals is where all I can think of. That's all it's where your brain's at, apparently. Snoopy. Fire. Nolan, you can invent a plugin that does literally anything. Oh shit. This is a good one. What would you I've never been asked this? What would your plug-in do? Like, I would say like there needs to be a plug-in that like makes chops and shit. Like, you know, FL got shit like that. Gross beat and like time-based effects. Yeah. Shit like that. Effects and ShaperBox. Yeah, shit like that. Yeah. But like more plug-in style. Like, like but like towards like tracking style, I should say. Okay.

More than like production. Okay. You could like accidentally come up with a hook that way or something. It might be tight. Yeah, like throw vocal and motherfucking what's this shit called? It's Serato uh DJ. Yeah, but not the DJ shit. It's like a sampler shit. Oh, yeah. Serato sampler, I think, is what it's called. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So like something, I don't know. I would I would try to like put my tweak on something. Like coming soon. Like, okay, so like I don't I don't DJ. I got it. I got it. I don't DJ, right? Mm-hmm. But like with Chainz, we do like lots of shit on like static selector shit. Ben's favorite. My favorite. Swear. Yeah, I've I've partied with him until 6 a.m. in New York because he was like he was like the first person I met in the music industry. You're gonna love some of our new music. Ah, I love static. Um that but like last night we just did a static track. I bet it was fire? And like the hook is dope, and it's like only four bars, and I was like the change. I was like, man, we should send this back to static, and he could like scratch the second four bars of the same shit, but just scratch it, and it'd be dope. So maybe a scratching like the vocals kind of automatically scratching plug in.

would be dope. Love that. No, that's it. I've you over there trying to do it with fucking uh Vari-Fi and shit, trying to like emulate this effect, and then take dude. It'll take like 20 minutes for the artist to be like, nah, that wasn't what I was going for. Adding one little beer at a time. But like two of them or three of them stretching them out and then like fast forward back in, and then they'll still be like, no. Yeah. I do shit like that with the beat though, and it'd be super fire. For sure. So, like as far as like trying to like err like some vocals. Yeah, you gotta be you gotta need a real DJ or Nolan's newest plugin to do that. Yeah, that was a great answer. Uh last one of the short answer, Nolan. What is your favorite curse word? Shit. Part one. Shit. Shit is very versatile. That shit just, you know, it's just too easy to say. He just used it even. Yeah, yeah. Shit. Yep. Okay, part two is the this or that. I'm gonna give you two choices. Okay. You pick one. I like that. Here we go. What is that saying? Rampage. This is the rapid fire rampage. Here I will. one more time.

One more time. One more time. One more time. Starting with hooks or verses? Verses. Drums or melodies. Okay. You can't change your answer. That's another rule. Okay. You just made that on it. But I like that rule. So okay, I like that rule. No, yeah. Drums or melodies. Drums. EQ or compression? EQ. Backup hard drive or auto save? Backup hard drive. Stock plugins or third party? Does waves kind of stock? No. Are you sure? Because that's almost stock. Basically, it is You know what I'm saying? because it's everyone's first set. Yeah, it is third party. But like, honestly, damn, that's tough. Every studio. has Waves. So it'd be third party then because I use lots of waves. Yeah. Let's finish through this, but I want to touch back on that. Okay. Sure. Okay. Ice spice or sexy red? Sexy red. Paper or leaf. Paper.

Chain or watch. Two watches. Yeah, yeah. I was gonna say don't tell chains. Yeah. To watch. Yeah. Pirates or ninjas? Ninja. And finally, Ohio State or Ohio State. I'm gonna go with fuck them both. Damn. All right. Fair enough. What do you want to say about the plug-in shit? All right. So like we have third-party plugins, of course, right? At like the home studios, the laptop, and shit. That like when we're working on our shit or whatever we where we at, it's easy, it works, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Like, man, okay. So we went to a session one time. And again, like, I'm not gonna say who it was because it don't matter, you know what I'm saying? But we went to another artist, another big artist session.

And like, man, this one I had like using other plugins and shit, because like most of the time we'd be at the spot, or I have a bounce that if we go somewhere, I can play the bounce. So this is where I learned to like just bounce everything too, even if it's like a verse. Yep. At least bounce it so you can play it how it's supposed to sound Yep. if need be, right? But this time I didn't have a bounce of this track. It was just like the track was in the in the session, and I have third party plugins on there, and we're trying to pull it up to play for an artist to like hop on or hear really for the first time. And it sounded like shit without the plugins. So like I pull it up, and you know, it gives you Pro Tools give you the notification. Like you're missing incompatible, yeah, a missing plugins. This, this, this, and that, you know, and you're like, oh fuck, that's my reverb, my compressor, like in my main vocal chain, you know what I'm saying? And whatever. Damn, they got the other auto-tune or whatever the case may be. Yep. Yeah. So I'm like sitting there, like, you know, 30 seconds feels like three minutes. I'm like, I'm trying to figure out. I'm really putting like a compression, I'm doing like put a compression and EQ on replacing them real quick.

Yeah. But then it's like, Change, like, why you not playing a song? Right. Play it. I'm like, I'm like play it. But like, because what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna play it. But it's just it's missing shit. So like nobody know it but you, and it didn't sound like shit. But you could tell it wasn't the same. Yeah, it's me, you know, and he probably could tell too, and probably other people in the room are probably like, damn, they just do this, like real rough. It's real rough, it's rough rough. Yeah, that's the argument for stock plugins. So that's so yeah, like if like if you're using stock plugins, right? It's never an issue. They're on the computer already. Already. That's why stock's so important. And yeah, like so good too. I have like, so now I have like a telephone effect. This is just the easiest example of one that's the most common. And then I have one that's like the SSL waves one that I use this to make the same frequencies, but it sounds different. You know what I'm saying? But anyways, like it'd be some studios don't have that. So it's like I already got one in my my template to where it's like I just drag it up to the other one, you know what I'm saying?

Or if they're hidden and I can show them, you know, you got a stock one ready to just move over to it, yeah. That's ready to go, which I could I could recreate it too, but in the moment, like speed, yeah, speed getting back to speed. So, yeah, getting back to speed. So when you start thinking about all these things, you just start preparing, like my my my template been developing over years. Yeah, so when somebody asks me for my template, I'm offended. Yeah, right. I do hate that question, too. It's like, and it's just not gonna fit for every song either. People think it's like a cheat code. Dude was like, send me your template. I'm like, send me a thousand dollars. And that's cheap. Like it to me, because it's like once you get it, like you'll never need me. Yeah, not you would never need me, but like if you have any type of sense, you can figure out like how to make it sound a little better. You know what I'm saying? So it'd be folks that's folks be stealing shit. Yeah, damn. No, I've heard of people's people's templates have like leaked on Reddit before and shit. What? That's crazy. Yeah, it's pretty fire. That's crazy. Yeah. Okay, well, that uh that was part two. We got one final part here.

Nolan, this is the word association. I'm gonna say one word, and you just say the first word off the top of your head, whatever you think of first. Come on, with it the quicker the better. Rampage, rampage, starting with hip hop, classic microphone, right here. Sick. Sick, sick, sick, nasty motherfucker. Diamond, medallion, flower, pot, golf. Tomorrow. Yeah. That's amazing. Riz. Riz. That's some new shit, though. Yeah. But I know what it is because I'm hip enough. Yeah. So what's your response? Oh, I gotta give one, I gotta give one word answer. Riz. It's whatever you want to do. I think that's some new shit.

Was a good thing. Yeah, I was like, I thought it was it. Yeah, that was it. Yeah, I thought that was my answer to that. That was you're right. I'm tripping. All right. Moving on. Cake. Yeah. That'll work. Giraffe. Long. Tesla. Electric. Sprinkles. I think of a cookie. Yeah. Sure. Content. Podcast. Atlanta Braves. Welcome to the One More Time Podcast. Oh shit. That's even better. I was going for welcome to college road, but that is way better. That's way better. This has been Nolan Presley. Nolan. Your favorite engineer. Two Chainz' main engineer. Yes. Thanks for coming, man. A friend of the One More Time Podcast. Appreciate your story. man. I appreciate y'all. For sure. Great stories. My mom's calling me. Perfect timing. Should I answer it? please like, comment, and subscribe. I'm gonna call her back. And until next week.

We're getting out of here, so Nolan can answer the phone for his mom. Yeah, I'm gonna call my mom back right after this. Shout out Mama Presley. Thank you guys.