Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Serko Fu

Welcome, Frank “El Médico.” It’s a pleasure to have you here. Many of us know you for your work as an engineer and producer on rap albums, Lapiz Consciente from the Dominican Republic, El B from Cuba, Eptos Uno from Mexico, La Mala Rodríguez from Spain, C. Tangana and a bunch of other names. For your Grammy nominations, and a lot of other stuff. But I’d like you to tell us who Frank “El Médico” is and what does he do? For those who don’t know yet.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

I was born Frank Rodríguez Santos, but they took that name away when I arrived in America. They call me “El Médico” because I started as tech in the studio, when I went to school. I attended SAE, I don’t know how many of you went there or know of it. They said there are two ways of getting into a studio: through the engineer door or through the tech door. And when I started I only knew how to record cassettes. When they played mixes on the radio, I pressed record so I could listen to them later. That was all I knew. Just that. And one day I said, “Well, I want to get into this, I’m not a musician, I’m not a good musician at all, but I know there’s another side to it, the engineering side, there are musicians on one side of the glass and engineers on the other.”

So a teacher of mine told me, “You should work as a tech, fixing equipment and solving problems around the studio. And from there you can learn and, as they say, get your foot in the door.” So I started as a technician. And they called me last minute, as a last resort. So I arrived and said, “Oh, no, man, look, it’s this.” And that was it. The problem was solved. And one day there was a studio that had closed years ago, not years, but like a week and no one knew what the problem was. And they called me, “Come, see if you can fix this.” And I’d seen that problem already, so I got there, “Oh, no, man, look, it’s this.” Fixed. It had been closed for a week. So the guy said, “You came in here like a doctor.” And I liked the name so it stuck.

So I went from tech to assistant to an engineer who needed to fix voices, or fix this or that, so “El Médico” thing kept going until it stuck. Frank “El Médico.” So I started working as engineer only, the first track... Well, I’ll cut it short. I worked a lot during the high point of reggaeton music, in the ’90s. In Miami, picture that. It was the heart of it. I met Toy, Toy Selectah, I knew Serko through Toy, too. Toy is like a nexus, many people know each other through him, and he was Machete’s A&R, it was reggaeton, all new reggaeton music was Machete. So I started getting into the world of reggaeton and working in what we call the urban world. I don’t know if you wanna...

Serko Fu

And on that topic, you working with reggaeton a lot, what did Frank “El Médico” listen to? Because you’re Dominican? Half in the Dominican Republic and half in Miami, or how was it? What did Frank “El Médico” listen to at home? What kind of music?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Merengue. Merengue and bachata. I mean, merengue at first, I can sing every merengue classic. Easy.

Serko Fu

Let’s hear it!

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

No. [laughs]

Serko Fu

So you actually can’t.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

[begins singing] No, wait. And that’s my base. But I also listened to Vico C. Because Vico C, “Me Acuerdo,” “Viernes 13”, or, you know, “Bomba.” He crossed over to Santo Domingo and took it by storm. Everyone knew “Me Acuerdo” by heart. I don’t know if you... Most of you are too young. You don’t know what that song was to Latin rap. Vico C with his ABC rap. Because at that time it was all, “I feel very happy...” Like, today Vico C doesn’t rap like that. He’s an eminence. Vico C can take whoever, whenever. One of the best rappers in history. He’s crazy, but he’s one of the best. But at that time it was like the beginning of our rap. Like the beginning of hip-hop and rap in the US, if you listen to the first rap song that came out, you’re like, “Ugh!” It sucks. I mean, a rap is, sometimes, “A-hip-hop, a-hippitipy-hop, dududu, dududu,” like, “Huh?” And today it’s completely different, but Vico C introduced rap and then Puerto Rico, Ruben DJ, all those fanatics who introduced rap in Santo Domingo, and then the Dominicans started rapping too. So, merengue, but rap was always there, hip-hop was always there.

And then I went to Miami, picture that, in Miami, Uncle Luke, 2 Live Crew, I was... Miami bass... I lived that time, the ’90s in Miami. I lived through a time in Miami in which if you didn’t own a soundsystem with window-shattering bass, you were nothing. If you got to school without a soundsystem in your car, park it all the way back so no one sees you and get into the school. The ones who came in with the system all “boom boom,” that was the real deal. Those were my ’90s in Miami. So that was my training in bass music.

Serko Fu

And, for instance, you mentioned you got the doctor nickname, but did you have any previous experience with production? Or any mentors outside of that? None? You just got there.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Yes.

Serko Fu

But why? I mean, wasn’t there something?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

The truth is I wanted to be a part of this. What you want to be part of too, the music scene. If I can’t be a creator, I want to help creators. That was my goal. I mean, I wanted to be part of that world. That’s it. That was my motivation. I would’ve been very happy being an engineer. But then you realize there’s a whole lot more, the other stuff, and you’re like, “Sh-t, I do want to do more.” You know... That’s how I felt. “I need to do more.” So I started producing. Recently. Like four or five years ago. Because with all the contacts I have now it’s not like I sit and make beats. I sit and I’m like, “Damn, that beat is cool. And that guy can follow this beat really well. Hey, look, I’ve got a beat for you. Get up here.” And I put together things like that.

I don’t lie, that’s my production level. I mean, I connect people. Right now that’s part of my world, connecting people. “Hey, I have a beat that’s good for this and that, hey, look, I’ve got a beat for you.” And things happen. I really like that. And I started a record label too, that’s not urban rap. It’s more like electronic music, but not dubstep. I mean, more moombahton, more global bass.

Serko Fu

So you recently got into producing. What did you start with? What was your initial setup? Or what are you using now?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

I’ve always used Pro Tools. I don’t know, I know FL Studio and Ableton... I use Ableton when I have to. I’m technically an official Ableton trainer, certified. But I always use Pro Tools for everything I do. Be it mixing, mastering, and if I have to do some production... I’d rather get everything in Pro Tools and work there than in any other program. I’ve been using Pro Tools for 17 years. There’s nothing new to it anymore, it can’t surprise me. I mean, I know it all already. The other day it did surprise me. They released an update and they added a search box for the plugins, and I found it by mistake, I went looking for a plugin and a search box popped up, and I was like, “Oh! I can put the name in?” Ableton and FL Studio have had that since forever, and Pro Tools is always the last one to get the new features. You look for one and a long list comes up. So I thought, “Huh, Pro Tools is great.” Like three years ago Pro Tools got the offline bounce feature, so now you don’t have to wait out the whole song. You can hit offline bounce. And I was like, “Whoa!” And everyone else was like, “We had that ten years ago.” And I was like, “Yeah, but I just got it!”

Serko Fu

Do you remember which was the first song you worked on? Remember that session? Could you tell us a little about that?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Sure. At that time I was working on the Daddy Yankee album, El Cartel, and I was working on the Calle 13 album, Residente o Visitante, too. So my day was, I went to work in the school I studied at. From ten to five. Then I went to the studio that was like a block away. To work on the Yankee album. Because the engineer who was working told me, “Look, when you get here you have to do this, this and that.” I got there and worked. Did that from five to ten. And then I went to another studio where Calle 13 was. And I worked there. So one day, in that routine, at 3 AM Toy comes and tells me, “Hey, we’re done here, let’s go to this other studio to mix this song.” And picture that, I’d been up 23 hours straight and I was like, “Let’s go!” And it was Notch, I don’t know if you know him.

Serko Fu

Born Jamericans.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Born Jamericans, Notch [Norman "Notch" Howell]. And Toy had produced a song for Notch and had to mix his stuff that night. We go to this studio to mix it. And I was like, “Let’s go.” And boom, we get there, Red Bull, “Let’s go,” shout out Red Bull. And that was the first, and it became the first song I ever mixed, because three months later Notch calls me, “Hey, what’s your full name? What do you want for your credits?” And I was like, “Really?” And he asked my name like that, “What do you want in the credits?” “Put Frank, quote-unquote El Médico Rodriguez.” And he says, “OK.” And that’s how it went out. Those were the first mixing credits I ever got. I’ll never forget it, picture that, the first credits you get, because there’s a lot of time you work uncredited on many things. I mean, the stuff comes out and your name doesn’t get mentioned. Even if you worked on it. And Notch was nice enough to, three months later, “Hey I don’t have your name for the album credits.” And I was like, “Wow, dude, really?” And we’re friends to this day because of it. We talk all the time. If we can work, we work, but that really impressed me. And after that the ball got rolling.

Serko Fu

What song was it? What genre was it?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

It was like a cumbiaton, I don’t know the name. I know who it was, when it was, I can tell you how I felt that day… You know what happened that day?

Serko Fu

What?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

OK, that day I was working on that song. It’s 7 AM already. I’m like this [slumps in chair]. Like, “It’s fine, we’re wrapping up, it’s good.” So a guy walks in. And it was Itawe [Correa]. My first Grammy nomination was with a band called Locos Por Juana. I went to high school and middle school with Itawe. I mean, he walked in and I hadn’t seen him in 10 years. So I’m working the song, and I look up, and I see Itawe coming in, and I was like, “Itawe?” Well, I didn’t know he used that name back then, I knew him as Christian, I was like, “Christian!” and he was like, “Frank!” “Yeah!” “What are you doing here?” “What are you doing here?” “No, I’m a musician.” “Man, I’m an engineer!” “Really?” “Yeah, really!” So we reconnected after 10 years. Because I graduated in ’98, and we’re talking 2008 now. Ten years without seeing each other, man, and he walks in. And I was like, “OK...” “Oh, but you’re an engineer.” “Yeah, look, I’m mixing right now.” “Oh, OK, I’m working on an album.” “Oh, well, I’ll mix it for you.” “Really? Let’s do it, then. But look, there’s no budget.” And I was like, “Sure, sure. There’s never any budget.” I think I was paid like $2,000 for mixing 12 songs. And we mixed them like that, I got out of work at 10 PM, we went to a studio in the back of beyond and we spent the whole night mixing, and then I went back the next day to teach my class, so there was two months of that. Mixing the Locos Por Juana album.

And that record got nominated for a Grammy. And that was like, “Oh, sh-t.” I mean, it was worth it, being there. I could’ve said to Toy, “Hey, I’m tired. I’ve been awake for 23 hours, I’m working on this, this and that... I’m tired, I’m going home to sleep.” But I said, “No, I’ll go and see what happens.” And that’s when Itawe walked in, and all that happened. And it was a nomination for the American Grammys, not the Latin Grammys. The Latin Grammys didn’t even see it. But the Americans nominated it for best alternative record, and I was like, “What?” I was in Mexico when I heard, with Milkman. Hyde called me. Hyde was the guy who brought me on the Daddy Yankee album. Hyde “The Chemist.” The real chemist. He was a student of mine. So he called me, “I’m doing Yankee’s album, and I think I can’t do it. I reached a point where I’m overwhelmed. Come help me.” And I was like, “Sure!” Uh! I’m working with him. So he was on the Grammy committee at that time. This happened many years ago. I don’t think he can get in trouble. I was in Mexico with Milkman. We were in a car, I don’t know where. And Hyde calls me, and I was like, “What happened?” and he says, “Hey, in two months you’ll get nominated for a Grammy.” And I was like, “Really?” “Yeah.” “What for?” “Locos por Juana.” “OK.”

Serko Fu

You went to get your suit.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

No, no, I was with Milkman. “What happened?” “I got nominated for a Grammy!” And Milkman, “Aaahhh!” Picture him, freaking out like that. Because we were like in the movies, “Aaaahhh!” We went out drinking that night with Kiki Flow. A bar owned by a guy called Kiki Flow. We got so drunk that night! And two months later the nominations get announced, and so it was. Nominated for a Grammy. And now? What happens now? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. They give you a piece of paper, you can say you got nominated, and to the day I die I’m Grammy-nominated. That’s it. That’s what I learned from that. If you get nominated for a Grammy, or you win whatever, if you sit down, “Oh, I won a Grammy.” Very well. And now? What are you going to do? Are you going to use that Grammy for something? I mean... What’s next? Nothing? Well, you’re screwed. No one cares. Do you know how many Grammys a year they give out? 98. In one year, the Americans. The Latin give out like 64 Grammys. You’re one of 64. And it’s an honor and everything. But they give out Grammys for the best children’s album. I mean, they give Grammys for that, they give Grammys for best read book, “I have a Grammy because I read a book really well.” Very well. It’s true, Barack Obama got a Grammy. Today, President Obama has a Grammy because he read a book and they gave him a Grammy. For “Best Read Book.” OK.

I mean, a Grammy is really cool and everything, but... If you sit down, “I won a Grammy,” it’s worthless. You have to always be thinking about what’s next. What’s next. What’s next. “Another Grammy.” OK, let’s go. What’s next? You can never lie down. “Oh, I’ve got a number one hit!” Very well. What’s next? How many bands can’t get out of that one hit they did and disappear? Because they lie down, “I’ve got a number one hit already, I can’t top that.” No, man. What’s next? And that’s what I learned from that. Very well, it felt cool and all, what’s next? What’s next was more nominations, b-tch, what?

Serko Fu

They’re coming.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

No, I’ve got them. I’ve got them already, man.

Serko Fu

Coming back to that, what’s next? When you did that thing you said was cumbiaton, that you don’t remember the name of, it’s worth mentioning…

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

I feel bad.

Serko Fu

But cumbiaton, what year was that? 2003? ’04?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

I think so. Yeah, around 2004.

Serko Fu

That was the time of reggaeton, that boom. For example, that was cumbiaton. And back then the whole mixing genres thing wasn’t so standardized. Cumbia with urban music... Did you see it coming? I mean, did you see that? Because you’re working with a lot of people nowadays, right? I mean with people who weren’t from that scene, but they were nourished by it. I’m talking about Major Lazer, or J Balvin, or, you know, Diplo, Dillon Francis, that crowd. I mean, did you see it coming, or did you have an inkling?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

No, not really. Toy saw it coming. He totally did. Because Toy was one of the first who mixed reggaeton’s roots with cumbia. That is, he put dembow in cumbia. Several who saw it coming, obviously. Hijo de la Cumbia saw it coming. I didn’t. I mean, I was there. I worked with Diplo because Diplo spoke with Toy, he told him, “Hey, I’m recording an album, but it’s like reggaeton. Do you have someone who that can do that?” “Look, Frank.” And Diplo spoke to me. So that resulted in moombahton. And I was like, “What is this?” I liked it right away. Straight up. That was Major Lazer, Diplo’s EP, another EP of his, the Express Yourself, and another EP he released that was like a compilation. I mean, I loved that genre. And Diplo is responsible for moombahton being what it is today. Because he worked at it until he hit gold. And from then on everyone is doing moombahton. I mean, don’t tell me “Taki Taki” isn’t moombahton. Don’t tell me “Lean On” isn’t obviously moombahton. Everyone is using slow dembow. Like pop. And they’re not realizing that they’re doing moombahton. But the first moombahton hit was “Bumaye,” I mixed it. But I didn’t realize that was coming. I mean, I loved that stuff from the beginning. But I didn’t know it was what was coming.

Today, I started my label and it’s kind of a moombahton label, because I had so much access to it, and many kids sent me moombahton stuff and I was like, “Well, let’s set up a label, because people are sending me stuff...” And no one is paying attention to these people, to the kids, because they’re new, because they don’t have clout, because they don’t have 50,000 followers on Instagram. They’re not paying attention to them. I’ll pay attention. And let’s see what kind of noise we can do on our own. And it’s a global thing. For example, I have two Chilean kids. Where’s the Chilean guy? I have two Chilean kids who are great. I have one from Costa Rica, too. Where’s the Costa Rican? I have one from Costa Rica who’s called Bombocat and he’s great. Really good. I took him to EDC now. And he played at EDC. He was the only Costa Rican playing at EDC. And last year I took two Chileans. They were the only Chileans playing at EDC. And what they’re doing is, taking moombahton, and putting their own local flavor in. Because someone from Costa Rica doing moombahton puts their own local flavor in. Just like Chile, just like Spain. Beauty Brain is great. Really great. And you can tell they have other influences. It’s moombahton, but with other influences. And that’s what I love about global bass. That cumbiaton is a part of global bass. Because people take cumbia, put their own local flavor in, and then it’s different. An Argentinian cumbia compared to a Mexican cumbia, but with global bass down there. And now it’s getting more urban, because now it’s more lyrical. Before it was more about the beat. Now it’s more about putting voices in, not so lyrical but simpler and with voices, so people can relate to it, and it’s kind of a radio genre now. For better or for worse.

Serko Fu

Hey, talking about that, about mixing rhythms, I don’t know, since the beginning, like you said, since the first rap songs in the US, if they were ABC or whatever, they sampled funk or soul or whatever they had at hand, right? And years passed and perhaps in Spain they sampled flamenco, right? In Argentina they took tango, cumbia in Colombia, mariachi in Mexico, whatever. Do you think there’s something missing? Is there something coming that got away from us? Something that hasn’t been used yet? Or do you not want to tell me because you’re keeping the secret. For the clinic.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

No. The ’80s. What I’m seeing is, it’s a decade thing. And they’re like two decades behind. For example, in the ’90s they were sampling the ’60s. I mean, everything that’s happening with Motown, the ’60s and the ’70s. Then it moves forward. Now they’re sampling the ’90s. I mean, they’re sampling B.I.G. and 2Pac. They’re sampling them to make new stuff. But they skipped the ’80s. I mean, it happened, obviously. P. Diddy didn’t sample, because that wasn’t sampling, when he did that song “Every Breath You Take,” that wasn’t sampling, he took the song and put some drums underneath, and boom! We’re off. But I haven’t heard many songs that sampled the ’80s. Like the ’80s flow, the ’80s sound, that was more synth... And it could be, that now that’s what’s happening. But they’re using sounds from the ’80s but new, I don’t feel like they’re sampling the ’80s. And that’s coming. People are going to start sampling the ’80s like crazy. I’m not talking about little sounds, but entire hooks. And it could be interesting, we’ll see.

Serko Fu

So you know, right to the ’80s library. All the hits.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

No, man, wait! Did you see a plugin called RX 7? OK. There’s a plugin by iZotope called RX 7. Yesterday I was with DJ Manuvers, I don’t know if you know him, Pancho. I was with Pancho and we were talking about an idea he has for a record, and it was like romantic songs from the ’60s and ’70s. And the bad thing is, it’s impossible to find those sessions nowadays. Man, with this plugin, you can basically take out the acapella. I mean, you load it... I wish I had it there. You load the song into the plugin. It’s not a plugin, it’s a program. You load the song into the program. And it has four sliders. It says, “vocals,” “bass,” “percussion,” “other.” If you lower “vocals” you get an instrumental. It removes it completely from your track. If you say, “No, what I want is the acapella,” you lower the other three, and it’s just the acapella. So you’re like, “No, I just can’t believe it.” It cleans it like that. And it has sensitivity, so if you notice something got left behind, you turn the sensitivity up until it cleans it completely. And it’s amazing. Flat out impressive. And what he was saying, that’s the truth, is that before you had to sample it in its entirety, “Oh, I like this little bit.” But it had a bit of vocals, a bit of bass, a bit of percussion. Now you can say, “I like this bit, but I only like the violins.” And you have just the violins. And you sample the violins and no one will notice. No one will notice, because it’s just a violin sample that has nothing else in it. I mean, it doesn’t have a bit of the vocals, so it’s, “Oh, that came from this song.” It’s just the violins. And who can say you didn’t play that violin with Kontakt? I ended up like, “Pancho, I wasn’t thinking about that, but it’s true.” Ah, no, I want a bassline. “OK.” You get only the bass, you have a song’s complete bassline, and you’re left with the little bits you want and no one can say that it came from that song. Edit that out of the video, please. Take that out. [laughs] Frank “El Médico’s” opinions. But look it up, it’s called RX 7. From iZotope, RX 7. Look for the video. When you see the demo video you’re like, “How much does it cost? Crack it!”

Serko Fu

On that subject, let’s speak of something a bit more technical, I mean, if you don’t have that plugin, what does Frank “El Médico” use to sample? What’s your process? I know you’re using Pro Tools, and you’re using Ableton, but how would that go? Can you show us or tell us a bit about it? Or you don’t want to share secrets from the operating room?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

There are no secrets. Let’s see, who are the producers here? How much sampling do you do nowadays? For real.

audience member

It depends on if it’s Batalla de los Gallos, or if it is for artists...

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

That is, if it’s a production track, a track you want to sell, you prefer not to sample?

audience member

Or maybe we sample, but very elaborately, very edited.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Yes, so you can’t tell where it came from for obvious legal reasons, right? Yes, that’s the problem. That’s why when they send me a song that has sampling I send it back. There are systems and stuff... I even saw a website the other day that says, we can clear any sample you want, no problem. It costs this much. But if you don’t pay a lot of money to clear the sample, they take almost the whole song. Because, “No, you didn’t pay a lot,” then 50% of the earnings go to us, or more. And you’re basically left with nothing. I mean, you did all the work.

That’s what happened to, I think RJD2, or another guy, who did a song, and they used it in a show. It was the opening song of the show. It was with Mad Men, or something like it that went viral.

Serko Fu

RJD2.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

And they took almost all the money because of the sample. From the song, because it had a sample. RJD2 produces like that, with sampling. And they took almost everything, because he sampled. And because he didn’t clear it beforehand, you’re left in the lurch, it’s like anything they want. Because if they say, “No, I want 80% of the royalties,” and you say, “No,” then it can’t be used. You’re left with nothing. That’s why I prefer not to sample. Or, if you sample, do it so they can’t tell, and that’s hard, because there are some sharks now who can tell that came from that song from that year, like that. And that’s what it is. I don’t know where they came from, but they’re a living music library. It can be a “Beep!” and they say, “Ah, that came from that album, and it’s that.” And you’re like, “Wow, dude, seriously?” No, and YouTube is even worse now. Worse. I’ve uploaded things that had like two seconds of something and it says, “This belongs to this person.” And they remove it whole, because two seconds of your song has a small sample by whoever. I prefer not to sample, really. Or sampling it like that, like with that plugin. Because that plugin changes the information for you. I keep at it with the plugin. Edit that part. [laughs]

Serko Fu

In a bit we’re going to have a Q&A. Well, and in the case where you take a sample, because you can sample yourself, things you have the rights to, how do you process it? How do you play with it? Where? Can you explore that a bit?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Mainly in Pro Tools, obviously, filters, right? Depending on what you want. I’ve made things, and I usually do it to master. Sometimes. Because sometimes they send you a song, or not, to mix. So I sample their sample. That is, for example, they send a song where most of it is a sample. A piano loop, for example. And that’s the song’s base. But they never did a bass, or they’re trusting that the sample has most of the bass, right? And it’s not working. That happened to me recently with a piano loop that was like the base of a song. And it doesn’t work, because if I turn up the bass it takes away the piano. So, I had to take the piano, duplicate the piano, take out everything that isn’t bass from it, and process that duplicate as if it were a bass, then I take the bass from that duplicate. But at the same time you can’t leave the bass on the original piano. If you leave it, then it clashes with the bass and you have a different problem. You have to process the other piano channel to take away all the bass you can without it being noticeable and mix it with the original, and make a sort of Frankenstein with both things. With this one I take out the bass and with this one I take out the brightness, and here we have a sample again, but, you know, renewed, or something.

Regarding sampling, most of what I do is that, using the sample so the original sample sounds better. Which usually it doesn’t, because when they sample they usually do it at random, “Oh, I liked that part. OK.” You didn’t do a good job when you sampled it, man, what happened? And now it sounds very bright. That is, you have to fix it, you have to work at it. That’s why I don’t like sampling.

Serko Fu

Hey, you’re touching on a topic that’s very interesting to me. To us, say producers, rappers. We send something to mix, how do we avoid making you mad? That is, how do we make some stems or a group of channels? What’s the best way? Or, how do you like to work? Can you share a bit of that?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Yes. Good question. Let’s see. First of all, it’s more important when you record that you turn up the monitor’s volume rather than the mixer’s. That is, if you can’t hear yourself, turn up the monitor’s volume. It’s more important to the recording process. Because if you send it to me, for example, to mix, I can do more with less, than if you send a thing like, I call it an elephant leg. I can do almost nothing with that. The only thing I can do is turn it down. And trying to fit it where it goes. That is, “Ah, I can’t hear myself.” Turn up the monitor. “Ah, I still can’t hear myself.” Turn down the instrumental. Not everything is upwards. Turn down the instrumental. Can you hear yourself better? Put whatever you want.

Try not to record things that get stuck there forever. There’s people who like to record with Auto-Tune, for example. If you like the Auto-Tune, record with the Auto-Tune, very well. But don’t record it over the vocal. There are ways. For example, in Pro Tools I can record, with the plugin on, but without applying it. Then if tomorrow I say, “You know what, we should tune it, so we don’t have Auto-Tune,” I can do it. But if you recorded it with Auto-Tune, well man, you have to record it again, because it’s in there. If you don’t want to stick with a process, don’t record it. It’s preferable to record it clean, or record two versions. I do that too. “Oh, no, we want it with Auto-Tune.” OK, two channels, exactly the same, one with the process and one without. Mute the one without the process. Then you have the clean one, and you have the process. And if tomorrow you say, “I didn’t like it,” you have it there. And if you send it for mixing, that’s the worse thing you can do to a mixer. To send something processed, because then I have to work to take off that process, if in the end it doesn’t fit, which is very hard.

To that point. Specially if you have reverbs or delays, there are plugins that can be used for that. I have plugins that take the reverb off of the vocals. But if it doesn’t have it, better yet. And I can add it. That is, permanent things like that, it would be good not to have them. To give me space. In the instrumental, there are two versions. Try not to take things out. Let’s say you’re very happy with how the instrumental sounds. I like the balance I did, I just want it to sound better. In the master they usually have a couple plugins, an iZotope, whatever. Usually, “Send me stems to mix,” and they go to the master and take all that out. What happens is that when you remove all that it unbalances everything. It doesn’t sound the same. In that case I usually say, “Leave it exactly like it is, send me the stems like that.” Because you’re already more or less happy. You just want it to sound better, but you’re happy with what you have. Then, leave what you have there, ideally, after doing the stems, you grab the stems, and put them in a session, press play, and it sounds the same as the session from which you got them. If it sounds the same, perfect. Then send them and whoever mixes it then works on that and it’s going to sound better. But try not to take all the plugin chain off, because the one mixing it will make it sound better. But the problem is that you already have a month listening to the song that way. Then what you want is for the person to get into your head, hear it the way you have been hearing it for a month, and get it right. It’s like you put a basketball hoop on the other side of the street, and I shoot from here. Remember the Michael Jordan ad with the reverb? Like, off here, over here, off here, nothin’ but net. That’s what you want me to do. To shoot the ball from here, and that’s not going to happen. No matter how good I am, it’s not going to happen. What could happen is, either I nailed it, and it sounds exactly like you had it, or I didn’t, and that’s 90% of the time, or I make it sound better, which is 0.03% of the time. And not because I can’t, because I’m better at it than you. But because you already have an idea of how you want it to sound. And you know that music is subjective.

For example, I like kicks that hit hard. But there are a lot of beats I mix that the first thing they tell me is, “Lower the kick.” And I’m like, “But why? It sounds awesome.” “No, in this beat the kick has to be softer.” “Actually, take some punch away from the kick.” And I’m like, “What?” It’s like telling me to kill myself. “Take some punch away from the kick, kill yourself, Frank.” So I’ve to go against my nature of giving punch to the kick. Because you already have an idea of what you want. Then I’ve to get into that idea and try to improve it. I mean, send it exactly as you like it, and the one doing the mix will mix whatever he’s going to mix to make it sound better. Which is usually just organizing frequencies. It’s not an arrangement. It’s organizing frequencies, unless they want an arrangement. But usually, “Ah, the bass clashes here, and this, and that...” So it sounds bigger, better, and so on. That’s usually the process of mixing and mastering. But you’re already happy. Producers here know how to mix. Everyone knows how to mix. Because they already have years listening to and working with music and they know how they want things to sound. Right? And it’s the same with the vocals. You know how you want your voices to sound. Send in a good reference, always. Always, always, always, always. I should’ve started with that. Send in a good reference of how you want it to sound. And tell them, “Make it sound better with this reference.” But everything starts with the reference. Specially with the volume arrangement of how you want everything.

Serko Fu

The capture volume.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Exactly. The kick here, this and that. I know, it has to sound bigger but with the same volume arrangement. OK?

Serko Fu

About recording vocals. I know you now have the Apollo and so on, maybe in the studio you have pre-amplifiers, compressors... Well, for anyone, what would be a chain you would recommend? How do you do your vocals normally?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

You have to adapt to the artist. Because, for example, La Mala, she likes to record with a lot of things in the channel. Compressor, equalizer, reverb, this, that, that other thing. She basically wants the vocal to sound finished when it’s recorded. It’s like, “Oof! Here we go!” No, it’s always like that. It’s like mixing while recording. And I already have a chain made for her. When I record her, “OK, I have to open this chain because she likes to sound like the final version.” That is, the vocals have to sound finished. Hard, up front, very clear, with effects, that is, finished. She loves that.

There are people, like El B, for example, he records himself. He just sends me the stuff. And he has almost nothing on the recording chain. Because he has a very strong voice. So when he goes up to the mic, he projects exactly what he wants to record. The chain depends absolutely on who’s recording and how they want to hear themselves while being recorded. But the basics are, I always put in my cue on top, a compressor below that, sometimes a limiter below that, because sometimes it goes over, and you know, for those times it goes over, and some type of effect, like... And we’re talking about a minimal process. A little brightness, so it stands out, compression no more than 3dB, if you’re at 6dB of compression in the input channel, it’s bad. Because that’s a process you won’t be able to remove. And it’ll be noticeable. When they turn it up the push-back will be there. It’s bad. So it’s better to back up on the pre-amp. 3dB is OK. Because it gives you control. And usually I’ve the limiter there to make it sound better. I mean, not even to process stuff. You know, like those limiters that as you turn them down the volume goes up. I put it there, it sounds better and I can control the input and output level, so that they sound great, and any effect you want to have there.

Do not record with the [Waves] CLAs. They have noise that you can’t take out. I don’t know why not. They should have a switch, usually that analog noise they put in plugins, that white noise is always there. And all good plugins usually have a switch to turn that noise off. But the CLAs don’t have that switch. I’ve seen sessions that have 14 CLAs, and it’s like, “Tsss! I don’t know where all that noise is coming from!” From the 14 CLAs you have in there. Then they do the stems with the 14 CLAs in there. When I get the stems, you play the first stem, and the first thing I have to do is clean that up. Because if it sounds hard now, after me that sound is going to be harder still. That is, it’s going to really be there. So I’ve to clean it, first of all. That is, CLAs for recording... If you have to use them, use them, but take into account that sound. I would use a couple. You know, I wouldn’t go nuts with the CLAs. You know what I mean. CLA.

Serko Fu

Talking about the noise when you have several channels, what do you recommend? How do you usually work the vocal stems? If you have a main, two ad-libs, how would that work? I know you adjust each one, but, how?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Usually when I’m producing, recording, for example, I try to record the minimum number of voices possible. Because it reaches a point it becomes a hassle, to be dealing with 40 vocal channels when in the end they don’t add...

Serko Fu

What one good recording does.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Exactly. That’s what I learned once, working with Hyde. Remember that song with Wisin and 50 Cent? Awesome, right? Wisin had a lot of vocal channels. That is, to reach the sound Wisin had in those times you needed several channels for vocals. Now he has a different system. He gets to where he needs to get without having to record as much. In those times there were like 20 vocals channels. 50 Cent sent two. “Hey, Doc! Download the WeTransfer from 50 Cent’s people.” “OK.” I download the WeTransfer. Then I see where it says the MB and it says like 70MB. “It’s corrupt. This has to be compressed.” I download it... Open the zip, two voice channels. And we’re talking about one channel, and then the other channel, “Yeah!” Like highlights. So I was like, “Hyde, he sent two channels, and one is highlights.” “Really?” “Yes.” “OK, let’s get it in!” Awesome! I mean, awesome! That day I said, “You know, I’m going to focus in life on recording the fewest number of vocals possible, but in a damn good take.” Because it’s really much better, it sounds cleaner. Afterwards Lil Wayne started to do it too, he picked up that style. One take, with highlights. But the take is, boom! In your face. Good recording, very clean, very good all around. And it’s more effective to have a really good take with highlights here, a reinforcement here and there, so, six channels for vocals, tops.

And it has more of an impact, well recorded, than 40... [notices cameras] We’re filming, damn. OK, before, not now, before! Daddy Yankee recorded like 60 channels for vocals. 60 channels. I mean, “Give me another take! Give me another take!” And it was like, “Dude, we have to mix this afterwards.” 60 channels. And an entire channel was like, “What!” Just that. That was the channel. And it was like, but why...? We told him, “Raymond, remember when you were with Playero, you only had one channel, because the recording had two music channels, one for vocals, one for highlights. Remember those times?” “Yes, but bro, we use Pro Tools now, and you know we can go all the way.”

And like that, for El Cartel there were sessions that were channel after channel after channel. He now changed that process, as well. Now if you listen to Yankee he changed that process. We’re looking for a really good take, highlights, this and that, and that’s it! One good highlights channel works better than 14 vocals. One channel, like they do now. You’ve a great channel, and you’ve a great highlight, to fill up the spaces.

Serko Fu

It complements you.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Exactly. It’s a good highlights channel. That is hard, but a good highlights channel works better than 14 vocal channels. Just as filling. To make it feel full. No. Make a good channel. You know who does that right? Fuego. Fuego does that really well. When you record him he records and gives you the first channel. If you see Fuego writing, it’s impressive because he doesn’t write anything. He’s there, “OK, play the beat.” “Mami!” “Ferrari!” And you go, “Where is this going?” Then, “OK, keep the ‘mami’, ‘Ferrari’, this and that.” You press play. “Come here mami!” “Get on the Ferrari!” Huh? It’s like a jigsaw puzzle. And there are empty spaces. And you’re like, “OK, I see where we’re going, but there are empty spaces, what are you going to do?” “Give me another channel.” “Yeah! Let’s get to the Ferrari.” “Let’s get going.” And you’re like, “F---!” And when you check you have two, three vocal channels and it’s great. This guy is a f-cking genius. But he kills you with three channels. That would be a good exercise. Let me do it with three, four channels, do what I have to do.

The hook is different. We’re talking about the verses. If you want to have 60 channels for vocals in the hook, OK! Go for it! If it’s good filling and sounds great and all, OK. But for the verses, less is more, and that way they have contrast, too. Because there’s a hook, wow! And then the verse comes. It calms down. And it leaves space so it’s dynamic. Many songs are not dynamic, it’s like a back-to-back solo. Things like that, they feel better, it feels like it doesn’t tire you out.

Serko Fu

Do you think that things are going that way? You say that person did it and Wayne started doing it, or more people, do you think it has to do with the course the music is taking? Instrumentals let you have that dynamic. Speaking of trap, or urban, which gives you that space, do you think it’s related?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

I think it’s like the chicken or the egg thing. Rappers started to do that, and producers, “Ah, so we’re doing it this way. Let’s do the beats like this, that allow for and have space for that kind of thing.” I like it more. I mean, personally. Also it’s hard for a producer to know when to back down. I’ve been sent many songs that sound like the producer and the rapper are fighting. And so I tell them, “It sounds like you’re fighting.” “Why?” “Because you’re over there doing whatever you want, and he’s over there doing whatever he wants, and afterwards you shared the files, put them in a session one on top of the other and sent them to me like that.” They’re not talking. The beat is strong. The rapper is strong. And no one gives anyone space. That is, the producer has to have the awareness to go, “You know what? I have to take these elements out because the vocals go here.” And the vocals are part of the beat. Then we can turn this up here, take this out here, add this here, but if you make a beat and never touch it, that’s another thing. If you made a beat and they recorded over it and you never touch the beat again, you’re not producing. That’s not producing. That’s making beats. Ah, you made the beat, the vocals got in there, now pick up those vocals, get them into the beat and then finish the song. Make it a song. Take things out, add things, I’m not talking about producing new things. No. Little things. Here and there. Things you can feel. OK, let me get in the middle of the vocals, here’s a space, let me get this thing here, take this from here so it doesn’t clash. I mean, now it’s when you have to produce.

The beat is the start. How many bars were in a beat in the ’90s? In the beginning when you asked a producer for a beat in the ’90s there were 16 bars. Every beat Timbaland did, the “Fade to Black” beat, when Jay-Z and Timbaland entered the studio… Yankee’s album was mixed in that studio. El Cartel. The purple one. I spent three months there. I didn’t want to see purple again in my life. “Come, play some beats!” 16 bars. That’s it. He didn’t play anything else. Another beat. 16 bars. And it wasn’t like he didn’t want to play anything else. That was it. There’s 16 bars. Then they came, played 16 bars for three minutes, Jay-Z or whoever came, recorded, then, “Now we’re going to produce.” Get the acapella, throw it there, throw all the beat elements, let’s add new elements, take out things, add things, this, and that. I mean, today, I say to a kid, “Give me a beat.” Three minutes and I’m, “Damn! That’s not a beat. That’s an entire song.” It’s like they don’t understand that, man, you’ll to have to do that over. That is, you save the acapella, but work it again, put it there, take out things, add things... Make it into a song. Because it’s not a song. Right now it’s a beat tied to a vocal. Get it?

Serko Fu

We get it. Speaking of being in a studio for three months working with a bunch of renowned artists, not only on that album, but on many, any stories you want to share? Don’t name names if you don’t want. Anything crazy that happened on a session? I’m looking for the safest one.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Ahh, well... Would he still work security there? Because we were working so many hours, we did a thing we called “the Krugers.” If you fell asleep, if at any point you fell asleep for any reason there was always like... It was always Hyde, Gocho, me, the assistant, we were great friends. Imagine, three months, 18 hours per day. We formed really strong bonds. The same assistant, always. And Yankee’s security guy. Yankee got there at six in the afternoon, Yankee’s wife came every once in a while. We were like eight people always. The producers, one of the producers always got there. Tiny, or Nelly, there was always someone there. So if you fell asleep, everyone would stand around you, very quietly. “Hey, Kruger.” And everyone stopped what they were doing. Stood around you. And yelled your name. Let’s say it was Gocho. “Gocho!” And he was like, “Ah! What happened?” That was the thing. When it was my turn, they got a car inside the studio’s lobby and I was lying down facing the door, they get the car in, “Médico!” And I wake up, they honk the horn and turn the headlights on. I thought I was in the middle of the street. I swear. Afterwards we did it to the security guy. No, I lie! Gocho fell asleep, and the security guy did too. Then we were about to do the Kruger to Gocho, because he was the only one we hadn’t gotten yet. He didn’t fall asleep, because he was the one getting the most sleep. Gocho left early, slept eight hours and came back. So, it was Gocho’s turn. “Hey, it’s Gocho’s turn!” So the security’s asleep over there, and here is Gocho. And everyone... “Gocho!” And he goes like this. But the security, “Oh, damn!” And throws a pillow. And he was the security guy! “Can we pretend this never happened?” I said, “Man, what happened?” “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to talk about it. I had a weird dream. I had a weird dream.” And I was like, “Yes, you really did.” After that, no more Kruger.

And another day, the assistant had long hair. And we convinced the studio manager to write a memo saying we had to cut our hair. If we wanted to keep working there we had to get our hair cut. But official, an official memo. And he gave it to everyone. And everyone in the studio knew it was bullsh-t. Everyone but the studio’s assistant. So the memo came, and everyone was talking about the memo. Every studio worker, “Hey, what’s up with that memo?” And the guy, “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I think I’m leaving. I think this is it for me.”

And the last one. With Hyde. Because Hyde used to smoke a lot in the studio. So we made the studio manager send a bill for smoke damage to the studio totaling $5,000. Official. Signed by the manager. So Yankee had to do it. We said, “Yankee, we have this for Hyde.” After three months working in a studio... After one month, the mission was to screw with each other. He says, “It’s Hyde’s turn.” Because Hyde was like a professional. He got everyone. He was the professional. So we made the bill, and the one to give it to Hyde was Yankee. He said, “Look, here. Let’s talk.” With a really straight face. The best performance I saw in my life. He took him elsewhere. To where we recorded. And we were in the control room. Pretending like we were talking among ourselves, but looking on. And I saw Yankee... You only saw that. And he gives him the envelope, and you see Hyde opening it. Man, you... And then Hyde comes back, “Man... This can’t be.” I said, “What happened?” “They want to charge me $5,000 for smoke damage... Everyone smokes here! I’m not the only one who smokes here!” I tell him, “No, Hyde, the only one who smokes in the studio is you.” “No, lies, I’ve seen you smoking here!” It was a mess for three days. Three days. He was convinced for three days that he had to pay $5,000 to the studio for smoke damage. The third day he goes to Trevor, the studio manager, “Look, what can we do, a payment plan, give me a payment plan, I can’t pay it.” And Trevor was like, “What are you talking about? Are they still keeping that up?” “No, that was a joke.” “What?!” It was a good thing, he was clean for three days! Can you imagine, desperate for three days, “Where would I get $5,000 from?”

Serko Fu

Well, let’s hear it for my brother Frank “El Médico” please, who was here sharing some of his adventures. [applause] Let’s move on to some questions. Point and shoot. Do we have a mic there, or do you want this one?

Audience member

I have two technical questions, very fome.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Fome? What is fome?

Audience member

Boring. The first one is, what suggestions do you have for plugins to open up a song, and... Just that, actually.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

I learned that late. The answer to that question. It’s very important to use plugins that help the track’s harmonics. You know the plugin opens up the song, in a way. That is, it only opens up what is there. But for example... iZotope has it. How is it called? Harmonic Enhancer. Yes, Harmonic Exciter. Those are more important than anything else. That is, you can make a song feel 3D with Harmonic Enhancer. You can pick any other plugin that has a widener. You can feel it, but you can’t at the same time. You have to be careful, though, because you can go overboard. Usually I use it for high frequencies. I usually don’t do anything to the medium and low ones. That is, don’t add too much to the low ones, try not to open the low frequencies either. Usually what I do is, in the same plugin, I make mono the frequencies that are 70Hz or lower. Because they truly have to be mono. And then as they go up you can start opening them up. And the high frequencies, we’re talking about 12 up, you can really open them. And it’s going to feel 3D.

Audience member

There’s a process called frequency masking, that tries to take advantage of auditory masking to work the samples. You can open the samples, not have them sound like the original sample of the song masking that frequency, with the error you can have, you have to pick it up and take advantage of it to the max have it work for you so you can use the harmonic exciters and the frequency masking.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Yes, but you have to do it well. It’s not like, “Do it there, put in a preset.” No. Use it, start trying things, and when you think it sounds good, save that as a preset, and then try a different thing on the same song until it gets to the point where it does sound great. But the harmonic exciters are very important right now. I usually have two or three in my master. Not all the way. I like to do things like, when you do compression, instead of doing a 12dB compression, I have three giving four. Then the first one gives you four, so you add the other one, and you already have a compressed signal, and it’s not pushing that hard. It pushes less. And the other one pushes even less. And it gives you the same amount of compression, but it’s not as noticeable. So I generally use several. Because there are some that are very good for the mid frequencies. Like the tube ones. Tube harmonic enhancers are very good for mid and low frequencies. There are others like the iZotope one that are very good for high frequencies but I don’t like them for the low ones. There’s another one... From a company called BrainWorx. All BrainWorx plugins, all of them, are excellent. All of them. There’s one called XL. It’s very good. I only know one way to use it. It has a button that says 0 to 100. I put 100 and that’s that. I leave it. I put it in the master at 100 and continue. Then I start working. That’s that, it’s going to do what it’s going to do, and then, instead of adjusting the plugin, I adjust the mix.

Audience member

I don’t know if you know it, I’ve been searching many years for a plugin that did this. You look for a blank space with noise, the typical hiss that you have to cancel out, right? And there was a software before, Cool Edit Pro, very good for the ’90s.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Yes, it’s called Adobe Audition, today.

Audience member

Right, and it doesn’t exist, they deleted a very good effect, you uploaded that sound, the hiss, it memorized it and then filtered out everything else.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

X-Noise, RX-Noise...

Audience member

But those are Waves.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

No, no. X-Noise is Waves. RX-Noise is iZotope’s.

RX-Noise and RX De-Noise. Wait up. [looks at computer] But X-Noise is very good for that. Noise Reduction... Yes. RX. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, RX Spectral Noise. You select that space, you press “learn,” it learns to recognize the noise, then you select the whole track, clean. And you can control how much you take out. Because if you take out a lot it sounds like it’s underwater. But when you’ve learned the noise, it cleans not only the blank space, but all of it. Which is what I have to do when these punks put CLA everywhere.

Serko Fu

Any other questions?

Audience Member

Yes, I have two. I think you said less is more a lot. Is that true?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Yes.

Audience Member

Because I’ve always disliked that guy who has 200 million plugins downloading, “Look, I’ve 47 billion gigabytes of I’m not sure what for,” but then you listen to it and say, “Well, I don’t know, maybe I don’t get it, but I don’t like it.” I think there’s a moment in which you did this and that, so less is more?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Yes, I mix everything here. [points at laptop] Everything, everything. Not only that, I mix everything here and with headphones. Everything I’ve mixed, absolutely everything. My only mix nominated for a Grammy that wasn’t with headphones, was the Locos Por Juana album. Apart from that, everything I’ve done, nominated or not, it was here, in this situation. That laptop.

Audience Member

What headphones does he have then? That’s the question!

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

I have a $5,000 pair... No, no, no! Look, the headphones I use were discontinued. So I browse Amazon, every time there’s a pair, they cost no more than $50, I buy three. So I have three at home, in the box. For when they break, because they break a lot. When they break, I pick up another pair and continue. They’re in my backpack! They’re in my backpack, and I’ve a little paper back here that if I don’t put it in, it doesn’t work. I swear! Look, here it is, I swear! If I don’t put the little paper in, it doesn’t turn on or connect to this.

audience member

That makes me happy. The main rule of the elements of the sound chain is that the fewer things you have, the better the sound. The fewer sound elements you have, the fewer compressors, if you have good raw sound, the best quality you will have at the moment of doing the mix.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Right.

audience member

That is the first rule of sound.

audience member

In the end, when we want to fatten the sound right, someone will do the master and they will have their State Logic with their €90,000… It’s like buying the baskets to play at Madison Square Garden. If the Knicks want me, they’ll buy the baskets for me.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

I bought an SSL channel plugin, from Plugin Alliance, which is awesome. And I put it in now, I do some sort of master, I put in bass, or kicks, if I have three kicks they all go there. I put the SSL plugin. I remove the noise, because, obviously. Bye noise. And there! This is my console. If I have to put in another plugin under there, I put in another plugin, But I’ve used SSL, it sounds awesome compared to the SSL [desk]. It’s not an SSL [desk] but it sounds great, the EQ sounds awesome compared to the SSL [desk]. Compression sounds awesome compared to the SSL [desk]. Everything is very close together. I start like that, and sometimes I have nothing else in that channel. I put in the SSL plugin, I have a little compression there, I have EQ, and a little filter if I need a little filter, and that’s all it takes. That’s what I learned over the years.

I work with a guy from the Barbados. He’s called Static. He does a lot of soca. Very into soca. I trust him to the point of, there are things in the soca genre I don’t understand, so I put my session in Dropbox, and I give him access. So I work, and he tells me, “Yes, it sounds cool. Just, there are some sounds you have to pan, they’re very us.” I go, “OK.” Open the session, pan it, and I close it. Then he closes it, I open it here and finish it. He always says the same thing, “I don’t understand how it is that you have four plugins and you have that sound, and I’ve to put in plugin after plugin after plugin to get there.” Because, bro, that’s the right plugin. You don’t need a plugin chain like that. You need one or two. What are we doing? Equalizing, compressing and doing whatever sounds best. It’s what we’re doing, at the end of the day. I mean, why would I put in ten plugins to do what I can do with two? And if you see my session, it’s like that. It’s like, look, this, this, this, this. Sometimes I tell myself, “Damn, I should make this more complex.” Because it looks very silly right now. I’m looking and it’s like I haven’t done anything. And it’s like I want to make it complex.

I do put in a lot of plugins in the vocals. Most plugins I put in, I put them in the vocals. Because usually they need more love, or they need a bit more of this, or a bit more of that. So, my vocals chain is a bit ridiculous. But that’s because I haven’t gotten to a point where, “Look, I don’t need this or that, nor this, nor this. It’s just this and that.” I haven’t gotten to that point with the vocals, because they’re always hard. The vocals are the only element that will never be the same twice. So I do want to be all over that. In vocals I have a main channel, vocals’ channels, one auxiliary, from that auxiliary they go to another auxiliary that is the vocals master. Because if there are backup vocals I’ve two auxiliaries from there. Then I’ve another auxiliary channel that is an expander, with a delay and a reverb, so when the voice comes in it feels bigger. Then I’ve another channel with effects. The vocals are the important element. But for the instrumental, usually it’s already good.

Serko Fu

OK. Over here we’ve the last one.

audience member

Hi, how are you? We were talking about technical things for recording, but in the final product, what would be ideal? I mean, every song has its essence, but what do you think makes up a good song? I don’t mean the structure, but what elements should it have so that it’s a well-made finished product and not something incomplete. Mastering, all that. What elements would you look for in a song to call it a song?

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Students ask me the same thing at school. And I tell them it has to have lows, mids and highs. And it has to have elements for all those areas. The best productions you listen to have lows, mids and highs. Elements. Let’s talk about a trap beat. What’s your name? What is it? Nuki? No, her. Mykka. So, a trap beat, what are its basic elements?

audience member

Bass.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Right, which is usually, what?

audience member

The hi-hat.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

The hi-hat, right, and what else?

audience member

And a melody.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Lows, the highs is the hi-hat, if you take the hi-hat off a trap beat it’s like, “Mmh, there’s something missing.” But it’s an element. That little thing covers the brightness. Then the melody is usually the mids. That’s your mids. The snare and the melody cover the mids. Different areas of the mids. Because the mids is the biggest area of a song. That is the low here, the highs here, and the mids in this super area here. Which you need to fill out. There go the vocals, which have their area, there goes the snare, which has its area around here, and the melody covers around there. With the right melody, the right snare, the right hi hat goes in and out at a good time, and it’s not like they’re right by each other all the time, but if it goes, you notice. There are times I listen to songs in which you can turn off an element and not notice it at all. The answer is, basically, to have exactly what you need, and nothing else.

It’s OK that when you’re doing sound design, what happens? You’ve 14 tracks of synth, to make up a dubstep synth. You have like 14 tracks there, and it already sounds awesome. But all that bounces to one track. That’s an element and fills an area. Voices fill out an important area in the mids. And what goes on top, goes on top. Which usually, in electronic music, it’s “pshh,” or air, or something like that. It fills up that area. That’s what’s lost in many productions. There’s always something missing. Something with empty spaces. It’s like, “You missed this here.” And you can sit down and think about what’s missing, but if you go back to the basics, lows, mids, highs, what’s missing? You know the problem is in the mids. OK, what’s missing in the mids? Then you start taking the song apart like that. And it’s easier than trying to guess.

audience member

Is there a rule about levels? For when you finish a track.

Frank “El Médico” Rodriguez

Master levels? If it’s an electronic song, usually I take it to at least -6. There’s a way to measure in LUFS. L-U-F-S. There, in that measurement, usually an electronic song is at -6. In that measurement. A trap song or something like that, -8 or -9. A more contemporary song, like -11. Depending on the genre, obviously. The best guide there, honestly, is buying the CD of a song, not Spotify, not Apple Music, because that lowers the level. Apple Music or Spotify lowers it to like -14. -14, -16. Always. So you buy the CD that is a little less affected, and you can measure from there. You take the song and measure. There are recommended levels. But the reality is that no one uses those levels. And usually Spotify, Apple and all those like to put the songs in that level. That is, if you put it in that level and the algorithm works on it, it will probably be lower compared to the rest of the world. That’s why I compare it with another song and send it like that. But usually I live between -6 and -8. That’s where I live when I’m mastering something. And sometimes they tell me to go lower, because I go overboard. And when I lower the level is to -10, but I try to stay there. It has to average around -8, -10. In LUFS.

Serko Fu

OK, let’s hear it for our guy here. [applause] Thank you all for being here, I think this chat was very enlightening. See you next time, guys.