Nic Kelly, 15 Year Old Oz Imaging Wunderkind or Benztown…

A 15 year old imaging guy? How many do you know by name working on a national late night show and will be having a Q/A with Harry Legg in NYC?

I know exactly one! Nick from OZ and he is getting better each time I listen to his work sent to me by email. To me, Nick is THE upcoming talent in the imaging world: He is hungry to lear new stuff and recieving regular feedback from guys like Konsky and me. For our Xmas Contest he was sending great infos, audio and screenshots. Enjoy!

SO, Part 1: my session template and screenshots:
Attached along with the promo this was for.. I’ve outlined what I do in Part 1.
In this promo, I’ve actually hard applied alot of the effects I’ve used. So I used things like the standard 7-band EQ on the telephone preset tweaked a bit, and SansAmp, and Lo-Fi, I tend to hard apply them to save resources in my session as I run Pro Tools on a very low powered laptop.

[soundcloud width=”100%” height=”81″ params=”” url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/8311461″] Nic Kelly – PROJECT U IN 2011 PROMO – DEMO by Benztown Branding Blog

Here’s a little thing on my production tricks as Part 2:
I have a template set up in Pro Tools containing three cold voice tracks which are all bussed to an AUX containing REQ 6 bands, RComp, and RVerb. The reverb is simply there to provide a bit more of a smooth sound to the vocal. Sometimes I might use a bit of TrueVerb on maybe a nice crisp female vocal, but even then it’ll only be a fast reverb like the “New York Plate” preset, maybe tweaked a bit.
My next two voice tracks are also bussed to the vocal aux, but then I put a 600Hz high pass filter on the first, and a 1KHz high pass / strong MetaFlange setting on the second. I might use the 600 on its own, but the second is always just a backup to the cold vocal, and I might layer it 10-20ms off the other and pan it, pitch it down 8 semitones, stutter it, Lo-Fi it, whatever just to make it sound cool and different!
My next five tracks are just for music and FX – no effects except sometimes if I’m beatmixing I might hard apply a 80-120Hz high pass on the music tracks to raise them above the frequency of the beat.
My mastering is a 4 plug chain of RBass, Q10, C4 and L1+. I tend to tinker with the L1 from mix to mix to ensure the mix doesn’t bleed and end up sounding dodgy.
In a CHR promo, I like to play with the voice like its a child playing with a toy. I do everything I can to make certain bits stand out, keep it exciting, yet still let the message through. Probably my main three things I do to the voice I’ve learnt from other people (nothing wrong with that!) and that is:

1) 4000Hz Low Pass, 300Hz High Pass, Lo-Fi Toy Bear Audio Preset.
2) Duplicate, delay by 10ms, pitch down 8 semitones and EQ like crazy. Might also add a guitar effect here.
3) Simple 450Hz high passes on top of the general vocal processing here and there.
4) High Pass at the 2KHz, then using the SansAmp plugin to put a nuts guitar distortion effect on. I use this once in a while, on important…serious things in a promo.

In a promo that includes a music grab one thing I like to do for transition is vari-fi (often up!) the “5th” beat of the track, then TrueVerb it out into a drone or maybe just into the next song grab or the bed. I always use the Dave Foxx wisdom of dropping the voice out and listening to the piece.
I love production, and how fun it is to experiment with different plugins and get a cool sound you never thought was possible. 🙂
I’d be interested in the Q and A with Harry, and the interview with Ryan… that’s an amazing prize!

Merry christmas guys 🙂 If you’d like me to send any more promos let me know as I have a bunch (benztown: pls send more!!!)