Producer Jay Maas on his studio process, live touring and oeksound soothe2

Boston-based producer, audio engineer and songwriter Jason Maas gets candid about his music production process, his experiences on the live touring circuit, and his love of oeksound plugins…

What projects have you been involved with recently?

I’m constantly mixing and mastering stuff. I work with an artist called Aryia who’s blowing up right now, and I’m actually taking on managing him as well. We’ve been doing a single a month; he co-writes with my assistant here at Jay Maas Recording, and I master everything. I just finished a new full length record for a band called Silent Drive, who are on Equal Vision Records and comprises members of this legendary hardcore band from the Boston area called Bane. I’m also doing a record with another band called The Darling Fire. I’m entrenched in records at the moment!

When was the last time you were touring and performing in a band yourself?

I wrote the first record for a band called Defeater which came out around 2008, and I toured with them all the way through the end of 2015. At that point I was in my mid 30s; I’d been touring since I was 17 and I wanted to have a kid. I was a full time producer here at the studio, and when you’re gone for eight, nine weeks at a time, it’s tough on your social relationships. It’s an incredible and positive experience, and it’s one that I wouldn’t trade for anything. Before that I never understood how much travelling and being immersed in different cultures could help you grow as a human and overall good person.

Tell us about your music production process.

I know what it feels like for an artist to put so much time and energy into writing something. My contribution to the band is like being the sixth member. I’m not bashful when I mix; you might get your mix back and there might be harmonies and shit that you had no idea were going to be there, but I would always rather do too much than too little.

I try to be an artistic mixing engineer, bringing together my technical prowess and my own personal creative vision. I think the marriage of producer and artist is a unique result; no matter what, the producer’s sonic signature is going to be entangled in those songs, which may have been originally conceived completely unrelated to the producer.

I do have a bunch of outboard gear, because I’m typically trying to embed the character that I want to hear into the signal on the way in. These days however I mix in the box entirely, and I’d say I’m probably doing the best mixes in my life. They’re just so much more convenient!

Can you tell us how you use oeksound soothe2 in your workflow?

What soothe2 does is exceptionally useful in so many different scenarios. I think a lot of people use it on cymbals, which are harmonically complex and are played very dynamically. Combining a harsh sounding symbol with a not so great capsule in an imperfect room is all too common. So there might be frequencies in the ride cymbal that only pop up when the ride’s being played. They’re at 12k, they’re kind of piercing, and we wish they didn’t exist, but applying with traditional EQ and then notching a bit of 12k and automating that is a nightmare and a lot of work. With soothe, when that little peak of 12k pops up, it’s like having a buddy that was just looking out for it and can adjust it on the fly. It doesn’t have to be a full notch either – it could just be bringing things down slightly and chilling them out. It’s a tool with which I can literally just pinpoint the actual frequencies that I want to attenuate.

What else have you got planned for this year?

We just quietly launched what I believe to be the best sounding AI mastering platform, called maastr.io. Our mission statement is to be your home base for everything after the export button. It’s essentially my hyper obsessive, workflow efficient brain created into a product that’s designed to help other people stay super organised, and give them phenomenal sonic results at the same time.

Listen to the full interview with Jay Maas on Headliner Radio below: