4 Minutes (Madonna Song) - Recording and Mixing

Recording and Mixing

The recording sessions for "4 Minutes" took place at Sarm West Studios in West London, on a 72-channel SSL 9080 scratching tool. Paul Tingen from Sound on Sound magazine interviewed mixing and recording engineer Demacio "Demo" Castellon, who recalled that he did not attend the first recording sessions "because was working on another project, but was lucky enough to go in for the second set of sessions". Over half of the song was already done by the time Castellon arrived, including the drum sounds to the basic keyboard lines. According to him, he "recorded the rest, and also did some programming, particularly in the intro and the end." At Sarm, Timbaland and Danja used Akai MPC3000 and Ensoniq ASR-10 sampling drum machines, Yamaha Motif workstation and synths to build the backing track for "4 Minutes". "There were dedicated analogue keyboards and the rest were soft synths. But we're always experimenting and we're always using whatever equipment we have in the studio we work in. We may have our preferences, but we're always into trying new things. That's why our stuff sounds different to that of everybody else." Castellon said that the "4 Minutes" background "consists mainly of brass, synths, and percussion." Castellon asserted that the session was "actually much bigger than most people would think, because Tim and Danja take a lot of pride in designing their own sounds The drums and percussion on '4 Minutes' are 23 stereo tracks, so 46 tracks in total, there were 16 stereo tracks of brass, and so on. The whole session panned out to about 100 tracks, and I took 80 outputs from Pro Tools to the SSL, so there was some submixing in Pro Tools. But for the most part it was straight across the board." In the interview, Castellon gave his opinion of Timbaland's production, as well as his own production work:

In the case of '4 Minutes', Tim had a vision from the beginning of how things should go, especially sonically. He's a real producer. He doesn't look only at the music, he looks at the sounds as well. He's also a great engineer and he has an incredible ear and he knows exactly how to piece things together in the stereo spectrum. When I opened up the session of '4 Minutes', there was so much going on that I knew right away that the hard part would be to make sure that the vocals would cut through and were right in the pocket. Beginning with working on the vocals was the only way to achieve this. After that I formed all the other parts around the vocals. The other challenge was to make sure that everything in the track sounded clear and that you could hear every instrument, every syllable, every breath. Also, I do almost always work linear in time on a track. It's easier, because when you're done, you're done. So I keep working on section after section, until I get to the end of the track and then I know the whole mix is pretty close.

Castellon said that he did not want the SSL's internal automation to interfere with his blending of the music, which he said "has happened". Instead, the automation was from Pro Tools, with levels set using an eight-fader CM Labs Motormix controller belonging to Castellon. According to him, he "then ran everything through the SSL, on which did EQ, compression and panning." The mixing of the track was made at The Hit Factory studio, in Miami, Florida, on a 96-channel SSL J-series desk. Considering the quantity of recorded backing tracks, a challenge in mixing "4 Minutes" was, according to Castellon, "making sure that the music didn't overwhelm the vocals." Castellon explained how he did this: "I started with the vocals, then I added in the music, and the drums were last. That's unusual for me, even though I don't really have a set way of mixing." Very few digital plug-ins were employed for the mix as Castellon preferred the sound of outboard gear. He tried to complete the song quickly, which took him a day of work to mix. After two days, he fine-tuned the mix.

After the mixes were done, Castellon began working with the vocals, he started with Timbaland's introduction part, continued with Madonna's voice, and finished with Timberlake's vocals. On Timbaland's vocals, he utilized the SSL's EQ to reduce "some bottom end", and he set input levels to avoid clipping when the singing was very loud. For Madonna and Timberlake he used a little of the SSL's dynamic range compression, and on Madonna's voice he applied "an eighth-note delay from a PCM42", and a reverb from the Eventide H3500 for the verse and the TC3000 for the hook." These digital signal processors were employed to give Madonna's vocals a sense of stereophonic space. Castellon commended Timbaland and Danja's drum programming, but felt that it was "too good sometimes", requiring him to "turn down things a little bit." Castellon applied the Waves Audio "Renaissance Compressor" plug-in to control the level of kick drum. He said, "there was one particular kick sound there that clashed with the other tracks, so Tim replaced it with another kick that had a very different note and sound." Castellon said that using a Focusrite D2 EQ let him "match the sound of that new kick drum to the other kick drum sounds". Once the drums and percussion were added, the recording and mixing of "4 Minutes" was finished. Castellon concluded, "uckily everything came together in the end. I don't think the mix would have sounded the same if I had worked in the opposite way, starting with the drums and working up towards the vocals."