Mix Analysis 6 (Presentation)

Artist: Jack Johnson

Song: If I Had Eyes

Album: Through the Static

Year: 2008

Genre: Alt./Soft Rock

Mix Engineer: Robert Carranza

Mixing Studio: Solar Powered Plastic Plant Studio, Los Angeles, California; The Mango Tree Studio, Hawaii

Mastered By: Bernie Grundman

Mastering Studio: Bernie Grundman Mastering, Hollywood California

                                    Level                        Pan

Vocals                           8                        -4, 4

Electric Guitar 1            7                        -10

Electric Guitar 2            7                        10

Acoustic Guitar             6                        0

Backing Vocals             5-7                    -5, 5

Drums                           7                         0

Tambourine                   6                         0

Bass                               5                        0

Piano                            6                        -4, 4

Time Code:

0:00: Both Electric Guitars

0:10: Acoustic Guitar comes in

0:20-0:30: Vocals

0:30: Drums, Bass start

0:41-0:51: Vocals, Backing Vocals join

0:52: Piano starts

1:02: Vocals and Backing Vocals

1:18 Backing Vocals get louder

1:44-2:04: Tambourine

1:52: Vocals without Backing Vocals

2:02 Vocals, Piano, Drums

2:24 Electric Guitars come back

2:40: Backing Vocals come back

3:07: Tambourine and loud backing vocals join

3:50: Everything fades but backing vocals and guitar

3:59: Song Ends

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may08/articles/insidetrack_0508.htm

‘Through The Static’ was recorded in a building, which used to be a solar powered plastic plant.  Jack Johnson bought the building and made it into a studio with Robert Carranza.  The whole studio is powered by solar panels.  This album was recorded to analogue but the albums before were recorded to Pro Tools.  Johnson didn’t want to listen with eyes with looking at the computer-screen; he wanted to use his ears more with this record.  They used a 24-track analogue multi-track recorder.  On the album, the basic piano, guitar, bass and drum tracks were all recorded live.  They began with each using an Aviom headphone system but while recording the band decided they didn’t want to use them anymore.  They only used headphones when recording overdubs. 

              No compression was used on the bass or the guitar, just on the drums but by a dB.  Carranza said because of their great musicianship, they balanced themselves amazingly.  Carranza mixed the album at the Solar Powered Plastic Plant Studio using the Studer A827 tape recorder and the SSL AWS900 console.  They mixed off of tape.  When starting to mix, the vocal levels were decided first with the live guitar.  The vocals had some de-essing using the Drawmer MX50, then ran the vocals through a Tube-tech TCL2 limiter, which gave the vocals more body. 

            For ‘If I Had Eyes,’ each guitar was panned differently, one left, one centre and one all the way to the right.  Then the drums were panned centre making them a mono kit.  For this song, the mixing started with the mono drums.  It was the easiest song to mix on the album and has the most tracks.  They went with natural sounding recordings. 
I really liked the way the guitars are panned each to a different location, it made the song fun to listen to.  I also like how the vocals sound very natural and all of the instruments really work together, like Carranza said they all sound great together musically.