Mix Analysis #6

Mix Analysis #6 – Somebody That I Used to Know

0:00-0:04 – Guitar Plucking, Bass

0:04-0:19 – Guitar Plucking, Xylophone, Drums, Bass

0:19-0:49 – Vocals, Guitar Plucking, Drums, Bass

0:49-1:03 – Guitar Plucking, Synth, Electric Guitar, Drums, Bass

1:03-1:30 – Vocals, Guitar Plucking, Drums, Electric Guitar, Bass

1:30-1:34 – Guitar Plucking, Bass

1:34-2:06 – Vocals, Guitar Plucking, Electric Guitar, Bongos, Bass

2:06-2:17 – Winds, Vocals, Guitar Plucking, Electric Guitar, Bongos, Bass

2:17-2:34 – Guitar Plucking, Drums, Synth, Bass

2:34-3:03 – Vocals, Winds, Drums, Bongos, Synth, Bass

3:03-3:04 – Vocals Only

3:04-3:33 – Vocals, Backing Vocals, Guitar Plucking, Electric Guitar, Bongos, Clapping, Bass

3:33-3:50 – Winds, Vocals, Backing Vocals, Guitar Plucking, Electric Guitar, Bongos, Shaker Clapping, Bass

3:50-4:03 – Vocals, Guitar, Shaker, Synth, Bass

4:03-4:04 – Ending

Instrument	Pan	Level
Guitar	-1 to +2	-5 to -6
Electric Guitar	-6 to +5	-5 to -7
Male Vocal	-2 to +2	-4 to -5
Female Voice	-2 to +4	-5 to -6
Xylophone	-2 to +1	-6 to -7
Synth	-1 to +4	-5 to -7
Drums	-6 to +4	-6 to -8
Winds	-1 to +1	-8
Bass	-2 to +2	-8 to -6

I would like to start off by saying I really enjoy this song. It is a fun song to hum along too. But then again on the other hand when doing this analysis, I have come to hate it. When I first listened to it, I didn't realize how many instruments there are in this song. I had to listen to the song 10 or more times just to try and catch every little bit in this song. There was a lot of reverb on the vocals, you can hear it when the vocals stop, there is a bit of a reverb tail at the end. The drums, it sounds like one of the toms, or a very flat kick, has a low-fi filter on it to make it sound more grimy and gritty, rather than bright. The guitar plucking, in throughout the whole song, and the very catchy beginning, is actually a sample taken from another song. Most of the instruments seemed to stay more towards the middle when panned. Some panned drastically such as the drums, and the electric guitar. Some parts would be panned left and then the next part, it would be panned hard right.

The mix review has some very interesting things to say about this song. Mike Senior talked about the panned right snare, as I stated about the panning of the drums, Kick on the left, and other parts, now the snare, on the right. But it is only on particular parts in the song. He also talks about the beginning being sampled, which is still very strange to me but thats what Goyte does, samples a lot. What was interesting to me, was the use of odd instruments, such as the xylophone, and as I learned, auto harp. There are so many different little sounds its hard to pick out every little instrument.

Being the center part of the song Francois Tetaz began his mixing with the vocals. The main vocals track has a De-esser, SSL Limiter, Phoenix Iridescent, some Auto-Tune, Renaissance EQ and McDSP Compressor Bank. There is another track right under the main vocal track, which is a send track, that has automation, compression, EQ and it's going through a pre-delay reverb, almost like an effects control track. This track also has Auto-Tune, Renaissance EQ and a Compressor Bank and is going through an Altiverb chapel reverb aux track. The chorus vocals were doubled and Cranesong Luminescent and Iridescent, SSL Channel, two Waves Renaissance De-essers, one for the higher frequencies, and one for the lower frequencies. One of the tracks was bone dry,slightly panned to one side with nothing on it, and the other was slightly panned to the other side and went through Speakerphone reverb and had Echo Farm tape delay on it.

As for the instruments, the bass had a few tracks to itself. Mr, Tetaz thought that the bass needed a little more power, or as he says, bottom end, the bassist overdubbed the bass tracks then compressed it with Bomb Factory BF76. Next was a bass track with a little distortion on it, more specificity the Sonnox Oxford Transient Modulator.

The plucking guitar sample has two tracks, one of which has reverb on it, and other is dry with a small mount of pre-delay, Waves compressor, EQ and a 10dbB boost at 1.3kHz for a little more mid range umph. Another plucking track was created for the chorus, this didn't have any lower-mid range frequencies below 300Hz using an Renaissance EQ. With some delay it really helps the width of the guitar samples.

The drums had a low-pass filter on them with some delay from an aux track.

There was a stings, and autoharp in this song. They were kind of hard to hear, but yes, they are there. Along with those two, there are bongos, which were doubled and a Sonnox Oxford Transient Modulator was used to get them placed right. EQ was also used along with a a send to a speakerphone aux. The second bongo track has EQ, and a small amount of reverb on it. Used for width and giving them a not so flat sound.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul12/articles/it-0712.htm