Mix analysis 2

Amber by 311

Producer: 311 / Ron Saint Germain

Mixing Engineer: Ron Saint Germain has worked with Jimi Hendrix, Creed, Tool…has worked on 12 grammy winning projects.

Recording Studio: The Hive in North Hollywood

Was unable to find where it was mastered, several sources credit  Ron Saint Germain for the mixing of the entire 311 album From Chaos so i'm wondering if he was the mastering engineer as well...

00:00:00 - Starts of with guitar. There is a bit of hum or maybe that is the string vibrations I am hearing. It sounds very warm. The instrument is centered

00:00:12 - a quick guitar strum is heard then pans wide right and left with an ambient tail that slowly but surely resonates and trails back center as the bass is coming in. 

Bass is panned more to the right

00:00:23 - Drums come in. Kick sounds centered Snare sounds slightly panned left,  hi-hats are mostly left. Drums sound steely

00:00:30 - Vocals take over center of track, guitar is now sitting far left.

00:00:46 - a crash hits in the middle then dissipates left in right with a sizzle.

                   The song livens up here and a reggae-bounce guitar is heard now heard in my left ear, that occasionally is heard jumping to the right.

00:01:09 - Chrous comes in. Insturmentation is turned up a bit but does not drowned out vocals.

00:01:2 - a real triply, phased out sounding guitar hit strums in your right ear, it pans left and has a resonance to it

00:01:33 - new guitar riff comes in, panned left about 30

00:01:50 - the original guitar rift is bouncing left to right

00:02:00 - chorus comes back in

00:02:10 - guitar chords bright and centered

00:02:20 - guitars are layered and sound as if automation was used on the pans to make them jump left to right. real triply spacey mix.

00:03:00 - echo's on vocals used to start to bring song to end

00:03:10 - spacey sound hits right and travels left. song ends with dying echo of sound.

This song has a real dynamic mix that is all over the place. I really enjoyed the ear trip provided by the automated panning, it is a wonderful journey for the ears. The guitars are layered in a way that they are not at all competing with each other, yet complimenting each other very well in terms of tones, spacing, and volume. The drums have a real steel, pop to them that sounds reggae authentic.