Mix Analysis 3

Bad - Wale ft. Tiara Thomas

Producer/Mixing Engineer: Jacob Dutton "Jake One" has worked with Drake & Kendrick lamar

00:00:00 - Song starts off with a very very soft bed of acoustic guitar strings being gently touched with artist speaking. Voice has heavy echo/reverb on it

00:00:17 - acoustic guitar comes up but stays low in the mix as kick drums come in booming. A "smack" or clave block hit is part of the drum track. it is a crisp, resonating hit. The smack is panned right

00:00:25 - Singer comes in, voice is centered and loudest in mix. Has an echo on it, Wale's ad-libs can be heard very faint in the background, right ear. Bass also comes in here, panned to the right. The bass hits when the kicks do, but do not over power the kick. Hi-Hats and shaker are panned far left. In the right ear, very faintly, the sound that mimics bed springs is heard as part of the drum beat.

00:30 - piano keys come in soft from the left, the pan right to left at about 50

00:01:00 - Singer sings while instruments drop out, only the acoustic guitar and the bed springs can be heard

00:01:10 - Wale on verse 1, bass hits to bring in verse and rest of instruments. The hi hats are not present at first, the bed springs and kick become main component of drum beat. The singer's harmonizing vocals are heard very faint in the back of the left ear. Wale's voice has a faint echo on it

00:02:00 - Chorus comes in, clave returns and bed springs are returned to back of mix, piano and bass take over for the instrumentation. Singers voice re-takes center of track. Wale's ad-libs are heard panned left in background.

00:02:32 - same format, instruments drop out except for acoustic guitar and bed springs as Wale begins to rap. Vocals centered

00:2:40 - bass hits and clave returns. bass is leaning left but somewhat centered, clave is still heavy right. Bed springs are in the right ear at about 25. keys are soft and sit low left.

00:03:15 - bed springs begin to increase in volume, anticipating chrous coming back

00:03:23 - Singer comes back in for chorus, bass hits and melodic keys are panned to bounce left and right.

00:03:56 - instrumentation drops out once again and only acoustic guitar and bed springs are heard. The song begins to break down and fade out.

Over all the mix is very clean. Not much flare or razzle dazzle on this mix, just crisp clean instruments and hypnotizing melodic vocals. Sight panning here and there but nothing outrageous, no instruments jumping between ears. My favorite aspect of this mix would definitely have to be the smack or clave hit, or whatever that is that sound lake hitting two wooden blocks together, sounded really good with the reverb on it. The vocals here seem to be main component of the mix. A distinct echo was used on both vocalists that very faintly has there words repeat (every word) in the background, however you only hear it when the instruments aren't busy. It sort of fills the time and carries us through when the instrumentation is more subtle.