" ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ is a worldwide hit that breaks every rule in the book. Artist Gotye and mix engineer François Tétaz reveal how they made it."
-Paul Tingen for Sound on Sound
Gotye - Somebody that i Used to Know
Mixed/Mastered by Francois Tetaz at Moose Mastering studio "In the box"
Francois Tetaz has also worked with Snog & Bernie Blackman…
00:00:00- Mix starts off with acoustic guitar, can hear the fret, panned to right about 1 o clock
00:00:04 - Drum and bass come in. There is a very low sounding tom in the low left. Not much body to it. The bass is smooth rather than punchy and rides the guitar melody
00:00:19 - Drum, vocals, bass, and bells or xylophones. Drums are low, vocals most present. The drums have a rumble sort of sound to them, as if i am hearing a marching band. The drums also are mixed wide. Guitar is creeping up in the background
00:00:59 - guitar returns and keyboard enters. Guitar sits left about 10 o' clock while the keyboard is hard right.
00:01:02 - Vocals re-enter in center of mix. New guitar riffs are stabbing the left ear with a grunge to them.
Between these parts i don't know what it is but the dramatic tension rising…intense!
00:1:29 - Acoustic guitar solo before chorus
00:01:33 - Keyboard hits hard left to bring chorus in, then goes back to rightful place in the right as other instruments re enter there respective places. I notice the low tom that was once a rumble in the lower left ear has a lot more sound and brightness to it during the chorus.
00:02:17 - instrument solo/ break down before verse.
00:2:30 - a synthesized clavichord sound instrument sound bringing a new voice, a female singer with a very powerful voice. Her voice is taking over the right side but seems to reverberate to the left.
00:02:36 - sweeping melody comes in from the left in between her words, and then
00:02:47 - a rock guitar comes in right
00:03:00 - brief silence as the singers voice rises
00:03:02 - Chorus drops. There is a collective of all instruments used during track bombarding this choirs. Shakers in the left claps in the right. Dynamically this chorus sounds more powerful than the previous. This track has an underlying dramatic tension that builds throughout.
00:04:00 - The song fades off, abruptly ending
This is a very powerful mix. Francois Tetaz had a vision that dynamics would shape this song, which he talks a lot about how he achieves these dynamics in his recording space called "the box" in a sound on sound article. He certainly accomplished this vision, the tension on this thing becomes so tight that you can cut it with a knife if you slice at the right moment. The kick is very lo-fi, which both the atist and mixer felt was a certain defiance of mainstream pop music. All instrumentation heard on this record is a sample collage arranged in Ableton Live and Pro-tools. The instruments sound impressively real for having been software created. What i liked most about this track was the panning in the mix. The mix was wide with certain instruments being heard far right and others far left, with the vocals being centered.
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