Mixing Analysis 7

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Otherside
116 BPM


Intro 
Guitar  -34 dB
Twangy, slightly distorted playing a plucking riff

Bass -24 dB
Low Funky walking style with a lot of use of octaves.

White noise at 15.5 kHz -90 dB

after 4 bars 
Vocals -20 dB
Anthony Kiedis
Vocal style very simular to Chris Cornell, belting yet very smooth dynamics

Verse 0:33
Drum comes in with Kick, Snare rim and some sort of wooden block percussion
Kick - 20 dB

:45 Rhythm Guitar plays two sustained chords as transition

0:51
Full Snare comes in - 25 dB panned slight right
Hi - Hats and Crash slightly left

Chorus  
Same as intro except drums are added

Mini drum solo transition 2:00 2:04
great use here acts as a great rest as guitar rings out

2:06 Verse Two 
Same as first verse, more rhythm guitar is added in second 8 bars.

2:34 Back up vocals - 33 dB

3:00 Bridge
Fresh Bass riff
Sustained ringing guitar lots of reverb and distortion
Sounds like there's slight tube warmth added to the vocals here

3:32 Solo 
Short solo that leads back into chorus

3:40 Chorus two
Added backup vocals from other member of band, gives it a great choir feel
a lot of reverb on other voices to put them further back

Ends on ring of guitar, kick and crash. 

Produced by "Rick" Rubin (same as Audioslave's - Like a Stone)

This song and Like a Stone by Audioslave have much in common. Both are two of my favorite rock songs of the era and they not only share the same minimalistic yet epic approach and are fairly mellow.
The songs are arranged and instrumented in a very simular way.

Both bass player share simular styles, but Flea always shines out more. The emphasize in both songs is obviously the vocals and the shine through out. By using lest instruments and fillers theres a lot of space for all the elements to shine in the mix. This is definitely the less is more principle at play, and Rubin utilizes the motto brilliantly. It's not over done with effects, and the vocals for the most part are pretty dry. Never the less the songs are both fantastic and were very popular. I was surprised to find that they were produced by the same man, "Rick" Rubin.

Interesting side note on the recording studio for Stadium Arcadium:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mansion_(recording_studio)