Mixing Analysis 9 Comparison

For the purpose of this Analysis I will be comparing my thoughts on Aaliyah's  Rock The Boat. This was Ed's 7th mix analysis, and I picked it at complete random in hopes to hear something completely different. 

Aaliyah - Rock The Boat
BPM - 89.5 

"Produced/Mixed by Eric Seats  & Rapture Stewart, a production duo known as Key Beats. They have worked with Pati Labelle and Montel Jordan.

Recorded at Manhattan Center Studio." 

Intro 0:00 - 0:30

Ambient Beach noises 

Features Seagulls and footsteps with sync with Aaliyah in the video.

Cool intro, goes great with the concept. 

Sets a cool tropical vibe to the track.

Pre-Verse 

Sounds like a vocoded guitar ala Peter Frampton style.

Synth panned towards right is an octave higher than one of left.

Percussion

Shaker and a reverberated electronic clap 

Vocals

Aaliyah ad libs "mmmm" "yaaah" 

Guitar 

Funky twangy guitar with reverb 

Bass  0:46 

Two nice rounded bass stabs, Sounds like an 808 Kick 

Transitions with a horned synth play 3 stabs that leads into the verse 

Verse 0:51

Great full beat 

On the 3/4 beat there is a synth ambient stab 

I love the symbol at 0:53 and wood hit at 0:54 and the tom hit at 1:03

Not a lot of hip hop/Rn'B producers seem to use acoustic drum samples so I found this refreshing and interesting to listen too, they fit together real well and makes for a great groove

I agree with Ed that Aaliyah's voice in the verses seems to be for ambience and though it is fairly dominant the elements of the beat gain most of your attention 

A lot of different samples are used around to give this a pretty complex sound, there is always a really low ambient synth that fades out and the end of every 2 bars. 

1:32 Nice Snare and Tom fill that leads to Chorus 

Bass

2 Stabs at the beginning of one bar every 2 

Chorus 1:34 

Same percussion elements 

Bass - 18 dB definitely the most dominant in terms of dB in the track 

Same pattern as verse 

New lead comes on the 3 note of the first bar, very moog like and funky plucking style with a short release and delay. 

Vocals are a little louder and more dominant in chorus 

Verse   1:52 

Same as verse one except, ambient synth elements are taken out which give  a more raw in your face sound. 

Synth Lead from chorus is added.

2:20 

New Ad-Lips are added and the "Let's coast" is louder than the normal vocals and noticeably dry in comparison.

Producer just a great job of using a lot of different instrumental elements while not over crowding and over layering. 

Also everything after 15000 Hertz is brick wall filtered with no Q. Not sure about this technique but I see it on more and more tracks as I analyses them  i'll have to look into it. 

2:38 Chorus 

New ad lips 

"work it babe" 2:44

Noticeably dryer and louder than normal vocals 

Chorus is 16 bars as opposed to just 8. 

3:20 Bridge

The funky delayed guitar stab really sets that sexy tone that song is going for at 3:25

no Kicks in the first bar  nice technique

3:46 Verse 

Vocals are starting to take dominance, great chorus effect using multiple layered tracks to give a full sound yet very subtle like a whisper. 

Chorus 4:26

Heavy Ad-lips 

Outro

1 bar of no beat just lead and vocal

New beat with a kick infront of the snare. Real cool outro, not many producers would have done something unique like that in this field. 

Little high pass filter sweep at the end and thats all. 

I thank Ed and agree with him on most of his points. I like the use of the term "hypnotic mix", and believe this track is a great example. The beat has such a great groove that it stays constant the whole track with only a couple of transitions. I love the layered Aaliyah vocals at the end and it seems that after the first chorus she just keeps getting more dominant in the mix. I don't care for the dry ad libs too much and find them to be kind of distracting. 

The guitar is one of my favorite elements, and though it sits pretty low in the mix it is crucial to keep that sexy, funky vibe going. Ed did a great job in pointing out the narrowness of the mix. When I checked it out in iZotope Ozone 5 and there is a lot of width on the vocals which gives them such presence and mellow sound chorus-y sound. This track makes me want to get into  producing of some R n' B tracks. I love the simplicity and emphasize on the basic elements of voice and percussion.