Whether you like it or not, the current music industry is a hit-driven environment. Album-Sales are down, and the songwriters, producers and engineers who still earn solid money in this job are the ones that attach their name to a huge worldwide hit-record.
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Regardless of what genre you’re working in, I firmly believe it’s part of our profession to keep an eye on what’s moving the masses, and pay attention to what works commercially, and why.
This is something I expand on in the chapter called References and A/Bing in the new book – you need to know where RMS-levels and dynamics are at, what the frequency-curves of mixes are like, and always have current references at hand – especially when your plan is to do something opposite to the current trends.
2014 will go down in pop-history as the year of Taylor Swift. That is mainly, because contrary to industry trends, Swift sells A LOT OF ALBUMS, in fact her album 1989 is the ONLY NEW ALBUM in the US in 2014 to go Platinum (more than 1.000.000 sales). That, connected with the fact that Swift’s label Big Machine Records pulled her ENTIRE back catalogue from Spotify, made her the most talked-about artist of the year as well.
A very good reason to look into the lead-single of the album 1989, “Shake It Off”, written by Taylor Swift, Max Martin and Shellback, produced by Max Martin and Shellback, mixed by Serban Ghenea.
Make yourself familiar with the sonics of the track – best to buy it on iTunes, it’s a great mix reference.
The song is also nominated for a «Song of the Year»-Grammy at the upcoming Grammy-Awards.
“Shake It Off” debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart of the week ending September 6, 2014, after having one of the most spectacular impacts on Mainstream Top 40 US radio stations in history.
REMOVING THE DRUMS FROM THE TRACK
The DRUMS are based on a 4-Bar live drum-loop that repeats throughout the song, muted at the first four bars in Verse 2 and two bars before Chorus 2.
The loop is the same recording repeated every four bars, I could proof that by being able to completely remove the drum-loop from the mix.
This is how you remove the drums from the audio:
• import the iTunes AAC to a track in your DAW set to 160 BPM with the track’s level set at unity gain (0dB).
• zoom in on the audio, and move it to align with your grid (first drum hit starts exactly ON a bar)
• cut the four bar drum-loop from the intro of the song
• copy the 4-bar loop to another track and loop it throughout the song
• reverse phase polarity of the drum-loop track
• bounce the sum of both (= your DAWs stereo output) to a new file
With the drum-loop completely removed from the track it was so much easier to hear what’s going on in the vocals, but let’s take it to the next level.
SEPARATING MONO AND STEREO INFORMATION
Do the following to separate the audio in the middle from the audio that is appearing on the sides in stereo:
• import the file we just bounced (Shake It Off – no drums)
• insert “Direction Mixer”-plugin in the first slot, and “Gain”-plugin right below
• set “Direction Mixer” to MS (this puts stereo-signals on the left side, mono signals on the right side, it’s a basic M/S-decoder)
• on the “Gain”-plugin, press Mono and add 6dB Gain
• by turning the balance-pan on the “Gain”-plugin to the left, we now exclusively hear the stereo-information of the mix!
• turn the same to the right, and you hear the mono-information of the mix…
I’m using Logic Pro X for this, if you use a different DAW, just look for an M/S-decoder plug-in.
With these different files, the mix analysis is a lot easier. Can you believe we now have an audio file with the (almost) dry lead vocal!
In comparison to “All About That Bass” where all the space in the low end was occupied by the double bass, “Shake It Off” shows exactly the opposite picture. The kick drum rules!
The backbone of this mix is the incredible recording of the live drum-loop. The kick drum occupies pretty much the entire low end up to 150Hz. The bass, well, there IS NO BASS AT ALL in the verses. A subtle bass plus an electronic Kick is added in the chorus, so let’s go into the details:
1. The song is written in G major, based on the chord progression
a minor / C major / 2 x G major (II-IV-I-I). The tempo is 160 BPM
2. Bass notes used and their frequencies
(referencing musical notes and frequencies) link
C1 – 32.7Hz (root note to C major, the subdominant chord)
G1 – 48.9Hz (root note to G major, the tonic chord)
A1 – 55 Hz (root note to a minor, the minor parallel to the subdominant chord)
3. The bass sound used is a synth bass, and it’s ONLY USED on the chorus.
The frequency-spectrum of the sound used is dominated by both the 1st harmonic and second harmonic, but keep in mind – the bass plays a very minor role in this mix. When it comes in on the chorus, it’s long standing notes that sit way behind the transients of the drums.
4. List of frequencies occupied by bass and kick drum
Here’s the complete list of frequencies:
32.7Hz – C1 (fundamental frequency)
48.9Hz – G1 (fundamental frequency)
49.5 Hz – Synth Kick added in chorus (fundamental root note, tuned to the root note of the song key!)
54 Hz – Kick (fundamental root note of the verse’s starting chord)
55 Hz – A1 (fundamental frequency)
65.4 Hz – 2nd harmonic of C1
68 Hz – Kick (harmonic)
98 Hz – 2nd harmonic of G1
110 Hz – 2nd harmonic of A1
140 Hz – Kick center (harmonic)
152 Hz – Kick sides (harmonic)
Let’s look at frequency curves!
The kick has both punch and clarity, but also an incredibly rich spectrum of resonance frequencies. The direct kick mic is responsible for mono punch and clarity in the middle, with the fundamental root note almost matching the song key (and harmonics at 68 Hz and 140 Hz), while the very 3D sounding room mics of the drum-set appear only on the sides of the mix. This is 100% dissectible when separating stereo and mono information from the the intro drum-loop.
There is also an almost unhearable Synth Kick added on the chorus which shows a resonance at 49.5 Hz, just above the bass note G1.
This screenshot shows the frequencies used by the drums on the sides. Nothing happening lower than 100Hz, and you can see the harmonic of the kick drums resonance skin at 152 Hz, as captured by the drum room mics.
Sides of the drums again, on this picture I’m emphasising the kick drum resonance of the room mic at 152 Hz, and also showing the notch right next to it, at 170 Hz. The notch creates space above the resonance in the frequency spectrum which helps the clarity just below 200 Hz.
The direct mono drum-signals show a completely different picture – lots of low end energy and punch!
The mono signal of the kick drum has three resonances (which are emphasized here by an EQ.
The mix gets away with it, as the fundamental frequency of the live kick matches a-minor the starting key of the verse, and the added electronic kick in the chorus matches the root note of the song key G-major. On top of that, there’s no bass in the verses anyway!
You can play this mix loud, it’s not gonna distort. The low-end is a dream.
«The backbone of this mix is an incredible recording of a live recorded drum-loop.»
To sum it up, it’s fascinating how precisely the Kick Drum Set is matched to the key of the song, and the bass notes used. In both songs I’ve looked at, “All About That Bass” and “Shake It Off”, the fundamental frequencies of the two Kick Drums matching the starting chord (in the verse) and the root note of the song key (in the chorus). It is also remarkable, that no bass note and kick frequencies ever step on each other.
This shows the incredible skill involved in modern pop production, and one vision consequently thought through from composition to final master.
“Shake it Off” is a production with a very minimalistic instrumentation. live drum loop, lead vocal, a few light percussion elements in the verse, and bass, hammond organ and stereo backing vocals in the chorus. A plate reverb on the LVs, an 1/8-note stereo echo with three repeats that blends into the plate and thats it!
Oh yeah, and of course the funny brass-sample riff in the verse and some light trombones in the chorus, sitting very unobtrusive in the mix, no lows, no highs.
The minimalistic instrumentation creates room for immensely powerful vocals and one of the best sounding live drum sets I’ve heard on a Top 40 Mainstream record.
I’ve also made it a habit to look into the level-correction iTunes does on a track when in «Sound Check»-mode.
«Shake It Off» is a fairly loud master, but definitely not squashed or over-compressed.
It sitting at a fairly average -7,4 dB, values I have seen a lot for mixes by Serban.
BTW, if you have no idea what iTunes «Sound Check» is, and how to use it for your own mixing, have a look at the Gain Staging-article.
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