caminitic
So I've been going to school on the newest Justin Bieber record...say what you may...but you can't deny its pop perfection. It got me thinkin about listening and stealing ideas from pro mixes and integrating them into your own productions.
Right off the top, I can't believe
1) the amount of air they get on his voice with ZERO sibilance
2) how his vocal seems to be protected by a forcefield from the rest of the (very dense) arrangements, though not feeling like it's way out in front
3) how huge the low end is without feeling lumpy and muddy...even sounding huge on my iPhone mono speaker
Anyway...I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on the Bieber record or just any other techniques or ideas you stole from analyzing commercial mixes. It's amazing what A/Bing your mixes with references reveals...
Who's got somethin?
I don't know if I agree with "pop perfection" but it does what it needs to do. ;)
Answer to 1: Air is easy. When you go to a studio that matters and cares about audio, they have the tools you need to get the results you need. Air is a matter of the right mic, eq, plugs. Honest, certain mic's give you different results. Some give you a breathy almost filtered effect, others are up close, intimate and personal. When I sing with a Nuemann U87, if I have a cold or when I used to smoke, you could hear the wheeze as well as the "air".
Extended answer to 1: As for plugins that can help with this, Antares has some killer vocal plugs that allow you to control the sound of your throat. Used just right, you can get amazing air effects as well as different sizes of your throat. UAD also has a plug called the Precision Enhancer kHz. It emphasizes high end frequencies unlike an eq. It just has some special sauce about it to give you that nice air type sound.
Answer to 2: Protected by a force-field is a great way to explain it! Mind if I use that some time? :) The reason you hear that is simple. In the song "Company" the vocal is completely mono down the middle other than a few spots where the delay will reach out and ping pong. Other than a light room verb being in stereo (with a spread that doesn't exceed 30% L/R to my ears) the reason you hear him so protected is there are no instruments competing with him. All the other instruments are spread out further than the vocal. Listen again now that I've pointed that out to you.
The filtering on his voice is through a delay which is most of the time, mono other than in a few spots. When you do not have instruments competing both frequency wise, and pan field wise, you have no competition. So in theory, you are correct.....the instrumentation is the force-field that protects JB in that nothing that sounds "like" his vocal, steps into the mono pan field. When the stereo delay ping pongs left/right, the signal is tweaked and filtered so it doesn't mess with any of the instruments.
Notice the delay slap backs never sound exactly like his natural voice? This is so you never lose sight of the effect. If they made it a verbatim slap back (take notice all you engineers out there!) that was identical to the sound of his voice, (meaning if there were no filters on it to degrade it) it could easily get lost in the mix or they would have to make it too loud and it would over-power. It is always a good idea to alter your delayed signal so that it never sounds exactly like your vocal you are repeating. This along with proper panning of the effect to keep it out of the way of other instruments, is key to survival and keeping things out of the way sonically.
Answer to 3: Low end is easy when you have the right monitor environment to hear what you're supposed to hear so you can make the right decisions. Also, when you have a pop oriented mix going on, the engineer must learn how to control frequencies under 40 Hz. In styles like classic rock, top 40, rock/hard rock/metal, blues, modern country, we tend to remove 40-45 Hz and below other than some of those jokers that think "the world listens on ear buds, let's ruin the listening experience of the minority people that listen on real speakers." There are exceptions...some bass drops in heavy metal may hit 35Hz.
That said, with JB and other pop, R&B, rap/Hip Hop, we're going to go down really low. We may even hit 30 Hz if we need to. The object there though, is to not boost the frequency as much as you would control the Q and the harmonic of the frequency. Meaning, I can add 35Hz in a song with a tight Q...so I'd be adding "the elements of" that frequency instead of boosting it flat out. The other thing to keep in mind is, multi-band limiters are just about a necessity when working with frequencies that low. You now have total control of how much can squeeze on through. Between controlling it with an eq and a compression that focuses on a specific frequency, those tools as well as the right listening environment make that low end a breeze. Not to mention, like our answer to number 2....the frequencies in the low end are all set up to stay out of each others way. So you have a "force-field" within a "force-field". :) Hope this better explains some of it for you. :)
-Danny