Like the OP I'm pretty floored by the production values of modern music.  The other day I was listening to "Kiss You Tonight" by David Nail and was amazed by how "thick" that recording is.  If I tried to do that I'd end up with a sonic mudpie. 
 
As for JB, I've yet to make it all the way through a song.

Big fan of Ms. Etheridge. I was quite surprised to hear that same clean, clear mix live onstage. So it's not just the engineering that gets the credit - unless the same person comes along on the bus, which I doubt is the case. More likely, it's a sound the artist works to achieve and understands how to go about it. What are the odds Britney Spears knows how to arrange a song or tune a PA? (I don't think she even knows how to "work" a microphone, since her shows are all lip-synched.)

bitflipper
What are the odds Britney Spears knows how to arrange a song or tune a PA? (I don't think she even knows how to "work" a microphone, since her shows are all lip-synched.)

There is a video interview with folks that recorded with Max Martin, Ms. Spears included. And they all say he tells them exactly how to sing, how to phrase with the beat and will not let go until it is perfect. They say he is quite a task master.

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

https://soundcloud.com/aa...ks/yellow-candy-master
I've been experimenting with this now for a very long time...Danny and I have been butting heads for a few years too.  This might be interesting to this topic if anyone is interested.  It's one of my EDM tracks, I like it Neo-Sixties Pop...or something along those lines.  Sorry in advance if I've caused any offence, by posting my track, but I think you will find it demonstrates what the OP was talking about.
 
Peace and Love Neb,
And RIP George Martin.

Karyn
I don't have any ultrasonic transducers in my gig bag...  Will an SM58 do?

Your gear list contains a Studio 192. Assuming you ever use 192 or even "just" 96 kHz sampling rates, you have also to believe that it is worth caring about signal in the 40 kHz region too (even if you can't actually hear it) or you are just wasting bandwidth. I hasten to add that I don't have any real clue what goes on in these regions and I would never claim to hear the difference. I am simply following the logic of the sampling theorem, here.
 
I sometimes comfort myself by thinking in octaves instead - that 96 kHz leap from 96 to 192 only requires another seven white keys on my Supersonic Steinway  

jpetersen
 
There is a video interview with folks that recorded with Max Martin, Ms. Spears included. And they all say he tells them exactly how to sing, how to phrase with the beat and will not let go until it is perfect. They say he is quite a task master.

Too true.  I spent a questionable 2 weeks as stand-in tape-op with Mutt Lange working on Bryan Adam's Waking up the Neighbors album.  I have never before or since worked with anyone with that level of intense perfection, and in truth it was a defining moment for me that made me ultimately quit as a professional engineer because it took out the joy of spontaneity. Astonishing attention to detail (a whole day spent moving individual hi-hats back and forth by 3ms) was just too much for my young head.  My flatmate endured an entire Shania Twain album immediately after that.  Drove him nearly insane, he also quit and we ended up driving 20,000km through Australia to normalise ourselves.