Analyzing "Answer the Phone"

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riggler

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 24, 2006
Messages
1,076
Location
Pennsylvania, USA
Song: Anwer the Phone by Sugar Ray.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxmirNqrn8c

So I love this mix. I know it's old, but I just heard it on the radio.

  • Pretty compressed drum bus. (Listen to the inner detail coming out -- I'm sure there is some automation there in places.)
  • Squashed snare with maybe a slight peak around 4 or 5kHz. But it so works in this song.
  • All tracks, vox especially, have a wonderful slight edge I estimate around 10 or 12kHz? Midrange sounds very dynamically controlled
  • The mix bus has gotta be compressed, sounds like an SSL!

Lower midrange in all instruments is nice and round. Double-tracking on guitars makes for nice width.
So is this all SSL I'm hearing? Some might say overcompressed, but I think it's spot on for the song.

Overall, it's the the dynamic control that I really think makes the mix.
 
I would like some more "juice" in the guitars. Or the whole mix, for that matter. Sounds pretty scooped in the midrange (maybe multiband compression ate the content?). Drums and vocals are pretty standard for the genre and the age (as is SSL-type compression on the master bus :p ). Nice punch on the floortoms on 2:44, although in 2:52 the limiting does its standard damage, you feel like the song is going to launch itself to the sky but the limiting prevents it from doing so, kicks in very badly. I don't know how much of it is because of the youtube codec, though :p

Overall, while at least "average" for this genre, I would say that it would benefit a lot from a (slightly) wider dynamic range, less scooped mids and a less agressive mastering.
 
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