AUdIoCoUrSeS
Joined: 31 Oct 2002
Posts: 2014
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| Song Analysis - The Beatles Paper Back Writer |
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If listening is part of the game of recording it is of course imperative you practice it with some degree of repetition. Listening in the engineering production sense is all together an entirely different practice compared to listening on an emotional level, as a consumer.
As an engineer our ears have to be trained into listening for the small details on the mix, the most subtle of reverb and minute amount of compression, the smallest fraction of room sound to the tiniest shift in mid.
In order to listen this way we have to work on it, there is no quick solution, but you can practise it, and regularly.
So who wants to get the ball rolling on this particular song, what can you hear?
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Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:54 pm |
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wailingalleycat
Forum Manager
Joined: 07 Oct 2003
Posts: 694
Location: Jersey C.I (UK) |
| Background |
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To begin with
Click Here
to go to wikipedia for very brief background info. |
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Sat Mar 01, 2008 2:05 am |
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wailingalleycat
Forum Manager
Joined: 07 Oct 2003
Posts: 694
Location: Jersey C.I (UK) |
| First Impressions |
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Thought i would just listen through once and record my first impressions before i listen in depth in the morning.
Thing that jumps out most is the stereo image. In the intro we just have the lead vocal in the centre. the backing vocals are then panned hard left and right either side. As the instrumentation comes in the mix is almost entirely placed on the left hand side (possibly, havent checked if my speakers here are wired correctly, lol) with a lot of the high rattly components such as the hi hat, snare and rhythm guitar.
Unusually the kick drum is panned hard left from what i can tell with the bass guitar coming in later on the right. The delay on the lead vocal sounds very mono and is fixed with the vocal itself in the centre of the image with the backing vocals holding their very own distinctive space on the right along with the reverb.
Its almost as if the spectrum goes from left to right, if we ignore the kick drum for now we have the snare and hi-hat on the left, both very HF oriented, going down to the lead vocals in the middle, mostly MF, then the bass guitar right over to the right.
Anyway that'll do for now ill expand another time.
happy listening
-Paul |
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Sat Mar 01, 2008 2:21 am |
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JeepeeRock
Assisstant
Joined: 17 Jan 2008
Posts: 32
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| Paperback |
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Hi all! I'm glad to be part of this semester group.
First thing that stikes me, is the unusual hard right panning of both guitar and drums (except bass drums which is center pan). The bass guitar is full and warm, which fills up the empty space cause by the guitar/drums hard right panning.
I'm not sure but from what I can hear, the lead vocal is delayed from around 30ms. This creates a doubling illusion.
hmm i love this song...More comments to come...
Jeepee |
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Mon Mar 03, 2008 7:49 pm |
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Rmuse
Family Friend
Joined: 13 Nov 2006
Posts: 109
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| Paperback Writer - Some new techiques |
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The mix on this tune was originally a mono mix, and the stereo mix sounds very disjointed to me. I dug out the original 45 rpm single and gave it a listen or two, then went back to listen to the album this song was included on. The stereo mix and imaging pairing the bass and some backing vocals on the right with the remaining instruments on the left are typical of later Beatle recordings. This stereo mix is not unique to longtime listeners of The Beatles.
The bass and drums are very present in this recording as opposed to earlier Beatle recordings. I think this is down to two things. First, the engineer claims to have wired up a speaker to act as the microphone (a transducer in reverse) and placed it against the grill of the bass amp, and heavily compressed the signal as well as ran it through filters to get a punchier sound. Mr. Emerick claims he never used a DI on the bass. Second, the drums were (for the first time) close mic’d and also sound heavily compressed.
The lead vocal is compressed and has some reverb that didn’t seem to be present in the mono recording. The fluttering echo in the vocal at the end of the chorus’s was added at the mix stage. The vocals were routed to a separate two-track machine and the output was connected to its own input. The control issue was letting the feedback get too carried away and took a fair amount of time to achieve (Emerick, Massey 2006 p 114-117). |
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Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:46 pm |
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