Artist: Bea Miller
Bea Miller has been on the rise since her exposure to the world on season two of x factor six years ago. Although only 13 at the time the world was already a witness to her vocal talents. She went quiet for a little while between then and now but has been focusing on hining her talents and working on her individual sound. Working with other artists such as NOTD she catapulted back to the spot light with hit single 'I wanna Know' in 2018. Bea's music is typically electronic infused pop music, however her vocal talent alone stands out in this acoustic cover of her single "i wanna know' featuring spanglish artist Leroy Sanchez.
Embodiment of Track:
This track is a track that is initially a dance, poppy vibe track. The light strumming of one guitar and the plucking of the other gives it a fairly light and carefree vibe.
Arrangement:
The tempo of the song starts around 60 BPM for the intro and first verse but climbs gradually to a steady 80-87 range throughout the choruses and slowing back to around the 79 BPM mark in the other verses of the song. The song starts with both the guitars plucking out the same chord progression until they reach the choruses. During the choruses the guitar on the left of the singers begins to strum the guitar instead of plucking the chords whilst the other guitarist continues to pluck the notes. Throughout the song the vocals are pretty consistent and sit well with the guitars and the timing. however the pitch of the vocal changes during the vocalisations during the main lines of the choruses.
Production:
Essentially to create a video/ audio dynamic like this they could have had a pre recording of the audio done for the artists to practice their parts exactly as they would sing them live so they can sync perfectly with the recording. However in studying the video they may have had multiple camera set ups or a videographer camera on a pulley to get all the angles to record the live set up accurately and just fix any pitching errors in editing. Seeing how the microphones are positioned for the guitars and the movements of the artists it is likely they at minimal pre recorded/ pre rehearsed the guitar playing for the video. Then they would have got the guitarist to play exactly how they played in the studio recording with the microphones off for the guitars. The guitars sound like they have had some EQ over them to clean up the resounding cling from the plucking of the guitar strings.
Sonic Content:
The BPM for this song starts off around the 60 BMP mark however gradually increases to around the 80 BPM mark for the rest of the song. The structure of the song is made up of a verse, a pre chorus, a chorus, hook, verse two, pre chorus, chorus, hook, chorus, then finishes with the hook or main theme of the song. The key signature is 4/4. For this production they would of used a pitch corrector, especially in both of the artists high ranges to ensure they did not go out of pitch.
Subjective Feel:
I wanna Know, the acoustic version has a laid back but slightly energetic feel to it. This is demonstrated by the vocal and the accompaniment of the acoustic guitar. The chord progression used is most likely of a major chords as major chords are usually described as bright or happy.
Objective feel:
From following Leroy Sanchez and his journey since 2012 I would say that the vocal dynamics for him is mostly natural, with a slight compression to close the gap between the loudest and the quietest parts of the audio signal received from his voice. From listening to the electronic version of 'I wanna Know' I would also assume that Bea miller has compression over her vocals for the same reason, to close the gap between her dynamic range.
Final thoughts:
I find the acoustic version more appealing to listen to. It is still poppy and contains all of the dance and upbeat characteristics as the electronic version. However stripping a song back and seeing the talent from the artist leaves the song open to more analysis and interpretations. Where as in an electronic song you can change your ideas and production choices which has potential to in turn completely change the song.
- V.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/4012883-Bea-Miller
https://www.reloadsessions.com/blog/how-to-film-a-live-session
https://www.reloadsessions.com/blog/how-to-edit-a-live-session
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