Below is the demo of the song I will be referencing in this blog.
Lipstick - Tiama:
What qualities make this particular song fit into the Pop Category?
One thing that makes this track in particular fit into the pop category is the inspiration for the track. The reference track is another popular song with fairly similar structure:
With the accompaniment of the sounds and similar structure that most pop songs follow combined with Tiama's Alicia Keys like vibe to her vocals is what gives the song a pop feel. A generic definition of pop music structure is more to do with how the elements of the song is arranged rather then the musical content itself. A pop song generally is short to medium in length, written in the verse/ chorus structure (also known as AB song structure) as well as containing a repeated chorus, melodic tune and a catchy hook.
Here are song examples of pop songs following a similar structure:
What is required in the recording and development stage of the song?
During the development stage of the song a lot of research is done. Research of chord structures to find one to fit the key and sound you are going for. Research is also done as the song is being built. References are important at this stage and are needed to design the sound you want and to have a desired outcome to aim for.
What is required in the mixing stage: the specifics.
Acoustic vs. electronic:
If there are two main components coming together to flesh out a song you need to make sure you maintain a nice balance of the electronic and acoustic elements. Specifically for my mix I focused on having the vocals as the main melodic line and then balancing the instrumental behind and around the vocals as a support. I did this whilst trying to maintain cohesion and not having it feel like one or more things don't belong in the track.
Here is my first rough mix of the track that I was happy with:
For this first rough mix I only wanted to get my placement of everything in the song balance appropriately and make sure that it feels like it flows nicely with nothing standing out or considered jarring. So I made sure not to get set on anything. I used 7 band eq on the vocals to try and make the high vocal parts pop. However In this version, after listening to it again, I may have boosted the wrong frequencies as some of the highs actually feel like they fall flat. Overall for this quick mix I Just focused on getting the vocal to sound cleaner and less breathy, by using EQ, and ensuring that the instrumental for the most part didn't overpower or get in the way when the vocals were supposed to stand out. To do this I routed each element to a group bus then to a master fader. I grouped the drum parts, ie snare, hats etc, the synth pads and other electronic elements together each to their own master faders to adjust the overall level of each component. However this worked on the audio channel as a whole and I didn't know enough about automation and how to put it in practice at the time for an immediate solution.
I sent this track to some friends that I have within the industry and also to friends that are in my circle for some feedback and advice on what I should work on to make the elements I wanted to stand out. This is a link to those that got back to me:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1u70PoKaPeqXOtAV1aXqW-0AWuHs9JPw2
The most common advice I got given for my mix was that I need to add some reverb and adjust the Eq to get the vocals to fit into the pop genre a bit better. The second most common advice was that in some parts the instrumental was too much to hear the vocals clearly. To fix these issues with my mix I decided to use side-chaining with a compressor on the drum and electronic sections of my mix. This would ensure that those particular parts where the instrumental is too loud be compressed to sit under the vocals when they needed to shine and then pop up a bit when the vocals went quiet as per the styling of the song.
What is it and what does side-chaining do exactly?
I had heard this term in circles before but never really paid attention or understood what it meant until now. Here's why Side- chaining was a great method to use and helped fix the mix above. Side-chaining is a technique predominately used in most genres of music and is similar to a manual switch or diversion pathway that is triggered by an external audio track. It's one way to use a processor that won't effect your whole track if you don't need it to. This alternative pathway or source is then set to a specific threshold and when the external audio track exceeds this threshold a processor (most commonly a limiter or compressor) is activated. Likewise when the track falls back within the threshold the processor is then deactivated. This is a common technique used when mixing to help the flow of the track move better. Side-chaining does this, especially when using it with compression, by helping to smooth out the adjustments and levels of different elements as needed. Pushing forward and enhancing the parts you want to in your track.
I also went through and played around with different reverb styles until I found one that I liked the sound of and that seemed a good fit for the pop genre. I ended up using a studio preset with the Re-vibe 2 plugin in protools and just playing around with the wet/dry balance (roughly 29%) and also the attack/ release balance until I found one that made the vocal tone feel a bit warmer and not as rough and forced as in my first mix. I adjusted the reverb until the vocal was a bit more rounded and full like it would sound in a small studio setting.
I also went through a stage of removing some of the electronic synths I didn't like the sound of at the beginning of the track and in doing this I dampened the dynamics at the intro of the song (instrumental leading into vocals) To fix this I decided to add another riser before the beginning of the verse to fill the song out a bit more. This forms a sort of build up to where the track is going. I also did some EQ on the drums. Mainly on the acoustic drum tracks to bring out the strikes of the snare. I also focused on the high hats to make it sound crisper and a bit closer to the electronic hats and blend a bit better together in the mix.
This is the final result:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UcZJFm8FegjiEhjXBFz8s1ozfuDAz3qk
MusicRadar. (2019). 8 creative sidechaining tips. [online] Available at: https://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/8-creative-sidechaining-tips-364889
Sageaudio.com. (2014). What is Sidechaining?. [online] Available at: https://www.sageaudio.com/blog/pre-mastering-tips/sidechaining.php
Songstuff. (n.d.). AB Song Form And ABC Song Form. [online] Available at: http://www.songstuff.com/song-writing/article/ab-song-form-and-abc-song-form/ [
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