Final Track Teardown

My second project has kind of taken a turn and has turned out sounding less like the original reference track and instead sounds like a new track.

As I am in the mixing stages, I am now looking through reference tracks to compare my mix against. I have noticed my song shares a lot of traits as another song:

Busted - On What You’re On

This track has a lot of similar elements to my second project in areas such as the tempo, bass, drums and overall vibe. It has a kind of funk / disco sound to it which my song has many elements of. As my song has already been created and i’m in the mixing stages, I will be mostly focusing on the mixing that I can hear in the elements rather than how they are used etc.

As always, before getting deep into the teardown, we need to establish some general information of the track.

The overall structure of On What You’re On is:

INTRO, VERSE, PRE CHORUS, CHORUS, INSTRUMENTAL, VERSE, PRE CHORUS, CHORUS, INSTRUMENTAL, BRIDGE, INSTRUMENTAL, CHORUS, OUTRO.

Other important Information:

BPM: 110

Key: E minor

("Key & BPM for On What You're On by Busted | Tunebat", n.d.)

Busted are an English band that creates pop / rock music. Formed in 2000, the band consists of 3 members James Bourne, Matt Willis and Charlie Simpson. The band has influenced artists such as The Vamps and 5 Seconds of summer. Although the band had taken a break and was presumed to be disbanded (pun not intended), they returned years later to release the album Night Driver, in which On What You’re On was the first single. The track was also co Produced by Alex Metric. ("Night Driver (album)", n.d.) ("On What You're On", n.d.)

Track Teardown:

INTRO:

Before the intro begins we here a reversed synth pad sound which is a small transition into the actual start of the song. This sounds to have a band passed EQ on it in only allowing middle sections to be played such as areas. This fades out with a reverb of about 2 seconds.

The song then begins with a kick and low passed elements.

The kick has quite a clicky sound to it, it sounds to have more of a presence around the 2-6khz range, and is otherwise thin in other areas of it, it doesn’t have much low end or ‘punch’ to it . It could also potentially have a very short snare transient on every second beat, (although this could just be a placebo effect on my end).

There is also a vocal element in this section, singing the vocal melody, this sounds to be tuned to sound like a synth hybrid, as there is an unnatural legato effect when changing to different notes. This has a heavy reverb on it, I’m going to say around almost completely wet signal, It also has the low end taken out and has a rather thin sound.

The other elements sound to be rhodes, a bass guitar and rhythm guitar, these are lowpassed and raise in automation. The snares and other percussion besides the kick raise in volume and in terms of lowpass. There is also a fill in here with a reverb on it with a decay of about 3-4 seconds.

On the 4th bar of the intro a talkbox / vocoder effect is introduced. This is essentially over one of the singers voices which gives a robotic type effect. This has some high end into it, which is a nice contrast from all of the low passed or thin elements. The rhythm guitar can be more clearly heard in this part as well, which has quite heavy distortion and high end sound.

The bass guitar is a big part of the song so its a key part for me to analyse. It seems to have a lot more presence in the low end, below around 100Hz. However, there is still some slap sounds that can be heard

In order to transition into the verse, a snare fill can be heard, this may potentially be sampled from a real drum kit, layered with electronic snares.

VERSE and PRECHORUS:

All of the instruments from the intro just now at full volume and with no low pass filter.

We can hear the addition of the hats, which sound to have not much high end, as if they have been high passed to about 1Khz.

The snare has a pre-shifted sound which allows it to ‘roll in’ rather than a static hit directly on the beat. There is also some reverb on this, around 1-2 seconds, the way the reverb is placed on the snare has a kind of 80’s style gated reverb effect.

At the end of every forth bar we can hear the big reverb snare. This has a lot more of the middle range frequencies in comparison to the other sounds in the song.

The rhodes sound has some warmth in it, likely some type of analog style distortion and an EQ boost in the upper mid range.

We can hear some heavily processed guitar with a very strong flanger / wah-pedal type effect over it.

In the last 2 bars before transitioning into the chorus, the drums and bass are high passed but then also sound to be low passed at the same time.

The vocal is a layered take as there sounds like there is a higher falsetto, these are compressed and EQ’d as there is no real dynamic range. There is no real obvious vocal delay or even reverb that can be heard.

Chorus:

All above elements with inclusion of:

Down lifter on the first hit of the chorus

Synth occasionally enters which has a presence in the mid to upper mid range.

Instrumental

Bass, Drums, Talkbox, Guitar, Rhodes

The Vocal from the intro can also be heard again, this time with a very heavy reverb, likely 100% with a large decay to create an ambient effect.

VERSE 2:

Almost the exact same as the first

New singer, seems to be processed about the same as the first. (weird chop in the word “misbehaving” oh the like “I’m so over misbehaving”, perhaps a mistake in the vocal comp or autotune?)

PRE CHORUS:

Synth String sounded added seems to fit in the upper mid range.

Riser introduced

Chorus: Same as first with addition of synth string pad.

BRIDGE:

Instruments become lowpassed, leaving the vocal to be very clear

Synth with chorus that is playing the chord progression with a heavy sidechain effect rises in volume, has no low end.

Instrumental:

Saxophone Solo Synth from Earlier and all elements from chorus sections

Outro:

Vocal from intro, Talkbox and Rhodes fade out

There is now a dark 80’s style reese bass synth which can be heard. Interestingly enough the sound fades out which is uncommon for many modern pop songs.

Overall Feel:

This song has a very pop funk type feeling that is similar to the vibe I believe achieved in my current project. The use of the saxophone solo in the end gives off a very dance-y type vibe that is fun and not to be taken too seriously. The vocals have quite a rhythmic melody rather than lets say a vocal melody with lots of slow sustained notes it tends to be a bit choppier in the verse, which I think adds to the catchiness of it.

Listening to the elements in this song and how they are mixed rather than how specifically they were created has allowed me to think more about the mix I am doing for my project, and how there may be certain elements that I can take as inspiration for my own mix.

References:

Filtered Supersaw Reese Bass in 2 Minutes! | u-he Diva Tutorial. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoPTVInUoQM

Key & BPM for On What You're On by Busted | Tunebat. Retrieved from https://tunebat.com/Info/On-What-You-re-On-Busted/7Ir9X7HXAZuO0kz9KyThMc

Night Driver (album). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Driver_(album)

On What You're On. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_What_You%27re_On

Sigma Sound Studio Fender Rhodes with Vintage Vibe Stereo Vibe Preamp. (2010). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HtfWSbmuAc

Stevie Wonder- "Close To You" 1972 LIVE Talk Box (Reelin' In The Years Archive). (2017). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnR19INlXV8