Case Study: Covered In Chrome

Born and bred in 4122, Queensland, childhood mates Luke Boerdam (Guitarist/vocalist), James Tidswell (Guitarist/vocalist), Luke Henerey (bassist) and Michael Richards (drummer) make up what is the award winning and chart topping band, Violent Soho (AllMusic, 2019). Since 2009, The band has been making waves with their 80's and 90's grunge inspired pop rock. The lead singer, Luke Boerdam, has a very unique voice that really makes their music different and original, but for this analysis I will mostly be focusing on the instrumental side of their music, while analysing the mixing of the track also. For such a (some would say) heavy rock song, the dynamic range in the composition is quite exceptional. It's mixed in such a way where, when quiet, there's a lot of attention and tension built from just a couple of instruments, and when the crescendo peaks, nothing is overpowering or overdriven, everything still manages to sit nicely together. The Mixing techniques used in this production will directly help when it comes to mixing a track by a local band I am working with; Fools Land. Their song, Home, will benefit greatest from analysing Covered In Chrome due to the instrumentation used and the genre being closely related to one another.

Let's start with the track specs...

Track: Covered In Chrome

Artist: Violent Soho

Album: Hungry Ghost

Label: SideOneDummy records

Producer: Bryce Moorhead

Writer(s): James Tidswell, Luke Henerey

Released: 2013

Song Length: 3:30

Genre: Rock

I mentioned in the introduction that this song has a huge dynamic range, and that is noticeable just by looking at the audio file (Appendix A)

Appendix A - Waveform for Covered In Chrome

The song structure is as follows: A - B - A - B - C - A - B - C - D

Before we begin breaking down the instrumentation and mixing techniques, we should probably listen to it first.

Violent Soho - Covered In Chrome

A - Intro/Verse A

Even though there aren't many components in this section, it is still powerful in its own way. For the first 24 bars, only James' Guitar and Luke's voice are present, collectively they're giving a great feeling of intimacy. In the mix I notice that the lead guitar is panned (mostly) to the right with vocals dead centre, they both have similar room sized reverbs on them which perfectly fit (what looks like) the sonic characteristics of the film clip (Appendix A). Now I'm not sure if this was an aesthetic choice made with the film clip in mind or not, but it could definitely be something to think about in the future when mixing bands; Talk about any visual concepts they have and using that as a reference point for spacial dynamics. The guitar in this sections seems as though it doesn't have a lot of EQ'ing on it, potentially a low shelf EQ and a minimal hi-cut, but other than that it seems as though it has quite a natural frequency response (Appendix B). It's clear to me that the Vocals have (at least) low and hi-cut EQ parameters, low-cut being just above 100Hz and the hi-cut falling off after 10kHz.

After the initial 24 bars, drums and bass are introduced, although the bass seems to be a synthetic drone, rather than a physical guitar. This technique can be achieved using a bass guitar, an amp and certain Guitar FX Pedals, but this is an artistic choice and not a recording or mixing technique, so it is (somewhat) out of my control as a recording engineer/producer.

The last four bars of this section and the transition to the chorus are what really make this song stand out. Things such as the panning and EQ are a given, but it's the difference in amplitude and processing that may not be as noticeable, yet make all the difference. For instance, when the drums begin (Appendix C), all of the transients are clear with no clipping. When the chorus starts, it's clear that everything has been pushed through a brick wall limiter/had their amplitude increased because those same transients are now peaking much closer to 0dB (Appendix D).

Appendix A - Covered In Chrome film clip

Appendix B - Spectral Analyser of Guitar & Vox in Verse A

Appendix C - Drum Sequence Transients Pre-Chorus - 0:50

Appendix D - Transients During Chorus - 0:56

B - Chorus

From start to finish, this 8 bar section continuously booms. There are added instruments that aren't present for most (if not all) of Verse A, these are Luke's lead guitar and the bass guitar. I believe the drums have been altered slightly; in the pre chorus, the snare and kick a quite dry and are at the forefront of the stage plot. In the chorus, the kick seems to sit further back in the mix. This could be done using a reverb, or it could simply be a result of the higher frequencies of the kick drum skin (200Hz) being lost in the mix due to the extra guitars having been introduced. The snare is not only sitting further back in the mix, but it's sonic characteristics sound different; there's more noise and grit; it sounds much wider. This can be achieved by using a gated reverb technique for width (works great with a room mic as the gated ambience), and compression to add extra crunch and distortion (especially parallel compression).

Using a gated reverb and compression combination on my mix of Home is a perfect idea, we had a room mic in the studio when recording (perfect ambience for a gate) and instead of only parallel compressing the snare drum, I can use the same technique on the Tchad recording. This would of coarse be an aesthetic choice. If I wanted the kick to be dry and the snare to crunch, I would only compress the snare. If I wanted the whole kit to have a little bit of overall crunch, I would use the Tchad.

The lead vocal is sitting quite far back in the mix, I believe this was intentionally done to emphasis the instrumentation in this particular section as the vocals 'hero' all of the verses. Having the guitars in your face and peaking at -0.1dB, widening and compressing the drum kit as well as having the lead vocalist yelling makes this part of the song the loudest, so loud that it has an integrated LUFs meter of -6dB (Appendix E). In most cases this would seem to be way too loud for any streaming platform, but it's interesting to notice that they're able to peak so loud in this section because of how much lower the LUFs are in the verses (-16dB). This gives the engineer so much more headroom to really push the amplitude and still be able to maintain a standardised LUFs level for streaming platforms (-14dB).

Appendix E - LUFs during chorus

A - Verse B & C

This verse is much like the pre-chorus, but with lyrics. It's noticeable that the vocals sit nicely within the mix, they don't stand out as much as the intro but I think this is simple because of the additions of the drums. The spacial dynamics are still the same as the previous verse, they're still placed in a medium room reverb. The processing on the drums have dropped, there is much less crunch on the snare and the kick seems much dryer. To talk on the reverb more, they have chosen to place themselves in this sort of 'virtual garage', giving a respectful nod to 80's and 90's punk rock aesthetic. By positioning their band in this sonic field it instantly makes them sound more relatable and 'close to home'.

C - Bridge

Following on from the chorus, the bridge continues it's LUFs assault of -6dB. All instrumentation's levels are the same, the main difference in the mix are the lead vocals; Luke is now singing more of a hook than the chorus, thus needed for it to be more audible. This subtle change in dB level changes the attention from the instruments to the lyrics (perfect for live performance, in my opinion), from sitting just behind the guitars to now sitting just in front of them, it's done with such precision that I feel like it would be nearly inaudible to a listener who isn't actively seeking to analyse the mixing techniques. Overall this section has a very wholesome feel to it. In the right side of a stage plot (right speaker), sits an upper octave guitar sequence that is present but doesn't distract the listener from any aspect of the song that has previously been introduced. This add to the overall texture and feel for the song; creates the songs epidemic event and makes for the most memorable part (in my opinion)

D - Outro

The outro of this song is just an extension to the bridge. Other than composition, the only real differences is the volume of the guitar solo that was quiet during the bridge, it is now the most noticeable aspect. The vocals now sound like they're in a much larger space; more like a hall than a room. It sounds like there is a delay on Luke's vocals as well, but this could be from a pre-delay parameter in the reverb rather than an actual delay plug-in.

Conclusion

A few key things that I have taken from this in regards to my mixes with bands, is manipulating the integrated LUFs metering. Just because streaming platforms require -14LUFs, doesn't mean that they need to be in the ballpark for the entirety of the song. They've managed to push the dB levels to extreme amount and still sit within the standards for streaming platforms by having the verses much quieter than recommendation and the chorus' much louder (genius). Another thing I will take from this is drum processing; changing characteristics of instrumentation to best work with a certain section, rather than mixing the individual tracks and keeping them with the same sonic characteristics for the whole song. By doing this it can create a much more impactful moment in crescendos and song peaks.

References:

Violent Soho | Biography & History | AllMusic. (2019). AllMusic. Retrieved 12 December 2019, from https://www.allmusic.com/artist/violent-soho-mn0001793283/biography