"Just" by Bicep: Understanding the Ideology of the Mix
- George Hickman
- Jun 14, 2017
- 4 min read
Hello people!
If I could tell you one thing I would love to improve about my own productions, it would be the Mixing, Mastering and Sound Design. I am always enthralled by the clarity of some of the songs I listen to, a highlight is 'Just' by Bicep.
'Just' is a beautifully simplistic club techno track, featuring a repetitive melodic line, groovy percussion section and blissful pads. I first heard the song at Elsewhere Nightclub, it was beautiful, the song was so clear, crisp, open. Every second of the song is precise and cohesive, something I strive for with my music. As a producer, I understand the power great songwriting and melodic content can have to the final outcome, which is why I am going to focus solely on how 'Just' achieves its sound and clarity.
Instrument Choice:
Bicep have been very vocal about their choice in instruments and sounds, typically sticking with analogue instruments or samples they themselves have captured. One of the more obvious instruments in the mix is the TR909, when interviewed about important pieces of gear Bicep have in the studio, they said; "Yeah, yeah the TR-909, you've heard it all before, blah blah… but we've got to include it as a real staple of our workflow. It was one of the first things we bought when we delved into the analog world, and it's safe to say we will never part ways with it".
When taking a look into the percussion track, you can sonically hear the difference between where they have used a sample (or other drum machine) over the 909. This can be heard at the end of a 8 bar phrase, the 909 snare roll comes in and sonically differs from the main snare. In an interview Bicep spoke about adding found sounds / subtle looped grooves that build the atmosphere of a track; "From an engineering and mixing point of view, we've found even the most subtle bit of background ambient noise added to the mix can really cement tracks together. We sometimes create little subtle looped grooves from recordings like fires crackling, or birds singing. It's amazing how imperfect, off-kilter sounds can really actually bring some loops". This effect can be heard later in the track, at around the 3 minute mark. The percussion track builds subtly, adding alternative hi hats and percussive hits, low in the mix to give more groove and energy to the loop.
The other main aspects of the instrumentation in 'Just' comes from the main melody and the atmospheric pads. The melody seems to be a sequenced line run through a FM synthesizer due to its bell styled sound, maybe coming from a Korg Poly-800. The percussive and resonant lead line is countered with a subtle pad, which is most likely a Roland SH101 due to the thick bass frequency.
Bicep's Known Hardware:
Korg Poly-800
Korg M1
Roland Juno 106
Roland SH101
Roland TR909
Arp Odyssey
Yamaha DX21
Mixing:
The most appealing part of 'Just', to me, is the mix. The depth this track has, the space in which it lives, is vast and beautiful. The mix itself takes a pretty standard approach to mixing, using the ideology of photography. This method is where you take aspects of framing with photography and apply it to your mix i.e. Foreground, Middle-ground and Background. In this instance the Foreground is the Lead, the Middle-ground is the Percussion and the Background is the Pad. This style of mixing gives atmosphere to the mix, with the background acting as a 'reality' that the song sits in, usually Reverb and Delays would fall into this setting also. The Middle Ground sits the rhythm section, giving movement and character to the track, leaving the Foreground to be the focal point, the topic.
The frequency range, especially in the low / low mid, represents this mentality. For example, the pad sits quite low in the frequency range; meaning it sounds larger and thicker, to place this in the background puts it in its relative place. (Of course, changing this method up will alter the atmosphere of the track, a more upfront low end usually sounds more intense and aggressive). This also gives the songs such powerful crescendos, by having the pad's dynamic range change, like opening the filter, brings the pad further into the foreground. The sound of this filter sounds like it is adding extra saturation giving it more of a biting and thick sound, most likely the sound of the Sherman Filterbank 2.
"The Sherman is basically the best mod for any synth/drum machine you could ever want; run anything through it and there will always be interesting results."
To keep this concise I want to stray away from the mix itself and look into how the effects have been blended into the mix. For example, from 0:50 to 1:20, the Lead melodic line is brought into the mix and is fed through multiple processes to create a typical techno 'build'. It seems to be brought into the mix through the Sherman as well, because of its timbre staying the same while coming through a low pass filter sweep, the Lead also pans left to right at a phrase by phrase tempo. The Lead is also brought out of a heavy wet mix of reverb, this is a reoccurring technique, along with the panning that gives cohesion to the soundscape.
References:
Cherchi, V. (2015) Found Sound: Bicep. Dummy Magazine.
Reynaldo, S. (2014) Bicep Details the Five Most Essential Pieces of Its Studio Set-Up. XLR8R.
Saver, C. (2012). Q&A With Bicep. Anthem Magazine. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
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