Studio Post-production – analysis of Trevor Horn's works

Student: Michal Stelmach

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 Introduction
In this essay three different recordings from three different periods in music production history are
going to be analyzed and compared – with each other as well as other songs of their period, and
modern productions. All songs were produced by Trevor Horn – one of the most famous and
recognizable produces who won multiple awards that prove his talent. First of all each song is going
to be analyzed and broke down into various sections, before they are going to be compared with
each other.

Overall description of each mix

Jeff Beck & Joss Stone – "I Put a Spell on You" (2010)

Song description

The song was produced by Trevor Horn and mixed by Stephen Lipson. It features Jeff Beck on
guitars, Joss Stone on vocals, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, Jason Rebello on keyboards and Tal
Wilkenfeld on double bass, it also features to sets of strings. "I Put a Spell on You" was originally
written by Screamin' Jay Hawkins and was actually covered by numerous times by artists such as:
Nina Simone, Eric Burdon, or The Animals. The style of the song can be generally described as
blues. Since it was released in 2010 and kept in a conventional blues standard it cannot be
considered to be innovative in terms of the arrangement, however it doesn't sound like a typical
song found in today's popular music charts (dance, pop, modern R&B etc.).

Production/Mixing

Although this song doesn't involve any interesting technological aspects nor it is ground breaking it
is very well produced and mixed, and it is very interesting to listen to. First of all the general
approach to production and mixing is going to be described.
One the most important characteristics of this song is its arrangement. The song is kept interesting
and involving mainly by the way it was sung and played, but also by its microdynamics - The soft
parts transfer into energetic passages by crescendos, and loud wild guitar solos. It is worth
mentioning that the interaction between the vocals and the lead guitar is very important. The guitar
often "comments" on the vocal parts and both of them use a lot of calls and responses. As they were
in fact two voices talking with each other. This fits with the concept of the song and the lyrics as
well. Joss Stone's voice and singing also make the song very convincing. The producer – Trevor
Horn – stated in the interview published on website RecordProduction.com that in his opinion the
arrangement and the quality of performers is much more important that the technical aspects of the
recording. “I Put a Spell on You” seems to be a good proof of this statement. The instruments play
in such registers and is such rhythms/parts that they almost don't compete with each other even so
most of them are focused in the center of the virtual stage. The sides of the stereo image are filled
with stereo strings and reverb (especially snare drum's reverb).

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It is however difficult to just refer to the panorama without considering depth. The latter plays one
of the most important parts and it is very well defined, and along with the equalization and the
arrangement creates this significant space between the instruments.

In terms of the dynamics of the song this mix doesn't follow the now common approach of using
heavy compression and squashing the dynamic range. The transients are well preserved, the
instruments sound natural, notes have different loudness (such as accents and ghost notes on the
snare drum or the driving piano part for instance), which is a proof of gentle and perhaps also
parallel compression on the instruments. In figure 1. one can see a comparison of waveforms (made
in Audiacity 1.3 Beta) between "I Put a Spell on You" (top) and "Mercy on Me" by Christina
Aguilera (from album Back to Basics (2006)). Both tracks are in the same style and both have
similar feel (also both are in 12/8 time signatures with heavy accents played on a snare drum with a
brush). One can see that the top track has clear transients and wide dynamic range. The bottom one
has higher overall RMS level and the transients are more compressed. In the listening comparison
"Mercy on Me" sounds heavy compressed and the drum transients are damaged (high compression
ratios with fast attack times).

Figure 1. "I Put a Spell on You" – top, "Mercy on Me" – bottom

The instruments are well balanced in terms of their levels and each of them play its role well. The
drums (cymbals and the snare drums) and the double bass are one of the loudest, they are very
dominant but not overwhelming. The kick drum just accents on the down beats and it's hidden
behind the double bass. The vocals seem to be quieter that the latter but they maintain their presence

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due to other factors (which will be described later). The electric lead guitar is pretty dominant and
loud. The piano and the string parts are rather background layers that the rest of the instruments on
top of.
This paragraph contains the characteristic features of each instrument/voice and how they influence
the whole mix.

– Vocals: well defined in three dimensions – they seem distant and omnipresent but if one
listens carefully they are actually placed in front (slightly to the left) and above the listener.
Clearly a reverb effect was – medium room/hall, moderate decay time and and noticeable
pre-delay time. The spaces the vocals are in can be clearly heard at the end of the song
(2:49). On that note, the last two but one words (2:51) create the impression that they have
been overdubbed or edited (copying and pasting). They fit in time perfectly with the reverb's
decay time (like some gate or crossfades were used). The latter seem to be different that in
the rest of the mix, and also the way the words were sung seems to differ from the rest of the
mix. Another interesting aspect of vocals is that even when they overlap with lead guitar
parts they don't seem to collide with each other, this suggest usage of complementary
equalization.
– Lead guitar - is sharp and quite dynamic, especially in high mid frequency band, but it
doesn't annoy. I cuts nicely through the mix without overwhelming other instruments – this
was probably created by creative usage of equalization which prevented it from occupying
the same frequencies as other instruments. It seems a bit rounded as well which suggest
some compression with fast attack time. It also has quite a lot of reverb on it, it sounds as it
was played in a large empty room, or a corridor behind the rest of the band. This adds a lot
to the sense of depth. Also, and this was probably a mistake, in 0:25 s there appears a sound
which is similar to a sound of a finger sliding on a muted string. And it feels pretty
awkward.
– Double bass – it stick out of the mix, it's very punchy and rounded – it was probably
compressed with higher ratio settings. It is very strong in 100 – 250 Hz frequency range, and
often sounds boomy (in Figure 2. one can clearly see the relative amplitude of these
frequencies when the double bass is playing). It may have been done on purpose but it also
may be seen as a drawback. In this mix the double bass creates the most of the bottom and
with the bass drum just enhancing it.
– Drums – the bass drum plays in the background, enhancing the double bass line, giving it
more body and presence. Is played rather softly only on the downbeats. Some
complementary EQ and/or ducking were used to make it work well with the double bass.
The snare drum sounds very realistic, it sounds as if the drums were recorded in a large
room with good acoustics. The snare drum fills the sides of the stereo image (overhead
microphones, room microphones/reverberation). The cymbals are well defined however a
shelving filter with cut-off frequency of 10 kHz and 3-4 dB gain would give them more air
and sizzling. Without it they sound a bit dull.
– The rhythm guitar - playing in the background - is pretty quiet and not dominant at all in
comparison with the rest of the mix. However it sometimes collides with the double bass
(when they play the same note) in terms of playing in the same frequency band – such as in
0:28 s. This can be noticeable. Along with the piano part it creates a nice background layer.
– Piano – piano seems to be very narrow when the frequency spectrum is concerned, this
prevents it from competing with more important instruments in this mix. Apart from the

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 strings and the overhead drum microphones it is the only instrument to be hard panned
(although it still doesn't seem to be positioned right in the right speaker – it is somewhere in
between the center and the right side).
– Strings – there are two sets of different sounding strings. The first play the same rhythm as
the piano and the rhythm guitar (mainly the verses – but not for their entire length), and the
second come in chorus (the first ones are then faded out smoothly). The latter sound more
focused. They both sound a bit hollow and lack the sense of space – they sound like strings
used in 80s TV dramas. This however may be on purpose as because of it they provide a
nice background layer that “glues” the rest of the instruments together. The fill the sides of
the stereo image making it sound wide.

Figure 2. - dominant mi000

Overall the mix is very well made. The positioning of the instruments in three dimensions is very
good and realistic. By usage of various productions techniques such as complementary equalization,
compression, creating space (reverberation etc.) and distance, and appropriately sounding
instruments the image is very convincing. Every instrument has its place and there is much space
between them.

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 Gracy Jones – "Slave to the rhythm" (1985)

Song description

The song was produced by Trevor Horn and Stephen Lipson. It features Gracy Jones on lead vocals,
Stephen Lipson on bass (and some percussion parts). The style of this song can be described as New
York go-go funk. It was quite innovative in its time because in those days the digital technology and
sampling were not available to anyone and Trevor Horn stated in one of his interview that "Slave to
the Rhythm" own a lot to it. First of all the drums on these track were mainly created of sampled
loops. Since the go-go band that Trevor hired to play on this track couldn't remember the
arrangement he decided to create drum tracks artificially. His assistant, Steve Lipson, created 2 bar
drum loop using sounds that were captured when the band was jamming in the studio. It was done
with two digital multi-track tape recorders and SMPTE time code offsets. This beat is used almost
in the entire songs. There is 8 bars of the go-go drummer actually playing (starting at 3:20 s). The
drum fills were added later as overdubs. "Slave to the Rhythm" also features Synclavier, one of the
first digital polyphonic synthesisers. Trevor also used T808 programmable drum machine to trigger
notes (via using control voltage) of his Roland sequencer. He stated that all this technology enabled
him to create new and innovative sounds while making the recording of the hi-fi sound quality.
Synclavier (in contrast with Fairlight for instance) had a bit depth of 16 bits which is still used today
as standard for Audio Cds.

Production/Mixing

In terms of the general approach to mixing and production of this track there are a few very notable
aspects. First of all the arrangement (which is relatively simple) is made interesting by using many
sonic effects and samples that drag the attention of the listener. The list of the sound effects used is
very long and it includes: synthetic choirs, synthesised wind sounds/explosions, various pads
resembling brass, strings, flutes, classic 80s pads like in 2:06 s, and lead synths. It also uses many
effects units such as delay lines. These sound effects are made even more interesting b using
panning automation – percussion for instance (wood blocks to be exact) often go across the stereo
image from left to right. As Trevor Horn admitted in the interview published on
RecordProduction.com he at the time used to do a lot of hard panning in his mixes. In this mix
almost everything apart from the bass, drums (kick and snare drums), lead vocals and some,
occasionally playing synthesizers is hard panned left and right. And he liked those hard panned
tracks to be loud which is apparent when listening to "Slave to the Rhythm". This habit was quite
uncommon in those days as the most popular record medium was LP record. People whom he used
to send his mixes to master and cut them on vinyls often complained that if the mix has to much
loud and hard panned tracks it will cause distortion, but he did not care and even said that he had
been testing them to what extend they can tolerate it. Nevertheless because of this habit the
recordings sounded more interesting, maintaining the listeners attention.

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In terms of the frequency spectrum the mix is very well balanced. The bottom end is controlled,
there are no offensive frequencies in that range. The low bass is mainly maintained by the bass
drums, while the bass guitar plays on top of it in sync, giving it more body and definition in higher
frequencies. It can be said that the base of the track – the bass instruments play in unison and can
almost be treated as one. This was probably created by usage of complementary EQ. When the bass
guitar plays just on its own – like in 3:10 s – there isn't much low frequencies, contrary to when the
bass drum is playing on its own. In terms of the mid range, although there is very much happening
in there, doesn't seem to have any problems. This is also accomplished by the EQ, but also – to a
great extend, by hard panning most of the instruments. Both of the guitars are panned hard left/right
respectively for instance, the percussion as well as pads and sound effects is panned hard right and
so forth. This keeps the mid range in the center less crowded and allowed the vocals to cut through.
The recording is definitely not dull – there is a lot richness in the top end, which is not only due to
the mixing techniques used but also, the richness of sound effects, percussion, and other
instruments.

The spaces (in terms of the acoustic environments) in the mix are quite interesting and characteristic
to the classic 80's sound – long and big reverbs, delays and separation between the instruments
makes the recording feel very spacious. The reverbs on vocals as well as drums for instance seems
to be a plate or hall reverb with long decay time. This creates a sense of distance, and make the
impression that those instruments are in some way abstraction (in the same way 80's music videos
are). Not all the instruments are that distant, the percussion for instance seems to be very close to
the listener, which is probably caused by noticeable lack of reverberation.
As far as the level balance of the instruments is concerned on of the characteristic features of Trevor
Horn is that the bass guitar is usually close to the listener and loud. This is a feature of the described
mix as well. The drums on the other hand are situated in the back, and they sound softer – more like
funky/fusion drums than classic 80s big sounding kits (the snare drum is not stickin out for
instance). The percussion is quieter than the rest of the instruments and is rather playing in the
background. The same applies to the guitars which are on the sides of the stereo image and lower in
level. Their sound can be also described as being classic 80s sound – clean guitars, with some
phasing/flanging effects, possibly a Stratocaster single pick-up guitar. Due to the level and the
reverb effects used vocals seem to be coming from behind the instruments but as if they were very
loud at source. The sound effects and synthesizes are moderate in levels playing more in the
background.

In terms of the dynamics, there doesn't seem to be a lot of level differences between the instruments
however the song is driving and it seems dynamic and rounded – proves the usage of gentle
analogue compression. It is not squashed (as it happens with heavy compression and hard limitting
common nowadays) and the transients are clear and well defined. In comparison with some recent
productions the overall level seems to be much lower. All of this can be noticed in Figure 3. - the
waveform view.

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Figure 3. - "Slave to the Rhythm" – waveform view.

Yes – "Owner of a Broken Heart" (1983)

Song description

The song was produced and mixed by Trevor Horn, and it was recorded after the band reformed 2
years break. Before that Trevor Horn joined the band in 1980 as the lead vocalist however he wasn't
liked by Yes fans and because of that the band ceased to exist. Yes asked Trevor to produce the track
for them which they could come back with. "Owner of a Broken Heart" was the result. The song
features Jon Anderson on lead vocals, Trevor Rabin on guitars and keyboards, Chris Squire on bass
guitar and Alan White on drums. The styl of the recording can be described as progressive rock
however its structured more as a pop recording. Although according to Trevor Horn this song was
made using analogue technology (apart from Roland T808 synchronized with a Roland Sequencer
mentioned in the previous paragraph used to trigger samples and mimimoog synth via CV) it was
quite innovative in terms of the way it was produced. Great usage of effect units, pan automation
and very wide stereo image weren't popular in those days.

Production Mixing

In terms of the arrangement "Owner of a Broken Heart" is quite interesting and it incorporates
various sound effects as well as unusual passages. The drum loops for instance (the one in the intro
and the one in the bridge right before the guitar solo) differ from the timbre and tonal characteristic
of the rest of the mix, and could actually be described as break beats found in modern drum'n'bass
and jungle styles of music. It could probably have been taken from some jazz drum solos. This,
however, is not the only example of Trevor's innovative ideas. Around 3:04s for instance the
distorted and extremely wild and aggressive guitar solo transfers into a soft clean guitar playing
acapella. The two are in much contrast to each other and have completely different feels and tonal
characteristic. Also things such as unexpected key change at the end of the song ( around 3:50) and
unusual and sudden usage of sound effects in a form of call and response such as the ones in the
first bridge (occurring right after the intro) make the song interesting and unpredictable right until
the end. This however seems to be the overall characteristic of 80s concept of art as it can be seen in
80s music videos such as

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In terms of the macro dynamics this production doesn't have a lot of variety. The pulse and feel stay
the same for the entire songs with a few pauses and middle 8 section (right after the guitar solo). As
far as the micro-dynamic are concerned this mix has quite high overall level and it's much more
heavily compressed than other similar songs of this period (such as "Every Breath You Take" by
The Police ( from album Synchronicity (1983)). The drum hits are very punchy and tight and all the
instruments seem to be closer to each other in terms of their levels. As it can be seen in figure 4. the
overall RMS level is quite high and the transients are noticeably compressed.

Figure 4. - Owner of a Broken Heart – waveform view

As far as the frequency balance is concerned this mix is quite and exceptional one in comparison
with other mixes of this period. First of all high frequencies stick out and are sometimes irritating
(especially around 8 kHz), this gives the guitars, hi-hat, and the harp-orchestral-like stereo effects
with strong contours and presence. The high mid/low high frequency band seems to be even a bit to
crowded sometimes. One of the reasons behind this may be that since the tape in those days was
less efficient in preserving high frequencies and with the vinyl disks the HF used to "wear out" it
was decided to raise the level of top end to compensate for it. On the other hand the bottom end of
the mix is very well controlled and punchy, and no boomy or annoying frequency band are present.
It drives the song with the bass guitar and the kick drum working with not against each other. Again
this is due to the right equalization techniques but also compression. The mid frequencies seem to
be well balanced as well. To prove that the sound of the mix was not an ordinary one in those days a
Match EQ plugi-in was used to compare the tonal balance of "Owner of a Broken Heart" and
similar song – "Every Breath You Take" by The Police. The result is showed in Figure 5. As it can
be seen the latter would mainly need to have more low and high frequency content added to match
The Police song.
.

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Figure 5. "Owner of a Broken Heart" vs. "Every Breath You Take" – match EQ

In terms of the panorama and depth this song seem to have not too much of the latter. On the other
hand it resembles one of Trevor's trademarks which is hard panning. While drums, bass and vocals
stay more less in the center of the image the rest of the instruments is panned hard left/right. The are
two different cleaning rhythm guitars for instance often playing the same parts but since they are
different and panned left and right they fill the entire stereo image but not getting in the way of the
instruments focused in the center. This recording also feature quite a lot of pan automation effects
such as the effect in 0:23 s. It was probably done with a stereo tremolo effect or a set of the same
samples but panned hard left/right and triggered by the Roland T808. Another interesting aspect is
the guitar solo (played with a harmonizer set to fifths) which had is pan artistically automated to
produce unusual results. Also the reverb settings used on this solo make it sound even more
aggressive, before I watched the video with the interview in which Trevor described how it was
done I thought that the guitar was actually recorded in a big bathroom or an empty room with solid
walls with some stereo miking techniques.

Comparison of the recordings

When comparing the recordings described and the trends in the times they were produced there are
quite a few notable differences. First of all in terms of the dynamic range they mostly vary from the
used standards. "I put a spell on you" doesn't follow the nowadays trend of heavy compression and

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limiting, whereas "Owner of a Broken Heart" could be considered to be the opposite. In those days
such a heavy compression wasn't not that popular which can be clearly noticed when looking at
"Slave to the Rhythm" which is much lower in the overall lever and the natural transients are
preserved better. Also the latter has a wider dynamic range. Also when comparing Gracy Jones track
with "I put a spell on you" one can see the big improvement in the recording technology. As the
latter has much bigger dynamic range than the former which was limited by the dynamic range
available on analogue tape recorders where the noise floor was a big issue.

In terms of the arrangements in can be seen that the technology introduced in 1980s made a big
impact on the way the popular music was produced – the extensive usage of sound effects such as
delays, reverbs etc, experiments with panorama and stereo effects and so forth. Since nowadays
producers got used to this technology it seems that they use it more subtly and make and attempt of
creating natural sounding recordings. In the 80s on the other hand it was all new thus the producers
were inspired by it and try things that were not possible before this technology was introduced. In
1985 were digital sound processing and reproduction was more accessible and provided hi-fi quality
this approach was even more noticeable than in the beginning of the decade. This can be noticed
when comparing the amount of sound effects and samples used in "Owner of a Broken Heart" and
"Slave to the Rhythm". The latter was made using much more of this technology and was much
more complex.

Learning outcome

By doing this exercise I learnt quite a lot about mixing and production as well as the history of
recording industry and why things were done the way they were. First of all by analyzing the
recordings I learnt the significance of a good arrangement. In all the recordings (especially with "I
put a spell on you") the arrangement played the most important role in terms of keeping the mix
clear and keeping the instruments of each others way. Also I learnt about some of the methods of
creating space between instruments, such as the Gracy Jones track example where the most
important instruments were focused in the middle of the panorama and the rest of the stereo image
was filled by the richness and variety of other instruments which were hard panned, also tricks as
for example recording two different guitars that play more less similar parts and panning them hard
left/right. This keeps the center of the stage tidy while the layer of the rhythm guitars is
omnipresent. To me however the most important learning outcome of this exercise is realizing how
important role the depth can play in a mix and how much space between the instruments it can
generate and how much separation it can give. Due to the depth of "I put a spell on you" this
recording sounds very realistic, I would dare to say that it sounds more realistic than some live
recordings from concert halls. The last but not least I think I improved my critical listen skills by
paying attention to the tiniest details and as well as the analysis of the sound that I heard and trying
to break it down in to prime factors. Referencing to other recordings of the same period and modern
ones also helped my understanding of mixing and production aspects.

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