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Analysis of a hit song’s mix: Ocean Eyes - Billie Eilish
People with Logic Pro X who have upgraded to 10.5 will know that the new demo song is this bedroom-recorded song by Billie Eilish.
I’ve had a good look at it myself and some of it is amazing. Like the ghostly voice at the end where a reversed vocal is then re-reversed through a reverb. And some of the EQ and compression is so subtle but it all adds up to an incredible result. There’s so much to discover in the way this simple song is mixed.
Anyway, for those who don’t have Logic, here’s a video look at the mix.
https://whylogicprorules.com/billie-eilish-logic-pro-demo-project/
Comments
Thanks - that looks pretty interesting. Finneas is a great producer, really creative with his use of samples. I'll check it out.
That’s cool. Don’t have Logic - but love that song, and have especially marvelled at the vocal production on that song! When I discovered Ocean Eyes, I went into a Billie Eilish deep dive - as I’d initially written her off as just another pop artist after hearing Bad Guy on the radio. But as Richard said above Finneas is an amazing producer! Her whole album is great and there’s cool production stuff everywhere. Much deserved of all the Grammys it won. I very much look forward to seeing how both Billie & Finneas progress in their careers - Both still so fucking young!
These laptop "OT" threads are killing me and pushing me towards the dark side. I've been poking around in Logic Pro X and finding all kinds of distractions.
So curious how many vocal tracks are there in the mix? I think I heard over 80?
@Halftone I think Billie Eilish is the best thing that’s happened in music for years, she’s awesome and her album is terrific. Unfortunately the last couple of times she’s been mentioned here the threads have gone to hell as for some reason a few people seem to really dislike her and her music. 🤷♀️
As my grandmother always used to say: The size defines the target.
Some people just don’t like pseudo-independent artists that were planted by the industry.
Take Eurovision for example:
Are all those artists/songs the best of each country?
No. Most of them are probably written/performed/produced by somebody’s cousin.
Also, some people don’t care about any of that and just like listening to something that makes them feel good.
Something that gives them their dopamine shot.
Some people prefer Infected Mushroom, Aphex Twin, FSOL, Skinny Puppy, Autechre etc.
Others just haven’t heard anything better than eyelash yet.
Here we go 🙄
🤣
So back to the mix...
There is just so much to learn from this - the huge vocal layering, the use of Pultec EQ tricks, the very subtle doubling of instruments, subtle shifts in tonal balance in different sections, etc, etc.
Above all what comes across is how much can go into the production of a simple song - crucially without it sounding complex or over-produced at any point.
A very interesting exercise would be to take the raw audio and see if something close to the final sound can be done in Auria Pro. I bet it can.
And Some people (myself) can love all those artists AND Billie Eilish too!
Me too, good music be good music...
This thread was not meant to be about who likes an artist but about a way to learn some mixing and production techniques. Oh, well...
I count 21 discrete vocal tracks. Most are stacked vocals behind the lead voice.
I was amazed to see that Jacob Collier had a project with 648 tracks in Logic Pro X
but then he mentioned his laptop now has 384 GB of RAM. But that still implies I could
get something like 30. I seriously doubt I'll get around to making something using these
classic music production techniques.
Then I watched a YouTube showing how modern film composers use Logic Pro and
even more magic was exposed but it just shows how pro's will use every automation trick
to get their work done faster with less effort but the learning curve is very steep.
I was actually impressed when I first heard Bad Guy on the radio. How often do you hear a Martin Rev-ish bassline in a song on a pop station?
I also think they will continue to be fruitful.
It’s a very cool session. My younger daughter is a huge Billie Eilish fan and it was fun to have her interested in music production for at least a few minutes as we looked at the session together.
What struck me as funny (and scary) is that there’s a lot of “rookie mistakes,” like reverb inserts on every vocal channel separately, yet it sounds fantastic and they’re artistry really shines through. And I was informed by my daughter (who is 14), that Billie was the same age when she recorded this, and that blows my mind, her voice has a real maturity to it. The vocal pads are beautiful.
I’d like to know more about the Pultec boost and cut thing.
In a pure, theoretical, digital sense the same cut and boost would obviously just result in no change. But these are modeled after an electronic device and presumably it cuts and then boosts - and it does it with discrete electronic components that will colour the sound. The output will not be the same but it’s still a subtle difference, I guess.
I’m going to have to look into this from an electronics point of view but also I need to play with Pultec-inspired plugins (like GotoEQ on iOS) to see what they sound like.
This is what a “Pultec” curve looks like in TB Equalizer.
Yes, boost and cut on a pultec gives you a curve with a peak then a dip just above it. Bob Power has a really cool video from a sonic scoop conference where he does this on a non pultec eq and it’s amazing the difference that the cut makes. There are other eq’s that have similar curves built in, it’s that kind of stuff that gives them a certain character.
I’ve been assisting a songwriter/ producer for the past few months and he has a neve 1073 that is racked up. The effect of just a slight eq move is amazing on the hardware, and it’s pretty tough to get that to sound bad (I’m sure I’ll find a way at some point...)
There's quite a few YouTube videos where Finneas talks about his process, they're well worth watching as he often has some really interesting techniques that he shares.
And of course for anyone that hasn't already seen it there's the classic Jimmy Fallon segment where he describes how he sampled crosswalks in Australia and used them to make the hihats on Bad Guy:
This Pitchfork video is pretty good:
And a couple more:
Thanks for posting. Interesting stuff.
Orbital sampled crosswalks and didgeridoo back in ‘93. Not to downplay the successes of Billie and Finneas.
One thing I noticed was that several tracks sounded better to when the compressor was switched off. I will check the Logic project to see if that remains the case when those tracks aren’t being soloed.
And also so many of the things (compressors and EQ especially) are so subtle to my ears (in the actual Logic track on headphones I’m used to - not just in the YT version here) that I wonder what value they really add.
Obviously it’s all subjective and the sum might well make all the parts worthwhile - and some people do have amazing ears - but if I couldn’t tell the difference whether a unit was switched on or off in a blind test then does it need to be on?
Discuss.
Surprised it wasn’t a U2 track.
A whole album, you mean.
Am I the only one who scanned the thread titles and read "Billy Ocean"? I guess my age is showing
Yes I often think that when watching mixing videos on YT. When the effects of compression etc... are that subtle they just aren't going to be meaningful - a regular person simply won't care if the effect is there or not.
And regular people listen on Beats headphones, or in the car, or using the speaker built into their phone...
My partner only really hears the vocal line so the rest could be pretty much anything. That still gobsmacks me but there it is.
I guess most production is not for ‘regular people’.
My main approach to mixing is to start with something where I can gauge its level right from the start - often it’s the kick drum (if there is one).
Then I try to bring in all the other instruments at the lowest level possible that allows them to be heard in the way I want them to be - using the kick as the benchmark. Obviously things evolve as I go but my focus is on bringing levels down not bringing them up.
I feel like this mix is done the same way.