I'm co-producing a Hip-Hop track! You'll know that If you've read my earlier blog on it =P
Here I'm gonna analyse or dissect if you will, a track that has inspired this new project - Erykah Badu's On & On.
Why bother right? Well - Getting a firm idea and hold on what exactly gives a song the ability to make the listener shiver with awe, will no doubt help any creator produce in that genre. In the interests of producing a kick-ass track, lets really discover On & On together!
Artist:
Erykah Badu is known as the queen of Neo Soul, a music genre with elements of hip-hop and known for it's strong female presence and conscious-driven lyrics. On & On was released in her first album Baduizm in Feb 1997 and it quickly became a hit single.
“If the headwrap was my trademark, the drums, African drums, were my soundtrack" - Erykah Badu recalling recording the Baduizm album.
Track feel:
The song has a deep and mellow feel, placing you in a dark nightclub with the rolling beat, the attendees swaying along to the groove with you. All the while Erykah serenades you with words of self empowerment, spirituality and self-awareness.
Erykah sings ""If we were made in His image then call us by our names." Which I interpret as Badu encouraging us as humans to respect and use our names and avoid derogatory terms and name calling, for if we are of gods creation and gods name is honoured, so should our names be honoured too. Badu reveals some of her spiritual beliefs here and this brings us deeper into the song and in touch with the intention behind her lyrics.
"I was born under water with 3 dollars and 6 dimes" I'm thinking refers to birth in the womb, as a whole being (360 degrees - a complete circle), reminding us that we are all whole through all our doubts and uncertainties, we are still complete. These lyrics are really re-affirming to listeners and support the music beautifully with a positive message, invoking feelings of ease, peace and relaxation.
Production:
Baduizm was recording during a large part of 1996 mostly in Battery Studios in New York. Badu herself played a large part in producing the album, along with Madukwu Chinwah, Bob Power, JaBorn Jamal and Ike Lee III.
There are several electronic components to this tune, the drums are all programmed into a drum machine and as you listen you can notice electronic sounds during the chorus that help enhance the chorus and keep it separate from he verses.
Arrangement:
I used Ableton Live 10 to help me work out the arrangement of this song, and found it to actually be somewhat of a challenge as many people I asked interpreted each section differently. Some called Pre-choruses just part of the verses while others insisted that the bridge section was the only verse and the 'verses' were all just pre-choruses! Anyway here's what I came up with:
Sonic Content:
(a brief visit) - BPM: 80 (80.35 in practice). key: B Minor
(Use of Blu Cat's frequency analyser in Pro Tools for this analysis)
Erykah's vocals are absolutely the focus of the track, much of the instruments leave frequency space for her vocals to dominate the mix and they are the loudest instrument in the mix. Not being able to find the specific details of her vocal recording, I'll have an educated guess on some of the production: Her main chorus and verse vocals could have been recorded with a Tube mic (such as the Rode NTK, K2) which picks up the 10kHz to 15kHz range a few dB louder than the lower freqs to bring out the air in her voice, with perhaps 10 to 20cm of distance between her and the mic. However when her backing vocals come in whispering to the left and right, I'd guess that she's come much closer to the mic to record those parts (perhaps just a couple of cm's). I'm also thinking that it's been EQ'd with the lower end of her vocals as the focus, which is around 500Hz to 2kHz. There is also a big stereo reverb sitting on her with a tail around 2.5 to 3 seconds and indeed a low volume delay on the intro and pre-choruses, that comes in after a sixteenth beat.
The bass, interestingly holds the deepest frequency range, fundamentals holding as low as 20-40Hz and only going as high as 100Hz, while the kick sits at around 70-100Hz. It has a short attack (5ms), a short decay, a long sustain holding its volume for the duration of the note and a super fast release. It could be recorded using a simple DI and shaped using a transient designer plug-in using in Pro-Tools or any other DAW (digital audio workstation). I'd also guess that it was recorded with a saturation plug-in or driven pre-amp to provide the long sustain and pleasant but slightly dirty sound. Use of some strong compression 1:3 ratio at least for maybe 4 to 6dB of gain reduction has probably helped get this bass sound.
The snare sits prominent in the mix, at a similar level to the bass and slightly louder than the kick (1 or 2 dB). It has a substantial attack around 10ms or so, and it has almost no rattle, however it has nice stereo reverb at around 1s long that is quite noticeable. It's very clear and could have been the result of hitting a wooden drum stick on a thin wooden surface, It's very consistent and is definitely sampled and programmed into a drum machine - as is the kick and the rest of the drums. The snare has a sharp LPF at 15kHz and a more gradual HPF from around 1kHz.
There is also some noise present throughout the song, which for me suits the vibe really well. It could have been introduced through use of analogue recording gear, or by using software in a DAW. Overall the track is very consistent and quite static in instrument movement - apart from the occasional ornamental flutter used to spruce things up.
Subjective Feel:
The feel I get when listening to this track is really warm and somewhat rough around the edges. That leaves me to think that plenty of analogue gear and effects have been used in the production of this track and re-inforces my earlier idea that tube mics were used on the vocals. The kick and the bass together provide a lovely groove that it beautifully complimented by the vintage sounding piano (sound probably achieved using a software instrument) chiming in to complete the jazzy sound that runs beneath the wholesome-intimate and homey sounding vocals, which sound to me like during the chorus they're about 50% wet and 50% dry on the verb which reduces somewhat during the verses.
The ornamental sounds that occur during the bridges and verses are the main thing that keeps me from calling the mix dark - they really brighten up the mix and have me more leaning towards words like -laidback and warmth to describe the feel.
This track could even have been mastered using a reel to reel tape recorder to give it the vintage feel and constant vinyl sound that it has. This would also explain the inconsistencies in the tempo as it is not exactly 80bpm.
Bibliography:
1. En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Neo soul. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_soul [Accessed 10 Jun. 2018].
2. En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Erykah Badu. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erykah_Badu [Accessed 10 Jun. 2018].
3. HipHopDX. (2011). Erykah Badu Recalls Recording "Baduizm". [online] Available at: https://hiphopdx.com/news/id.16781/title.erykah-badu-recalls-recording-baduizm# [Accessed 10 Jun. 2018].
4. AboveTopSecret.com. (2016). 3. Philosophical Analysis:. [online] Available at: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1150722/pg1 [Accessed 10 Jun. 2018].
5.The BLACK Media. (2016). Watch Erykah Badu Explain The Meaning Behind Her Lyrics “I Was Born Underwater With 3 Dollars & 6 Dimes”. [online] Available at: https://theblackmedia.org/2016/08/03/erykah-badu-explains-lyrics-on-and-on/ [Accessed 10 Jun. 2018].
6. En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Baduizm. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baduizm [Accessed 10 Jun. 2018].
7. Tunebat.com. (2018). Key & BPM for On & On by Erykah Badu | Tunebat. [online] Available at: https://tunebat.com/Info/On-On-Erykah-Badu/3a6YKw9xPXgqzwtOKnsPCQ [Accessed 10 Jun. 2018].
8. Music-production-guide.com. (2018). Critical Listening vs. Analytical Listening. [online] Available at: http://www.music-production-guide.com/critical-listening.html [Accessed 10 Jun. 2018].
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