Missy Higgins - Case Study

There was a time long ago where pop music still used instruments, and a perfect example of early 2000's pop stars with talent would be Missy Higgins, and specifically the song "Steer" which elevated her career beyond a one hit wonder status. Though I am old enough to remember her songs come out, I want to take a closer look at specific design elements and also what made these songs so commercially successful.

The song "Steer" by Missy Higgins, is a pop track from the 2007 album "On a clear night" The song is in F Major at 120 BPM The song creates a light and happy atmosphere.

The song uses a lot more stringed instruments than you'd think, because along side her acoustic guitar there's also:

Electric guitar Mandolin Acoustic Bass Electric Bass Banjo

The guitar, mandolin and banjo can be heard as the song begins. The group of the instruments can be heard panned off to the left like a bouquet of stringed fairies and pretty quickly the difference in volume gets quite noticeable. The problem however soon remedies its self with a balance from a Wurlitzer and lead vocal down the centre and builds towards the pre-chorus. By the time the electric bass is brought in the key changes and the hi hats get drawn towards the right, blending into the back just in time for the chorus. The chorus gets large and drawn out due to the the electric bass's introduction and though the momentum drops it is somewhat carried through to the next pre chorus to repeat.

The String Section:

The acoustic guitar is recorded cleanly, and though panned to the left side the entire time the blend of the acoustic guitar mandolin and banjo, it spreads across in a pleasant chord accompaniment. The acoustic guitar also continues to play through the prechorus where the other instruments stay behind with the key change. The main thing I see with the stringed section is how tight and clean it sounds and how little bass there is, or how little bass there is in the whole song and only brought in to create effect.

The bright mandolin creeps it's head out the top of the deeper elements to create the light airy shimmer. Naturally eq'd as well as shelved to give the even more definitive high end section in the mix.

The Electric Guitar: The electric is used to balance the massive acoustic presence on the left side. It's blended with the Wurlitzer and gives just shy of enough volume to balance until the chorus hits to get the perfect balance.

The Bass:

What I really like about the bass is how it's used as a production element to give the chorus so much more energy. While the panning choices sound a little strange during the intro the bass makes the whole thing sound better balanced during the chorus. While the electric bass serves as the energy of the chorus, the acoustic bass guitar leads the last half of the song and gives a slightly softer bass guitar feel.

Soundstage:

As I spoke on before the soundstage in this song starts with a left heavy presence but manages to work its self out after the introduction of the other instruments. This balance is also achieved spectrally is the case of the Wurlitzer being brought in.

Spectral Analysis:

The whole song has a very light and clean sound to it, but also an absence of bass. This is intentional in order to have such a punchy chorus but it also makes it perfect for listening on small speakers such as headphones or laptop speakers. I believe this is an example of purposeful mastering.

The overwhelming energy from the left side is very high in pitch. So the right side needed to have something equally high come in to really feel balanced and this has done that with many instruments and gives a nice melody through the song.

Final Thoughts:

The mastering stage of this song would have been an integral part of the process in making this song. I think there was some post production influence involved in the panning and mastering. And while the panning originally gave me a bit of a shock, I got used to it because it was balanced but just in an unusual way. I initially thought, this song was mastered for earbuds, because of how great it sounds through them, only the panning confused me. In the end this is just a great example of a master that works for both speakers and earbuds. This is something I hope to bring into my future project with a pop/acoustic singer/guitarist.