Like everybody else, I can get a song stuck in my head every now and then. But I also tend to get obsessed with songs for a number of reasons. Whether it be the the story behind the song, the songwriting process, or some part of the production… I get hooked.
One of the songs that has done that to me recently is ‘New Light’ by John Mayer.
Now, John Mayer is an expert at letting songs breathe and not overcomplicating the songwriting process. Despite being a phenomenal guitarist, he doesn’t fill every gap in the vocal line with guitar licks or blues turnarounds. He uses his taste and skill as a songwriter to serve the song rather than serve himself.
‘New Light’ is a perfect example of this, as it’s not guitar driven at all. Most of the guitar parts in the song are quite fragmented and sparse but very effective. Yet it’s not the guitar parts that impressed me the most about the production of the song and his effective use of space.
The music video for the song is actually what led me to what I’m about to tell you. I don’t know about you, but these days, I don’t watch anywhere near as many music videos as I used to. However, I had heard the music video for ’New Light’ was fantastic, so I took myself over to YouTube to look for it.
After I basked in the glory of the official music video (which I highly recommend you do too), I found a great video where John breaks down the production process of the song.
There are multiple gems in that video which makes it worth watching a few times but there’s one in particular that I want to focus on and share with you. That particular gem is how to go about blending programmed drums with live drums.
One of the most complicated challenges in production and mixing is finding space for everything in the mix. An obvious challenge is how to deal with multiple drum tracks and lots of percussive elements in a mix.
If you’ve got way too much going on in the drums, you’re going to have a very cluttered mix with your drums masking frequencies in the more melodic parts.
The production process of ‘New Light’ didn’t allow that to happen
The track was produced by John Mayer and No I.D. and, if you’re not familiar with No I.D., he’s one of the greatest hip hop and R&B music producers of all time. He was also an early mentor to Kanye West. That aside… the writing process for ‘New Light’ seems to have consisted of No I.D. providing a loop that he had created and John Mayer playing some fragmented guitar patterns over it. No I.D. then took to the LinnDrum and put together a four-on-the-floor drum pattern.
Now, what’s interesting about the track is that it also contains live drums played by Aaron Sterling. What’s even more interesting is that the overheads are the only drum mics used in the final production.
With such a great drummer playing on the track, wouldn’t it make sense to maximise what you have and use every drum mic that has captured his stellar playing?
It turns out the answer to that question is no.
To blend the programmed drums and live drums effectively, they chose to only mix in the live overheads with the LinnDrum. If ever there’s an example of serving the song through production, then that’s it. They avoided the temptation of mixing in every drum mic available, no matter how well recorded or how well played the drum part was. Instead, they chose to compliment what they already had with a live drummer playing over the top.
That gives a live feel to programmed drums that most people probably don’t even notice. But if you listen to the song without the overhead track of the live drums and then with it as part of the mix, you can feel the difference. It feels more alive.
If you took it a step further and added in all the live drum mics, the mix would easily be ruined and the LinnDrum parts would go missing along with quite a few of the other parts.
Something has to “win” when elements are competing for space
What all this proves is that John Mayer is not only an expert at letting songs breathe in the songwriting process, but also in the production process.
So the next time you’re trying to blend programmed drums with live drums, it might make sense to let one of them “win” and avoid having your drum parts fight with each other and sound like “popcorn”.
And this doesn’t only apply to drums. You can use this idea and this framework and apply it to any part of your mix or production. Be ruthless about what you actually need to use to serve the song and create the finished product.
The full video about the making of ‘New Light’ is below. If you hit the play button, it’ll take you right to the part where John is talking about the production of the drums. However, I fully recommend watching the whole thing to pick up a number of excellent production tips.
Now, I’d love to know…
What simple production “secret” do you use to avoid cluttering your mix?
Leave a comment below!
professional sounding mix every time...
Hi Stephen,
I mostly like ‘open’ mixes, but sometimes, a ‘dense’ mix can be great too. Especially when layering instruments in the same melody, to evoke an atmosphere. But from ‘dense’ to ‘cluttered’ can be tricky. To avoid that, I like to fall back to mono and/or mid-quality speakers. If the layering still gives me the desired result, I’m good. If not, I start muting…
Great approach, Marcel. I never used to understand why people still mixed in mono when most of us listen in stereo these days. But there is so much value in it, still. Thanks for your comment!