Find the dialog

When you’re working on building a mix of a song, it can be hard sometimes to find that eureka moment that takes the mix from pedestrian to emotionally involving.

My suggestion: look for the primary dialog in the piece — the two elements whose interactions create the musical narrative of the song. The drama. The interest.

It might not be where you expect it!

And when you find it, you will probably need to take some intentional actions to highlight that dialog — often in the form of subtle automations.

For example: Shannon and I recently released an 80s kids cover version of the Pet Shop Boys classic “West End Girls.” And what’s the dialog in this song? It turns out that it’s a conversation between the synth bass and the vocal!

Everything else in this arrangement is relatively static; but the synth bass and the vocal go back and forth, dancing with each other over the course of the song.

Sometimes the vocal leads, sure — but also sometimes the vocal needs to sit back a bit and let the synth bass lead! Otherwise it wouldn’t be a dialog.

Realizing this was what unlocked for me how to help this mix be engaging and interesting. And until I realized it, I had the vocal too far on top too much of the time, and that essential dialog wasn’t happening in the way it needed to.

But once I figured out that those two elements wanted to interact more, I was able to introduce some subtle automation to help them do that — a little forward here, a little back there, moment by moment, helping them tell that story.

And now I think it’s exciting as hell to listen to — because there’s that subtle ongoing back and forth. There’s a story there. And everyone loves a good story, right?

Give and take — jamie