Mix Analysis: TYCHO - AWAKE

lgleeson98
Nov 3, 2016
4 min read

Tycho is an American ambient/electronica project led by songwriter and producer Scott Hansen. With a combination of downtempo ambient melodies and vintage style synthesisers, the Tycho project focuses on organic sounds to provide a human element whilst creating worlds around the music with huge ambient pads and other synth layers.

In pitchforks review of their album, also titled 'Awake', they described Tycho's sound as: "There's more air here, lending a greater expanse of room to move around in than before, like travelling from a rundown seaside resort to vast scoops of desert plane. It's still recognisable as a Tycho recording, with a familiar sense of melancholy and the embers of sundown burning through it, but with the ambition clearly heightened right from the first few notes."

Musicality

Spectral & Instrumentation

Instruments:

- Clean amped electric guitar (rhythm layers & lead melody)

- Bass guitar

- Click

- Hi-Hats (Open & Closed layering)

- Shakers

- Snare

- Clap

- Kick Drum

- Ambient synth pad/s (2-3 different layers)

- Distant voice FX

- Clav-style synth keys

In comparison to my last mix analysis on Tourist's Run, Tycho has a more simplistic and acoustic basis of instruments. However what demonstrates the complexity of this track is the sheer amount of layering used in the guitar and ambient pads to create beautiful and entrancing textures. Both these tracks share a lot of other commonalties though. You may be starting to pick up that I have a real taste towards songs which create immense atmospheres.

What is really noticeable first about this song 'Awake' is that crisp timbre of the guitar and bass. All the little plucks and sounds from the strings layered through airy reverbs is one of the main characteristics of a Tycho track. From here you start to release how natural and organic every element sounds, so close up and raw with incredibly clarity.

(Frequency Spectrum of about the 1 minute mark into the track, where most of the elements are in play)

The kick sounds like it is multiple layerings of a natural bass drum, with some parallel compression to give it that presence. It's very punchy and doesn't have much of an attack in order to let all those crisp textures and significant timbres of the other instruments to cut through. It's fundamental frequency sits around 30Hz, coupled with a lot of significant information at 60Hz which creates that deep, chesty thump. The snare and clap layering helps to add that snappy attack and fullness to the kick covering the 180-250Hz frequency range.

The thing that acts as the basis for the overall mix clarity of 'Awake', is the superb separation of the kick and bass. The kick plays the role of the sub-bass frequencies and the bass guitar works the bass and low-mids; as a result there's no muddy blending of the frequencies. The bass guitar's fundamental frequency sits at 90Hz with harmonics at 240Hz and the subtle thump-plucked timbre melting into the layering of the lead guitar and other textures.

As for the rhythm guitar and it's multiple layered versions; it's fundamental is at 230Hz. I'd say originally and more likely for the live performance factor, that the guitars are put through a loop pedal to create that layering. However since there is so many different layers playing complex rhythm roles, and retains a balance of great quantisation and naturalness - the studio version would have been layered within a DAW.

I believe it was all done in Pro Tools actually, Tycho recently released a really cool mini-documentary about the creation and touring of the album.

A really worthwhile and interesting watch which is mostly just a big collage of various footage captured over the 'Awake years'.

What really captures me as the hook of the song is the lead guitar riff which forms that catchy and uplifting melody. It's fundamental frequency is 350Hz and a way this layer in particular is like the scaffolding that glues all the other elements together. The role of this lead guitar is interchanged between it and the clavinet-sounding synth keys; and its hard to distinguish them as the differences are subtle at times, however intended in order to blend the organic acoustic element with the ambient electronica. I believe there's a slow roll-off with EQ below 300Hz to give the rhythm layering of the guitar enough separation and clarity between the two.

Dynamics & Stereo Imaging

At the track's busy section we're seeing about -4.5-5.5dBFS of dynamic range, and in breaks and calmer sections up to -7dBFS. It has a lot of dynamics and everything feels like it has their space in terms of stereo positioning and depth in the mix. The thumpy transients in those drums are characteristic of these types of RMS levels, where not everything is so compressed and squashed against the digital ceiling. As a result, the whole dynamic image has a lot of life and colour, and the tonality of each element has space to breathe.

A lot of this depth is created through very smart use of high quality reverbs especially prevalent on the lead and rhythm guitars. This in conjunction with the long release, airy pad synths allows the more complex and intricate playing of the rhythm guitars and percussion to retain all their clarity, by letting them sit just in front of the other harmonic elements of the mix.