Bon Iver
Bon Iver/Justin Vernon started off with a very simple musical sound during the earlier parts of his career using only a guitar and sm57 for most tracks off of his debut album 'For Emma, Forever ago'. On songs like re:stacks Vernon is going for a very minimalistic sort of feel to the songs. It sounds like there is barely anything past 500Hz which was probably due to Justin Vernon wanting the mix to complement his high pitched voice. This song also has a lot of dynamic range due to the quietness of the guitar and his vocal choice, this is probably to make the guitar complement his voice more and leaves room to create more emotion for the song. It starts off quite quiet to create a ambience but during some of the verses of the song he sings louder which makes you listen to what hes saying more.
Later on in his career he started incorporating more of an electronic sound with the use of vocoders, synths, sampling and an assortment of other studio techniques. You can see a clear progression throughout all 3 of his albums. The first one was very simple and completely acoustic, the next one was more produced and it felt like he was finding his sound on a larger level. Then the third one came along and he surprised everyone by making a large portion of the music electronic, but even though he done this it still felt natural and real.
The mix of a song like 666 is very different to anything off of his debut album, it features a atmospheric intro which has a guitar with a lot of reverbs and chorus on it playing a couple of riffs which follows the vocal melody. Theres a couple of vocal tracks on the song which are brought in and out throughout the song. Some of this I imagine is being backed up by a vocoder which will add to the atmosphere. Similarly to the song I reviewed before there seems to be barely anything below 500Hz other than a couple of horns and what sounds like a double bass around the 1:40 mark. Justin Vernon seems to prefer a mix pushing towards a higher end, probably because its suits his voice. He has stuck with this style for all of his work whilst in Bon Iver.
Later on in his career he started incorporating more of an electronic sound with the use of vocoders, synths, sampling and an assortment of other studio techniques. You can see a clear progression throughout all 3 of his albums. The first one was very simple and completely acoustic, the next one was more produced and it felt like he was finding his sound on a larger level. Then the third one came along and he surprised everyone by making a large portion of the music electronic, but even though he done this it still felt natural and real.
The mix of a song like 666 is very different to anything off of his debut album, it features a atmospheric intro which has a guitar with a lot of reverbs and chorus on it playing a couple of riffs which follows the vocal melody. Theres a couple of vocal tracks on the song which are brought in and out throughout the song. Some of this I imagine is being backed up by a vocoder which will add to the atmosphere. Similarly to the song I reviewed before there seems to be barely anything below 500Hz other than a couple of horns and what sounds like a double bass around the 1:40 mark. Justin Vernon seems to prefer a mix pushing towards a higher end, probably because its suits his voice. He has stuck with this style for all of his work whilst in Bon Iver.
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