What Makes This “Bad” Mix Great?

When the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams came out, an engineer friend of mine told me that he didn’t like the mix.

And wasn’t just that he didn’t “like” it. He told me the mix was “bad”. (And not the Michael Jackson kind of “Bad” either….)

According to him, the bottom end of the kick drum was mushy and indistinct, the hi hats were gratingly loud, the bass was muffled and tuby, you could barely hear the organ parts that carried a lead melody.

And what about those background vocals?? They were even louder than the lead!

But how could a mix that’s so “bad” get streamed billions of times, and move people from their seats all around the world?

How could a “bad” mix be the kind of mix that would be played at practically every wedding for the next decade to come and counting?

Today, we’ll talk about exactly what makes this “bad” mix work, and why fixing so many of the “problems” with it might just ruin the song.

There will be a ton of takeaways in this one about what you can do to make your mixes great. I hope you’ll join me!

This week’s episode of the SonicScoop Podcast is sponsored by Soundtoys, LEWITT Audio and Ultimate Support Stands.

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