What Makes This Mix Great? Soundgarden 'Black Hole Sun'

What makes this mix great? Justin Colletti analyzes the mix, production and arrangement for Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun".

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Soundgarden's Superunknown stands the test of time with some S-Tier rock mixes that sound amazing on any good system.

Mixed by Brendan O'Brien and produced with Michael Beinhorn, songs like "Black Hole Sun" and "Fell On Black Days" get just about everything right that a rock mix can get right.

There are a ton of lessons to be learned here about relative levels between vocals, kick, snare, tom and guitars in the genre, exactly how to use panning to enhance the stereo filed and a lot more.

Big thanks to Soundtoys, Lewitt Audio and Ultimate Support for making this episode possible.

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[SonicScoop]

What are your favorite Soundgarden tracks? And, are you a fan of Brendan O'Brien's mixes?

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[Sagerydian]

These almost surgical discussion of the song is really really impressive. A lot of things you point out "I felt", but couldn't really tell what it is. The first thing I always knew is: the drums are unbelievable in this one. It made me start learning how to play drums. There is NO record where acoustic drums sound better. The steel snare, the dark washy crashes, the dry bass drum - AMAZING! Also the playing is amazing of course, the fills! What I never liked: the hard panned "black hole suns" in the chorus. And I am going to contradict you (who am I to do that) - but the Kim's solo treated as an atmospheric soundscape and not focusing on it - that is the ONLY mistake in this mix imho. They're singing about the end of the world and these cacophonic, weird, swirling, out of every musical scale, reverberating guitar parts that are pure chaos, like debris of metal and glass swirling in a storm - they should have stepped forward in the mix, the descending rhythm guitar part should be in the back, sucking everything into the black hole. So, the hard panned black hole suns and more power to Kim's solo - those would be my two todo things when I'd get to remix this masterpiece.

[madrobpunk]

I found this video extremely helpful and insightful! Thank you!

[eweesplace]

Dude, that left guitar in the intro sending the quarter note delay to the center is brilliant. I never paid attention to that until now.

[alexcpedals]

I remeber hearing BHS for the first time on the radio in 1994.
It captivated me for those 5 minutes like a great song should.

[stevenmonte]

This is all fascinating. I just started a study in December of studying songs (one or two a day). Started out just doing my favorite songs. I write out the lyrics and then listen over and over; for structure, for dynamics, for production, anything I can hear. I'm only 78 songs into it, but i'm learning so much!! I don't know what my end goal is right now. I want to write my own music and produce. I love every aspect of music. Thank you for this! I'm actually on my second listen through Audioslave's discography. Soundgarden is next. I have to learn time signatures to do them. I'm fairly new to this musical journey.

[AudreyAntonetteTC]

i’m in the midst of mixing my own album and i cannot overstate how helpful these vids have been for me. thank you!

[Thirsty_Deer_Studio]

That leslie sound is great. Beinhorn did an interview where he talked about tracking it alot. It's a Fender rotating speaker actually. And yes Brendan did ALOT of my favorite records

[jimbotski]

This album pops up a often in mix conversations. I personally thrashed it when I was younger so I'm biased. Incredible awesome sounding album.

[TannerByTheSea]

Man, you’ve got an absolutely fabulous show! Great information! if you mix music the way I mix music? Justin is giving nothing but straight Gold to the YouTube community.! Bravo, Sir, bravo 👏🏼

[johnflavour]

Love this, really useful. Thanks for the content as always.

[davejohnsonmusic]

Great breakdown man. Definitely need more of these. This is how you really learn how to mix. Understanding the why's.

[liquidsolids]

This was a fantastic breakdown. Thank you, Justin!

[tortugulaproductions]

Member Question: If you are producing a project for a band, but not explicitly writing or performing the parts, how can you help the band to enhance their hooks/performance or get them thinking about the various types of hooks? Should they just do their thing and not think about these things? How can you nudge the band in these directions without making them overthink? Curious to hear your thoughts on guiding a band without getting in the way of their creativity.

Re-commenting this question inspired by your recent episode on hooks. Figured I would put this on the most recent upload, even though it's not exactly on topic. Although, you could argue Black Hole Sun is ripe with hooks.

[elliotcrane]

It’s so much hands-on-the-console, more than I realized

[SebAndJosAddesso]

This is really interesting. Wish I could see the layout for the panning on this whole song. Realizing panning had a huge effect in the sound including volume levels

[johnsaras]

You can really hear the doubled vocal in the chorus jump out. Are they slightly panned out? Love your channel!

[loveMusic]

Soundgarden really stepped up for music when we all lost Cobain. Ironic considering they gave Nirvana their start by letting them open for them back in the day when nobody knew Nirvana.

[GuitarJesse]

46:18 Pink Floyd had long intros. Maybe we just need to bring them back 😂

[carlos-nihn]

Hey Justin, when will the engineers know about this mix con 2024?😮