Mix Breakdown: Pharrell Williams 'Happy'

Justin Colletti analyzes the "bad" mix for Pharrell Williams "Happy" to show what makes it great.

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

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[SonicScoop]

What do you think makes this mix work?

[jouvan]

The CD skip effect is Pharrell's signature 4 count start, It's on a lot of the songs he produced like Frontin, milkshake, blurred lines etc.

[f-unfairstudiotime]

VERY good analysis and breakdown, excellent stuff, this is both more interesting and useful than the "secrets" or tips most channels seem to be keen on! 👍👍
However, I do feel that a couple of really key points here have been overlooked, and need to be pointed out:
1) his vocal delivery - that's absolutely fundamental to the success of this song!
It's a no shouting no showboating approach, calm and cool and almost polite, therefore politely enticing the listener to connect and identify (and that's a million miles from what talent shows teach and value or from the overall aggression & vulgarity of a lot of pop or R&B today). All the euphoria and expression of happiness are therefore left to the clapping and the joyful backing vocals and the brightly groovy hihat. Brilliant!
2) if you check in mono or at quiet volumes, even when his lead vocal is almost buried b y the backing vocals and the claps, there actually is one, consistent high frequency in the lead vocal that is constantly there, riding audibly just a hair above it all, well present. Maybe a bit of the Dolby trick or maybe a well placed HF narrow bell boost, but that's one very subtle and clever mix move.
3) the tubby kick drum, often almost undetectable if not for its pulse, is IMHO a nod to the old soul and R&B and funk records and so often sampled breakbeats - think of a James Brown kick drum, or an Otis Redding drum groove - the kick drum was never clicky and pointy and carved out in the low mids, it was way before that era and trend. So more than a mixing choice (not to take away anything from LB, who is a great, brilliant engineer, producer and mixer), I would say this was certainly a compositional and production decision, even an ideological decision made by Pharrell.
4) Also, in opting for a hihat-on-3 an the claps-on-2-and4 driven groove arrangement, doing so, it subconsciously takes the listener away from today's kick and 808 given aggressive music, from the darkness of a club or the hardness of modern dance records, and back to the past, to a place which was hypothetically more... Happy.
👌
All of the above in my opinion & experience, of course.
Cheers,
AF

[samrasta]

eye opening again, love your work here

[chrisplacemusic]

My Guess on the Snare loudness is, that the snare is more panned to the side then the HiHat. Therefore, If you flip the side, the snare moves a bigger distance and therefore attracts more attention after flipping. What If you listen to the Track first in reverse and then put it back to normal? @sonicscoop

[SonnyGreenwichJr]

When the chorus drops it says it in the words... Clap along. Clap & snare right in the face, yeah! BOOM! 🔥🧨💪🏽🤠👍🏽🧨🔥

[tomasspacey]

Thank you for this one { as well as other videos ). I would say the think of "muddy' kick and bass here is that they work synergicaly together as kind of one great rhythem instrument

[themotownboy]

This analysis is great! The insights are revelatory! I have heard this song dozens of times and now I feel as if I am hearing it anew by listening to your analysis. Thanks!

[StratsRUs]

Thanks.I like how you can teach us how to learn.
The stuttered start always reminded me of Gnarls Barkley's ' Crazy' from 2006.

[gardodo]

amazzziiinng breakdown....had to rewind a few times to really internalize that visualization. thank you thank you for that!!🔥

[twilightbiscuit]

11:08 isn't the snare also a little to the right?

[nicwotz]

The mix is brilliant... if u listen to the music and and how it effects ppl, thats whats important. What some hifi club thinks about every separat sound is kinda not interesting. Its like food, pick a dish apart and taste all the ingridients, they will not likely taste good. U need to cook the food (song) and make it work. the mix is brilliant imo.

[saardean]

Funny that i just found your video today cause yesterday i was listening to a song that also had a „bad mix“ and while i was listening the song was so good and engaging that i shortly after my first assessment thought „hmm maybe i was wrong or who cares ?“
Same in this one here. This song is 100% about the vocal and i see the music as backround support, a bit like in a Vocal Group.
The Kick and Bass are two Baritones and the rest of the singers do the rest in a way. This is how i always felt this song at least

[Rhuggins]

Great video! Just starting it out. Although perhaps it was mixed ITB, it was mastered entirely in the analog domain

[TannerByTheSea]

I’ve been using my Soundtoys every day! 👍🏼

[realptkyle]

A ton of Neptunes produced tracks and solo Pharrell produced tracks have that tiny bit of snare effect you mention around 10min mark. I noticed it as a kid and always thought I was crazy then years later discussed this with other producers and some still don’t notice it lol. I wish I could think off top but there’s some Neptunes rap tracks where it’s just a simple volume shift with the snare and nothing more. No panning nada. I always just figured it was their background of playing instruments in high school and being in NERD carrying over into their production.

[jessezfromboston]

The cd skip in the beginning is Pharrell’s producer tag. He does this with every beat he makes

[SteveAdamsChannel]

Awesome and interesting breakdown! Thank you for the meticulous details! It's why Pharrell is Pharrell!

[Bluelagoonstudios]

The beginning sounds like back in the day I used a Roland S1 sampler, with 3.5" diskettes, so begin 80s, you get that effect just touching one note, maybe they used a sampler? This mix likes to be done with a broadcast sound engineer or gear. We used a lot of M/S, so the tracks sounds good in stereo and mono. But we also used active Phase rotation, different from other plugins that fix phase shifts. And I hear some pre-emphasis too in this song. That ffffssss high end. It sounds familiar to me. And maybe a tap delay too, on the percussion. So my conclusion on this, is that this song is mastered through an FM DSP, but without de-emphasis used.

[carlos-nihn]

hey justin, did you finally find jason goldenberg's sponsor to this mix con 2024 ? could be the the song Vette Motor?