An Analysis of Hand Cannot Erase By Steven Wilson

 

An Analysis of Hand Cannot Erase By Steven Wilson 

Hear the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqQIAAkw_Gk

 

 

The drum track at the beginning of the song (starting from 00:06) has most likely been programmed into the track using audio software or alternatively has been created using a drum machine. This is evident from the overly compressed quality of the sound and general tonality of the sound, as well as the fact that the ‘kick’ drum sound seemed to lack the characteristic low-end a kick drum usually has (see figure 1).

Figure 1: The FFT analysis of the track at approximately 00:14 seconds. The most visible element of the drum track, in the FFT analyser, is the kick drum which lies between approximately 80Hz-150Hz. This kick sound peaks at approximately 40dB (shown by the scale on the left of the image), which is very weak for a kick drum within a mix.

From 00:06 - 00:15 the volume of this drum track has been automated to fade in. This was most likely done to ease the transition from the introduction to the first verse. At approximately 01:03 this drum track appears to reduce in level (see figure 2 & 3) as the palm muted guitar comes in, this was most likely done to give the palm muted guitar a bigger presence in the mix.

Figure 2: This image shows the MultiMeter analyser for the track at approximately 00:14. The last five bars (to the right of the image) show the level of part of the drum kit. The highest peak of this section is about -41dB.

Figure 3: Image showing the MultiMeter analyser for the track at 01:05. The last five bars (to the right of the image) show the level of the drums has been reduced, as they are visibly lower than the last five bars in figure 2. The highest peak, at 00:14, was approximately -41dB whereas at this point it is approximately -51dB.

At 01:18, the programmed drum track is taken out of the mix and a real acoustic drum kit provides the beat for the rest of the song. The programmed drumbeat had quite a ‘dry’ signal whereas the acoustic kit has a short amount of reverb placed on it, (this audible from approximately 01:38). The most prominent part of the kit is the snare drum, which seems to be louder than all the other elements of the kit (see figure 4), particularly the heavily compressed kick drum which sits quite low in the mix. The level of the crash cymbal appears to have been brought down, as well, to allow the snare drum to ‘sit on top’ of the whole mix, for example when the acoustic kit first comes in at 01:18, this difference in level between the snare and crash is quite audible. Other artists have used similar production on the drum kit by bringing the levels of the kick and crash down to allow the snare to be the most prominent part of the drum kit. Some of the artists who have done this are:

• My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP_MG3kaogU)
• The Decemberists - Make You Better (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq76aQRmbQA)
• Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeGLA-CuyCk)

Noticeably all of these artists and songs fall under the ‘progressive rock’ genre, including ‘Hand Cannot Erase' by Steven Wilson.

Figure 4: the 13th and 14th bar from the right of the image correspond the attack of the snare and it is visible to see that they sit slightly higher then the other bars to the right of them which also correspond to the other parts of the drum kit.

Initially when the main vocals of this song begin, (00:15 - 01:17), they’re quite dry in terms of reverb and sit on top of the mix, giving the vocals a very ‘unnatural’ feel that often happens when there is no reverb present on a track (http://music.tutsplus.com/articles/why-reverb-is-the-most-essential-effect-in-your-toolkit--audio-14924). At approximately 01:33, when the song has ‘built up’ and entered the second verse, a small amount of reverb is audible on the lead vocals, this reverb seems to be most prominent on the last word of each phrase (e.g. “this” and “off”). Ensuring the right amount of reverb, (relative to each song), is added to the vocals is a very useful way of making the vocals sit at the front of the mix, without pushing them back too far, as said by Paul White (http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul99/articles/20tips.htm). Interestingly, in the verse at 01:33, each phrase alternates between having a greater reverb time on the last word or backing  vocals, for example the first line of this verse finishes with the word “this” (01:35) which has more reverb on it, but it is then followed by the line “makes us strong” (01:37) which features backing vocals instead (although a small amount of reverb remains on the vocals in these sections). This was most likely done to emphasise these parts of the verse, as the more increased reverb will undoubtedly draw attention to the words it has been applied to. The backing vocals add a new dynamic to the verse making it easier for the listener to keep their interest in the song (http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan13/articles/vox-pop.htm). All of the vocals parts have been panned centrally for this track, it would be safe to assume that this is due to the fact that the song features a large variety of instruments that all require space within the mix, so by keeping the vocals and backing vocals centrally panned, it gives the other elements of the track room to ‘breathe’. The backing vocals alternate between a male and female voice for example at 02:04 the backing vocals are sang by a female and are noticeably higher pitched than the male backing vocals that occur at 01:44. It is highly likely that the male backing vocals have been double tracked by the main vocalist as both vocals sound very similar, double tracking can add ‘weight’ to the main vocals (http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan13/articles/vox-pop.htm).

At the beginning of the song, from 00:00 - 01:03 there are only two guitars playing. These two guitars have been panned slightly to the right and slightly to the left. On the guitar, panned slightly to the right, there is a noticeable amount of delay on the guitar as the lower volume repetition of previously played notes are audible throughout this section of the track (http://www.dawsons.co.uk/blog/what-is-delay). There is also a slight amount of reverb on this guitar, creating a more ‘spacious’ sounding guitar that effectively ‘fills’ the otherwise quite ‘empty’ stereo-field at this point in the song. The second guitar, panned slightly to the left, has had a ‘distortion’ effect added to it, in addition to a slight amount of reverb as well. At 01:03 two ‘new’ guitars enter the mix, there is a palm muted, distortion guitar and a picked melody with slight amount of reverb. The palm muted guitar has been panned to the mid-right whereas the guitar playing the picked melody has been panned oppositely to the mid-left. The reason for this panning is most likely down to the producer trying to create a realistic stereo-image as though the listener were actually seeing the band live on stage (http://www.audiorecording.me/how-to-pan-acoustic-or-electric-guitar-in-the-mix.html), however, this panning can also cause the give the guitars a ‘layering’ effect and give the track more ambience (http://www.audiorecording.me/how-to-pan-acoustic-or-electric-guitar-in-the-mix.html/2). During the chorus at 02:20 the guitars have a significantly more reverb on them than they do in the verses, reverb typically enhances certain aspects of a song so it’s likely that reverb was added to emphasise the fact that that part is the chorus and it differs from the verse (http://productionadvice.co.uk/reverb-you-can-relish/). At 01:03 an acoustic guitar can also be heard playing, this guitar is quite low in the mix. This acoustic guitar has a ‘clean’ tone and there is a very small amount of reverb audible on the tail end of the sound. This track has been added to add more depth to the melody of the track (http://productionadvice.co.uk/reverb-you-can-relish/) as at this point both the picked guitar, the celesta and the acoustic are all playing the same melody. The acoustic guitar continues to play throughout the rest of the track, however, its position in the stereo-field appears to move from the centre (01:03-01:19) to the far right (01:19 onwards), this is because at approximately 01:17 the acoustic drum kit is brought into the mix and that largely sits around the centre of the stereo-field, moving the acoustic guitar to the far right means that it won’t get lost amongst the drums.

The bass guitar first comes in at approximately 01:18 and plays throughout the song until it drops out briefly at 03:04 but continues playing from 03:20 until the end of the song. The bass is not very prominent in the mix at all and through the vast majority of the song it is hard to distinguish the bass guitar from the rhythm guitar as they both seem to sit around the same area of the frequency spectrum. The fact that it sits quite low in the mix also makes it difficult to clearly identify how it has been panned but it has most likely been panned down the centre as there does seem to be an even distribution of low frequencies on other the left and right side of the stereo-field. From 02:35-03:04 the bass becomes more noticeable in the mix as all of the electric guitars drop out leaving only the bass, acoustic guitar, Hammond organ and drums playing.

During this song there are a lot of ‘miscellaneous’ instruments, playing melodies or harmonies, that enter throughout the song catching the listener off guard but keeping their interest in the song at the same time (http://www.audio-issues.com/music-mixing/how-to-create-interest-in-mixing/). At approximately 00:45 seconds a celesta comes in and begins playing the main melody of the song. The celesta is playing the main melody of the song (that is also sung by the vocals), creating a familiar phrase within the music that is frequently revisited throughout the song (https://mysongalive.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/how-to-make-your-intro-better/). There is a short tail of reverb on the celesta, which is most audible from 00:45-01:03.

At 01:18-01:37 a string section can be heard playing towards the ‘back’ of the mix. This was most likely created using MIDI software as the whole string section sounds very ‘perfect’ and ‘uniform’ and lacks the dynamics a ‘real’ string section would possess. From 02:20-02:35 the string section seems to be louder than they were before and further on the left of the stereo-field (previously they had been around the centre), this was probably done to help the track build up to the middle 8 section, this increase in volume happens again at 03:34 to the end of the song as the string section is extremely prominent now allowing for an effective build up towards the end of the song.

From 02:35-03:04, during the middle 8 section, a Hammond organ can be heard on the mid-left side of the stereo-field. The purpose of the middle 8 is to slow the pace of the song down and give the audience a ‘break’ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/guide/song_middle.shtml) before entering back into the next part of the song. At 02:50 the guitar launches into a solo and the level of this Hammond organ decreases slightly to bring focus onto the guitar .

From 04:05 the reverb of the song is increased and as the last notes of the instruments ring out, the volume of all the instruments is automated out and cross-faded with a ‘sweeping noise’ sound, most likely created using the music software the track was being produced/mixed on.