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While I don’t agree with overcompressing or limiting things and prefer not to in my own productions, it’s also very much a necessary evil at times, especially if you’re working with a band that’s as popular as Imagine Dragons. Was the bass achieved by crazy compressing and limiting? Absolutely. In fact, I never even said whether or not the bassline was good, so you’ll have to read my post more carefully next time. I didn’t comment on the compressing/limiting aspect of the bassline. It’s strong and invokes emotion when combined with the lyrics. In the context of the song, the bassline is very good and captures the message Dan Reynolds is singing about. But, what you need to do is look at the context of the song, completely outside of genre, and look at each individual element that way. That being said, if the bassline was part of a true “dubstep” song, I would laugh, just as you did. The point of the song isn’t to focus on the bassline itself, but rather the lyrics. It’s not a dubstep song and neither producer or artist tried to say it was. By expecting “dubstep” out of this song, you’re instantly going to hate it, because if Alex da Kid or Imagine Dragons had truly tried to pass this off as such, they would have been ridiculed. Let’s be clear, first off, that this song is NOT dubstep and never will be.
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More producers in the music industry should look to mimic Alex da Kid’s work. Overall, “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons is a well-produced song, no less completed by one person. It creates a small “whoosh” sound that leads up to the snare punch, making it that much more epic. Before the snare hits, Alex da Kid also makes a cool effect by reversing the sound of the snare and then placing it before the snare itself. The snare drum is very loud, punchy and small enough to not muddy up the mix again – there aren’t any bass frequencies coming from the snare, allowing the bass frequencies of the bassline and the drum to punch through the mix. The bassline and the main drum, which take up the low frequencies, are very “fat,” meaning they take up a lot of range on the stereo spectrum, without muddying up the mix, which is a very hard thing to do. Many top producers distort their drums in various ways to give them more punch. First, the entire drum section is likely put through some kind of distortion tool, such as a “Bitcrusher” or an “Overdrive” plugin, both of which essentially mimic a distortion sound. This “uplifter” slowly leads up into the main beat. It’s pretty simple but works, starting around the ~200 Hertz frequency range and slowly rising from there, using a regular detuned “saw” waveform pitched up evenly over a period of 4 bars. After 3 4-bar repeats of this riff, a nice producer-designed “uplifter”. Included on top is the group (Imagine Dragons) singing quietly – again, Alex da Kid puts just enough reverb on the vocals to make them sound nice and atmospheric, but not muddy, which can be difficult.
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It’s produced well as it lies slightly in the background with enough reverb attached to sound airy but not muddy. Producers can spend years upon years to learning the art of creating atmospheres, and Alex da Kid does a great job of that here.įrom the outset, there’s a smooth guitar riff, which is somehow powerful but calming – almost a “calm before the storm” type of feel. Ironically, even though these effects are some of the hardest to produce, listeners aren’t supposed to truly hear them – they’re supposed to “feel” them. Atmospheric effects create space, depth, and air in a tune. There are loads of “atmospheric” effects, which is one of the most challenging things to do in music production. Radioactive includes a mass of elements that aren’t likely to be heard by average listeners. I’m certainly glad he did, because my ears have now had the pleasure of listening to some of his work.
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He quit his profession as a professional soccer player in Europe to pursue music production. Before researching this song, I never heard of Alex da Kid, who has an interesting history. Compare that to a horribly produced song like “Feel This Moment” and Radioactive is a masterpiece (comparatively). Radioactive took a lot of effort to produce, and was made by one producer no less: Alex da Kid.