Thread by @tinzoongi, prod suga appreciation of the day: eight

prod suga appreciation of the day: eight - IU (a fairly technical thread)

standard reminder that yoongi has never talked about eight’s production so any mention of his intentions are purely speculation and interpretation on my end

eight is very much a song about youth, with IU and yoongi’s lyrics emphasizing a sense of nostalgia for years past. i feel like the way this was conveyed in song (and later in the MV as well) was by creating a sense of adventure (trans creds @/ktaebwi)

the main way he did this that i’ll be focusing on was panning. ive mentioned before that panning is moving sounds to the left/right/center of the soundscape. while yoongi used panning in a more creative/unconventional way in honsool, panning in eight was more standard

since eight has a lot going on, panning is super important to free up space in the track (so for instance if the vocals are center (usually are), oftentimes instruments w countermelodies might be panned left or right to give them space to breathe)

panning can also be used to widen mixes by panning a sound in both directions - eg maybe a bg sound is panned a bit to the left AND a bit to the right so it casts the illusion of surrounding you, makes the space feel bigger, and leaves room for the vocals to cut through center

yoongi uses both these techniques in eight - throughout the song you’ll hear the guitar riffs panned in diff ways, often w mid/higher register guitar panned to one or the other ear and lower register guitar panned both ways at once

i feel like widening the mix is one way yoongi created the atmosphere eight carries, a feeling of being in an open space w no boundaries/restrictions - that idea of freedom that you could associate w youth (could also be a reason why its such a good driving song as joon put it)

to emphasize the importance of space in mixing heres a tidbit from one of his painting lives, i remember him saying this a couple days after eight came out and immediately making that connection. yg employs this in MANY of his tracks and that can be why theyre easy to visualize https://twitter.com/btstranslation_/status/1258685595909599233

https://twitter.com/btstranslation_/status/1258685595909599233

the other (and last) thing im going to mention doesn’t necessarily connect lyrically but is something im super nerdy abt bc it’s so important in songs, and that is eight’s tonal balancing!

balancing is basically laying out/editing sounds so that everything is even and nothing interferes w anything else. panning, volume leveling etc are some methods of doing this, but another way involves critically considering exactly what sounds you use

one way yoongi balanced the mix structurally w both IU’s higher-pitched vocals + his own lower-pitched ones was by primarily using low/mid freq instruments during her verses + higher freq ones during his own. using diff frequencies causes each sound to stand out independently

ex. of this is keeping the lower register guitar in her first verse/removing the bright sounds from the intro then doing the opposite in his own verse. when he reintroduces the bright guitar in her second verse, it’s for build-up/variety and set at a lower volume

this requires a bit of foresight imo and is one of the reasons im so doe eyed over this song

myg genius

anyways that’s all i got! i know this one is on the longer side but im an eight nerd and i won’t apologize pls enjoy future SOTY https://open.spotify.com/track/0pYacDCZuRhcrwGUA5nTBe?si=UGngA35SR_yVWXE-Da7_fA

eight(Prod.&Feat. SUGA of BTS) - IU, SUGA

https://open.spotify.com/track/0pYacDCZuRhcrwGUA5nTBe?si=UGngA35SR_yVWXE-Da7_fA

also stream the MV it’s lovely and honestly really encompasses the entire adventurous atmospheric vibe the song was going for