Transmisson - Joy Division

Intro Part 1

4 Bars

Bass guitar with a synth pad. 4th Bar is ended by a drum fill that starts the song properly. Small amount of reverb with a longish pre delay used on bass.

Intro Part 2

8 Bars

Drums, bass and guitar play together. Bass follows the same riff as the intro with a lead lick used to finish the 8 bar section. Guitar plays a lead riff picking only single notes and no chords. Drums play a 16th note pattern on closed hi hats. Snare is played as quarter notes on each beat with 8's at the end of each bar. Kick drum is a mixture of quarter and eighth notes. Hight tom hit on the 3rd beat of each bar. Guitar has quite bit of reverb on it. Short pre delay to push it back in the mix, with two takes on both the left and right channel. Drums and very tight in terms of sound with a lot of reverb and delay used on the snare.

Verse 1

8 Bars

Vocal appear in only the first 4 bars. Drums and bass continue to play the same rhythmic pattern that the have been doing for the whole song. Guitar is absent for the first 4 bars while there are vocals and then comes in when they drop out for the last 4 bars. Guitar plays the first 4 bar lead riff of Intro Part 2

Verse 2

8 Bars

Vocals again for the whole section. Same drum and bass pattern as Verse 1 except for a low tom hit on the 3rd beat of the 2nd and 3rd bar. No guitar once again for the first 4 bars and then it comes in playing gentle whole not chords following the progression of the bass.

Verse 3

4 Bars

Synth with what sounds like an arpeggiator, LFO and maybe a phaser or panner on it appears. Drums and bass remain the same. Same guitar chord progression that ended Verse 2.

Pre Chorus

8 Bars

No vocals. Guitar comes to the front of the mix. Double tracked and a take on each channel. It plays a single lead lick not previously played. Drums and bass continue as previous. A second overdriven guitar comes in after four bars and plays the whole note chord progression that follows the bass.

Chorus

8 Bars

Vocals. Synth still present. Over driven guitars plays the whole note chord progression. Drums and bass follow same pattern. The earlier low tom hit happens on the 3rd beat of the 1st, second and 8th bar. Vocal harmonies with BV's come in after the 4th bar. What sounds like a second synth appears up the centre channel playing the same line as the other synth.

Verse 4

6 Bars

Same instrumentation that was present in the chorus follows on here. A new guitar line that is barely audible appears underneath the mix, playing a chord progression not previously heard. Low tom hits on the 3rd beat in the 5th and 6th bar.

Chorus

Same chorus as previous except that vocal harmonies come in right away. Low tom hits on all 3rd beats except the 3rd bar.

Outro

3 and a half bars

Drums finish this without guitar or bass as they ring out from the chorus. The outro slows down with each bar and doesn't go for a full 4 bars. Low tom hits on the first and second bar. Synth up the centre channel rings out at the end of the 2nd bar. The synth pad tone from the Intro finishes the song.

Dynamically the song is constantly progressing upwards. It slowly builds With the earlier verses and pre chorus making reference to the guitar riff from the previous section but never really playing twice. It's in D minor and follows a constant D to C chord progression. The song is incredibly produced and sounds nothing like it's era. many artists that followed were influenced by this style and it really set a precedent for what became the 80's sound. Tight, electronic sounding drums with a lot of delay, reverb and gating on the snare. Mix wise the the drums and bass take up a lot of space and the guitar tends to play more of a supporting role. There is a synth present through out most of the song but it is mainly there for texture and unless you listen out for it you almost can't tell it's there. Performance wise it's very tight as well. The instruments are all very seperate in the mix and the performances would have needed to be quite exact to be able to space them so well. Even though everything was tracked individually, including each element of the drums, it does sound very cohesive and the vibe of the song is still very energetic.