hi there,
i'll only focus on a couple of things if i may?
- the acoustic guitar tracking needs care in the EQ department because of the top end. i think your monitoring is missing the sharpness that exists and you're not taming it enough in your quest to have them "cut through the mix". the only trouble is, they are now cutting my ears and i think this is important to flag up - many mixes in the forum are showing the same issues. it's difficult but not impossible, by considering where the guitars are positioned in the mix regarding depth, and you can then warm them up a bit. listen to around 1:50'ish for example, where these acoustics are especially out in the open and in all their naked glory - not pleasant for a seasoned music consumer with good ears
your side channel could benefit from some selective EQ to reduce the mud/low end, and also concerning the side, you have a serious abundance of audio up in the 10KHz region which is no doubt contributed by those darn acoustic guitars? this is probably both a mixing and mastering issue....if you were looking for some air in the master, this would have added to the woes in the mix for example.
i think you will find the violin will behave better in the mix if you ride the fader and then maybe use a gentle optical compressor to fine-control the level afterwards? i'm also not sure if you've missed the emotional driver in where the violin is supposed to be supporting the lyric? i personally think the song works better when the violin is brought out more in terms of it's presence. subjective analysis of objective? take your pick
the delays on the first hit were a bit of a shocker and made my head spin from the surprise. i understand your intentions behind the emotional driver to support the "loud and clear" lyric, but for me it was too much too soon. perhaps reining in the levels on the delays might help make it less in-my-face and ease up the distraction from the actual vocal here. an alternative thought might be to put the emphasis somewhere else during the vocal's intro?
you're heading in the right direction; it's a busy, challenging project with a lot going on, eh?
auditioned with HD560 Ovations.
hope this helps towards perfection
laters
Dave