Who I am. My mix

[Pedaling Prince]

My first mix of a country song. I was glad I found this song because I just love it. You know, a country song for a Spaniard like me is something quite exotic...

Anyway, for the first time I can hear all the instruments I've been trying to mix and most of them have an acceptable sound in my opinion (you might laugh about it but keep in mind that I've been mixing for only 5 months).

But, the best way to improve it is by learning your own mistakes, so I'm more than ready to hear your opinions and critics.

Thank you!

OK. This is interesting.

This mix, IMHO, requires what us screenwriters like to call a "page one rewrite." In other words, there's too much stuff that needs fixing for individual suggestions to help; you need to start over from scratch.

That being said, however, I was impressed with the relative clarity of the mix. To my ears, this sounds like a mix done by a talented mix engineer who was simply unfamiliar with the musical style he was working with. This makes sense given your own comment about how "exotic" country music sounds to your Spanish ears.

So I suspect you have the talent necessary to do a really fine mix of this material; I recommend only that you alter your approach. Here's what I'd do:

First, listen to the drum overheads, try to determine where each drum is in the stereo image, then pan the positions of each of the close mics as close as you can get them to those positions; that should give you a good stereo balance on the drums.

Now look at the individual instrument tracks and imagine in your mind's eye a stage where each of those tracks represents a performer; make sure your performers are spread comfortably on your mental "stage." Now, adjust the pan on each track until each instrument is in the place where you picture that performer in your mind.

Vocals, of course, will be dead center. Use a smooth reverb on them, something that sounds like the reverb on a concert hall stage. Keep it subtle; if you can hear it clearly when you solo the track but not when you're playing your entire mix you've probably got it perfect.

Now the only compression or EQ you should apply at this stage is to the vocals. A gentle compression ratio of 2:1 with a threshold around -15 or so should be enough. Then you might "air" the vocals a little with an EQ boost around 12 kHz or so (just five to 10 dB at most) and cut back a bit (three to five dB) around 300-350 kHz.

Also on the vocals you'll want to apply a high pass filter around 80 Hz to get rid of any "rumble" from the mic noise or air conditioning used in the studio; it'll help clear some space in the frequency spread for your bass and kick drum.

Now try running the whole mix without applying ANY processing to ANY of the remaining tracks, no EQ, no compression, no reverb, nothing. Given the quality of these tracks (these were a Telefunken microphone demo) that may be all you'll need to do, other than balancing the instruments against the vocal.

If it sounds a bit too flat, try using the reverb you're using for the vocal as a send effect and put ALL the tracks through it, as if they were all on the same stage with the vocalist. Again, just try to keep the reverb effect subtle. It should be almost subliminal; it's just there to give some "presence."

If you decide to try this, I'd love to hear the results.