02-07-2014, 09:42 PM
There are quite a few effects in this mix that deserve their own collective adjective to describe how indicative they are of your mixing style: Metallurgisty 
and they made me smile. Particularly the spring reverb (or something similar) about three quarters of the way through the tune... that's exactly what it sounds like if you accidentally tip my guitar amplifier over when it's turned on (you hear the spring resonate), and I've always liked that sound... you hear quite a bit of it in vintage recordings.
My main concern is that it sounds like you've removed a bit too much top end from the cat-gut guitar and it sounds a bit boxy, allowing the steel string guitars to dominate that region unduly. That wouldn't be much of a big deal if the captures were a little better. My gut is telling me the recording environment had a wicked flutter echo, or perhaps the mic placement was off a little, because the steel stringers are wildly tonally inconsistent in a few spots across the mid-range due to phase shifting. Normally I'd suspect that the guitarist was shifting his position (especially because it's mono) but you'll notice a similar property in the electric guitars (and the amp is presumably quite stationary) around 500 or so, although the effect is actually pretty pleasant in that case. At any rate, that issue drove me ba-nay-nays, and after 4 hours of fiddling with dynamic EQs, multiband compressors and phase shifters, I gave up and buried the offending frequencies with the lead acoustic, which is probably contributing to my perception of the lead guitar's tone as it leaves those phase shifts more exposed.
In general, the EQ feels a bit too aggressive and some of the automated tonal changes sound a little stand-outish/unnatural, and in the odd spot here or there, the electric guitars get a bit harsh, but the separation of instruments and overall mix clarity is well executed, nonetheless. As always, your reverb choices are very profoundly emotional in nature and very successful in creating the illusion of space around the instruments.
As you mentioned, the hard work on the bass guitar is the real victory here. Nice, punchy, warm but not muddy, and very well suited to the style. I didn't notice the attack/decay issues when I was mixing this because I was too busy fighting a losing battle on the rhythm guitars and thus left the issue unattended, but your work here really shows and might possibly inspire me to try something similar in a revision.
And the drums sound absolutely outstanding, but something suggests to me that you already know that!
Good work on a track that had a lot of unexpected challenges!
and they made me smile. Particularly the spring reverb (or something similar) about three quarters of the way through the tune... that's exactly what it sounds like if you accidentally tip my guitar amplifier over when it's turned on (you hear the spring resonate), and I've always liked that sound... you hear quite a bit of it in vintage recordings.My main concern is that it sounds like you've removed a bit too much top end from the cat-gut guitar and it sounds a bit boxy, allowing the steel string guitars to dominate that region unduly. That wouldn't be much of a big deal if the captures were a little better. My gut is telling me the recording environment had a wicked flutter echo, or perhaps the mic placement was off a little, because the steel stringers are wildly tonally inconsistent in a few spots across the mid-range due to phase shifting. Normally I'd suspect that the guitarist was shifting his position (especially because it's mono) but you'll notice a similar property in the electric guitars (and the amp is presumably quite stationary
) around 500 or so, although the effect is actually pretty pleasant in that case. At any rate, that issue drove me ba-nay-nays, and after 4 hours of fiddling with dynamic EQs, multiband compressors and phase shifters, I gave up and buried the offending frequencies with the lead acoustic, which is probably contributing to my perception of the lead guitar's tone as it leaves those phase shifts more exposed.In general, the EQ feels a bit too aggressive and some of the automated tonal changes sound a little stand-outish/unnatural, and in the odd spot here or there, the electric guitars get a bit harsh, but the separation of instruments and overall mix clarity is well executed, nonetheless. As always, your reverb choices are very profoundly emotional in nature and very successful in creating the illusion of space around the instruments.
As you mentioned, the hard work on the bass guitar is the real victory here. Nice, punchy, warm but not muddy, and very well suited to the style. I didn't notice the attack/decay issues when I was mixing this because I was too busy fighting a losing battle on the rhythm guitars and thus left the issue unattended, but your work here really shows and might possibly inspire me to try something similar in a revision.
And the drums sound absolutely outstanding, but something suggests to me that you already know that!
Good work on a track that had a lot of unexpected challenges!
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!