04-05-2016, 06:06 PM
Hey Andreas, been awhile 
Listening on headphones.
I am really enjoying the long ambience on the guitars and vocals. In the quieter sections at least, I'd dry up the snare drum a little bit, personally. It's not a bad sound but it's a little dated from a production standpoint.
For the most part, instrument balances are working, such that I can pretty clearly hear each element in the mix. There are quite a few guitars going on at a few point from what I can tell, so I'd consider seeing if any improvement could be wrought by muting, at least in certain sections. As it stands, it sounds to me like you've layered them pretty nicely and kept their dynamics in check, which isn't always so easy with cleaner guitar sounds, so good work.
I'm not sure what state the recordings are in, it sounds like they're pretty nicely done from your mix, so it's hard to say what you're up against on this matter, but I feel like the lead vocalist isn't getting much priority in the upper frequency ranges? It's hard to offer suggestions not knowing what's happening, but the lead vocal could in my opinion be brighter. It's possible the mic the producer used didn't capture very much treble, so maybe that's how they wanted it to sound, in which case it may be better not to fight it. In cases where I'd like a singer's voice to be a little brighter, I'll often send the vocal to an aux track that's had tube-style distortion applied and filter out everything but the upper harmonics, then tuck it in. That's basically how the hardware Aphex exciters work, it seems. If you go that route, do fiddle with the phase to make sure the tracks are combining predictably.
Overall, I like this, dude. Main thing that needs work in my opinion is the choruses. They're balanced and controlled, and they're very thick across the frequency spectrum, and that's good. For me, they could probably be a little louder relative to the verses, where fewer instruments are playing. It's sort of an odd sensation when the number of instruments/singers doubles but the loudness of the arrangement doesn't increase by much. I'm almost wondering if you've got parallel compression going on the master buss and it's pushing the verses up a bit relative to the choruses?
From time to time I think I can hear a compressor working on the lead vocal, or maybe it's a fader ride that could be tightened up a little. If it's a compressor inserted on the vocal channel, maybe play with the attack time and the ratio a little bit so it's not kicking in so hard. Or if the vocal is hitting a master buss compressor too hard, the best fix is to find those moments and ride the vocal until the compressor isn't pushing back so hard on the louder notes. fiddling with master compression settings at this stage of the mix is like playing with fire.
Overall good work dude, sounds like you've improved since I last listened to your mixing
Listening on headphones.I am really enjoying the long ambience on the guitars and vocals. In the quieter sections at least, I'd dry up the snare drum a little bit, personally. It's not a bad sound but it's a little dated from a production standpoint.
For the most part, instrument balances are working, such that I can pretty clearly hear each element in the mix. There are quite a few guitars going on at a few point from what I can tell, so I'd consider seeing if any improvement could be wrought by muting, at least in certain sections. As it stands, it sounds to me like you've layered them pretty nicely and kept their dynamics in check, which isn't always so easy with cleaner guitar sounds, so good work.
I'm not sure what state the recordings are in, it sounds like they're pretty nicely done from your mix, so it's hard to say what you're up against on this matter, but I feel like the lead vocalist isn't getting much priority in the upper frequency ranges? It's hard to offer suggestions not knowing what's happening, but the lead vocal could in my opinion be brighter. It's possible the mic the producer used didn't capture very much treble, so maybe that's how they wanted it to sound, in which case it may be better not to fight it. In cases where I'd like a singer's voice to be a little brighter, I'll often send the vocal to an aux track that's had tube-style distortion applied and filter out everything but the upper harmonics, then tuck it in. That's basically how the hardware Aphex exciters work, it seems. If you go that route, do fiddle with the phase to make sure the tracks are combining predictably.
Overall, I like this, dude. Main thing that needs work in my opinion is the choruses. They're balanced and controlled, and they're very thick across the frequency spectrum, and that's good. For me, they could probably be a little louder relative to the verses, where fewer instruments are playing. It's sort of an odd sensation when the number of instruments/singers doubles but the loudness of the arrangement doesn't increase by much. I'm almost wondering if you've got parallel compression going on the master buss and it's pushing the verses up a bit relative to the choruses?
From time to time I think I can hear a compressor working on the lead vocal, or maybe it's a fader ride that could be tightened up a little. If it's a compressor inserted on the vocal channel, maybe play with the attack time and the ratio a little bit so it's not kicking in so hard. Or if the vocal is hitting a master buss compressor too hard, the best fix is to find those moments and ride the vocal until the compressor isn't pushing back so hard on the louder notes. fiddling with master compression settings at this stage of the mix is like playing with fire.
Overall good work dude, sounds like you've improved since I last listened to your mixing
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!