Never stop dancing EJ :)

[JEL]

Interesting. It doesn't sound too bright. I'm just not big on the overall aesthetic, I don't think it fits this particular song. It sound like you're bending the song to fit your own style, rather than finding the best style for the song. Also, the vocal reverb is simply too cavernous.

Hi Damian

I'm glad you mention it's not too bright. I wasn't sure, but thought I might have given it too much treble.
Especially when doing longer sessions I can't always tell if ear-fatigue makes me push the brightness harder than what's good.

More than once I've come back to an older mix only to find I lost ear-neutrality mid-way in the mixing process.
It's a sliding process that often gets me when mixing/mastering for long continuous periods, like getting snow-blind, or losing sight of the forest for all the trees, or something like that



Yes, I did indeed 'bend' the song to fit my own taste.
I'm not sure I really believe in such a thing as a 'style neutral', or 'color-less', mix/master engineer

I think people are generally best at mixing/mastering the styles they have some level of feelings for, and that artists should really pick their mix/master engineer based on that.
A bit like they idea of 'picking the right tool for the job' (that engineer for that style, and that engineer for that style)

Obviously there are differences and some are better at being all-round than others, but I do believe that most mix/master engineers are, in some way, best perceived of as a kind of contributing artist to the overall sound-result.

For the same reason I also cut out the mandolin and sliding pedal-steel guitar. That was a deliberate choice, and clearly not one you can make if you're trying to stick strictly with the artist's intentions (Of course James May hints in his post, in the top of this sub-forum, that we can go ahead and make some artistic choices to this track, so I felt like it was ok to experiment a little and not worry too much about deviating )


So having said all that, I'm not sure I could mix country in the same way an engineer with lots of country-work could, even if I tried. I favor a specific sound (I guess we all do at some level) so I'm probably always going to, even if trying not to, end up close to it to some degree.


About the reverb. I did experiment with dry vocals and I did like the sound of that, so I actually cut down the level of the reverb to keep it very far down in loudness (obviously not enough) so it didn't sound too obvious that the vox has reverb. I aimed for it to be more like a background thing that wasn't too 'visible' during most of the singing, to give the sense that the vox is dry during the singing-parts while having some atmosphere during the non-singing parts.

I tried short reverbs too, but they became even more obvious, so I ended up going with a very long tail to try and make the dry vox and the reverb two distinctly different items. But obviously that didn't work as intended when you comment the reverb like that
Personally I really like big and long reverbs though, so we're probably back to the personal-taste bias-thing as mentioned above.

Thank you very much for your comment. The part about the brightness was especially good to hear (As that, in my experience, tends to be less style-dependent and therefore more important to get correct. Where as long or short reverbs can more easily be written down to personal taste)

Thanks again
JEL