Hannes Keseberg: 'You Know Better'

[Mike Senior]

Hi TheBouff -- you've delivered another intriguing new vision this, almost straying into remix territory in terms of all the fun arrangement stunts! Some specific thoughts:

• Overall there's a fatiguing 3kHz peak in the mix tonality, which makes me want to turn the volume down. I felt I wanted to cut about 6dB there, for instance.
  
• The kick's big, but it's also pretty tight, which I like. The side-stick and snare are rather diffuse, though, which seems out of keeping with the kick and bass -- I think they just need more actual midrange, rather than relying so heavily on the more lightweight upper frequencies.
  
• The subs are coming mostly from the kick, which leaves the harmonies rather unsupported, and I'm not sure how well that suits singer-songwriter material in general. I like the novelty of the fuzz element in the balance, but I think the body of the sound could just be bigger in the mix and take more of a share of the low end.
  
• In general, the effects feel over-egged, especially the reverb. I have no problem with dubby elements in a production like this, but I think it's better to use such effects as 'features', rather than making the whole mix as ambient as this. The brightness of the reverb doesn't help in this respect, as it dates the sound somewhat too, I think. As a rule of thumb, it's best to EQ long/obvious reverbs quite assertively to maintain mix clarity.
  
• There's a low resonance to the conga part that's confusing the bass line when that arrives. I'd notch this out, if only just for when the bass is playing.
  
• I think you could do more automation work to solidify the vocal level and bring out nice background details (such as some of the guitar fills) more.
  

Hope some of that's useful -- thanks for posting!