Nashville vibe?

[MystycalFanfare]

This is my first try to mix a country song. Based on my love of old country music, here's my try.

I would love to hear words from you guys!

Myst

Outch! Not bad but there's a BIG problem here. What did you do to that snare drum? It felt like I had a guy whacking me over the head with a mallet; it just PUNCHES the ears. Drums should have SOME punch, sure, but there's such thing as too much of a good thing...

Personally, I liked the way you panned the banjo left and what you did with the overall stereo image; it came in nice and wide and pleasant from the get-go, but it seemed to collapse a bit as the song progressed. Did you use compression in the mastering stage? If so I'd try this mix again without it; it'll have more "space."

Speaking of processing, it seems that either you applied too much de-ess processing on the vocals or there's too much EQ boost in the 8-10 kHz range on some tracks that's masking sibilants. This is a star vocal performance; it deserves more up-front presence, and sibilance in the original recording is not a problem.

BTW, I feel this would also sound better if you panned the fiddle to one side the way you did the banjo. I personally prefer the fiddle on the left but that's personal taste really. I think if you put the banjo on one side and the fiddle on the other it would sound a little wider and more "live" stereo-wise.

I'd say dial back on the EQ processing, particularly on the vocals, and if you're using any compression at the mastering stage try taking that out as well.

Hey, big thanks for comment here!

For snare, I only use gate for clear out the bleed, some compression and parallel processing. It's too much for particular song, indeed, especially after I'm comparing with old country tunes. I'm originally an heavy metal mixer, so pardon for that.

Yes I use compression on master bus about 2db reduction. It's not from my mastering but on my mixing, I believe. I heard my mix later and I agreed with you. I should have more creative on automation perhaps.

For vocal, yes I apply boosting on that area, the idea is for enhance the "agghh" breathy thing on vocal. Once again, maybe it's too much for particular song.

Thank you once again for spent your time to write detail comments and critics here.

Cheers!