Benjamin John: 'Better Way'Don's mix

[thedon]

Here is version 1 of this awesome song .

Cheers

[Olli H]

Awesome song needs an awesome mix, and I think you have made it.

Nice sound. I like it. I think every thing sits nicely in their proper places.

I didn’t find anything to tweak for your second version.

Bass maybe comes in too thickly around 0:22. Or not…

[Sono]

Great mix, but there's stuff to improve.

The biggest thing is how vocals drown in choruses and also become overly sibilant.

Then there's guitars section: after 1:07 they are super sharp to my ears.

[thedon]

Awesome song needs an awesome mix, and I think you have made it.

Nice sound. I like it. I think every thing sits nicely in their proper places.

I didn’t find anything to tweak for your second version.

Bass maybe comes in too thickly around 0:22. Or not…

Thanks for the kind words Olli.
I agree about the bass,I tried my new toy waves bass rider for the first time on this mix but have to work out on how to adjust it

[thedon]

Great mix, but there's stuff to improve.

The biggest thing is how vocals drown in choruses and also become overly sibilant.

Then there's guitars section: after 1:07 they are super sharp to my ears.

Hey sono,
Thanks for having a listen and kind words ,It's great to hear how mixes translate on different monitors , will have a look at the guitars and vocal level in the chorus and sibilance

Cheers.

[Olli H]

I agree about the bass,I tried my new toy waves bass rider for the first time on this mix but have to work out on how to adjust it

It's interesting tool. I've used it quite much every now and then. Normally, if I found a good setting, I freeze the track so that I can do manually gain envelope adjustements later if needed. For some reason I haven't used it for couple of months. Not for any particular reason, I've just forgotten it totally. Damn this gray hair and sneaking dementia.

With bass I thought that it has too much low end. Not so much bass rider issue.

[thedon]

I agree about the bass,I tried my new toy waves bass rider for the first time on this mix but have to work out on how to adjust it

It's interesting tool. I've used it quite much every now and then. Normally, if I found a good setting, I freeze the track so that I can do manually gain envelope adjustements later if needed. For some reason I haven't used it for couple of months. Not for any particular reason, I've just forgotten it totally. Damn this gray hair and sneaking dementia.

With bass I thought that it has too much low end. Not so much bass rider issue.

Thanks for the tip,probably will use it more to compensate for my own inconsistent bass playing levels lol.
I spent quit a a bit of time playing around with the bass level and not 100%happy will have a play around maybe roll off more deep bottom end !
Thanks

[Obelix]

Good sounding mix, a little bit too bright. I think that you cut too much low mids. Otherwise, a little more bass, and there will be nothing to complain about.

[thedon]

Good sounding mix, a little bit too bright. I think that you cut too much low mids. Otherwise, a little more bass, and there will be nothing to complain about.

Hey Obelix,
Thanks for having a listen
Will have a look at the eq.
Cheers

[Pedaling Prince]

OK. I have to be honest, I wasn't over the moon about this mix. I read the rest of the reviews and Obelix here comes closest to my opinion:

Good sounding mix, a little bit too bright. I think that you cut too much low mids. Otherwise, a little more bass, and there will be nothing to complain about.

Additionally, it sounded to me like the vocals were squashed a bit with compression. Not a good thing for a song with this 50s retro sound; the vocals need to sound more open and natural to fit with the vibe. I'd dial that compression way back. I also felt the vocals were a little too bright themselves, though comparing it against my mix my vocals could probably be a little brighter; I suspect the sweet spot for vocal tone is somewhere in between what you did and what I did.

Mind you, these vocals were a bit of a pain in the a** to work with because of the heavy sibilance problem, particularly on the lead. I tried using a de-esser but it stripped the vocal of too much air. That's when I realized when analyzing the problem that the level of the sibilance was way above the level of the voice; that gave me an idea. I used a multiband compressor set to compress only in the high band adjusted to the frequencies where the sibilance problem was. Since the sibilance was so loud, it triggered the compressor only during the sibilance; otherwise the signal was left unchanged. This had the effect of knocking down the sibilance without robbing the vocal of its air. Problem solved.

I was kinda on the fence about the drums, particularly the snare. At some points, the additional power was welcome, helped that snare jump out of the mix, but towards the end the snare got overbearing, too loud. I'm not usually a fan of automating drum levels but in this case you might try bringing the snare down 3-4 dB during the final moments when it gets so much louder.

Hard to tell if this was because of the compression or not but I felt the vocal levels in general were quite a bit too loud, particularly the lead vocal. Ironically, though, it felt like the vocals were getting lost in the arrangement at the very end, too. The vocal EQ balance overall sounded a bit AM-radioish to me. That'd be OK for dramatic effect at selected points given the retro feel of the song but it tends to come off a little grating when it's like that through the whole song.

Finally, and this is just a personal taste suggestion based on the choice I made in my mix, I'd also automate the backing vocals on the final harmony and bring them down to really soft; I find the shift in dynamic gives the song a true sense of the melancholy and regret. "There's gotta be a better way to say the things I should've told you yesterday..."

My God the end of this song always makes me sad...

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

Looking forward to your next stab at this one.