Orthogonal Records take on Sea of Leaves

[orthogonalrecords]

Hi all!

I am finally back again with a take on that wonderful song.

Love to hear your thoughts on my mix.

edit: Added another version (v3) that should be bigger and fatter now. I hope it's not too much already.

edit2: I added a final version now. Changed a little bit here and there. Guitars a bit louder, Cymbals with a bit more highs, some more automation work, etc. I am quite happy now. Hope you like it too.

Thanks and best regards,
Markus

[Roy]

Good to see this one come up again. I've been messing with it little by little but keep putting it aside.

It's not a bad mix but it's pretty much all midrange. To be fair the tracks themselves are pretty midrangy so it's difficult. Panning the guitars wider might help the vocals stand out more.
It can use more more low end definitely though the bass is clear in the mix. It in particular needs some more bottom. I know the bass track has a lot of clickiness and string noise.

The vocals sound good. Again they're pretty thin and small sounding but you've made them sound good and gave them the energy that they need. Same for the BGVs. They're big for only 5 tracks.

The synths are a little loud and overpower the mix.

It could use a hair more toms in the pre choruses to add to the power of the section.

The electric guitar at the very end could come up.

The hi hat is a little weird. I know there's no HH track so it's what's coming through the snare and OHs. Fo the most part you've tamed it but it moves around the stereo image in a way that's distracting (at least to me. Maybe cause I know how much there is in the tracks). I'm guessing it's the interplay between the snare leakage and the OHs.

It's pretty good mix. The main issue is seeing if you can make it just a little bigger. It is a tough track to get right though.

[orthogonalrecords]

Hi Roy,

Thank you for your detailed review.

I will look into it again and come back with an updated version once I managed to (at least partially) solve the issues you mentioned.

Best,
Markus

[orthogonalrecords]

Hi all,

I added another version in the first post.
Would be glad to hear your thoughts.

Thanks,
Markus

[orthogonalrecords]

Hi again,

please see the final version above.

Looking forward to your comments.

Best regards,
Markus

[Roy]

The final version sounds good. I like the vocal quality. It has a bit of a growl.
The only thing that jumps out at me is that the drums, especially the snare, feels distant. Maybe they're a little low compared to the guitars. I know it's tricky to get the drums forward in this song. The toms are good in the pre chorus.

Good job!