North to Alaska - All The Same (New to the Threads!)

[ShredShed101]

Hey! So, pretty straight forward. I've posted both a post processing and pre-processing version of this tune so you all can hear the differences made to the track.
I'm new to the discussion threads, so please feel free to critique to your hearts content so that I can improve on my mixes.

[Roy]

Welcome to the forums. Here's what I noticed.

The snare sounds weird. I'm assuming it's the reverb that's on it. It adds a "phasey" quality.
The cowbell gets lost.
I'm missing the bass. At least in the chorus. It's be nice to have it fill in the middle of the stereo image to balance out the wide guitars in the chorus. The guitars in the chorus may be too wide. Do they have any stereo widening processing? Maybe it's the reverb. It'd be nice if they were more solid and anchor the sides of the image. Right now they feel washed and indistinct.
The kick has resonance in the lower mids. It really sticks out to me in the second verse. Is there reverb on the kick? If so it might be taking up to much real estate in the mix.
The vocals are buried. I can hear them clearly but they feel like they're way in the back. They can come up and be the focus.
The transitions into and out of the bridge can be cleaned up with some edits and fades.

It's not bad and I appreciate the dynamics. I think there might be some extra processing going on that's taking the focus away from the song. I suspect cutting back or changing some of the reverb you have going on would solidify the whole thing.

Hope that helps.

[ShredShed101]

Welcome to the forums. Here's what I noticed.

The snare sounds weird. I'm assuming it's the reverb that's on it. It adds a "phasey" quality.
The cowbell gets lost.
I'm missing the bass. At least in the chorus. It's be nice to have it fill in the middle of the stereo image to balance out the wide guitars in the chorus. The guitars in the chorus may be too wide. Do they have any stereo widening processing? Maybe it's the reverb. It'd be nice if they were more solid and anchor the sides of the image. Right now they feel washed and indistinct.
The kick has resonance in the lower mids. It really sticks out to me in the second verse. Is there reverb on the kick? If so it might be taking up to much real estate in the mix.
The vocals are buried. I can hear them clearly but they feel like they're way in the back. They can come up and be the focus.
The transitions into and out of the bridge can be cleaned up with some edits and fades.

It's not bad and I appreciate the dynamics. I think there might be some extra processing going on that's taking the focus away from the song. I suspect cutting back or changing some of the reverb you have going on would solidify the whole thing.

Hope that helps.

Thank you so much for the critiques! I currently mix on JBL studio monitors and I have trouble with the reverb alot. It makes it sound like there is hardly anything on it when in reality I need to dial it back. Currently my reverb can only be found on the vocals(12% mix), the group track my drums go into (10% mix over all drum instrumentation) and then during that clean, frilly guitar part in the middle of the song(15% mix). So I'll see if I can dial it back alittle more.

I'll definitely go through each of the critique marks you made and see if I can get them dialed in alittle more.