Trafficker Monked

[Monk]

Balances are okay but the mix sounds very small and dry.

Over headphones, I'd agree. Are you on headphones? But over 8 inchers in a nice room, and pushing some air, it sounds powerful, big and very connected.

Rooms add ambiance, headphones don't. Headphones generally are pretty chronic at presenting ambiance because they're compromised by having only one driver. This is one of the reasons why many mixes here are overcooked in reverb and have lost clarity and focus and power along with it.

The problem with adding yet more reverb when there's already a load captured by the microphones (he's not using a properly treated room), is that it adds even more spectral congestion, fog and haze, to what's already there. I can hear this problem in your mix, for example.

I actually used delay and avoided reverb, just to move the guitars back a foot or two. Any more and it would have turned to porridge. But good over headphones, no doubt, depending on design.

Bass fx you are using are very odd to be in the whole song.

If you were expecting "tradition" from Monk, then I'm going to disappoint, especially when there's no Brief and we have the feedom to explore our creativity. Sorry about that. I had a need to pepper things up for a guy who's father never loved him. It's my vision, of course. I'm wondering from your comments, if you had an idea of how the mix should sound in your mind, and judged my mix against it?

In my opinion most of the mix feels disconnected.
I would try some reverb in it to glue things together.

Discussed above, but thanks for taking the time to listen and share your perspective. Always appreciated