You Know Better Mix by kelsonz

[kelsonz]

Attached is my mix for Hannes Keseberg's You Know Better. I took some liberties with muting parts in certain sections and did a little bit of editing. I mostly used Jack Johnson as a mix reference. Thanks for the opportunity to mix this great song!

[Mixinthecloud]

Very good intro all the way to the first chorus. The delicacy of your approach is offset by the heavy drums. Not sure if I'd address this or let it grow on me. I'm tending to sparkling the snare/kick more and easing up in the mid-bass. A minor point to an otherwise excellent approach that is well presented.

[Mike Senior]

Hi kelsonz -- another entrant taking the commendably bold move of dropping the bass from Verse 1! While I certainly agree that fortune favours the brave in mix contests like these, your implementation doesn't yet quite convince me, because although you've removed the textural uniformity between Verse 1 and Verse 2, you've made the Intro and Verse 1 texturally uniform instead! In other words, you've solved one arrangement problem by replacing it with another, as I hear it. Anyway, some other thoughts:

• Not a bad low-frequency balance between the kick and bass guitar, but the latter doesn't have tremendous small-speaker translation, and overall the mix could have more sub-80Hz energy and less around 150Hz.
  
• Tasteful effects use, but it seems quite static, so you're missing an opportunity for enhancing the long-term mix dynamics.
  
• Reasonable balance between the kick and snare, but I wonder whether the hi-hat's high end is a bit abrasive in the 3-5kHz region, and the ride-cymbal's stick noise is distracting during the Mid-section
  
• The 'group' elements (ie. claps and mob vox) that appear for the Outro seem a bit understated for a feel-good ending. The Hammond could probably get away with being louder there too.
  
• The vocal balancing could do with more attention, to mitigate the recording's LF inconsistencies, solidify the singer's position in the mix, and improve lyric intelligibility. Notice, for instance, how "food and drink" in Chorus 2 really gets submerged compared with the following "soothe my soul".
  

Hope some of those suggestions help -- thanks for letting us all hear your version!

[gdpsound]

Ciao it's ok like your mix
bit narrow and no much vibe for some reason.
7/10