23-01-2019, 09:38 AM
Hi Skipper! Generally a very good mix balance here, with the bass, drums, guitars, and hammond forming a sensible relationship, and the guitar timbres appealing to me aesthetically too. The mix tonality's also not bad, although it could have more sub-80Hz bass weight, I reckon, otherwise the harmonies won't receive as much low-end support as I'd hope in a singer-songwriter project like this.
There is something very weird going on with the drums, though, because there's a strange flamming quality to the drum sound throughout. Judging by the song's opening hit, I'd guessing that one or more of the drum tracks has slipped out of sync, so that it's around 25 milliseconds earlier than others, giving a kind of 'pre-echo'. I suppose it might also be some drum-triggering software that's not tracking the timing of the hits that well, or maybe it's a plug-in that's not declaring its latency properly to the host DAW. Whatever it is, though, it's seriously undermining the drum sound as a whole, so I'd try to sleuth out what it is.
In addition, the snare is the one instrument that feels much too low in level. The sidestick's fine, but the snare is seriously underpowered. This makes the Reintro and Outro, which both rely on the snare, feel like a bit of a let-down, and the drum fills (such as the one leading into Chorus 2) also fall flat as a result. The tom hit at 2:42, on the other hand, feels quite a bit too loud, and also doesn't seem to cohere with the main kit sound at all.
The lead vocal has a very pleasant and smooth tone, with well-controlled high-frequencies, but it's also probably a bit too loud, I reckon. Clearly, it's an advantage to be able to hear the words easily, but I think you're running the risk of making the band, especially the midrange instruments, feel a bit weedy by comparison, especially during the choruses. If you turn down the vocal, though, I imagine you'll have to give more attention to detailed automation work if you're going to maintain that same degree of lyric transmission. You'll also have to even out the singer's low-frequency level variations, such as on "the smile I see is telling me so" at 1:47, where the words "see is telling" feel much bigger because they're bassier.
The stereo width of the mix is nice, although the mono-compatibilty of the Hammond could perhaps be a little better, and the mix-effects are generally very tastefully done, giving a reasonable sense of blend a space. The effects settings do seem quite static, though, and there were times I felt they could usefully have changed -- for example by giving the vocal a bit more of an expansive delay/reverb tail for the Choruses and Mid-section, thereby helping with the mix's section differentiation.
Although I like the general idea of dropping down the arrangement for the start of Chorus 3, your implementation doesn't yet really convince me. It's partly that the bass kind of sidles in at 2:55, almost a bit apologetically, which seems somehow to weaken the subsequent drums entry. However the main problem for me is that it feels like the build-up never really picks up steam from there leading into the Outro. Yes, the arrangement has its own internal build-up, but it sounds like you've just let it get on with that, rather than trying to support the momentum with your automation. Also, when you get to the Outro, the comparatively low level of the mod vocals leaves the texture feeling a bit polite, rather than the feel-good 'party' culmination of the song.
Hopefully some of that is useful -- thanks for uploading your mix for us to listen to!
There is something very weird going on with the drums, though, because there's a strange flamming quality to the drum sound throughout. Judging by the song's opening hit, I'd guessing that one or more of the drum tracks has slipped out of sync, so that it's around 25 milliseconds earlier than others, giving a kind of 'pre-echo'. I suppose it might also be some drum-triggering software that's not tracking the timing of the hits that well, or maybe it's a plug-in that's not declaring its latency properly to the host DAW. Whatever it is, though, it's seriously undermining the drum sound as a whole, so I'd try to sleuth out what it is.
In addition, the snare is the one instrument that feels much too low in level. The sidestick's fine, but the snare is seriously underpowered. This makes the Reintro and Outro, which both rely on the snare, feel like a bit of a let-down, and the drum fills (such as the one leading into Chorus 2) also fall flat as a result. The tom hit at 2:42, on the other hand, feels quite a bit too loud, and also doesn't seem to cohere with the main kit sound at all.
The lead vocal has a very pleasant and smooth tone, with well-controlled high-frequencies, but it's also probably a bit too loud, I reckon. Clearly, it's an advantage to be able to hear the words easily, but I think you're running the risk of making the band, especially the midrange instruments, feel a bit weedy by comparison, especially during the choruses. If you turn down the vocal, though, I imagine you'll have to give more attention to detailed automation work if you're going to maintain that same degree of lyric transmission. You'll also have to even out the singer's low-frequency level variations, such as on "the smile I see is telling me so" at 1:47, where the words "see is telling" feel much bigger because they're bassier.
The stereo width of the mix is nice, although the mono-compatibilty of the Hammond could perhaps be a little better, and the mix-effects are generally very tastefully done, giving a reasonable sense of blend a space. The effects settings do seem quite static, though, and there were times I felt they could usefully have changed -- for example by giving the vocal a bit more of an expansive delay/reverb tail for the Choruses and Mid-section, thereby helping with the mix's section differentiation.
Although I like the general idea of dropping down the arrangement for the start of Chorus 3, your implementation doesn't yet really convince me. It's partly that the bass kind of sidles in at 2:55, almost a bit apologetically, which seems somehow to weaken the subsequent drums entry. However the main problem for me is that it feels like the build-up never really picks up steam from there leading into the Outro. Yes, the arrangement has its own internal build-up, but it sounds like you've just let it get on with that, rather than trying to support the momentum with your automation. Also, when you get to the Outro, the comparatively low level of the mod vocals leaves the texture feeling a bit polite, rather than the feel-good 'party' culmination of the song.
Hopefully some of that is useful -- thanks for uploading your mix for us to listen to!