Two Bare Hands

[JDH_73]

Here we go.
Critiques?

[HbGuitar]

Lots of nice sounding elements in your mix and for me your drums are the highlight . The bass supports the drums nicely too so you're off to a solid start.

where i think you run into problems is maybe your choice of panning for the first half of the song. You've obviously thought about the dynamic progression of the song; starting narrow, building instrument intensity and then going wider for the second chorus and i think that works - to an extent.

I just find the first half of the song exhausting to listen to...everything seems to be panned down the middle; the vocals are fighting for space with the guitar and keyboard. Throw in the tambourine in verse 2 and the ever present huge snare (which is fantastic) and my ears have melted by the time there is any relief.

As i said, all your elements sound good. I think you need to decide which 2 or 3 things you want the listener to hear at any one time and then bring them in and out of focus with level and panning automation.

hope this helps

cheers

btw, why is the mix so loud? its like -7LUFS. You could easily reduce by 5dB

[Roy]

I'll disagree with Hb a bit. I don't find the panning or lack of it exhausting. I think what jumps out at me is the overall compression, at least on the vocal, that really constricts it and I think that makes the mix feel a little claustrophobic. The other elements of the mix seems to swallow the vocal and that flattens out the mix and makes it hard to focus on one thing, namely the vocal.
Other than that it sounds good.