Heartbeats - Dags Mix

[Dags]

Hooray!
Finally getting back in the saddle after a *very* long hiatus (owing to a combination of kids, work, illness, kids, other projects, weather, kids, etc)

This track was trickier than I thought it would be. With the drum kit alternating between electronic and acoustic samples it certainly tested my creativity in coming up with a balanced mix.

This is my 'first cut' of the track after about 9 hours work (it's after 2am here) and is essentially a static mix....very little in the way of volume automation apart from a couple of vocal lines in the verse and a guitar line or two at the start of the song. The levels all seemed to be pretty good, for a change

No doubt I'll review and make changes in the near future after a break and a few more listens. In the meantime I hope you like this version.

If you have any queries about any of the processing I used, just ask!
Happy to share

Dags

[bmullen]

Sounds great!

[Voelund]

Overall very enjoyable and smooth sound !

I noticed a few details you may have overlooked or deliberately choosen to balance like that, here goes:

Some of the bv sticks out and sounds a tiny bit darker and louder than the rest. 0.50 for one.

The left padsound around 1.04 - if its an overdriven electric guitar it could sound more like one and be given a little more lvl. There are space for it there, maybe just boost some midfrequencies like 700.
Ok its the chorus, it should defo have more beef then :-)

The hi pad like synth about 2.50 is a little thin soundin, maybe give it a delicate wide boost around 2-300 to warm it up, and make it fit better to the rest o the mix.

The guitar sound seemed louder around 3.50, and darker too, more o that :-)

Small changes I suggest, I enjoyd the listen. Thank You

[takka360]

Enjoyed that Dags,good to hear one of your mixes again, the vox sound fantastic.
Very good indeed.

[thedon]

Nice to hear another mix !
You haven't lost your touch enjoyed listening !

[Dags]

Thanks for the feedback guys. You have no idea how much I have missed working on CMT tracks and listening to other mixes. Voelund, I really appreciate the pointers you have offered. Much of the tweaks required would probably have been avoided by the use of volume & eq automation, but after 9hrs of just trying to find a direction and then getting things to work together I ran out of steam sheer laziness on my part
With more time I'll also try to bring some synth into the first chorus that is seriously lacking in interest when the guitars take over & there's no synths that carry over into the chorus so the whole backing arrangement just drops away.

One thing I was incredibly happy with is the performance of the free Tokyo labs feedback compressor as a mix buss "mastering" dynamic controller. Even when things got crazy at the end of the track there was no pumping!! First time I have tried using it but this is going to be my first go to mix buss plugin from now on.

Hopefully I'll get some time in the next 2 weeks to revisit the mix.
I'll also try to listen to some of your songs on the train during the week and get some comments in.

Cheers, all!
Dags

[juanjose1967]

welcome back! I think that the mix sounds great and I agree with the other comments about the vocals. They sound fantastic!!

[Dags]

This will have to do - I'm knackered. Gotta get up for work in a couple of hours!

Tweaks galore to this version, incorporating fixes to some of Voelund's observations (I hope) and a few new bits and pieces to try to keep the interest going in the song.

Bit more automation to ride levels, bring in effects and panning.
Few EQ cuts & boosts across instrument groups to open up space.

Hope it is slightly better than the first cut.

Goodnight!
Dags

[Dags]

Oh BTW, here is the link to the mix buss compressor I mentioned in my first post for those who are interested.

http://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-feedback-compressor-2/

[TChianit]

Hello,

I enjoyed the listen.

Everything has a good deal of space, very cool. The vocal (Lead) floats above the mix I liked that very much.

The only problem I had is I wanted to hear more of your drum sound to really push the mix.

Overall very clean and clear.

Thanks for sharing

TC