Keystone Angel - Afterglow

[juanjose1967]

here's my mix of this song. I found vocals hard to sound alright and now I think they're ok.

As usual comments and advice are welcomed!

[Olli H]

Sounds very good to my ears.

Only things that came to my mind:
- piano might benefit of slightly longer sustain (parallel compression or plate?). Now I feel that notes die too soon
- some low percussion instrument is on the right. If you can make the low end of it to center, it might work better in headphones. The top end can be left to right to preserve the stereo image
- the hazy atmosphere of vox might benefit of more distance to it. Somehow the vox is both near and far at the moment. But the sound of vox as such is excellent to my ears.

Haven't tried this one. Might try it someday.

[juanjose1967]

Hi, Olli! thanks for the advice. I think that the problem with the vox was the leadvoxDT track, so now I have simply muted it. I've also changed the texture of the lead vocal in certain places so it can sound more ethereal. I've also tried to fix the drums by applying the little trick you told me about the other day. I hope you like it better now!

[thedon]

I Like your mix Juan.
The vocals sound crystal clear a touch too bright maybe 8 k up compared to the rest of the mix ,I haven't tried this one yet but as a personal preference would probably make the vocals and piano a touch fuller and warmer with more sustain in the lower and mid frequencies on the piano .

Good job

[juanjose1967]

thanks, Don! I found the vocals "too bright" and I had to apply a filter to lower those high frequencies. I'm glad you like them because they were the hardest part in the mix for me

[pauli]

The vocals sound a bit firmly compressed, probably so the taikos won't swallow it up, but it's spotlighting the sibilance quite a bit, which in turn is gonna make it tough to pull off the sort of effecty verbs and delays this song wants without the esses crashing around.

My suggestion is to slow down the attack time on the vocal comp considerably to darken the tone and avoid spotlighting the sibilants as much... My guess is the singer was miked up pretty close with the mic a little too low, so really heavy duty automation and multing might be the only way to keep her upfront, yet ethereal, without hissing at us :p