Discussion Zone

This is my attempt. I used a Josh Rouse track, "Winter in the Hamptons" as a general point of reference, though my mix has more low end. I'm happy with a lot of this mix, any comments appreciated though.

That rimshot is just perfect, actually everything is spot on except the snare hit, a little poor (snare is a common issue with this tune). I'm not fond of twin panned guitars, but they work great here, and there's a cleanness and purity in the way you work out the space that is something to learn from. Easily one the best attempts I've heard so far!

Thanks a lot! And I’m with you, I’m pretty happy with everything but the snare. I’ve never done sample replacement and this strikes me as a prime specimen for that. Is there a free or low cost sample trigger plugin that people like?

I use Reaper which comes with a bunch of effects, one of them is DrumTrigger, but most of the time I just ask it to generate MIDI notes from the hits in the file (it takes a little more than "asking" actually, but still pretty easy and fast) and then use those notes to play whatever sample I want.

I use Cubase but it has a similar "replace with midi" function I didn't even know about. Good to know!

That'll have to wait for another mix, but I made a few further refinements in this one. I added the fade out at the end as James May suggests. Also added a subtle reverb effect to the vocal at the end of the chorus ("...make an escape"). The transition was a bit dull without that, much better now. I added a tiny bit of attack (0.3db) to the vocals with a transient plugin, which gave a bit of life I didn't realize was missing. And various other tiny adjustments.

I feel like the mix is 5-10% better now and I feel good about putting htis one to rest and moving on to the next thing.

Really good top end in this mix.