(27-07-2022, 10:54 PM)Ys Man Wrote: 3rd time

(30-07-2022, 11:18 AM)Cudjoe Wrote: Hi Ys Man 1st mix is nice the only thing imo is the breakdown could do with a bit of something,but thats a matter of taste,mix 2 i find that panning of the synth take away the focus of the vocals,and the effects are a little nauseous .

(29-07-2022, 03:06 AM)Damian Oakes Wrote:

(27-07-2022, 10:54 PM)Y Wrote: 3rd time

This is an excellent mix! I really like the big vocals with the punchy backing track.

Thanks mate

(31-07-2022, 06:51 PM)Mammy Wrote: Hi Y's Man.I think synths are a bit loud.Vocal is a bit wide.Your mix needs some energy or dynamic.All of the elements working around the long reverbed vocal.Cheers!

(02-08-2022, 08:15 PM)mikej Wrote: Hi!

First off I must say that I am still a little burned out on this track at the moment.  I am not too sure how I feel about my own mix let alone anyone else at this point, so my comments might be a bit off base. Saying that I do have some general thoughts that I hope might be of some use.  Also bear in mind I am also far from expert with this!

Listening to the mix above (post #8).

Overall it’s a good mix.  Decent balances, and the low and high end is pretty good too.  No major complaints as such there.

Liking the intro.  (I used the same plugin to add a sort of radio effect to the chorus intro, assuming the plugin is what I suspect it is, but decided not to use it in the end).

Some small things to think about that might have a big impact:

Long term mix dynamics:

I think you can drop the volume of the verses a bit compared to the chorus sections to give a bit more contrast between the sections.  Currently the verses feel a bit loud to me, but not by much.  You can probably drop the volume by a db or so with automation on the master bus.  Alternatively you can craft the mix dynamics by automating each part to create the build as we get to the chorus.  Managing the balance of each section is really quite tricky with this mix.  You can also drop the volume of the break a bit too I think, to reduce the sense of energy and kind of calm things down a bit in that section.

Main Guitar Riff: For me this is the main instrumental hook for the track.  I think it can come up in your mix a bit more to make it more of a feature.  Not sure if you re-amped it or not? I found a clean guitar amp sound helped get more of that 80’s sort of a tone.

I find the snare and vocal make up a lot of the perceived quality and feel of a track. 

Snare  - I feel most of the snare sound in the library mix probably comes from a bright reverb.  Your snare is a little dark in comparison. No bad thing in itself.  It might be worth filtering out a bit more of the low end of the reverb though, which might free up more space in the mix for the synths and guitars to come through.  Tweaking that one element will also have the effect of making the whole mix seem a little brighter, but without adding high end to the whole mix.  Compare with the library mix to see what I mean.

Vocal - The vocal is naturally quite nasal and boxy at times, and does change tone a lot thoughout the track.  It’s also full of passion and energy.  Not sure, but I think you can perhaps high pass it just a little bit more to hide some of the more undesirable tonality.  You might find that it  sits in the mix a bit better and would free up a touch more  of that lower mid space for the instruments and guitar.  Vocals are also perhaps a little loud for me in the verses too (compared with the chorus), which might be fixed by turning down the verses a touch as I mentioned previously.

Due to the tonal qualities of the vocal, you need to be careful with adding effects and reverb with this one.  If the effects have a lot of low mid, it will perhaps accentuate the issues with the vocal, rather than enhance things, which is something to consider.  I found aggressively high passing the effects cleaned up the mix quite a bit.  Also be careful with the slap back delay too.  I found playing the track and muting the reverb helped to set the level right.  Sometimes with the right reverb it’s easy to forget its there, until you mute it.

Synths - More of a general thought this.  You can sometimes add a bit of extra dimension to a mix by picking one or two synth pads and widening them a touch.  This can also free up the middle of the mix a little too.  I didn’t pick up on anything untoward really regarding the synths in this mix, other than to say you can sometimes tuck elements away a bit more to add more of a feel, or depth to a mix,  rather than everything necessarily needing to be up front.

With this mix I found I could high (and low) pass things quite a lot more than I do usually, to get things to sit right, including effects returns which was a bit of a learning moment.  I usually use a handful of impulses for reverb (usual lexicon and the like) but for a lot of things in this mix I found I much preferred the Stillwell Verbiage reverb. I’ve had it for years, but never really used it that much, but it was a lot of fun to play about with it for this mix.  I feel some of the TAL reverbs might work well for this too.  Somehow the impulse reverbs sounded a bit too smooth and hi-fi.  As with the high and low passing, I found things that perhaps sounded a bit odd or thin in isolation seemed to work really well when blended in with this mix. 

To sum up - this is a good mix, and I hope I’ve managed to pick up on a few things to think about that will help you take things to the next level?

Do feel free to question or discuss anything I’ve written.  As I mentioned already I am genuinely still pretty burned out on this mix right now, so I’m hoping this makes some sort of sense.

Cheers!