I like the reverb you put on the guitars, the vocal sound is nice and clean and I like your choice of stereo panning.
![Smile Smile](https://discussion.cambridge-mt.com/images/smilies/smile.gif)
Unfortunately, the whole mix otherwise sounds a little muddy and indistinct.
It doesn't sound like you did much to address the limitations of the source material. Remember, these multitracks were transferred from an old multitrack tape recorded in 1975 which has deteriorated significantly. Regarding the condition of the raw tracks, I don't know what the story is on the kick drum track; it sounds like a recording taken from a record with the RIAA equalization off and it's full of what sounds like pops and scratches and, fatal for a kick drum, there's very limited low frequency content. Actually, that brings me to another problem with your mix; the drums are almost inaudible. The drums should
drive a track like this; they need to be
much louder IMHO.
Going back to the condition of the raw tracks, there is also a great deal of print-through particularly on the vocal tracks, though it was evident to some extent on all tracks. The high frequency rolloff is fairly dramatic, particularly on the acoustic guitar track which is in abysmal condition; it sounds dull, muffled and has a rather annoying AC hum. From the sound of it I suspect the original recording wasn't all that great to begin with and, coupled with the issues introduced by (I suspect) poor storage conditions, the acoustic guitar track is rendered almost unusable. The congas sound pretty dull, too.
Because of all these problems, it's not wise to treat these tracks the way one would treat modern tracks; they require some fairly aggressive EQ and processing to bring out their full potential.
Check out my mix of the song, posted in this forum. To get the sound you're hearing required some fairly aggressive EQ. Here are some examples of what I did to address the issues:
Most of the tracks I was able to brighten up by applying hipass filters to remove unnecessary low frequencies, particularly in the drums. On both Hammond tracks I applied a hipass at 300 Hz; on 13_HammondLeslieLo I also applied a lowpass at 1525 Hz. This isolated the Hammond's unique frequencies which actually helped quite a bit with the bleed from the other tracks present on them.
I used a pretty aggressive EQ on the acoustic guitar, a -24 dB cut at 260 Hz, 3.5 dB boost at 3100 Hz and 16 dB boost at 4800 Hz; I also applied a hipass rolled off at 200 Hz. The low cuts helped address the hum and the mud and the high boosts helped bring back some of the sparkle. To sharpen up the congas, I applied an 11 dB boost at 2200 Hz, a 24 dB boost at 5500 Hz, a hipass at 150 Hz and some gentle compression. On the piano, I applied a 4.5 dB boost at 80 Hz to give it a little body, a 5.5 dB boost at 12 kHz to give it some air and to help it stand out and give it a little life I boosted 24 dB at 7600 Hz. I also applied some gentle compression to help it stand out in the mix.
I don't normally give such specific advice, nor am I usually so heavy handed with EQ, but these tracks have some fairly unique limitations that are a bit difficult to address. I'm hoping that telling you how I handled them will either give you solutions you can use or at least point you in the right direction to come up with your own solutions.
Hope my suggestions are helpful!