my take on Prodigal

[Roy]

You're right that it was pretty compressed and saturated. In my defense it was the first session I had in a while and one that I did for the first time with Logic and several new plug ins. Mastering, which was out of my hands added to it a bit but I take the brunt of the responsibility. Still, I think it works. And yeah, the clients were happy with it. It was a pretty casual project recorded in a basement with a max of 4 inputs at a time and a lot of limitations so while I'll admit to some failings I'd still say I'm proud of the end result considering. Plus I kinda like compression and saturation.

That said your mix is definitely really good. No real complaints if maybe it's a little 'safe'. Which might be what's called for. I might be too close to it m'self.

RoyM, thanks for the tracks and the quick answer!

I didn't mean to attack in any way, no need for you to speak in your defense. It turned out nice, then: the end result is not my cup of tea, but the band was happy, that's what matters.

I really do find almost physically offensive the level of distortion I hear (it's pretty frequent), so I go the way of my liking. I guess you can say it's safe indeed, but it's a pretty song ain't it? I don't know from where to extract edge without making it sound forced and distasteful, speaking inside my own view of the matter. Maybe some parallel compression on the drums? I dunno, would you hint me? Willing to try. : )


Anyways, glad you liked it!

No attack felt, I get it. And you're certainly entitled to your view and generally I agree and/or how it would be perceived differently. It is a song that one could see being a bit lighter and more natural. The artist does like a little more...je ne sais qui in their sound. I think they just like it and also don't want to come across as being a "folk" band. So they like the extra push overall. They want the songs to take you somewhere as opposed to being natural. Did I over do it? Yeah, probably, but not regretfully. Considering everything it sounds like a record.

I'm not certain what you mean by "physically offensive the level of distortion". Distortion is a bit of a interpretive word so I'm not certain what you're referencing exacting. The guitars? The overall mix? We recorded all the guitars direct and they left the tones up to me and I may have picked some more aggressive than necessary tones. I'm still not great with amp emulators and at the time I was just getting back into it with some new plug ins. If there's distortion on the overall mix then yes maybe there was some saturation or who knows what overall to help glue it all together. Anyway. It's hard to say.

I think in the end, mix this one as you hear it (as you did) and that's ok. It's tricky. It should be a band but not feel like a band. It should paint a picture as opposed to creating an image. I know that makes little sense. I didn't sleep well last night.