Human Mistakes

[Pedaling Prince]

This is my effort to break out of my rut of conservative mixing and apply my creativity to a mix. I wrote some lyrics and recorded them and shuffled everything around... basically rendered the entire intended message of the tune out of context and into something much darker...

Even before I read the comments I knew you weren't using any compression on this track. A nice, natural, smooth sound! Very nice! Furthermore, I love the trick you did at the end, putting compression only on that last part for effect. Now that is an effective use for compression, to bring the volume of one part of a recording up relative to the rest of it for dramatic effect. Well done! I also love the way this song ties in so nicely with my personal artistic interpretation of the song (see my mix in the forum here for a full description of it).

Just a couple of suggestions. First, I would lengthen that fade out significantly; let it go out gradually. I think it would be a lot more effective that way. Second, and this is more a matter of taste, I really miss the piano that was part of the original mix. That might be just me since, as I've stated in the past, I have a strong preference for acoustic instruments, anyway, but I still feel that this particular song benefits from that extra touch of humanity in amongst all the synths.

Also, regarding other comments made on this, bear in mind that it's possible to get too bogged down in the technical end of things. If you know your equipment and its limitations well then your ears are your best tool. Myself personally I rarely use any kind of spectrum analyzer unless I'm having difficulty resolving a particular problem, most often when vocal tone doesn't sound right. Sometimes it helps, when something sounds off, to have a visual representation of that sound to help you figure out where the problem might be. But if it already sounds right to you? It's probably fine.

Yes, it's true the equipment you have and the room you're in are important factors to how something will sound to you. That's why it's vital to be familiar with your equipment and environment. My setup is hardly a "professional" one but I've been listening to music on these speakers and headphones for over a decade; I know exactly how my environment affects the sound of any recording from hours and hours of listening to professional recordings and my own. So, if you hear something in one of my mixes you don't like it's not because I'm being affected by my room; it's because I liked the sound the way you're hearing it.

Of course, that doesn't mean I won't be open to hearing your opinions; it's the nature of art, even an art as technical as ours, that suggestions made by others will frequently lead you to ideas you would not have considered but end up liking better than your own.

Ultimately, there's no "right" or "wrong" approach. In the end, it all comes down to whether people like what they hear, or they don't. The same is true of all art forms.