Hey Carrie Ann - Olli H

[Olli H]

The only real "problem" I find with your mix is that the strings, although they sound absolutely beautiful, don't seem to fit with the rest of the track when they first come in.

I agree

The ambience of the strings is lush and sexy, and I think the level of brightness is perfect... or it would be if the rest of the track were a bit brighter. Basically, the strings in your mix contain so much brilliance and resplendence that I feel imbuing some of those same qualities broadly to the rest of mix would be a better move than reducing the brightness... because I think they sound too fantastic to change them. Something about the way the reverb is working on the strings also "feels" a little different, almost like they were recorded in a different room, although I think that's part of why I love the sound so much.

I'm very glad you like it. I don't have Uaudios Ocean Wave Studio plugin, but it was that sound that I was after. Some time ago I downloaded some examples of it (dry+wet), and then I tried to create that sound with my basic plugins. So, my OWS-reverb-aux consist
- free Klanghelm compressor
- ValhallaRoom reverb
- stock EQIII
- basic delay in other channel
- and last but not least: MONO

I love to do that kind of experiments. I download samples or demos of plugins, and try to create similar effect with my free/cheap (but hopefully hi-quality) plugins.

My current strategy is using tape-saturation to fill out the vocal sound so that a treble enhancer can do its work without being "needling" or overemphasizing the 3000 boost... mixed results, there.

How about trying some transient designer (I used free Bitter Sweet) as the first plugin in vocals to cut down some transients. The ugly noises in the voice sound to me like overhyped transients.

Again... fantastic work. I always love comparing your work to mine because it always seems to give me an idea that improves my work in a lasting way.

I'm glad if I'm of any help. I also do much comparison with forum mixes at the end of my mixing project.

But during the main mixing process it would be better idea to use several pro-mixes from big stars from any decade, or better still from all decades.

For example in this case find something with piano and strings and align that part directly to right spot with exactly the same level. Preferrably couple of different songs. And then listen 3 seconds to the reference, swith back to your mix, back to OTHER reference and so on. You don't have to imitate any sound, but it will give you an immidiate feedback if you're going towards a professional sound.

And then same thing with vocal and piano and so on. It doesn't have to be a sound you're after, but it has to be a sound with special quality in it.

Well, that's my tactic ...

BTW, adding samples is NOT cheating in my book.

I agree. But when I'm just practicing normally I love to take the challenge to make the best out of provided tracks. Most of the time the problems are the most fun part of the mixing. In this case for some reason my first reaction was "OMG what a bass sound, I won't touch that." So I felt little disappointed with myself.