Adam Buckley: 'Drag Me Down' is my first mix on this forum

[lukemorales]

I wasn't trying to put you or your gear down, so hope you did not get that impression. Just with the mix, it seemed as is you were over-compensating for what is lacking in your monitoring set-up. I can't comment on the AKG's, never seen nor heard them. Tried to google them but could not find anything.

That's all right dude, never felt you were trying to put my gear down, those headphones are usually used for stage reference... I was just explaining that I'm far from ideal.

Car stereos/speakers are really notorious for colouration of the sound. Your headphones would probably be far more accurate.

My headphones are by no means high-end either, nor are my main monitors. But we work with what we have.

Yeah, car stereos do color the sound, but I mainly check them to see if the mix is punchy and the low end is consistent and now overbearing when compared to professional mixes. As you said, we work with what we have, so I always compare them to other mixes, knowing the sound they have on my car.

in the original I can barely hear them so, what was the point of recording them?

Just because they are not in your face, doesn't mean they should not be there. A mix is a like a building, you start with a foundation, then build on that.

They don't need to be on your face it that's the style of the mixer, my point is that you don't even notice the guitars because they are so low on the original mix.

I don't know if you realized but, in the mix files there's also DI's for the guitars and in your mix you let the DI's almost as loud as mine, but without the distortion

Yep that is right, you don't always need distortion or massive amounts of it.

but it's definitely your choice to just run the DI's...

Only when it suits. It is objective, everyone has their own idea of how it should sound.

I have to completely disagree with you on your statement Emu. DIs don't suit anything in the mix unless they are processed, that's why they are there.
I am not talking about distortion alone (as is the case of this song), but even if they were supposed to be clean guitars, or with a soft overdrive on them, process or reamp the DIs through an Amp, even a Fender amp as clean as it can be, because if you want to use them, you are demanded to process them.
DIs are lifeless, they have no excitement to them, they are recorded with the single purpose of being able to have an different option of processing.For this song, they are available in case you don't link the tone provided for the rhythm guitars, so you can have your own tone, with as much gain you and color you think would suit best the song.

Sorry if I sounded rude, I'm not trying to put you down, I'm just making an emphasis on my statement that perhaps your understanding on how you should use the DIs are a bit off.

@cranky Emu

His mix sounds very good.

Agreed, I am not shooting down his mix - although my thoughts/comments seem to be taken that way.

Not taking your comments the bad way Emu, since some of them seemed to be mostly creative differences, I argued back trying to explain what my vision and goals are. I appreciate all your feedback, other points of view are always a good thing, and I took a lot what you said in consideration.

I really appreciate and thank you both for your time to listen and comment on my mix