Hannes Keseberg - You Know Better (tucks Mix)

[Mike Senior]

Hi tucks! You've pulled off a nice live-gig kind of feel, with lovely full-sounding drums, excellent blend, and a convincing communal acoustic space. One of my favourite mixes so far, in fact. Some specific thoughts, though:

• That fat-sounding snare (I'm kind of assuming it's a sample) is such a big departure from the raw sound and the rough mix that I might 'deflate' it just a touch -- especially for the opening hit, until we get used to the generally more live sound. It's just a little too 'Boosh!', if you know what I mean!
  
• The piano's balanced quite high, but it's not that natural a sound, so I'm not sure I'd lean on it as heavily as this.
  
• Very effective use of 'outside the speakers' widening for the Outro whistles. I physically turned round to check whether someone had come into my mix room whistling when that happened! Although there's naturally a mono penalty, the loss of whistle in the balance in mono doesn't stop that theme coming through clearly, so it's a win-win. Canny move!
  
• Although the vocal balance is already pretty good, there's still more work you could do there, evening out the tonality from moment to moment for better translation and then automating to lock the singer in place. Detailed rides to bring out interesting musical features would also pay off too, I think, as there were things I had to hunt for in the mix a bit more than I'd have liked to (for example some of the solo guitar lines).
  

Overall, though, this is such a strong mix. And, furthermore, it's one that's very different from mine, which I'm pleased about! Vive la difference, and all that.