Eyes Mix (Chad Hollister Band)

[Mixinthecloud]

Did you try phase flipping the mics?

Yes - quickly - but even though they aligned a bit better, the combination was not pleasing to my ear. That said, had I reflected more your solution should have come to mind (I've used related strategies in the past...i.e., years ago....on live, multi-tracked stuff that came in to mix where the group/recording engineer really wanted the sonic imprint of "their" microphones - all of them).

To be more precise, and in the spirit of the educational nature of this forum, phase issues were going to be inherent in the two mics, given the massive amount of bleed in the condenser and the certainty of wedge monitoring both contributing to that bleed as well as signal differential between dynamic and condenser elements. I just punted - which, as you've already noted, resulted in overall mix issues that became harder as a result.

All kudos to you, I do have to note that I much prefer my lead vocal "end result" to your mix (even if other portions suffered). I find your vocal tone noticeably more brittle (as a result of the extremely high-passed condenser, it sounds like) - it's still great, but to my ear my vocals sound significantly fuller, less "manipulated" yet present, and more "coherent" in the context of the entire mix.

Hope that makes sense.

On another note - I have followed the discussion of the acoustic on your thread as well. Not sure where I stand on that. I had made the decision to place it to the right - horns full left - mandolin mid-left - lead mid right (but also panned a bit for fullness). Congas were slightly left, but they were hard to place (and I note that every mix I've listened to here has had a super hard time with the conga placement such that they are adding much (other than additional muddiness/thickness in the low mids).

It is impossible to know how the dual mics were used. One may have been for recording the other for monitors, but that is just a guess. I tried to use them for the best rejection of the room. Not sure I was successful. I had a hard time getting a full bodied vocal without muddiness so I went for a more present vocal with as much expression as I could muster. And as you related, it also helped with the 'boxyness' of the snare and kit off the bleed.