Echo, E J Rios

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Hi!

Sounding pretty good for a 'not doing much' rough mix. Shows me I need to be working much harder at my initial balances too I think. Looking forward to hear what you come up with if you do decide to do a version 2. I can imagine this sounding really good with a few added effects here and there.

The chorus vocals are a challenge - I found it really tough for my mix to stop the chorus sounding really small. For me the pitch and tone is quite difficult to mix. The vocals sound bigger in the verse as there is less instrumentation, so you have to go some in the chorus to fit everything in and also make it sound big.

Pop music is all about the vocal. In the commercial music world there are guys that specialise in producing/recording/mixing just the vocals for major productions.

To get the upfront vocal sound for pop, for me you really have to take the time to automate every syllable of the vocal before it hits the compressor, to keep it on top of the music. Just using a compressor or two to even out the vocals won't quite cut it I don't think. If you listen to commercial tracks, the vocal delays and reverb are also a really big part of the pop vocal sound, and a huge amount of work goes into that.

I'm with you on your point about the song sounding like an action film theme, its definitely got that feel.

Thanks for your comments! Well I hadn't realized until recently how far you can actually get with just changing the levels in a mix i.e you can get a potentially passable sounding mix, if not rough around the edges.

Yeah the vocals sound less impactfull in the verse than the chorus which doesn't work. There are three tracks in this song though that the singer is unfortunately a bit out of tune (sorry! if you read this singer:/)and i think those parts need to be surgically retuned or left out. But it also does feel like a bridge... or atleast the chorus doesn't sound very big.

Yeah you're right about vocals, especially if it's a female singer which is all that's pretty much on the radio nowadays, as she is bascically the glue that holds everything together.

Automating every sylable sounds daunting, I dread automating even the fade ins! I'll take everything you have said on board, have a listen to some others and submit another version

thanks!