17-11-2016, 02:00 PM
Lovely smooth and hi-fi sound you've put together here, Olli, with very tasteful use of effects and panning giving a great sense of openness which I like a lot. The clarity is also exceptional, as several other posters have already commented, which speaks of very classy use of EQ and faders. I really like what you've done with the backing vocals in particular -- they really poke out and deliver their lyrics very effectively. The long-term dynamics of your mix are also commendable -- the arrival of the Mid-sections makes a real statement, for instance, and your left-right call-and-response idea there is also very nifty. The arrival of Intro 2 is another highlight, because of the way you contrast the rather lo-fi (multed?) guitar and snare with the wide-open sound of the full band when it comes in. Very cool effects on ElecGtr04 in Outro 1 -- it takes us to a new otherworldly place just for a moment, which is all the more effective because the overall ambience feels so natural.
There are only two issues I'd really query here. The first thing is that the depth perspective doesn't quite add up for me. The vocal feels a bit too distant, somehow. I'm all for giving it a bit of room sound, in keeping with the kind of vision you've developed here, but that room seems to be dragging it behind the snare and particularly the guitars. In this respect I'm not sure it helps that your dynamics settings seem to emphasis the transients of the guitars, which also brings them further forward. A particularly stark example is the banjo in verse 3, which is quite distracting by virtue of being so much more upfront. I wonder whether you might take some of the natural room sound off the lead vocal and try using a slapback delay or something that won't distance it as much? A bit of HF smoothing for the picked guitars/banjo (whether EQ or transient shaping) might also help, as well as adding a further dose of short ambience to them. The toms also suddenly leap forward too in the fills -- although partly as a result of their extreme panning, admittedly.
The vocal distancing dovetails into my second concern, which is simply that, from a purely aesthetic angle, I think your vision might be a bit too polite for the lyric, and indeed the vocal style. Don't get me wrong, I think your vision sounds great, but I'm not convinced it's the most supportive vision for this performance of this music. I find myself wanting a little less restraint and a bit more attitude somehow. A bit more audible pumping to the buss compression, maybe. Sacrificing a bit of clarity to get a bit more dirt and power, perhaps. And pulling the vocals further forward would fit in with that concept too, because he's one of the prime carriers of the combative attitude of the track after all.
Thanks for posting -- lots of things worthy of emulation there!
There are only two issues I'd really query here. The first thing is that the depth perspective doesn't quite add up for me. The vocal feels a bit too distant, somehow. I'm all for giving it a bit of room sound, in keeping with the kind of vision you've developed here, but that room seems to be dragging it behind the snare and particularly the guitars. In this respect I'm not sure it helps that your dynamics settings seem to emphasis the transients of the guitars, which also brings them further forward. A particularly stark example is the banjo in verse 3, which is quite distracting by virtue of being so much more upfront. I wonder whether you might take some of the natural room sound off the lead vocal and try using a slapback delay or something that won't distance it as much? A bit of HF smoothing for the picked guitars/banjo (whether EQ or transient shaping) might also help, as well as adding a further dose of short ambience to them. The toms also suddenly leap forward too in the fills -- although partly as a result of their extreme panning, admittedly.
The vocal distancing dovetails into my second concern, which is simply that, from a purely aesthetic angle, I think your vision might be a bit too polite for the lyric, and indeed the vocal style. Don't get me wrong, I think your vision sounds great, but I'm not convinced it's the most supportive vision for this performance of this music. I find myself wanting a little less restraint and a bit more attitude somehow. A bit more audible pumping to the buss compression, maybe. Sacrificing a bit of clarity to get a bit more dirt and power, perhaps. And pulling the vocals further forward would fit in with that concept too, because he's one of the prime carriers of the combative attitude of the track after all.
Thanks for posting -- lots of things worthy of emulation there!