james may ( mixed by Will Vasconi )

[el saudi]

Hey Will

Guitars sound good to me and the mandolins are pleasant without dominating. Good job there.

To my ears the drums sound too compressed. At this level of compression, I think that you would be better served by blending them in as parallel compression so you get the benefit of the oomph and air without being quite so obvious because right now they are dominating your mix and drawing attention away from the vocal.

It may sound clichéd, but the question to ask yourself before reaching for a compressor or EQ plugin, is "what problem am i solving here that moving the fader cant fix?" If you're not sure, then moving the fader is a good option.

For sure, there are artistic reasons to process tracks in a certain way but you can achieve really good mixes by not doing too much. Building really good instrument balances and sprinkling some tasteful FX goes a very long way.

keep it up

Cheers, Simon

Hi Simon!

yes man, I really messed with the drums..
I m gonna try to use less comp or a parrallel comp as you advised!

Thanks a lot!!

Will