Hannes Keseberg - You Know Better -Post MS Review and Competition Final

[Mixinthecloud]

Hi Mixinthecloud! Here are some ideas I had listening to your mix:

• The vocal reverb is more audible in the verses than I'd instinctively have had it, but I think it works on its own terms given the generally chilled vibe.
  The reverb I established is part of the glue binding my mix together and is reverse engineered from the space at the end of the Mid-section (bridge). It is essential to the vibe and the mix. I am happy you find it appealing.
  
• There are some extreme-HF transients that seem a little 'spitty' for want of a better word, although it's a little difficult to work out where they're coming from! I'm guessing stick noise from the overheads, or edit clicks on the conga/timbale/bass tracks, or maybe even rhythm-guitar picking? Not sure, but it's a little distracting for me, especially when turning up the volume -- which your mix makes me want to!
  It appears my buffer settings were set too low resulting in these artifacts. After your alert and great trepidation I was able to find them. I must have attributed those to other transients prior to that. My bad! The earlier setting did not result in artifacts in all tracks; only some, which made it more difficult to debug. This has been addressed and will appear in my adjusted mix.
  
• Love the warmth and understated nature of the bass, although I wonder whether the midrange could come through a touch more on small speakers.
  Listening to the bass (or lack thereof) on my Android phone, is a common issue. I have tried to address this and it will appear in the adjusted mix.
  
• I like the mix effects, which are adding an appealing wetness without washing things out -- I get the impression that delays are as much responsible for this as reverbs, which would make sense if the case.
  Correct, you are! Besides the general reverb there is a beat delay with a short decay on it for the lead guitars. Another trick I employed was to pan the reverb sends from the guitars which helped the environment significantly, especially in relation to the un-panned delay locations.
  
• Both solo guitars feel like they could be more controlled dynamically. Either I'm getting notes poking out too far, for instance in the Intro, or I'm losing nice details of the musical line, as in the second verse. I wonder a similar thing about the whistling in the outro, which feels a bit overbearing on some notes, but not others.
  This has been addressed and will appear in the adjusted mix through additional automation.
  
• I wonder whether the side-stick and snare could both be a bit more prominent -- particularly in the Reintro, where the snare feels underpowered in the groove to me. It also makes fills like the one at the end of Verse 3 less dramatic.
  The side stick (and the snare in general) is a combination of the close-miking and the overheads. In the adjusted mix I have addressed this mainly by a small bump in the mid-range in the overheads only.
  
• I like the shimmering Hammond -- a lovely character, and yet the vocal remains well upfront despite it.
  Thank you. I did nothing but add reverb to the Hammond in a full left-right spread. In your mix notes you had highlighted the difference between the organ parts at different locations in the song. I used these as a cue to the intent of the songwriter.
  
  

Hope some of those suggestions are of any use -- thanks for submitting your mix!

Also, I'd like to add a special extra note of appreciation for all the fabulous mix feedback you've been providing for other Discussion Zone users. You're a gent, and it's a shining example of the kind of attitude that makes this forum such a special place for learning about mixing. More power to your keyboard!

Just my way of giving back to this great forum. It feeds my soul

I am going to hold on to my adjusted mix for a while so I can put fresh ears on it day-after-day. I will announce the new mix in the title of my post.

Thank you, MS for your excellent input and the input others have suggested as well.