Shiny Dog Mix

[Pedaling Prince]

Hi this is my first mix on this forum, Feel free to add any comment good or bad but preferably constructive.
Thanks
Shiny Dog Audio

Sounds pretty good, Dog! A few thoughts:

First, I'm pleased that this mix doesn't appear to pound the compression the way commercial mixes do; it's nice, smooth and easy on the ears. Perhaps a little TOO smooth, actually, by which I mean the drums don't seem to have any "punch" for some reason. Did you use some sort of limiter or compression on that snare?

Also, and I can't quite put my finger on why, the whole mix seems a little "constrained" somehow as if the middle of it was stuffed in a box. Whatever processing you applied to the fiddle and the banjo make them sound a wee bit hollow as well, and I felt the fiddle was a little too up front and the banjo not up front enough.

Also, particularly towards the final fade-out, there's a great deal of noise.

On the plus side, the vocals really stand out, which is good when you're working with vocals of this caliber. I was also intrigued by your decision to move the backing vocals to the left. With a single backing vocal track I find it's usually better to center it with the lead but I have to admit in this mix moving it to the side works. Sounds good.

I'd say dial back a bit on your EQ and processing and, if the noise problem remains at the end, I'd try a gradual fade-out during the sustain on the final note to mask it.

Otherwise, some great work here IMHO! Really enjoyed it!