Who I Am

[Pedaling Prince]

Here's my version of "Who I Am". It was fun mixing a country tune, as I enjoy hearing acoustic instruments like the fiddle, banjo, mandolin and dobro. I took some liberty with the intro by making it longer and giving it more energy. Thanks for listening and for any feedback.

That opening had a bit TOO much energy IMHO; nearly took my ears off at my usual listening volume.

Here's the thing. This is an excellent mix overall with nice, full bass (something that's often missing in modern mixes), nice rich vocals and a pleasing stereo spread. Only one thing ruins it:

Sounds to me like you're using compression in your master buss. Personally, I don't think this kind of music needs ANY compression in mastering but if you're going to use it with acoustic music you need to use it sparingly or all the space and natural sound of the instruments gets "squashed" out.

I suspect you'd have a much more pleasing mix here if you'd try running the same mix without the compression in the final mastering.