This was a great song to mix, though not without some minor challenges. I wanted it to sound like it was in a club, so I used the room mics fairly heavily - but I only brought them in when the drums started. I also added a tiny delay (20ms) to those mics to give it a tiny bit of slapback like you would hear in a club. Otherwise they made the mix a bit mushy with no delay.
After that, I needed to add a bit more ambiance ('verb) to the horns and snare - more or less matching what the room mics were doing - so they sounded like they were part of the room. They seemed a bit dry without anything.
The vocals were a bit were pretty straight-forward: HPF, brightness, compression and a teeny tiny bit of ambiance as well.
Anyway, I hope you like the mix. After I started mixing this, I decided I wanted to see them and they are touring right now! I bought tickets to see them in Seattle at the end of the month. Can't wait!
Personally, I think your mix is spot on for what you aimed to accomplish. In fact, it is spot on regardless! I don't hear anything which yanks me out of the vibe. Spectral coverage is excellent; the high mids have energy, but are not harsh, and the stereo spread and live venue feel is solid across the instrumentation (maybe a little something could be added on the toms, but that's about the only thing that stands out at all).
Thank you Joe for your very kind words. I used to be an audio engineer way back in the '90's, but it didn't pay the bills like I needed it to, so I became a computer programmer. At the time, we had one of the only Otari moving fader automated consoles in the country. Even with that you had to do a mix in one sitting. Now with today's tech, I don't have to invest in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and I can pick up a mix a week later with no issues. Since I've found this site, I can see if I still "have it".
I had a studio in the 1990s as well; ran it for about 10 years. Have never given up the audio stuff, but had a new baby near the end days of the studio, so sold it to make sure I had a non-self-employed place in the world. I'm back to doing mixing/mastering now.
It boggles the mind the change in affordability since then.
Analogue to Digital Tape in those days cost me $3K per every eight tracks, and a top notch parametric equalizer (usable on only one track at mixdown unless printed per track as needed) cost the same! Now we all have unlimited tracks and a vast array of processing, useable to no end, for less than either of those by themselves. I mean, one could go top end parametric EQ, for example, today and be hard pressed to spend $500 (on the very highest end) for a VST 'unit.'
Absolutely mind bending.
The only downside is that this affordability means more accessibility, and since musicians think they can do everything themselves and tend to be control freaks, they all start doing the work themselves, and we all have to wait around for them to realize their mixes don't sound quite right in their car compared to the CDs they buy, for them to come back to us!
It takes more than solid gear to mix/master, and hopefully they figure that out sooner, rather than later!
Now I have unlimited amounts of great EQs and other processing, and unlimited amounts of tracks. Its absolutely mind bending!
