09-11-2016, 01:28 AM (This post was last modified: 26-11-2016, 09:01 AM by Marty.)
Funny what thoughts go through your head when mixing a new song. For me:
- J. Geils Band
- Robert Plant (and Zep a tiny bit I guess)
- My ex-girlfriend Siobhan (no worries she will never read this thread)
- Americana
- This guy's (Diesel13) amazing talent
Been mixing for a while now, but never entered an event (or review for that matter).
I am trying out a new DAW lately and this was a chance to try it out vs. Pro Tools in a way where no one gets injured.
I will try to listen to some mixes and give some feedback.
Nice meaty drum sound you've created here, which really helps drive the mix as a whole forward -- the groove in this mix feels particularly good to me. The drums are pretty heavily compressed, but just on the right side of overcompressed, and that gives you lots of nice attitude, especially during fills like at 1:00. The snare and toms blend pretty well too. As on some other people's mixes, I think you've probably over-specified the low end on the kick drum relative to the bass guitar -- I'd add a bit more low end to the bass, and then go easier on the kick sub-100Hz. In terms of overall tonality, I think you're maybe hitting the 100-200Hz zone a bit hard (largely on account of strong bass-guitar energy there, whereas there seems a bit of a suckout in the 300-400Hz region. Evening those up with a couple of decibels of EQ cut/boost respectively seems to me to give a clearer sound overall.
The stereo's nicely managed, and the stereo call-and-response thing with the clean guitars in the Mid-sections works well. I like your electric guitar sounds in general, actually, although you may have cut a little too much of the low mids, because I think you could probably get away with making them a touch fatter, especially if you cut enough 100-200Hz from the bass to make room. The guitar balance is good, though, and I like the way they all fit with the drums and the vocals.
The acoustic instruments do feel a bit spindly, however, and not very well blended in that they push in front of the electric guitars and vocals in a way that's a bit distracting for me. It's not so much a question of level balance, more that they're rather bright and spikily transient. If you rounded them off a touch, that might be the only thing they need to sit a lot better. With such powerful drums, I wonder whether you might be able to turn the lead vocal up a bit more too, as well as maybe giving it an extra shot of 800-900Hz to solidify its place in the mix. That'd also make more sense of the lead-vocal versus backing-vocal balance, which seems a bit back-to-front, given that the backing vocals feel stronger in the balance.
Altogether, then, this is a pretty successful interpretation with plenty of attitude. Thanks for posting!
* Acoustics - I agree with Senior's comment, "acoustic instruments do feel a bit spindly"... rounding them off just a bit will help.
* Low End - Feels just a little 'heavy' to me pulling the song down, rather than musically energizing the song.
Great background vocals... good clarity, as I've heard others mix them in a way that feels heavy. This mix of the background vocals may be the lightest touch I've heard.
Made tonal changes suggested
Made minor panning changes in choruses (wider)
Brought lead vocal up 1.0 db
Reduced snare amount to parallel comp by 1.5 db (feels less choked)
I only checked out V2 but it sounds pretty good. I have some minor issues.
The Electric on the right feels a little loud. Loud isn't the right term because the level might be ok but it just pulls my head that way. I'm listening on headphones so it might be less apparent on speakers. If it were balanced out a bit more on the left it would feel less dominant in the mix. The acoustics on the left don't really counter the sound of the electric. It balances out a bit in the chorus with the fill guitar. It could be a frequency thing. A little cut in the mids or upper mids might tone it down a little and bring it back into the band a hair. Or probably automate it up and back especially around the vocals. Also, I keep thinking I hear some distortion or extra fuzz on the right.
Maybe, maybe the vocal could come up a hair. But it might be the guitar taking up space.
Overall it sound very nice though. The guitar thing is the only thing that jumped out at me.