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Colour Me Red. . . I haven't posted in a while!!
#5
Masses of attitude here, with an unapologetically processed and compressed sound. Certainly caught my attention! On the one hand, its such a strident and confident vision that it's tricky to evaluate from a technical level, but on the other hand I think there are some things I might still tweak even trying to put myself into your shoes, so to speak.

The first question is that drum reverb, which is nothing if not a statement! There's something I like about the way it rumbles away under the riff sections, and it does provide a kind of subjective compensation for the bass-guitar's low-end lightness, somehow. It also does no harm in terms of pulling the drums back (allowing the more interesting parts to stay forward), and the kick doesn't play anything fast enough to get lost in it either. Yet somehow I can't warm to it, and I'm not quite sure why -- in fact, it may honestly say more about me and my personal preferences than about the mix! Perhaps it's to do with the mismatch between the upfront snare and the very diffuse kick? I can imagine that EQing the kick for a bit more bite to compete with the snare might make it sit better for me, so maybe that might be worth experimenting with that. Or else, just ignore me... Smile Along similar lines, I'd maybe suggest bringing the toms more upfront than they currently are, again to be more in keeping with the snare.

I like the lead vocal, although I might have added a scrap more 800Hz and dipped a bit of 200Hz to harden the tone a touch. It feels a bit recessed compared with the snare and electric guitars. The reverb is maybe a bit hissy too on the sibilants as well. I've no problem with an obvious reverb like this, but a bit of de-essing in the reverb send would perhaps help reduce this artefact. I like the backing vocals a lot: where other mixes are quite well-defined, these grumble along less distinctly as more of a textural device, but are no less effective for that, I reckon.

Finally, is that momentary chord change at 1:57 intentional? If so, then I'm not quite sure where I stand on it. Yes, it does drag my attention back to the track at that late stage (the fourth verse repetition) which is a good thing, but it also seems to interrupt the groove too, which I'm less keen on. On balance I'd probably ditch that myself.

Thanks for another horizon-expanding version -- I think I probably learn more from these critiques than anyone else does, in fact!
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RE: Colour Me Red. . . I haven't posted in a while!! - by Mike Senior - 23-11-2016, 11:03 PM