08-07-2019, 06:38 PM (This post was last modified: 08-07-2019, 06:41 PM by hcop.)
Using mid-2000s modern rock as a reference point, specifically songs like "It's Not Over" by Daughtry, I went as polished as I could get given my equipment and selection of plug-ins without losing the quirkiness of the song. I'm especially proud of the backing vocals towards the end.
Also included a significantly less loud unmastered version.
Enjoy! Looking forward to the feedback for this one.
Hi hcop, well you really captured the CLA vibe well here. Instrumentally, the mix sounds great! Big, big drums and guitars; tight, defined bass and low end; spacious and wide with a nice glossy top end. (I much preferred the "mastered" mix - the unmastered one didn't really sound particularly glued together, and the vocal sat overly proud in the mix balance).
The place where I hear a few issues is the vocal. The lead vocal overall sounds nicely eq'd and processed etc, but it has quite a "spitty" quality about the consonants and sibilants. I think if you used a faster attack on your vocal compressor, you might be able to mitigate that issue. Having the consonants jump out before the compressor acts can add a real urgency to a vocal and help it cut through a dense mix, but here it is a bit distracting - especially in the verses where the instrumentation is sparser. The spittiness seems to be re-emphasised a few milliseconds later by the slapback delay on the vocal. Rolling off the highs in the slapback delay might also help there.
The panned "wait a minute" line really jumps out unnaturally in volume - definitely needs a re-balance there. Additionally, the lo-fi'd vocal sections tend to sound overly muddy. Maybe pulling out some low end from them in addition to the high end attenuation may help reduce that.
I like the way you ran with the trippy feel in the guitar solo/breakdown section and emphasised it even more. However, some of the panning tends to cause the notes to be lost due to the attenuation that happens when you pan things to extremes.
Overall, this is pretty cool sound and I like the vibe you got!
