Amy Helm – Rescue Me

[Frej]

I like Amy Helm and her recent album produced by Joe Henry. So I was glad to find her on recording on this webpage.
I found this song a bit boring, so I tried to make it more interesting by adding a dotted eight note delay on the drums for some syncopation, adding some tremolo to the guitar solo and moving things around with some automation. 

I would greatly appreciate any comments on this mix.

Edit: added a second version with less reverb. The first one sounded too washy. It's tricky to add reverb when there is this much bleed.

[SonicTramp]

Very good mix; I like it. You did good job with the distorted guitar; it was my first impression. Damn good guitar sound. To me, your mix sounds a bit laid back. Maybe bc of the reverb/delay? A bit rich on the top end and the mix can be tightened a bit more with a bit more bass to anchor the mix. Another thing I notice is I can hardly hear the mandolin, and bc you put the guitar on the L it makes your mix a bit lopsided. Maybe you should look at the ride track. It's loaded with top end wash. A bit of LP or an de-esser around 6kHz up should control that. Cheers!

[Frej]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you like the mix.

I did this mix a few months ago so I don't remember the details, but I probably didn't use the ride track. I tend to mute any hi-hat or cymbal mics. There is already too much of that stuff in the overheads. I think the mandolin wasn't sounding that great behind the vocal, so I automated it to mostly play fills between the vocal lines.

[chuck moe]

Nice Guitar sound..only nit pick would be to automate the mandolin...it's quite the challenge that mandolin

[Frej]

Thanks for feedback! I actually did automate the mandolin to get louder between the vocal phrases, but I could probably have done it more aggressively. I also struggled with the mandolin, but I think it helps to realize that it's actually not very important for the song.

[SonicTramp]

I like your mix, big improvement, much tighter and pleasant to listen to. The snare is quite nice but a bit too dominant; it shouldn't be louder than the e-guitar, imo. I think you can either pan the e-guitar closer to the middle, or make a duplicate and pan it to the opposite but lower level. That way the e-guitar is not too far on the side, losing its power. I also think the vocal needs a bit more FX . It seems the snare has more FX than the vocal; it makes the vocal drier than it really is. A bit of cut on the snare ~2kHz-3.5kHz should darken it a bit and allow the vocal to poke out and take the lead. I do a lot of cutting in this song, mostly LP, it takes some of the "live" feeling out but in return I got my mandolin to show. I am not too happy with my latest mix, but at my level right now, it'd take more than a couple mixes to get it right. Yep, it is a challenge to work on the mandolin, but that's all it is, just a challenge. I like challenges . Necessity breeds invention. So be creative. Cheers!