Actions: 'Devil's Words' - SSL Mix + Addictive Trigger + Butch Vig Vocals

[seginus]

Challenging song to mix! I used Addictive Trigger to do kick and snare drum replacement, and SSL channel strips on every track for analog coloring, compression, filtering, and surgical EQ fixes. Butch Vig from Waves for mixing the (quite a few) vocal tracks. 
Mastered using Ozone 9 at -14 LUFS.

[LukasL]

Hey,

good balance you have going on.
Vocals have decent tone but are not compressed in a good way. The breaths are extremly loud at the start of every phrase, then the compressor kicks in when she starts singing. I would edit out the breaths or try a diffrent compression set-up. I also feel like the vocals could use some more presence/punch in the mix. Same goes for the drums.

Otherwise very decent mix.

Cheers,
Lukas

[seginus]

Hey,

good balance you have going on.
Vocals have decent tone but are not compressed in a good way. The breaths are extremly loud at the start of every phrase, then the compressor kicks in when she starts singing. I would edit out the breaths or try a diffrent compression set-up. I also feel like the vocals could use some more presence/punch in the mix. Same goes for the drums.

Otherwise very decent mix.

Cheers,
Lukas

You are absolutely right. I'm starting to suspect that there's a need for a de-esser as I realize now that there are some sibilance issues mid-phrase when she starts singing. I wanted to try the in-built compressor of the Butch Vig Vocals plugin but it does seem that the lack of customization (is basically just one big dial) can actually hurt the dynamic range of the vocals. Thanks for your feedback!