Little Chicago's Finest - My Own CraC Mix *Feedback wanted

[CraC]

Here's my mix.

Not easy to make this song sound punchy, samples not very good IMHO.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Don Perignon]

You are absolutely correct about those samples. We were really wanting to create our own instrumental, something that we could own 100% of, instead of using SoundClick beats and making mixtapes. So I used Logic stock instruments in 2012 without any knowledge of synths or reverbs / delays, etc. All the sounds you hear in the original track were created that way with little to no mixing, mostly balancing, but you had to start with the bone dry stems which is way harder.

Regarding your version, I think the clap is a bit loud and overpowers the vocals at times. I'm not sure if you sidechained the kick to the bass track but that could make it punchier with a slow attack to bring out the transient (something that was done on the original). The vocals and effects are good but noticeable so you could hide it by bringing the melodies up (I made the vocals for Justin - first verse and Keith - second verse dry, which they were not a fan of lol).

Keep in mind that this track was also sent out to The Jokerr for mastering and it came back punchier and bigger sounding.

Hope that helps!