James May: 'Eliza Jane'

[dryfat]

hi there,
thanks for this song, i like it.
here is my headphone mix.
regards

[Frej]

This sounds really good. Nice balances, and you managed to retain the natural sound while adding some clarity and a sense of space.

I couple of things that could be improved:
- The sibilance of the vocal is a bit distracting. You could try tweaking your de-esser or adding a slight low pass filter to the vocals.
- There is a bit too much going on in this mix. I would recommend muting the mandolins during some parts of the song. When mixing this, I found that mandolin 1 worked best as the "lead" and I only kept mandolin 2 in some parts. You should decide on one instrument having the solo in the middle. It's too confusing to hear the steel guitar and two mandolins with similar level. This mix is too balanced, so it's not clear where the listener should focus.

[dryfat]

hello frej, thank you very much for your comment and sorry for getting back to you so late ...
you are absolutely right that the attention of the audience is an important part of the mixing, and in fact i didn't pay too much attention to the arrangement.
will try to apply your tips soon.
cool youtube channel by the way ...

[Frej]

Glad I could help. Thanks for checking out my youtube channel