Dark Ride - Deny Control 1ws Mix

[aftercutrecords]

Hello everyone!  Pleasure to be doing another Dark Ride mix. Now I know that the list of things we had to do for this one was PARTICULARLY specific. I can't say for sure that I did all of them. But I am fairly certain that I'm happy with how it turned out this time. At least, in headphones  So if you guys want me to adjust anything, I might do some tweaking based on what your responses are. But out on my monitors, of course. It can be difficult to use them while streaming though, so for now you're stuck with my headphone mix  
Please let me know what you think! I went for a unique opening this time, and a fairly unique mixing style. I tried to keep in line with the vision for the track while also making it as punchy and aggressive as possible. "In your face" has been tossed around a couple times, so I tried for that.

Here's the link to my stream, for anyone who's curious about how or why I did certain things. Not everything I do makes sense, but I try to explain why I WANT to do them. 
Thank you for your responses, and I look forward to reading them   And yes, all distortions are intentional

[Blitzzz]

Good mix, even better mixing video/tutorial. I gonna ask one of the mods to pin this thread to the top so I can refer to this video for all of the basic stuff and as general guidance on how to mix this song.

As for the mix: A lot of solid & tasteful mix decisions throughout the whole mixing process, I especially liked how you created the space for the bass solo with track spacer. All in all, you did a lot of the same things that I did back when I mixed the ref track in 2019. Looks like you've been watching a lot of NTM sessions, too

The only thing that stands out like a sore thumb is the snare in the blast beats. As good as the snare sounds in the rest of the song (although I think it's a tiny bit too loud, but that's personal preference), it’s way too dominant in the blasts and needs to come down in intensity and volume.

Two more things: There are some small details like the nice little bass figure at 1:45 that deserve a place in the spotlight. Also, the solo at 1:53 REALLY needs to come up. The solos are the antagonists to the vocals throughout the whole song. That's why they also repeat the core melody of the song and are less shred-fests like in other songs of ours.

[aftercutrecords]

Good mix, even better mixing video/tutorial. I gonna ask one of the mods to pin this thread to the top so I can refer to this video for all of the basic stuff and as general guidance on how to mix this song.

As for the mix: A lot of solid & tasteful mix decisions throughout the whole mixing process, I especially liked how you created the space for the bass solo with track spacer. All in all, you did a lot of the same things that I did back when I mixed the ref track in 2019. Looks like you've been watching a lot of NTM sessions, too

The only thing that stands out like a sore thumb is the snare in the blast beats. As good as the snare sounds in the rest of the song (although I think it's a tiny bit too loud, but that's personal preference), it’s way too dominant in the blasts and needs to come down in intensity and volume.

Two more things: There are some small details like the nice little bass figure at 1:45 that deserve a place in the spotlight. Also, the solo at 1:53 REALLY needs to come up. The solos are the antagonists to the vocals throughout the whole song. That's why they also repeat the core melody of the song and are less shred-fests like in other songs of ours.

Thank you very much for your kind words and your directions / guidance! While I have been a member of NTM for a while now, I've also been mixing since well before NTM and a lot of these techniques (sidechaining kick to bass and snare to rhythm guitars) are things I've done for years... but trackspacer has definitely made it quicker and easier than doing EQ band based automation controlled by a sidechain using the stock reaper EQ  . 

I've taken all of your suggestions into account and done mix revisions based on them. Brought up the super duper cool bass riff, made the leads feel MORE antagonistic to the vocals, and automated the intensity of the snare during blast beats not only to drive them down, but to adjust their level of intensity across the beats themselves to have a more human flourish like they did before I added my samples. I've always had a tendency to overdo blasts on snare because this one OSDM band I worked with (Basilysk - Emergence) LOVED when their blasts felt like you were being punched in the face by the snare. 

Anyhow, here's my updates. I don't wish to take up more of your time, but I do hope you approve of the changes! For the reference, I love midrange and don't like scoopy sounding stuff because it just doesn't translate as well across a lot of systems. I'm sure that will explain a lot of my choices haha.

[mikej]

Enjoyed the mix and the video.

Cheers!

[crownoise]

Nice mix dude