Alive (Yet free) - Mekaphil MIX

[jesuspm00]

Very good track! I guess in the background vocals could have been done more but I wanted to keep this as a quick mix!

[aftercutrecords]

Thank you for the compliment! First off, I'd like to compliment your massive and bombastic drums. I also love some of the main vocal effects you chose to do. It was a lot of fun to hear those crazy delays and verbs, and the interesting spatial design you did. Second of all, I like your more ethereal take on the bridge. It's very interesting to hear the background vocals be more grounded while the main vocals become verby and smooth.

I do have a list of things I'd recommend checking into though:
1) The solo guitar kind of disappears. Meka performed that particular solo really well and I feel like it should have some kind of strong presence in the mix.
2) The background scream for the chorus, which is the most important background vocal in the entire song, isn't really audible during the chorus. Just a note, but you might wanna bring that up.
3) I like the clean background vocal choices that you made during the chorus, but the main vocals get kind of buried during the verses behind the background vocals. Odd but true in my opinion.
4) I feel like the main vocals could REALLY stand out a bit more. Maybe more aggressive compression or tube distortion or limiting or something.
5) The overall tone of the mix is pretty scooped. There's huge buildup between 100hz and 200hz, between the drums and the bass and the guitars that area needs to be really clean. As a result, the area between 300hz and 600hz feels pretty thin. I feel like the guitar tones could stand out a LOT more if you cut some 4khz and brought in some 300hz to 500hz to fill them out a little.

Those are the main points of interest for me. I hope that helps you in your mixing journey a little bit, as those areas are pretty common issues for a LOT of people. Overcoming them will set you apart for sure!

Thanks a ton for doing this mix, and I hope to hear more from you in the future!

[jesuspm00]

Thank you for the compliment! First off, I'd like to compliment your massive and bombastic drums. I also love some of the main vocal effects you chose to do. It was a lot of fun to hear those crazy delays and verbs, and the interesting spatial design you did. Second of all, I like your more ethereal take on the bridge. It's very interesting to hear the background vocals be more grounded while the main vocals become verby and smooth.

I do have a list of things I'd recommend checking into though:
1) The solo guitar kind of disappears. Meka performed that particular solo really well and I feel like it should have some kind of strong presence in the mix.
2) The background scream for the chorus, which is the most important background vocal in the entire song, isn't really audible during the chorus. Just a note, but you might wanna bring that up.
3) I like the clean background vocal choices that you made during the chorus, but the main vocals get kind of buried during the verses behind the background vocals. Odd but true in my opinion.
4) I feel like the main vocals could REALLY stand out a bit more. Maybe more aggressive compression or tube distortion or limiting or something.
5) The overall tone of the mix is pretty scooped. There's huge buildup between 100hz and 200hz, between the drums and the bass and the guitars that area needs to be really clean. As a result, the area between 300hz and 600hz feels pretty thin. I feel like the guitar tones could stand out a LOT more if you cut some 4khz and brought in some 300hz to 500hz to fill them out a little.

Those are the main points of interest for me. I hope that helps you in your mixing journey a little bit, as those areas are pretty common issues for a LOT of people. Overcoming them will set you apart for sure!

Thanks a ton for doing this mix, and I hope to hear more from you in the future!

Yeah, you're right! I finally spent some hours tweeking and automating background/lead vocals and rethinking it (also correcting and cleaning that guitar). Hope it's better now!

[aftercutrecords]

Absolutely! It's much better now. I can hear the effort you put into it, and I feel like it's also got a fair share of creative choices made that set it apart.
Those improvements made a big difference!
Good job!