Brian C Cai Fei Hong: 'Never Let You Go' Mix

[vrlnsnd]

Hey!

First mix I'm posting here. Liked this song instantly and had to attempt mixing it!
I would like to leave a big thank you to CMT for providing this platform and all the artists for providing their content. Great place!
And of course thanks to Mike Senior for the great book (still reading it).

I'm approximately 3 hours into mixing this song. In the posted file I applied a quick mastering to see what happens if a mastering chain hits the mix (Maybe it still needs a slight overall boost @8kHz+)

Curious what you think! Feedback appreciated!

- Dan

[Y's Man]

The reverbdelays in the vocal seem a bit cluttered although i like the ideas, man that kick is nice very punchy, everything is done well just seems missing some sub bass. Anything else would be preference, i think the snare reverb is a bit dark maybe, sounds a bit like like a tennis match its distracting as the snare isnt a good sound originally. The balance is great though. Bare in mind im on headphones so reverbs etc could sound different on speakers

[crownoise]

I like this mix man When the drop hits it seems to bring the energy of the song to a new level also so thats good. nice lowend, i felt my own mix lacked a bit lowend. You are one of few that actually brought up that nice synth that is swelling on the drop, can't seem to grasp why you would'nt want that it sounds really cool .

[vrlnsnd]

The reverbdelays in the vocal seem a bit cluttered although i like the ideas, man that kick is nice very punchy, everything is done well just seems missing some sub bass. Anything else would be preference, i think the snare reverb is a bit dark maybe, sounds a bit like like a tennis match its distracting as the snare isnt a great sound originally. The balance is great though. Bare in mind im on headphones so reverbs etc could sound different on speakers

- Reverb Delays on Vocal: Yes, maybe those are a bit too much. Could be finetuned with shorter reverbtime and more dry-Mix of the effect i think. Also, i don't know if it's not too much of an production move. The basic idea behind this was to fill the space as an extension to the main reverb.

- I decided to use more reverb on this song as usual and automated the level of it. Tried to control a good part of the "openess" of the sound with that. I think Reverb is a very critical task in this mix.

- Kick: Thanks! I did some additional sidechaining to some other elements to always retain that punch. This was my main focus in the beginning

- Sub bass: Noted! I have to check. I don't think it's a balance issue (correct me). I have a slight feeling that the bass is getting compressed a bit too much in the "quick-mastering"-process.

- Snare Sound: The Snare takes a significant hit by the limiter on the master bus (sound-wise), that's something that has to be adressed. Actually I liked that Plate-Reverb on it haha. Maybe reverb level is a thing and I'll try to EQ that a bit. But I will try another reverb as well!

- Headphones: Maybe, but we want it to sound good on headphones too!


Many thanks for the feedback! Helps a lot to hear another perspective!

[Y's Man]

The reverbdelays in the vocal seem a bit cluttered although i like the ideas, man that kick is nice very punchy, everything is done well just seems missing some sub bass. Anything else would be preference, i think the snare reverb is a bit dark maybe, sounds a bit like like a tennis match its distracting as the snare isnt a great sound originally. The balance is great though. Bare in mind im on headphones so reverbs etc could sound different on speakers

- Reverb Delays on Vocal: Yes, maybe those are a bit too much. Could be finetuned with shorter reverbtime and more dry-Mix of the effect i think.

- I decided to use more reverb on this song as usual and automated the level of it. Tried to control a good part of the "openess" of the sound with that. I think Reverb is a very critical task in this mix.

- Kick: Thanks! I did some additional sidechaining to some other elements to always retain that punch. This was my main focus in the beginning

- Sub bass: Noted! I have to check. I don't think it's a balance issue (correct me). I have a slight feeling that the bass is getting compressed a bit too much in the "quick-mastering"-process.

- Snare Sound: The Snare takes a significant hit by the limiter on the master bus (sound-wise), that's something that has to be adressed. Actually I liked that Plate-Reverb on it haha. Maybe reverb level is a thing and I'll try to EQ that a bit. But I will try another reverb as well!

- Headphones: Maybe, but we want it to sound good on headphones too!


Many thanks for the feedback! Helps a lot to hear another perspective!

Yeah i think with the snare its the sample itself for me that with reverb just reminds me of watchhing tennis i relistened to mine and get a similar feeling its not a mix problem (funny because when doing it i didnt mind the snare but now it seems off). For sub bass i cant really hear anything underneath the kick from the synths all the power from the bass seems to be coming from 100hz plus , so it might be compression.

[vrlnsnd]

I like this mix man When the drop hits it seems to bring the energy of the song to a new level also so thats good. nice lowend, i felt my own mix lacked a bit lowend. You are one of few that actually brought up that nice synth that is swelling on the drop, can't seem to grasp why you would'nt want that it sounds really cool .

Many thanks!

[Jacques]

In general i like the mix, the kick is really punchy. U could put in mono the dubstep track to get a bit more of low end. Also the percussion before the drop the could be more present to give some excitement.

All best

Jacques

[vrlnsnd]

In general i like the mix, the kick is really punchy. U could put in mono the dubstep track to get a bit more of low end. Also the percussion before the drop the could be more present to give some excitement.

All best

Jacques

Monoing those dubstep FX is a nice idea, and actually I found them the hardest elements to find a proper place for. Also agree on the percussion, I think it was Y's Man who had a killer percussion sound. That would be something I would like to go for.

Thanks for your feedback Jacques!

[thedon]

Hi Dan I like you mix the kick sounds nice and punchy but could sit a little lower in the mix maybe just needs taming of the hollow box frequencies above 200 hz ?

Cheers

[vrlnsnd]

Hi Dan I like you mix the kick sounds nice and punchy but could sit a little lower in the mix maybe just needs taming of the hollow box frequencies above 200 hz ?

Cheers

That's a cool idea to get some deeper low end, also reminds me that I didn't check if the kick is actually tuned to the song