I listened to quite a few other mixes, and the tonality was all over the place, and yes, I had a lot of trouble with mine 
I'm still not super happy with it, but at some you point, you just have to say "fsck it, it's done" 
Song sections:
The biggest problem I had was with the guitars, and getting something full and big, but without being harsh. The mixes I listened to had quite bright guitars, but I was referencing against "Killing In The Name", "Lithium", and "Almost Real" (Black Flag), which were much warmer and fuller.
My usual trick of adding panned delays causes mono problems, so I did this for individual tracks (Guitars 3 and 5) and panned them 50% left/right, while keeping Guitar 4 in the centre. I also found that just EQ'ing the combined tracks didn't really work, and had to EQ each one individually (Guitar 4, in particular, had a lot of mud sliced out), and then the combined tracks was easier to work with.
I note that a lot of people had panned their guitars left/right, but not accounted for the guitar lines e.g. at the end of the intro, and all 3 choruses, so they were coming out hard-left, which sounded a bit odd.
The lead vocal also presented a lot of problems. The tonality was all over the place, so I added some dynamic EQ to try to tame peaks at around 3.2 kHz. There are also places where the mid-range becomes a bit dominant, but I had got sick of things by that time Her voice is quite piercing, so it was a challenge to get it cut through the dense choruses, but still getting it to blend, and not rip your ears off during the quieter parts.
I also edited some of the parts. The drums sound like they're being played by the Energizer Bunny during the 1st verse, so I cut that back a lot. Perhaps a bit jazzy for this style, but it helps create contrast with the rest of the song.
I dropped the electric guitar at the start of the bridge, so the singer is almost screaming alone, and is quite dramatic. I also wanted her singing alone at the start of the break, but since I had already done that just prior, I opted for starting the swirling guitars quiet, and fading them up.
The tambourine and reverse cymbal didn't seem to add anything, so I just dropped them, and the drum loop seemed to be different just for the sake of being different, so I mixed it in, but not so much that you can really notice it.
I'm still not super happy with it, but at some you point, you just have to say "fsck it, it's done" Song sections:
- 0:00 intro
- 0:22 verse 1
- 0:47 chorus 1
- 1:12 verse 2
- 1:42 chorus 2
- 2:03 bridge
- 2:23 break
- 2:43 chorus 3
The biggest problem I had was with the guitars, and getting something full and big, but without being harsh. The mixes I listened to had quite bright guitars, but I was referencing against "Killing In The Name", "Lithium", and "Almost Real" (Black Flag), which were much warmer and fuller.
My usual trick of adding panned delays causes mono problems, so I did this for individual tracks (Guitars 3 and 5) and panned them 50% left/right, while keeping Guitar 4 in the centre. I also found that just EQ'ing the combined tracks didn't really work, and had to EQ each one individually (Guitar 4, in particular, had a lot of mud sliced out), and then the combined tracks was easier to work with.
I note that a lot of people had panned their guitars left/right, but not accounted for the guitar lines e.g. at the end of the intro, and all 3 choruses, so they were coming out hard-left, which sounded a bit odd.
The lead vocal also presented a lot of problems. The tonality was all over the place, so I added some dynamic EQ to try to tame peaks at around 3.2 kHz. There are also places where the mid-range becomes a bit dominant, but I had got sick of things by that time
Her voice is quite piercing, so it was a challenge to get it cut through the dense choruses, but still getting it to blend, and not rip your ears off during the quieter parts.I also edited some of the parts. The drums sound like they're being played by the Energizer Bunny during the 1st verse, so I cut that back a lot. Perhaps a bit jazzy for this style, but it helps create contrast with the rest of the song.
I dropped the electric guitar at the start of the bridge, so the singer is almost screaming alone, and is quite dramatic. I also wanted her singing alone at the start of the break, but since I had already done that just prior, I opted for starting the swirling guitars quiet, and fading them up.
The tambourine and reverse cymbal didn't seem to add anything, so I just dropped them, and the drum loop seemed to be different just for the sake of being different, so I mixed it in, but not so much that you can really notice it.