jtbStudio mix

[jtbStudio]

Song sections:

• 0:00 verse
  
• 0:37 chorus
  
• 1:03 verse
  
• 1:24 chorus
  
• 1:45 bridge
  
• 2:05 chorus
  
• 2:26 outro
  

I listened to 10 other versions of this song, and TBH, I didn't really like any of them, mostly because:

1. the overall tonality was pretty cloudy/muddy, presumably because the low-end hadn't been controlled for the guitars. While I often lop off huge amounts of low-end for songs like this, for this particular one, the EQ cuts were pretty minimal, and it made a big difference in cleaning up the sound.
   
2. the drums were far too aggressive in the verses, I suspect because people had mixed them for the choruses, and then re-used those settings for the verses/bridge. The various sections are almost like completely different songs, and so I mixed them as such i.e. completely separately (including the vocals).
   

The segue from verse to chorus is really important (especially the 1st one) - the song transitions from a sparse, funky groove to a full-on wall-of-sound rock feel, and you really want the listener to start banging their head when it happens. Not only did I automate a volume increase for the guitars, but also started with them centrally panned and moved them out to the sides, as well as increasing the EQ at 275 Hz, to give it progressively more body.

The verse vocals had a bit of a resonance at around 2.8 kHz, so I added tiny bit of dynamic EQ to damp that, otherwise it was a small bump at 730 Hz for warmth, and Vibe EQ to add air.

The chorus vocals were similar - a small bump at 380 Hz for warmth, and a decent cut at around 2.7 kHz to get rid of the edge. The vocal sound in the choruses is quite different to that in the verses, which I wasn't happy about, but it seems to be coming from the backing vocals. I lopped off a lot of top-end from those, so while the problem is still there, it's not quite as bad.

There was a weird interaction between the snare and guitars during the 1st half of the bridge, so I just muted the snare, since it works better musically, anyway.

There is also something weird going on when she sings "cynical" in each of the choruses. In the raw vocal track it's a bit muffled, but sounds like it should be fixable. However, it's getting masked by the guitars to the point where it completely disappears, and it will drive you nuts once you notice it I spent ages trying to fix this, with massive spot EQ on the vocals, as well as ducking the guitars at around 2.8 kHz, so it's a bit better, but still not great