Side Effects Project - Sing With Me (hotpants)

[hotpants]

v2.0 - My mix based off of the Library Preview mix (aiming for a similar sound), and first time using Reaper (after using PT11 till now). I think some elements can be improved further, like the claps and vocals to be more present, cleaner bass and punchier kick, but reaching this already took me a lot of work so i'll leave it there for now.

[mikej]

Hi,

I think you've done a nice mix here, great job!

It's not that far off the preview mix. Comparing with yours, I added a very small amount of 100Hz, 500Hz and 2500Hz to your mix to give just a little more mid weight to the kick and bass (100 and 500Hz) and to bring out the mid of the bass just a bit more (2500Hz), which for me made the mix very close to the library mix when level matched.

You mentioned the claps and the vocal. For me the vocal in the library mix is just a shade darker and it might sit just a little further back in the track.
The claps in the library mix are also a bit darker and are also gated a little bit too.

These two things are quite a subtle move. I think rolling off a little bit of the brightness of those elements helps to accentuate the bass a little, as your ears are drawn to the kick and bass and are not distracted by the brightness of the vocal and the claps. It also helps them to sit in the track a bit better perhaps?

Not something I would have thought of, as my instinct would be to have the claps and vocals with a touch of top end just as you have done. The slightly brighter vocals in your mix projects them forward and makes them sit slightly above the track and makes them a little more intelligible, but maybe you lose just a touch of a sense atmosphere of the musical elements around them?

Your mix stands up fine as is - these are just a couple of things I happened to pick up on whilst comparing the two mixes. Interesting stuff.

I find you can pick up on a lot of interesting details from Mike's mixes. I think he did a rock mix once where someone mentioned that the vocals were perhaps too mono, and needed to be wider - but it was done intentionally to make the band sound wider by way of contrast. It's these kind of details that gets you thinking on a different level about mixing.

Cheers!