Rod Alexander: 'Tears In The Rain'

[thedon]

Found this one a real challenge ,this is what I have got so far .
advice welcome !

[pauli]

Hey Don, nice sounding mix. I love the nylon stringed guitar's sound, great low end and nice attack! The drums are also fantastic and your panning efforts in that department are bang on. Nice ambiance, too, it feels very much like hearing the song in-concert.

Take my observations from the standpoint of an extremely zealous, anal-about-guitar-tone guitarist.

I think you should allow the acoustic rhythm guitars more low end contribution, especially in the intro. The fundamental frequency of the lowest frequency on an acoustic guitar is 80 Hz, assuming there's no downtuning, so in solo or in sparse sections of the mix, you should allow some sound from that region, as the acoustic sounds too separated from the bass. Listen to Clapton's unplugged live concert and you'll see what I mean. I think they could use a bit more sparkle in the high frequencies as well. There is an issue in the recording I've mentioned many times that scoops the 400Hz and 2000 Hz regions on those guitars very brutally in places... you can hear a swwwwssssssshhhhhhh sound like a phaser/flanger pedal if you listen closely, however the electric guitars and solo acoustic have much to offer in those regions that can very effectively mask the issue.

Is the bass contributing a bit too much in the midrange? I feel like it's upsetting the balance in places from 400 to 600/700.

The electric guitars sound a bit thin and nasal... almost a little "honky" in places, and a teeny bit harsh here and there, and their solo sections are being drowned out by the rhythm acoustics.a

Overall, I think if you spread the guitars out a bit more you'd have an easier time with the EQ. In a sparse largely acoustic mix like this, everything needs to sound a bit less processed (in my opinion) and the drums sound wider than the rest of the mix combined. I think the drums are fine as they are, but the rest could fan out a bit to allow more room for sonic contributions so that cuts won't need to be so aggressive. I find it highly unlikely anyone would be listening to this in mono, so to hell with mono compatibility, also just my opinion.

Sounds like a lot of negatives, but I think it sounds really nice on the whole and you'll probably see exactly what I mean about the EQ when you give the guitars a little more room to breathe

[Pedaling Prince]

Found this one a real challenge ,this is what I have got so far .
advice welcome !

OK, pauli already addressed most of my concerns regarding the sound of the guitars, and as a guitar expert himself he was able to explain the problems in more detail than I so I'll leave his comments to speak for me on those points.

So, my only remaining issues are that the cymbals are way too loud, as is the rim hits on the snare near the beginning. Also, I felt the nylon guitar was a little too loud relative to the other guitars; I think it needs to come down a dB or two.

Oh, and I do think your bass guitar needs to come up a tad.

[HbGuitar]

Really enjoyed this. I think you've done a really nice job get all the disparate pieces to fit together and technically everything sits together very well ( levels, EQ, panning, top/mid/bottom balance etc).

my only quibble is personal taste...i think the ElecGtr in the section 0.30-1.00 could be up more ... you have nice tone going on...

Nice idea with the fade out....avoiding the collapsing stereo field as the guitars leave the party

[Olli H]

All instrument sounds as such are very good when soloed, but something is wrong how they blend together. Now it's quite nervous overall sound. Maybe you should decide better where the focus should be, what should be heard and what is there just to support other's.

Maybe too bright rhythm section. It masks the dark solo guitar. For example around 0:33 the solo guitar is behind everybody else. He's a brilliant but slightly shy member. Other player's should listen him and react to his beautiful mellow sound.

The tonal change at 1.04 is quite wild. Maybe if you fix the problem of dark solo guitar first, you'll solve this part at the same time.

I think it's just some small adjustements and you'll get an excellent mix out of this. (Try not to use solo-button if you try to fix those things)

[thedon]

Thanks For the feedback Pauli,John,HB and Olli !
I agree 100% with all of your observations and try again soon !

[pauli]

This one is really hard... Nobody's getting it right on the first try :p

If I weren't bald as a cantaloupe, I would be after this multi