First Pop Mix

[Vinnie]

This is my first Pop Mix I hope you like it. Feedback welcome. Cheers!

Vinnie

[Mike Senior]

Respect for tangling with this one, Vinnie, because it's not the easiest multitrack in the world to deal with! You've already done good work in making sense of it so far, and it's cool to hear a wetter interpretation than my Mix Rescue version -- an interesting (and perfectly valid) alternative interpretation.

It feels to me as if your effects settings would benefit from more automation, though. For example, the delay/reverb levels feel pretty good for the choruses, but then the verses feel slightly washed out. Just drawing in some curves on the effect-return channels may be enough, although I'd usually end up adjusting some of the sends (particularly the lead-vocal tracks) separately too.

The kick could probably do with a dose of 80-90Hz boost, I think, because it feels a bit 'metal' rather than 'rock/pop' for me, and although I'm completely at ease with the idea of a more ambient take on this track, I think you could be a bit more selective about the reverb on the kick -- perhaps just by high-pass filtering some reverb returns.

Using those distorted guitar stabs in the second verse is a risk, because it tends to give the following prechorus section less room for expanding the texture, and that section change does feel a bit weakened as a result for me. However, you might still be able to get away with it if you use your automation to ride up some of the guitars at the opening of the prechorus.

The vocal sounds pretty good in general, but isn't that solid in the balance -- it seems to be dancing back/forward rather too much on my Avantone, and I feel I'm not getting the words coming through quite as clearly as I'd like. I also wonder whether you might want to mult the chorus vocals so that you can allow them to have a little less lower midrange, because at the moment they seem to making the backing feel a bit small by comparison. A little more of the electric guitars might also improve the situation in that respect too, I think. Try checking the balance without the bass or drums in there -- that can often help highlight the way the other backing parts relate to the vocals.

Finally, on a technical level, there appears to be quite a lot of background noise at the top and tail of your file here, so I'd try to do some selective muting and fading to bring this a bit down in level.

[Vinnie]

Respect for tangling with this one, Vinnie, because it's not the easiest multitrack in the world to deal with! You've already done good work in making sense of it so far, and it's cool to hear a wetter interpretation than my Mix Rescue version -- an interesting (and perfectly valid) alternative interpretation.

It feels to me as if your effects settings would benefit from more automation, though. For example, the delay/reverb levels feel pretty good for the choruses, but then the verses feel slightly washed out. Just drawing in some curves on the effect-return channels may be enough, although I'd usually end up adjusting some of the sends (particularly the lead-vocal tracks) separately too.

The kick could probably do with a dose of 80-90Hz boost, I think, because it feels a bit 'metal' rather than 'rock/pop' for me, and although I'm completely at ease with the idea of a more ambient take on this track, I think you could be a bit more selective about the reverb on the kick -- perhaps just by high-pass filtering some reverb returns.

Using those distorted guitar stabs in the second verse is a risk, because it tends to give the following prechorus section less room for expanding the texture, and that section change does feel a bit weakened as a result for me. However, you might still be able to get away with it if you use your automation to ride up some of the guitars at the opening of the prechorus.

The vocal sounds pretty good in general, but isn't that solid in the balance -- it seems to be dancing back/forward rather too much on my Avantone, and I feel I'm not getting the words coming through quite as clearly as I'd like. I also wonder whether you might want to mult the chorus vocals so that you can allow them to have a little less lower midrange, because at the moment they seem to making the backing feel a bit small by comparison. A little more of the electric guitars might also improve the situation in that respect too, I think. Try checking the balance without the bass or drums in there -- that can often help highlight the way the other backing parts relate to the vocals.

Finally, on a technical level, there appears to be quite a lot of background noise at the top and tail of your file here, so I'd try to do some selective muting and fading to bring this a bit down in level.

Thanks Mike for your valid observations, which by the way, are always welcome and much appreciated. I will take another stab at this and work on the weak areas to see if I can take it to the next level. I'm still working on developing that critical listening skills, that you so much have, I know it is a must to become a pro mixer. Time to roll up my sleeves and get back to doing what I love to do. Mix. Thank again Cheers!

Vinnie

[Vinnie]

My Re-mix,

Hi Mike

This is a good as I'm gonna get with this one, time to move on. I found it very difficult to go back and redo, but it well worth it, there were many areas to improve upon and your suggested tweaks help bring this song up another notch. Thanks for sharing your insight on what needed improvement.

Vinnie

[uzilevi]

hi its good to leave the song and after some good mixes to come back but your track is way to bright its hurting the ear mostly on the verse and the sim and the snr have to much eq all the way. you need to hear if you can listen in hi volume also,i cant. soory for the bad coment.

[Vinnie]

hi its good to leave the song and after some good mixes to come back but your track is way to bright its hurting the ear mostly on the verse and the sim and the snr have to much eq all the way. you need to hear if you can listen in hi volume also,i cant. soory for the bad coment.

Hi uzilevi,

Tks for the honest feedback, I value and respect your opinion and enjoy listening to your mixes. I'll see if I can tame down some of those pesky upper mid/ hi frequencies that are causing the brightness/ harshness in the verses and as well checkout the sim and snr eq. I never listened to the mix at hi volumes but I guess I should have, it may have made it more obvious, also taken breaks more frequently to gives the ears a rest is probably something I need to remind myself to do. Tks for taken the time to reply

Cheers!

Vinnie

[Yippie37]

hi its good to leave the song and after some good mixes to come back but your track is way to bright its hurting the ear mostly on the verse and the sim and the snr have to much eq all the way. you need to hear if you can listen in hi volume also,i cant. soory for the bad coment.

what?? it's perfectly normal

The kick drum gets way too lost as the snare too