Penitent Man (power pop)

Levels seem good now. That sounds like the most cohesive mix. You fought your way through this one!
 
Listening to mix 4. Really good. Yeah, this is a clear improvement. Write down/save your settings for stuff, tweak it to the songs later; but this is a good template for your tracks, in my opinion. Great space around everything and no over-compression, to me, just nice and natural sounds. Like the instruments have room to breathe, vocals too.

If anything, I'd just tinker with the snare a touch. It's in a good spot though, overall. Nice work :guitar:

edit: ahhh, let me add one thing. I thought I was hearing a rattling/distorted noise during the tune in spots. In the outro, I can hear why. It's whatever is causing the hum/noise during the last few seconds. It's actually present throughout the mix, but clear at the very end. See if you can eliminate some of that next time around, maybe.
 
Good ear taras, my re20 picks up huge interference from the electrical in the basement. I have to be careful to cut off/cut in at just the right instant using automation so the vocal masks the static. It's kind of cool though, gives it some dirt so I never really bothered to fix the cause. The static at the end of the song though is just from the bass/guitars.
 
Ah, ok. Thought it was the same culprit, maybe not. The vocal was the most prominent instrument affected by hum/distortion, so yeah I guess that was it. The whole track would sound much cleaner if you could eliminate some of that.
 
I'm late to this and went straight to mix 4.

Little lip smack on the right at about :46. A couple more smaller spots late - both left and right.

I thought the vocals, both lead and harmony, we good. Nice tone and singing. Lead vocal level is sitting at a good level. I think some of the backing vocals could use some more layers. They're a little thin when you get to the "ah wooo's". Or maybe it's just the take(s) on them. The delivery could be better.

Acoustic guitars didn't sound too bad. They had a little bit of an auto-harp sound tho. The clean electric guitars were a little boxy.

The bass is a little boingy. I think it's missing some low midrange, or has a low end boost that's too much. The low end is a little rumbly.
 
Thanks triplem, I have trouble judging the low end, maybe time to invest in a sub or something. I think in future I'll aim for a lower harmony, the backgrounds were top of my range. . . it took a couple sessions because my voice was getting hoarse. :o
 
Personally, I don't you need a sub for those judgements. Standard near field monitors can do the trick. I think that bass sound has too much energy in the 80-160hz octave and not enough in the 250-500hz octave. Near field's can reproduce those ranges just fine. Just compare your bass sound with that of songs you like.

Also, understand that it's just my opinion. It can be ignored. :) If you like your bass sound, keep it.
 
Nice good clean tones on everything. Good Rhythms.

Some of you guys know more about mixing than I do, but I am wondering if this tune is a good candidate for ducking by using a side chain compression on the guitars triggered by the vocals. I did it recently on another mix with some success - just enough so that you really wouldn't notice. In this instance, it may make it so those nice wide panned guitars were still there but backed out of the vocals' way when necessary.
 
great tune easlern. It takes me back to when I was a teenager in the 1970s. You defiantly captured that video e on this recording. I love the arrangement and the song! It's a decent mix. The only thing that jumped out at me was the vocal level seemed to drop during the bridge (or chorus). the seemed a bit buried in that spot.
great work!
 
Good Song-catchy melody and good singing, cool backup vocals even. Listening to mix 4. I scanned through some comments and didn't see anything about how you did the drums. I can't tell anymore if they're real or not but they sound small/shrunk/dry, something...They don't hold the song back though, on my third listen now and really like the singing! Everything sounds well balanced and it's not harsh though it's plenty loud. Good job man!
 
I first heard this song the other day when it came up on my Soundcloud feed. I was immediately impressed and realized how catchy it was. No real mix nits. Really liked it.
 
Thanks a lot for your feedback guys, these are great observations you brought up. Definitely an improved mix thanks to your help. I think I'm gonna leave it be now despite any remaining warts, I'm getting to that point where I fix one thing and the others get out of whack, usually a sign I've taken it as far as my skills can go. . . till the next song!
 
Hi, Nick :) Listening to mix 4 at the moment. First impressions - to me, the overall mix is too "crispy" for want of a better word. The mix isn't balanced across the EQ spectrum. The performances and sounds seem to be good, so I reckon this would mix very well, but right now it needs rebuilding from the drums up. The drums are small, thin and tinny-sounding at the moment. Certainly not the kind of sound that you want to be the basis of a meaty, beaty power pop song. It sounds like you've EQd out any bollocks that the drum kit might've had and tried to compensate by having a bass that's too full and rounded and guitars that are too full in the bottom end. Then to top it off, your vocal (which is good, by the way) has suffered in the same way as the drums. It sounds thin and crispy, which is my choice for a pizza base but not a rock vocal.

It's my assessment that you have your EQing arse-backwards :D . Give the meat back to the drums and vocals, thin it off the guitar and bass, then see where you stand.

Cheers, and thanks for following me on soundcloud. :thumbs up:
 
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