Surf's Up [Cover] [Mixing Critique Needed]

[Matthew M.]

Lately, after a while away from it, I decided to get back into mixing. I've been reading a ton of books, trying to re-learn, and to get practice, I decided to start remixing some of old covers I did several years ago. This one, a cover of "Surf's Up" by The Beach Boys, is my first try.

https://soundcloud.com/the-academic-thugs/surfs-up-cover/s-TPMG7

And it sounds as miserable as all the mixes before. Dull, lifeless, cold, and has no emotional warmth whatsoever. The problem is that, as usual, I can't quite figure out why. For something like this, it's a simple (virtual) piano and vocals, it shouldn't be too hard. So if anyone has any feedback, please, give me your worst. After all these years, I'd like to get better and stop churning out sterile mixes.

A few things to note on this track: when I recorded it several years ago, I was new to recording. I wasn't paying much attention, if at all, to levels, so unfortunately, there's some very noticeable vocal artifacts (clicks and distortion) that just can't be removed. I removed as much as I could with the pencil tool and other assortments and what you hear is actually miles better than the original.

Your feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Robus]

It sounds like there are some issues with the recording of the vocal tracks that you may or may not be able to fix. Did you track at a low level? The artifacts that you mention sound like they might come from applying a lot of gain to a track that was recorded too low. Up come the vocals, but also the esses, the noise, the preamp hum, etc. As far as the lack of emotion you mention, there's not a lot of affect in your voice. It almost sounds like you are whispering. I think it's a performance issue, not a mixing one.

 

[easlern]

Oh man a cover of one of my favorites! Which may disqualify me from doing an unbiased mix eval but I'll try. . .

Missing the harmony/background vocals. But that's not mix comment really. Mix-wise, I wouldn't call it cold or lifeless. The piano seems like it could use some presence and sparkle maybe. The vocals on the high notes are kind of shaky, a little tuning might be nice. Sounds pretty good. I might try a different mic but I guess you're probably not going back to that stage at this point. . .