Hmmmmmm.....Better levels definately. I just discovered since my last post that when I upgraded Winamp, it seems that my output meters from the soundcard to console are not as hot now. This is consistent with songs that I mastered in GoldWave, and are still in .wav format. So it would seem that the levels that I was seeing from your other song were not quite as quiet as I thought. But, when I compared them in GoldWave with other stuff, they were still seldomly getting very hot. So, you were maybe about -10db, instead of -14 that I mentioned last night. So, I apologize for the misinformation concerning levels here. Just a case of a change in WinAmp I guess fooling me from what I was used to seeing. I will probably go back to the older version.....
Liked it better.
So, I see what you mean about the low end here, although, I would say that you are closer with this new mix than the other concerning low end. I think that maybe you might have overcompensated just a tad. This is probably going to take awhile to might the right place. Anyway, this new song has a "real" bass in it, and not the piano trying to fill the bass range as the other song had. You could in this case probably get away with a bit more of the bass track in the mix. The high end seems to be a bit more extended in this mix though, so you are definately heading in the right direction.
The sax. I hear what you mean. It sounded like there was a bit too much 2-4kHz in it. Usually when I have a sax in a mix, I try to bring out the 400-1kHz region a bit. That seems to give it a more natural sound. Try taking out about 2 db of maybe 3kHz on the track, and boosting about 2db of 500Hz and see if maybe that will give you a smoother sound.
It is really hard here to give much advice because at no point have you shared what you used to record and mix with. Often, the solutions can be quite different between different equipment. Not all equipment is created equal. So, you may need to apply different techniques than any of the advice any of us has given so far (not that this advice hasn't been good, just that depending on what you have, it may be misguided, who knows???).
If you are using all digital equipment to mix, such as a software package, well, good luck. Digital EQ's and dynamic processing is not really "all that" unless you are dealing with high dollar plug-ins. And even in that case, they react much different than analog components would. Digital EQing is very different than analog in many ways, but mainly, you don't have the inherent phase shift distortion that analog EQ's have. Thus, you are missing out on something that can really add some smoothness to the sound, even though you might be losing some accuracy that digital EQ's have. In the case of comparing digital dynamic processors to analog components, just about any day of the week I would take a analog processor over digital because the analog processor will add color that is usually desireable. Often, the coloration from an analog compressor can really add a nice thump and low end coloration to the overall sound. It is not always a great thing, but it sure seems to be used alot......
Anyway, knowing what equipment you are using, as well as some of the production techniques (mic placement, dynamic processing before going to tape and after, effects used at mix, etc...), would probably be helpful to know if you would like better help here.
But I would still say that this current mix is an improvement in overall fidelity. The piano sounds much closer to the real thing than in the other song.
Good luck.
Ed
every day whether or not you go to college....