Acoustic rock/emo fans out there?

The acoustic guitar in the intro is compressed pretty hard. So is the vocal. So is pretty much all of it. I'd back off of some of that.

I think the sounds overall are rather nice. Except maybe the cymbals - they're getting soundcloud-swirlified. It's just that everything is loud and trying to be the center of attention.

OK the bass is a bit on the sterile side - missing some low-mids. LIke in the 300hz - 600hz octave.
 
i don't like emo too much but i like "indie" and acoustic music. i thought your song was pretty good at times (the melody during the chorus is solid); the verses are pleasing but also kind of boring in a way (sorry). the mix needs some work -- the panned guitars don't work b/c it's such a sparse song. i'd bring those guitars inward, especially the left ear. your drums sound panned, too. i'd center those. at that point i'd refit the vocal into that mix, and i think things would sit better. the acoustic guitar sounds too upfront, too.
 
At 1:10 there's a really harsh sound like someone's beating a piece of plastic with a stick and it's really loud (I believe it's supposed to be side sticking). It's covering up a nice reverby vocal and nice acoustic part. There's also a 6k-8K harshness that especially shows up on "Don't" at about 3:37. The strings at the beginning are also a bit harsh but they don't really last long enough to hurt things. The mix is very fatiguing on the ears. (I'm listening at about 95dB where most would listen to that style of music).
The vocals sound good, but buried in an attention grabbing mix. I normally don't like wide panned drums, but it sounds very artistic in this mix (I see I'm disagreeing with Nola on this...sorry, just my opinion). The acoustic was well recorded...good tone and playing. Really, all the performances sound well done.
 
BroKen_H said:
At 1:10 there's a really harsh sound like someone's beating a piece of plastic with a stick and it's really loud (I believe it's supposed to be side sticking). It's covering up a nice reverby vocal and nice acoustic part. There's also a 6k-8K harshness that especially shows up on "Don't" at about 3:37. The strings at the beginning are also a bit harsh but they don't really last long enough to hurt things. The mix is very fatiguing on the ears. (I'm listening at about 95dB where most would listen to that style of music).
The vocals sound good, but buried in an attention grabbing mix. I normally don't like wide panned drums, but it sounds very artistic in this mix (I see I'm disagreeing with Nola on this...sorry, just my opinion). The acoustic was well recorded...good tone and playing. Really, all the performances sound well done.
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This was pretty much my opinion. I thought this was really well done except for the loud clicking sidestick part and a general high harshness at times. I didn't mind the panned drum pieces. I think it just opens up what should be an open, wide, acoustic song. Things get a little harsh/cluttered around 3:25. Pretty good though
 
The compression could be reduced to open it up a bit. If it is supposed to be acoustic, then there has to be some range. A couple of place where you could turn down a track so the peak doesn't push your compressor so hard (like the guitar at 0:41). The stick beating was fine, just need to get some of that nasty frequency out.

Now this is just a guess, but EQing the vocals and reduce some 2-4K area (scoop somewhere in that region to taste) would get the vocal smoother.
Then give it some air on the overall mix.

Overall, good modern sounding song. I haven't listened to radio in a few years, so my modern may now be old. Good tune overall, worth tweaking and polishing.
 
Thanks guys for the feedback. All great suggestions. I'm working on a new mix with all this in mind and will upload it at some point. The reason it seems so compressed is because it was the only way to get an overall "loud" volume, but I can play around with that and see if I can boost the volume while reducing compression.

Broken_H, what do you mean by "The mix is very fatiguing on the ears. (I'm listening at about 95dB where most would listen to that style of music)."? Does that mean that overall everything is loud? Or just "harsh" frequencies throughout?
 
muzitioner said:
Broken_H, what do you mean by "The mix is very fatiguing on the ears. (I'm listening at about 95dB where most would listen to that style of music)."? Does that mean that overall everything is loud? Or just "harsh" frequencies throughout?
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I know the comment you're quoting wasn't mine, but I had a similar feeling, so I'll answer for me. For me, it's a bit of both compression and harsh frequencies, but more so the compression. There is a little brittleness, but I think with some more moderate amounts of compression, that might not be an issue.
 
Thanks Trip. That exactly. Honestly, sometimes overcompressing (which I am known for) adds a lot of upper mid harshness. Kicking the compression down may solve the EQ issues...If you want professional levels, pay someone to master it professionally...:)
I know...I can't afford that right now either, so my mixes are 6-10dB lower than what's on the radio. Doesn't matter to me if it sounds loud as long as it sounds good (my mixes, that is).
 
So after many attempts to improve on the mix, keeping everything in mind from all your suggestions, I was having trouble getting a good sound again. So I basically started over with mixing, and EQ, and compression (1st link). I don't know if I liked the result as much so then went back to the original mix and altered some (2nd link). The compression is still a bit high, which I tend to prefer to get the volume out of it (because everything sounds better louder, right?) but I removed some of the outliers and the harshness so hopefully it won't be as noticeable.

Let me know which you prefer and where to go from here:

https://soundcloud.com/muzitioner/running-blind-mix-18-re-eq-comp/s-u5xC7

https://soundcloud.com/muzitioner/running-blind-mix-22-4remix/s-5jJRN
 
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Definitely 21. The acoustic is a lot better (smoother, less harsh). Bass is stronger, maybe 1-2dB too much. Drums are well balanced. Voice is very smooth, maybe bump the volume up just a touch. It's a bit less balanced (a lot going on in the left speaker) and made worse by the fact that the guitar part on the rightt side is a touch too loud and kind of boring, but the mix is very nice: everything is there.
Great syncopation. Tasty acoustic part. The vocal gets very vulnerable in spots, which really adds to the vibe of the song.
 
Thanks! Probably just as you were writing this I was uploading a mix 22 in place of 21 which reduced the bass a bit, because I only noticed it when playing through my less expensive speakers with a sub. So the link to the 2nd one has changed.
 
I really like this version of the song, nice vocal effects and guitars, the only thing that bothered me(this is only my own taste though) is the clap coming up at 3:44 for a whole minute,it kind of distract me, pulling me away from the song, the shaker is ok though.

however the overall song is really cool though , good jov though :)
 
The acoustic at the beginning sounds nice but there's a weird phasing (I think?) effect that makes my ears ache. Things seem pretty well balanced, I might bring the vocal forward a bit, it feels like the guitars are more up-front. That's mix-wise, song-wise I really like it, nice pacing and breaks in the right places. The offbeat clean guitar near the end with the hand claps is especially cool.
 
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