The version in post #7 sounds WAY better than the one in the opening post. Much better mix. Very nicely done. Can you talk us through more about what you did in terms of changes? Because I think you've turned an amateur mix (no offense at all) into something a LOT more polished and pro sounding.
Fantastic effort.
Thanks for showing an interest, means a lot (seriously) !
Ok, so the comments made in this thread helped me A LOT.
And my partner listened on our big lounge speakers and said "wow, the vocal is way loud!". Because you become immune to it, even with several weeks of doing something else (eg cycling), and resting your ears.
I had to crack why it was at least listenable on headphones, but the vocal jumped way louder on speakers. Your brain compensates on headphones a bit, and I often use my phone (Onkyo HF player), and Koss Porta Pros which prob don't do much above 15k ish anyway, whereas my speakers do...
So, whilst I had been focussing on mastering, it was back to the mix to look at the vocal, and the reverb. Some adjustment of a 2nd compressor (which I'd disabled previously - very much an in and out thing, more for character), which was clearly helping some of the fast transients in the vocal, and adding all I can describe as a "fizz" in the vocal sound (which I was REALLY pleased with, as one of the biggest changes). I also reduced the Reverb top end (too much "sparkle"), and a shorter tail. TB Reverb (I only ever use VST freeware) has a "character" setting I started to use.
Then some more vocal level automation, finally getting the level right at the start (and removing the reverb automation there), and moving around slightly the twin guitars to give the vocal a little more space in the crowded parts, and reducing the track level a little here and there. Automation, and compression, and iterate...
Then I boosted the bass guitar specifically in the mix, as trying to do that in the mastering project was of course not just lifting that alone, and I really wanted the bass to pop and be clear a little, rather than mud (who doesn't!).
Finally in the mix, I tried 3 or 4 attempts at getting the fadeout better, smoother, and quicker.
Then it was back to the mastering project, and after listening with added EQ on my phone (on and off), and on various speakers, I realised there was still too much 6-10k energy. Not really a problem, but just discouraged turning it up loud, you know?
Easily addressed with the MEqualizer I was using, 0.5 or 1.0 dB here and there, a bit more saturation too (esp harmonics in the high-end), and a much more aggressive lowpass. I love TDR-Vos-EQ, it really does some interesting things, so I made a LOT of changes to that, just adding sparkle 25k+ keeps the acoustic "shimmer" which I might have trimmed otherwise. Lots of iterations here.
And some final limiter tweaks (less multibanding, more lookahead), and LUFS checks (-16 ish). As you do...!
I made a video (kdenlive - freeware again), and built a few test versions uploaded to private links, because I've long known (as you guys do) that if you get the right rendering settings, the YouTube audio quality within 1080p is way better than eg. SoundCloud. I had to revisit the master a few times, as it seemed to emphasise the treble slightly, all that AAC audio/FLAC thing within MKV I think. Complicated. So I had to tame it, even though I wanted jangly sounding guitars!
The trade-off seemed to be that the left-channel acoustic was now not quite as "shimmer-y" as I wanted, but short of revisiting the mix yet again, I accepted this, as it would probably have taken a bit of energy away from the track too to high-pass it more.
Thanks again for showing an interest, your kind words, and all your help!!!
