BorisMusic
Member
There are a lot of variables, sure, and the first thing that strikes me is that you're using a lot of long reverb there on your voice and guitar where the reference recording does not.
Your recordings are distorting a fair bit too making them sound harsh. It may be that the gain was too high when recording or it could be that they were boosted too far in software afterwards...Can't tell from here.
It all starts with the source, and I think the sound of your room is the first thing to look at.
This distortion is probably what is also causing the muffling of the sound would you say? Or at least what sounds like muffling to my ears.
When I said there's a constant battle between guitar and vocals, that was the harshness I was talking about. Panning left and right didn't really solve this problem, neither did EQing
(But yes I do recall boosting my levels after the recording in an attempt to make it sound more full, which I know now is not a good idea)