First of all, I find it highly disrespectful for people (no names mentioned) to slam other peoples mixes given the fact that we have all spent considerable amounts of time working on this song. As others have already said, let's keep this a learning experience. I think a better title for this thread might have been "mixing contest/clinic", but oh well, some people love competition.
Here are my amateur-ear criticisms of the mixes I have downloaded so far:
Fenix-
Nice Mix! The drums enter a little weird. Vocals are sweet and accented. Backing Vox are a little weak in my opinion, but I like the echos. The rimshots are nice and full. On my cans, the lead guitar lead in the bridge seems to overwhelm the vocals. Vocals at 3:00 sound out of place. The loud vocals after that (3:04) were dealt with nicely. I like how the main vox and backing vox interact there.
BlueBear-
I can't get over that squeaking in the vocals at the beginning. You said that you didn't hear what I was talking about, but it's pretty clear to me. As I said before, very natural sounding mix. There's a weird level drop at 2:10. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but something strange is happening there. I like the snare. Cool guitar lead 2 part at the end.
Christiaan-
Overall it sounds a little distant, yet clear. The kick is distracting IMO. Is that reverb on the snare? Sounds half cool and half like a kid's drumset. I think the vocal placement was really nice on this mix. It blends well with everything else and stands out where it needs to. The guitars at the end are a bit hidden, but they don't really need to stand out with the way you mixed the song. I hear a little bit of that squeaking on the vocals, but it's not very noticable. Good mix overall, but I would try and boost the levels a bit to give your mix more power.
Man@Work-
I like the intro levels. Squeking in the VOX is quite noticable though. I'll agree with others in saying that the bass is killer. I like the bass way up front like that, it helps add a kinda Harley feel (if that makes any sense). The backing Vox seem to get lost a lot. The guitar flanging(?) in the bridge is cool and works with your mix. I can barely hear the guitar solos at the end. I like the hat levels. Perhaps pulling the faders down on the
acoustic guitar would bring out the chorus a little bit, it sounds crowded in there.
Chessrock-
Good mix! I like your creativity, which helped your mix stand out amongst the rest. The keyboard parts sound good, but maybe a bit too loud. The slowdown is cool, but a bit dirty. I didn't care for the snare, it sounds muddy. The vocals are the strong link in your mix. They really emphasis the vocalist's talent. The outro is way cool. I like how you blended into it. What did you use to get that cool effect on the guitar sustain note leading into it? The rimshots are weak IMO. The chorus is very clean and full, sounds very proffesional.
sae-
After listening to the above mixes, this was very refreshing to hear. It has a very garage band kind of sound, which fits I think. The levels tend to jump a bit though. The vocals sound good way up front, but when there's no singing, the song sounds really weak as a consequence (listen after the first chorus). Try working on the vox at 3:00, they sound distant compared to the rest of the vox on your mix. Also, the squeaking on the vox in the intro is unbearable, to me. The snare is weak, but I like the toms, they were tough, for me at least.
Sluice-
I like the reverb on the acoustic gtr. in the intro, but it's a bit much for the rest of the song. The vox could use some flare, but they work how they are, I didn't do much to mine either. The bridge could use some more backing from the other guitars to add more strength. The chorus sounds a little... I don't know (my ears are starting to become shot now
). The drumset sounds good overall and seems to be the strong part of your mix. I like the snare, it doesn't sound as muffled as what some other people did to it.
Lemontree-
The levels are kind of low, but maybe that's just because I listened to a bunch of compressed mixes and yours is not as compressed (if at all?). Nonetheless, the relative levels work. I like the guitar on the bridge(chorus), but I would have liked to have heard more of that in the rest of the song to make it meld better. The drums enter kind of weak, and they stay that way through most of the song. The snare is... not very snarey
. Try adding some more effects to other parts to round out your sound. The ending could use some beefing up.
I hope these comments help. I didn't comment on EQ, panning, etc. because I wanted this post to remain somewhat small (hopefully someone will fill in on these missing points). Take them for what they are, one person's viewpoint. If I was unclear or you didn't undertsand my comments, let me know and I'll try to clarify. In ending, all of the mixes have room to grow, which is a good thing. That is what we are all here for (I hope). Keep it up and let's do this again sometime.
-Keith
Yeah, this has to be it, 'cause 38 is almost dead, right?