FIRST LISTEN COMPLETED : (Sony 7506 Phones)
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These phones provide for the crystal clear inspection of the right and left stereo field.
Please understand that I and most people on this board are NOT the average listener. We want to learn from your mixes, no
matter how good, or how bad, we are desparate to learn, and we hear stuff that other's would never even consider listening for.
First thing I notice is everyone, (including you), are correct that you can find a more appropriate snare. I like the actual part, and this snare works pretty good really ... but you know better than I what kind of snare to get for this. More 'thwok and less thwack'
?
Generally the mix is very clean and well mastered. Instrument performance is very good, professional level.
Lead vox is sung with some compassion and insight. It's a strong lead vox, support and singing technique are consistent througout. The lead vox is mixed and sung with respect for 'being part of the band' and 'part of the song'. And that can hurt an awesome lead vox like this. The lead vox is the undisputed star in this song and can never, never be 'challenged' by any instrument sound. You cannot 'ride a thin line here'. The lead vox must be OBVIOUSLY way out in front, like the mix the superstars.
The most important reason the vox in a song like this must be treated so carefully is you have AWESOME harmony backup vocals that are significantly challenged by the instruments around the dead centered vocal. So you need to have the headroom available underneath the lead vox, to mix the harmony vocals where the listener can enjoy them fully, and they really only need to come up 1-2db ... but you need to reduce the instrument levels 2db to accomplish that, to develop the headroom and room under the lead vox to let those harmony vocals SHINE baby ... The harmony vox can be given some 'character' by developing lead vox headroom, thus leaving some space under the lead vox, for the harmony vox to have character and seperation.
Girls like boys, and they will buy the boys they can hear, the boys with character. I understand the intentions of mixing a harmony backup vox to 'melt' with the other instruments and become color underneath the vox ... but that's not appropriate here.
This song is all about vox ... there's really no lead instrument here ... so the vox is EVERYTHING, both the lead vox, and the backup ... are the most powerful musical elements in the song.
Harmony vocals are SOLID GOLD, especially when they are good. Don't ever relegate a good harmony vocal, a good part, and a good performance to a physical or aural metering underneath the instruments. Harmony vocals in this genre SELL CD's. Don't cheat your fellow board members out of the harmony vocals by slathering them in to much reverb, because this pushes them back also.
The song is good, the mix is good, I'm being nitpicky because I want the mix to be fantastic, IMHO ... we want fantastic mixes on this board ... to study ... It's a wonderful song and I hear real cello written all over it. I play violin, viola and cello and have just taken a break to jam with the song on cello ... nice !
I think the lead vox is over compressed, it can be more dynamic. As you release some compression on the lead vox, and bring up the track, you may find the room for the harmony vox there, just 'happening' then under the peaks in the lead vox.
From the intro to about 0:26, this is the level I want the vox at the whole time, and even more at times. And it is very good that you introduce the vox at that level, but I would like to see you maintain that.
By 1:11 you should be blowing the listener down with the lead vox. We might even want to physically turn the track down, but we won't because it is so good.
From 1:25 to 1:35 I hear and played
a great cello cameo there, and that register in the cello that is below the singer's lead but above the bass can offer a huge contrast to the melodic impulse for the remainder of the song.
... hint hint - nudge nudge - wink wink
The lead vox in this song IS the whole song. I'm hearing the lead singer's use of a lot of 'e' and 'a' and 'i' ... vowel ... and a tenor singer can quickly develop some 'edge' with an overuse of reverb, and that can inhibit a mixing and mastering engineer from pushing the vox up out of the mix, they begin to hear the sibilance peaks on those sinus vowels ... less reverb will serve you well, and EQ scooping in key sonic regions of the upper mids of the vox can help to bring that sibilance on the 'a' - 'e' - and 'i' vowels, especially when they are used as 'holdout' vowels ... can make that less edgey. And that's a very advanced mixing technique, it's not easy, and it's a lot of work.
Try mixing the vox way, way, way out front and on top with NO effects at first, add some compression, minimal ... and then add the harmony vox ... all much to loud at this point. Set the mix down and come back to it later ... and add the effects to push the vocal gently 'into' the mix.
Perhaps experiment by sending all the instruments to one bus, and the backup and lead vox to another isolated bus, and compress only the instrument bus, beginning the mixing session with the vox bus really loud, and adding hardware and software components until you might be 'losing' something ... and then stop, set the mix down, and come back the next day with fresh ears.
I really think this song should be mixed to showcase the lead vox, and for absolutely no other reason. That's how stars are made, and that's how bands take off ... into the stars.
I would like to hear more seperation between the instruments in general, but I think the intention of the mixing engineer and the mastering personell was to get a big 'single identity' sound for your lead vox to ride just barely out on top of ... like standing on a pillow, your lead vox, in this upper tenor range can poke out of the 'big pillow' fairly easily. The more you bring it up off the pillow, the bigger the kiss you will get from the fans IMHO.
At the 2:40 mark, that brass way out right, is mixed very well, often I hear brass pushed way out into the right or left stereo field mixed much to loud, this is perfect ... perfect ... it's just some 'weight' out there, some shining ... i like to hear that done well.
The lead vocal is superbly pop and beautifully commercial. You are singing to the masses here, and this is exactly the type of vocal they want to hear and purchase and adore.
It's not charming-egotistical boy band, it's not 'queer eye for the straight guy' ... it's somewhere in between and I think it is the vox of a truly sensitive and artistic male. It's humble, and I like that very much. Humility can never be to loud
and it's always welcome. Namascaram shanti om.
That is why the lead vox should be 1-2db louder, the instruments are a little to heavy and a little to dark around this but just a bit.
There is really very little going on in this song ... except for the lead vox, and it should star even more, it should be completely and nakedly totally exposed, and that means a few tweaks IMHO, a little less reverb, less lead vox compression, and 1-2db more lead vox headroom. Some scooping of the upper mids at key points on the lead vox will allow the generation of more headroom to allow the vox to ride higher in the mix without the sinus vowels becoming overbearing.
All the lyrics are understandable on the first listen, almost. There is a challenge presented at some points in the mix to understand the lyrics.
There is one small phrase at about 0:58 that I cannot understand no matter how many times I listen, and that's partly a performance issue, and partly a mixing issue, there are tricks to bring just that tiny bit of the last part of that phrase up out of the mix, and they are a hell of a lot of work, but once you learn those little tricks, you can apply them quickly to many different areas in many different projects and realize a wonderful return. And there are books written on those tricks ... books that I am reading
!
Thanks for sharing and I encourage you to look for posters on this board who are posting for the first time, and listen to them and review them. Then the older board members will weigh in and people like me and you in the middle can learn a lot from that strata.
Are there some low string samples mixed in here at the 'inaudible level' ... maybe that's why I'm 'hearing' a cello part ?
