I took an hour last night after a long session to just relax and listen to the radio to change my perspective.
I heard that song, among many others like it, and I was paying extra special close to just the mixes, and not really the songs. Everything is super sontrolled. There is not a single variance in volume on any track. I would almost go so far as to say everything is multed off to a compressor, about 6/1 with the threshold cranked to shave off about 15 db, and then brought back up again behind the normal mix, which is compressed also but lighter. There is a huge hole for the vocals, I would love to know what they are carving out for that. The guitars sound really smooth but there is almost no bottom, its all in the bass guitar and kick.
Now, when you start a mix from scratch and shave that much out it sounds wrong, but if you do it all, go away, and come back in an hour, somehow it sounds allright.
I'm going to take a mix I worked on a while back and flatten the living hell out of everything with a comp, every single track, mult stuff that needs to be thicker, and find that vocal hole, and build that bass sound, and take notes every step of the way. I think the tracking is good enough, I'll need to spend a day on this I think, though.
I wish I wish I wish I had a 12 pack of API EQ's, that would help SOOOO much. Plugs dont quite cut I think.
