I think I like the 2nd version with no vitamin, although now your vocal is pushed back too much. Actually, the level in the beginning is fine, but when all the guitars get cranking, the vocal kind of gets buried. Drums sound a lot better to me too, although the toms are still too loud. Lots of cool guitar parts - very nice! The squeaky fret noise on the right acoustic needs to be tamed. Other those tiny and simple things, ithis sounds really solid and well-put together. Nice job!
— edit —
I take it back, you’ve got your toms just fine if you’re comping that Phil Keaggy song. Although is toms are too loud too! 
That has got to be one of THE best outros ever…
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I can’t add anything that hasn’t already been pointed out. About the only think I could nitpick (and it’s totally personal preference) is the sound of the fingers sliding on the acoustic guitar. That’s one of those things that always stands out to me.
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Yeah, miked mentioned that too. Any EQ suggestions that might help there? Maybe a de-esser or dynamic EQ? Anything shy of re-recording?
Also, how do you feel about the vocals? Nobody else said anything about it, but ocnor suggested they sounded too thin and nasal. I re-EQ’d but would love any thoughts there. I think they sound “better” but am thinking or re-doing as well, unless y’all think it’s okay?
I defer to someone more experienced. I don’t have a clue how to fix that without re-recording.
Grab an EQ like Melda’s or a Deesser like the Waves Sibilance that let’s you “solo” the frequency and hunt down the squeaks that way. Then Deess/Dynamic EQ them. You don’t have to totally get rid of them, they make your playing sound “organic”, just reduce the harshness and loudness. That’s how I’d try to do it anyway. Maybe someone else has a better technique?
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I’ll do it. Will post a re-mix soon.
I got Sibilance over the holidays when Waves was giving it away free. I like that thing. Very straightforward and seems to do a nice job.
Thanks, Paul. That means a lot to me. I appreciate the words of encouragement.
I’m not sure what you mean?
Thanks, Paul. I love your stuff and knew you had good feedback for me, but I just didn’t know what you meant. Thanks for elaborating. That makes sense. Very helpful. 
I think I know what you mean. I wondered about that too, cuz there’s the intro, then verse, but then it all repeats again. It does seem like something (lyrical) that could break that up might be helpful.
Much appreciated, Paul.
Okay. Here’s my re-mix. Biggest changes here were tweaking the EQ on the bass and totally re-doing the vocals, re: ocnor’s thoughts on it being too nasal and thin and the bass being off.
Tried working with EQ a lot on the vox and it just wasn’t “quite” getting it so I re-recorded vox.
I’m thinking I’m getting close. It feels more balanced to me and I do like the vox better.
Haven’t had time yet, but now the squeaky-string thing is really bothering me. I will re-do that acoustic lead, maybe this weekend, so ignore that for now. 
Oh, and thanks, Mike, re: the toms. I brought 'em down. Does that do it for you?
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Hey, that is sounding much much better! The toms fit right in and don’t draw my attention, and it feels like you’ve got everything pretty well balanced. The vocals sound a lot better too.
re: squeaks - I’m wondering if you have Izotope RX-7 or some equivalent noise reduction/repair plugin? I haven’t used it, but I’d bet there’s a guitar de-squeaker in there. And you don’t need to totally remove them, it’s part of the sound of the track. Honestly, with this mix, the squeaks seem much less prevalent for some reason.
After a quick Google, here’s a couple of videos:
Sounding good!
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Cool. Thanks, Mike. Much appreciated. No, I don’t have RX 7. I saw that Sweetwater video. It’s excellent, but I was not successful, cuz the frequency of my string squeaks is very broad.
I also found some stuff on YouTube (Kenny Gioia) on using spectral editing to identify and remove pieces of audio like that. I might try it just to learn how to do it, but for sure the best fix would be to just re-do the guitar. 
The vocals sound much better. Everything is balanced pretty well. The string noise is a little annoying in some spots. Overall it’s a vast improvement.
Good call on the vocals. I feel better with this mix. Thanks.
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Here’s an updated post of my most recent mix. Everything’s the same as the last mix except for doing some work on removal of the squeaks from the lead acoustic guitar. Would welcome feedback as to whether I did “too much” editing, re: artifacts on the acoustic guitar.
All squeak removal was done with spectral editing. See this post for details.
Ohh yeeeah, well done mate.Sounds great, everything on from here i imagine will be more fine detailed changes and nothing that will drastically improve it in any major way for the most part.I believe its pretty much at that point “it sounds good exactly how it is” slapping a hand attempting to adjust a mixerboard pot
I particularly actually like the vocals, the background vocals when they come in, come in really well and add/strengthen alot to the main vocals(like they usually should).
Some may still think the vocals are to thin, but even if they are still lacking abit of body, the balance it gets when the backing vocals come in give the perception that the main vocals have more body than it may actually have, so it all works out.
You could attempt to fatten the main vocals even more, but i think youll find from the reasons i mentioned, the chorus backing vocals wont have nearly the same effect when the main vocals are taking up more frequency range/amplitude, among other things.
Good track!
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Sorry i was away …busy doing important stuff… sorry its a few weeks late, hope you like the ‘glue’
& revisited with a little less tiredness… but you could probably make an even cooler mix with both of these spliced together. 
This is probably a better balance, but shows up a few more weaknesses in the mix… but that is what we are here for.
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Thanks, Vaughan. Very cool.
I’ve heard you mention this before, the idea of splicing mixes together. Could you explain that to me? Not sure I know what you mean.
I like what you did here. I know what you mean by the glue thing. It sounds a little muddy to me, though. Thoughts?
That said, hey, thanks, man. Much appreciated! Thanks for your encouragement to me. It really does mean a lot. So much talent on this site. I feel humbled by the many people, like you, that have invested the time and energy in giving the feedback and direction and coaching I’ve gotten here. So much to learn. Having a blast and learning tons!
Its nothing more than the first mix being a little thicker/ bassier/ fatter so it might be useful if you had a percieved weak 4 or 8 bars or so. You might drop that in there. I do this a lot myself, create two mixes then use them creatively.
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so, do you mean for example that I might create two mixes and drop them to MP3, or a WAV file maybe, and then load them into two new tracks in a new project, and blend them? Is that what you mean?
Sorry I didn’t mean to leave you hangin on…
What I mean is that you should maybe decide if you prefer choruses from one mix and verses from another, then try to splice them together. This is perfectly normal.