Steve, many thanks for the compliments - however, I am not the singer. 
I sincerely do appreciate your input and will pass it along.
Not really a lot of process for me, other than trying to feel where the song was going and playing as if the guitar and the vocalist were having a conversation.
I played a 71 Les Paul Custom through a Marshall DSL-40 C, with a Sony condenser mic about 3" off the cone, and some reverb on the amp. Other than that, I left the processing up to miked, and concentrated on playing with the feeling the song gave me. Hope that helps.
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Thanks Bob!
So, I actually did two ‘mastering’ mixes of the MP3 (yeah, I know)… in case that info got lost somewhere.
Original mix
M1 mastered version
and the M2 mastered version
So did anybody have a preference? M2 had less compression, slightly more low mid EQ, maybe, and some ambience added (like you can even hear that…).
MikeD, SB, Tesgin, Steve, CRS?
Anyone, feel free to comment. I’m half arsing mastering here, need feedback 
Well Vaughan, first off, since this forum only accepts MP3 I only exported an MP3 of this mix. But I am planning on revisiting and will sure send you a .WAV file - if you still want to try out some processing on it. Secondly, also in your favor, I pushed the level to just barely any sort of limiting on the mix bus and added about 4-5 dB of gain to the “final” mix. So without that final limiter, in there, you can have another 4-5 dB of headroom to play with. And I’ll be SUPER interested to hear that one!
As for preference, I definitely prefer the M1 version. It’s got a really sweet clarity to it and is nicely glued. I don’t care for M2 - I think I am hearing some high end distortion/artifacts and a general crispiness that I don’t care for. Definitely M1 for me! And, BTW, M1 is really really nice! 
Cool, thanks Mike, so based on that comment I’m gonna do you a 'super smoky in a dark live club mix" kinda vibe, just to see how that works out… Im essentially a live concert recording engineer at heart anyway, so Im gonna see if i still can recreate that thing
Be right back…
That’s right down my alley!
ok , its a bit subtle, but let me know if Im getting there.
we will call this Mike’s M3 version
So for me, a quick comparison (I’ll listen again tomorrow when I’m not tired and my ears aren’t shot) but I definitely prefer the M1 version. I’ll hold my comments though until I can listen tomorrow with fresh ears and do some blind tests with MCompare. Right now though, all I can hear is how I want to pull the vocal back. Thanks for doing this!
BTW…
Anybody in the community can chime in or contribute to this adlib ‘rough mastering’ of a ‘bash this’ mp3 mix, as it hopefully gives a more positive direction to where the mix might go or finally end up, so you can focus on what may still need to be done in a particular mix… or not.
Hopefully its not derailing the conversation, but rather helping the mixer see out his/her vision, just in a slightly more creative way.
I dunno, but it certainly helps me to work on various peoples material over a very short space of time and get their feedback right away… so Im not stuck in my own little box, either.
@holster - feel free to comment or PM me on what I’m doing here. I’m literally making it up as I go along.
best to all,
Vaughan
that double post thing was irritating me, so I did another master of the original mix, with less compression… but not bright.
…behold mix M4
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Hey, I’m late on this so there’s not much to say, I guess. Anyway I loved the mix right from the start, sounded clear and pleasant, it serves the song well. Only details I noticed were some very minor timing discrepancies on the drums and a few vocal notes that were unclear in the lows. Not off, but it was just difficult to make out which note was sung.
Great song!
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Thanks for the listen and the input! I really appreciate it.
Vaughan, I just saw this - and just had a listen - and I like it! When I can get a chance I’ll compare your other masters for reference. What did you do with this one? My quick listen it sounds leveled but not over-compressed and not too “bright” which I think is just right for this song.
I just took the best parts of M1 and M3 and combined the two, with less compression, actually I think I went with limiting instead… and gave it some midrange presence, and fatter low mids by a dB or so - but the essential flavor is still the same.
Basically I just re-shaped it to sound how I imagine you would want it in your monitors, based on your original mix and the comments above. I have no idea of how loud it is.
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Final mix added to the first post. Thanks again for the feedback everyone!
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Sounds great - stamp it! 
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New one sounds good. Well done and thanks for sharing the process.
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Just wanted to let everyone know it was a lot of fun adding a little bit to this project, and if anyone needs a guitar part I’d be happy to help.
@ColdRoomStudio @redworks - thanks Andrew and Eric!
+1!! If anyone is just thinking they might want to try a collaboration and could use a superb guitar player or just some more input on their project, hit him up! I was really frustrated with where this thing was headed, and on a whim, after hearing one of Bob’s songs, I thought I’d ask if he might be interested in playing a part. I’m thrilled that he said yes and there’s no doubt this is a better song because of Bob’s contributions. Adding him to the equation gave a whole new dimension to things. Thanks Bob!
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