Sorry, everyone is probably sick of this song by now, but I just didn’t get on in time to finish it. Regardless, thank for hosting the contest. Looking forward to the next one! Thanks in advance for any pointers.
Here’s another mix using the CLA Drums plugin as describer in another thread. The only difference between the mixes (well, not true because many other things were tweaked as well - including rolling off some low end!) but the only difference with the DRUMS, is using the CLA Drums plugins on my drum buses in their “default” position and only changing the input level.
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Hi miked its a very nice relaxing song. Im loving how the guitars blend.
I think the drums could come a bit up. Im not sure but its sounding like all of the drum sounds are coming from overheads. I think you could live up the drums by adding in a kick and snare sample. the vocals are very well mixed but its not “gelling” with the instruments. some compression on the master bus would help do the job i think. I hope this helps and thanks for letting us listen to your track. 
Thanks for the listen and the comments - and spot on across the board. I was so intent on my CPU issues I neglected add the master bus compressor! (eh-hem!)
I replaced the mix above with a newer one that addresses some of your comments. (And of course the Manic Compressor is on my mix bus now!)
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HI miked, cool I will take an in depth review when I get back on to my mixing rig. currently im on good speakers but not flat ones.
Hi Mike, just listening to the second mix… Some good tones, but the balances are out.
The vocal is “sitting on top of” the mix. One of the issues is that is contributing to that is the vocal tone - it has a lot of 200-400 hz energy, which makes it sound slightly dull and a bit muddy. As a result you are having to set its volume very high in the mix to maintain audibility at all times. Pulling out that boxiness and muddiness, reducing some lows and brightening up the high mids and highs will bring help the vocal to stand out without the need for as much raw volume.
The bass and kick drum are also very indistinct and “amorphous” sounding. They both have way too much low and sub low energy in them and this is contributing to the “woolliness” of the low end. Again, pulling low mids out of the kick around 200-500 will help, as reducing the energy below 100hz in both elements. The kick needs to punch through in the highs too. Add some attack by boosting the kick around 3-5k - that will give you more definition. The bass also needs more energy in the 800hz - 2k region to give it some presence in the mix. As it is, the low end will all but disappear on smaller speakers.
Distorted guitars are very subdued and polite - it’s amazing how much attitude and presence in the mix they gain when you push them gently in the high mids.
If you aren’t already doing it, I’d recommend referencing commercial mixes to help with the balances. We can all lose perspective very quickly when we’re concentrating on shaping sounds, so mix referencing can be like a “palate cleanser” for our ears. Hope that helps!
Wow - thanks for the listen and the tips! OK, it was an interesting experiment, but I am going to ditch a few instances of these CPU gobbling CLA Plugins and really try and do a better mix of this song and address some of these comments. I really appreciate it - thanks guys!
Those CLA plugins are really hard on the CPU! But great plugins to try when you are clueless! Specially the bass one!!
I’ve come full circle on the “designer” plugins. I’m finding that now instead of wanting that “magic” plugin that some engineer signed off on and is designed to make your mixes sound like HIS mixes, I want to understand more about what’s going on and how to make a track sound like I want it to. Not that there’s anything wrong with those plugins, and I WILL try them occasionally when I’m stuck, but for the most part, as this little experiment showed me once again, my laptop is usually not up to the task. The Schepps Parallel Particles is another one I impulse bought last yea. I like the idea of it, but my laptop does not…
What I really need is to address the monitoring in my basement and train my ears better so I can hear things like @ColdRoomStudio and @brianinogang above!
Anyway, here’s an updated mix. Thanks again guys for the observations and comments. It’s been very helpful.