…
You’ll never take the initiative though.
Vocal treatment is nice, and sounds especially sweet when the l/r bv’s drop, although I thought the verb tail out wide on the main vox could have been shortened up a bit (for my taste), gets a little muddy and washed out once everything hits. Snare treatment’s great.
A bit of missed house keeping as far as some artifacts in the form of ugly clicks 0:34, 0:49 etc…
Overall balance was tight but the kick let the side down for me, and it seemed to really be competing with the vox at around 1.7k. A think a nice scoop to the kick around there would have worked wonders for the main vocal.
I found the bass a little jarring, coming in right at bar 1, but once my ears got used to the fact it was there I really thought it worked well through the opening intro into first chorus…then it seemed to disappear , weird.
I liked where the bridge gat was going in the buildup to the solo section, but the way it sat more to the left felt a little lop-sided and distracting. The flanger felt like it wanted to be more centered and wide.
Good job.
2 Likes
I like the addition of the bass track, but it feels like it wants too much attention for a track like this. The mids in that bass are distracting from the vocals more than they are supporting it. If I was working with this bass track, I’d probably just low pass it at 100Hz and try to turn it into a sine wave so that it fills in the low end but gets out of the way.
The vocals sound pretty good, but those esses are pretty harsh and distorted at times.
The snare also has this super boost in the high frequencies thing going on which I think helps it cut through, but was done a little heavy handed.
I only mentioned the things that I would change. I think the balance and space is all nicely done.
1 Like
I feel similar, I got the bass track late, so I tried to make with what I had for time. Maybe would have sounded better played on keys.
Really nice job all the way except… the solo section it is like you stuck the song in a lemon squeezer and left us with just the pulp. Part of that is personal taste (i want that section to be bigger and it seems like you wanted it to be smaller) and part of it is you just went too small. I don’t know if you used a limiter or faders but that section needs to be given a little more room to breathe.
Thanks for sharing.
1 Like
The mix sounds good. Just need a lil warmth overall. Everything else is nice!!
Quite good work CPF.
the bass is a good add-on, but I personally don’t like to ear it at the beginning of the song. And why did you stop it when comes the drums ? Plus, I can ear a lack of control around the take. I am not feeling that you’re out of time but the attack of the notes are too “dirty” for me.
About the mix itself, pretty well polished. Only some issues for me :
- generally, it sound a bit too bright and harsh for me, for the benefit of the clarity, not the deepness (does this word exist in english ?)
- too much hi mid too for me.
In fact the balance is really good but it is just like you’d not enough clarity in your room. I accept to be totally wrong about it. Just a feeling.
The verb is really strong around 1,5k too.
Personally, i think the kick is more a heartbeat than a kick, so for me a notch at 1,5 k could help too.
The solo’s flanger is not my taste. Nothing’s forbidden.
Finally, the second “I don’t need you anyway” is far too loud. And strangely, it sounds out of tune !
Overall nice work !!!
It’s actually in tune, the original was out of tune. You’ve probably just heard it the other way so many times it seems out of tune.
You’re probably right but I don’t like the interpretation in tune. I prefer to let it as is with a bunch of delay and reverb…
First and foremost - beautiful job on the vocal. Very nice. I liked your your drums as well. My preference would be to pull 'em back a little to give the full stage to the main vocal. The attack of the bass jumped out first thing and was distracting in the beginning, which I think is where you really need to grab the listener with the beautiful vocals. Then it kind of disappeared… (?) Just a preference thing here too, but I didn’t care for the flanger on the solo either. The kick is a bit much in the 3rd chorus too. So really, just niggling little things “wrong”, but you hit THE main element out of the park - Cristina’s vocals.
I feel an overall little lack of depth or life, but I like the sound of that bass.
The Intro and verse sounds good… Maybe a few clean up things on the vocals nothing major. Like the bass sound and adding it in just not sure of how it starts before the gt… Well that’s interesting you left it out in the 2 verse.
The snare could use a cut in that 3 -5 range not much little bright. I didn’t know what to do with the lead sound either let it rock.
Overall it’s a very good mix. A little bright, but balances, ambiance are good nice job!
Mr, CPF,
I kept the volume turned down first play through waiting for something to jump out and attack my ears, but, no??? What? Is this a serious mix! Say it ain’t so.
My takeaways:
Plus:
Drum eq and compression choices were solid. Nice.
Good clarity overall in the mix.
Creativity bonus for additions.
Overall good balance.
Way to tame that hum on the guitar. I had to try several things to get rid of it.
Really liked the effects on the vocals.
On the plus side for soundscape created with effects. I prefer hearing the mixes of this song with a wetter sound.
Minuses:
I sent feedback on your demo, but the bass line still had some notes on the chorus that just did not seem to work for me. Perhaps there is an overtone sticking out that I am hearing. It is on the "and misery clouds the sky"sections in the first half.
Perhaps could use a bit more air on top end and low end in my monitoring.
Overall, nice job!
heard once more on old Samsung Earbuds (terrible ones) - previous pass was on AV40s ( treated room)
Mix translated well on the earbuds. Bass sounded extra cool on earbuds
crackle at 51 seconds at phrase “why bother” (I think the harmonies are fighting my terrible earbuds, maybe a bit more width or pan would make them sparkle)
Other than that, well polished, well done. Still a fav!
Hey, cool job. I pretty use to listen to it since the very beginning of this contest where you did some very different mixes for that song.
So no surprise here.
I don’t have very much to add after previous comments but I found odd you tried to add that bass you didn’t record before (or just add) and it sounds really disconnected at the end.
I think the best choice would be to let the track off 
By the way, nice job, very good mix!