I’ve stumbled upon this while spending time on Youtube. I already heard of this producer, who has a nice track record and is presented as a “multi-platinum producer” having worked with Aerosmith, Korn and others alike.
The thing is, I sincerely find this a poor mixing work. To my taste, the vocals have been spoiled with far too much compression, outrageous tuning and left with obvious sibilance, breaths and mouth noises. The guitar is barely audible at times and the shaker is pretty much absent in the mix.
I’m far from being a pro myself and only have a modest experience as an amateur producer, so I don’t feel comfortable with this severe judgment of mine ; therefore I’d like you guys to help me determine if this mix is really poor or if it is just me being helpless at having a sound judgment, or maybe somewhere in between.
There is no offense intended to Warren Huart who seems to be an otherwise nice guy, it is really just a candid question.
I think the main problem is the performance, the arrangement etc… It’s just… Blah - not different enough from the original to discourage direct comparison; not really compelling in any appreciable way.
I don’t think Warren’s main “thing” is mixing - some of his bigger clients get mixed by CLA, Michael Brauer etc - Warren is more on the “producer” side as I understand it. That said, this is probably not the best showcase for his skill in that area either… Apart from the fact that the client is famous…
There’s nothing perticularly wrong with it but it sounds basically like a decent demo. On reflection I guess that’s what it is. You’d just expect beter from such people.
As a home recording amateur I would be pretty pleased with a production like this.
Maybe it is my inexperience but I see nothing particularly wrong with mixing except at the very beginning of the song the chorus effect on the singing is far too evident and annoying.
Trying to redo anything that the Bee Gees did singing in the same scale and key it’s going to take an Incredibly talented singer period and this guy is very good, but he’s just not good enough.
So I think the major weakness is in the singing not really in the mixing.
Okay, listened for 30 seconds more. There’s too much compression.
But more importantly, the performance is rushed. It’s as if they have decided: “let us record this and put it on the net to show how good we are.” So that’s what they are thinking about when they are recording. Instead of the meaning of the song and the words. Which pretty much renders the whole exercise pointless.
I wasn’t judging the performance, just the mixing. I agree that the performance isn’t a very good one, which doesn’t help either; and I concur with Sven in that I feel the production has been clearly rushed. Those guys were able to do a lot better if they had given it the time.
But still, the over compression, excessive tuning and volume imbalance issues are quite surprising to me as they are typical “beginner” mistakes that one wouldn’t expect to hear from such experienced guys, even on a rushed production.
I shouldn’t listen to too many things like this or I’ll end up wrongly thinking that I am not bad at mixing!
The problem is the singing, its not good enough that’s why they decided to compress it so much, the production used here is good, but its… I wouldn’t call this turd polishing, he’s not that bad a singer, but he is trying to feature a vocal that is unremarkable.
Agreed - the performance and the mix are inextricably linked. Listeners are generally much more forgiving of a ropey mix if the performance is dynamite, but not vice-versa.
