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Hi all happy new year,
Been working on this mix, let me know if anything is annoying etc .
Its a song we wrote about 15 years back, I remember sitting in the candlelight when we did this
and it just came out in bout 5 mins .

[MEDIA=soundcloud]musicmanash/fly-high[/MEDIA]

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DonnyThompson Sun, 01/10/2016 - 09:16

Great guitar playing, nice singing... both are nicely emotive and expressive.

I'm typing as I listen...

I find her voice seems to be a bit "weighty" sounding, though... maybe in the 300-400hz range - ? - While there's some nice occasional silk happening, I think she needs a little less weight and a little more 'air"... she's got a nice vulnerability to her singing style on this one, which could be nicely accented by more air and breath... but I'm not talking presence, in the t 3-5k region; you don't her to "sizzle"... or for it to sound harsh, as that range can often present.

I'm thinking higher than that... a lot higher, like maybe 9-11... and not loads of it, either. Just a db or so, to bring out the air. Give the lady a little oxygen.

I do like the pre-delay setting you have on her vocal verb - although I think there's a bit too much verb being mixed in with her dry vocal track. It affects the fragility, the vulnerability in her voice, that makes the performance so attractive.

The harp sample at 0:48 seems a bit too much - it kinda plows in from the right-hand side like a bull in a china shop... ;) LOL.
I'd tuck that back some, maybe use a few db of transparent-sounding quick attack/slow release GR; and perhaps add some slow-attack/build up hall reverb, ( maybe 1.5 sec, 50ms pre-delay, medium decay) just to soften it up a bit, and make it less "abrupt" both in its initial attack and release; and with a full hi-cut above 3k - on either the verb/aux return, or from within the verb plug itself, if your reverb plug allows that setting.
You might also consider panning at least half of the reverb return towards the left, to balance things out a bit, and to also give it a little more depth and space than what it has now.

All your samples sound hot in the mix to me, Ash - the bells, the Rhodes piano, the staccato/pizzi strings, the violin trills ... all those things are very nice, and they are well-arranged - but they're "icing"... and right now they're very hot icing.
The focus should remain on your singer's performance, and the lyrics, and all those textural and/or orchestral nuances you have happening are distracting me away from listening to her.

I'm not saying you should axe them. They work nicely. I just think they need to be brought back in the mix so that they are more of a supportive/accent level, and less "solo-level" obvious.

Tuck 'em back, and I think you have a very nice song and mix here. And, it's arranged nicely as a X-Over song, too. You could hear this as bed-music in a TV series, or maybe even in a Disney-like use.
Okay, here at 2:41 - towards the end of the song, on the part "reach out", the section with the harmonies? That's the air and tone she should have throughout the song.

But remember... all of this is just one cooker's opinion. You know the drill, pal ... ask 5 mix engineers what they think, get 20 different answers. ;)

IMVHO of course.

-d.

Smashh Wed, 01/13/2016 - 05:13

Thanks for the positive feedback Sean and the constructive criticism Donny .
I mixed using the headphones and when I listened in ny monitors the next day it sounded pretty bad to be nice lol .
Ive got to remember not to mix in phones ,but sometimes i get carried away trying this and that, having fun ,but also getting away from reality .
So i took into consideration your suggestions Donny ( thanks again ) and remixed on the monitors .
Please let me know if I scooped out to much in an area ( I wont say which freq ) . When I A B ed it on the aura tones , there was a harshness,
so I tried for a happy medium between my 2 monitors . ( probably it suits this song not being aggressive )

I have a question about ghost crackles in the mix . There are 2 places where there is a clunky click . Ive been through the tracks to clean them up,
but every now and then they appear again . Is there any way to combat this that I should know ?

[MEDIA=audio]http://recording.or…

Attached files

Fly high 3mp3.mp3 (7.2 MB) 

Sean G Wed, 01/13/2016 - 06:01

I use Izotope RX4 which has a declick & decrackle feature...its variable so you can set it until you eliminate both or either...

I think the new version, RX5 has just hit the shelves in the last month or so. Its great for audio repair and noise reduction in general.

Edit : you can set it to just repair the sections that are effected. you don't have to apply it to the whole track.