I use headphones for fine detail or when I'm needing to isolate something, including late at night when I can't use my monitors, never for mixing.

oh! hey again audiokid. I've been working on the same track still. i think a lot of the problems are coming from the room i recorded the live instruments in. I'm about to put up some acoustic foam later this month. :[

Foam is not the answer. The room is not the problem. You are suffering from headphone monitoring syndrome. Your other post and song was quite a bit better sounding. It had more dynamics. It had more life. More feel. This sounds more like an overuse of dynamics plug-ins to me. You've squashed the life out of it. Mind you, I'm not in either of my control rooms. I'm in the RV in Nashville listening on a small pair of FOSTEX 6301, 4 inch powered monitors. Good mixes still sound good out of these little thingies. And it translated well but without the life it deserves. You are obviously a control freak? It's OK lots of us are. And the problem is not within the frequency spectrum you indicated. It's more of a balance issue. Space issue. Ambience issue. We're your equalization should be more aggressive it isn't. Where dynamics need to bloom they don't. Where the vocal needs to sit, it isn't. It only requires another remix. That's nothing new in our business. It needs more polishing more refinement. It needs speakers to monitor upon. Even little ones like I'm using. If you are restricted to headphones? This is frequently a problem. It's very difficult to get a proper mix strictly through headphones. They are good for certain kinds of evaluation and critical purposes. They are good when you learn how they relate to monitor speakers. But it can also be an exercise in futility if that's all you have. Certainly you have some kind of stereo system in the house. Perhaps you have a car stereo? We always take our own stuff and play it on as many different monitor systems as we possibly and humanly can. Those are your other references. You cannot rely upon a single reference.

So it's time to take two because they're small
Mx. Remy Ann David

Wish you left the first post to compare. I'm with Remy on this. That last mix sounded much more alive, This one sounds lifeless but I like how the vocals are more up front.

I have a lot of compressors but i hardly use them for compression. I use them more for vibe. I think people over use compression and kill the beautiful transients that give life to sound. Your mix is now lacking warmth/ body, maybe because you killed the transients and now the bass suffers.
FWIW, slow and steady with tweaks and always leave your older mixes around so you can refer back... .

Its a great song though. I find it slightly fast too. But this is just an opinion.

Remy, I wish I was sitting in your rig with you right now. I'd love to be sipping on some old scotch and chatting. If I get rich one day, I'll hunt you down and we'll do that okay :)

Sure 'nuff. Although the Scotch I have with me in the refrigerator in the RV is cheap, 3-year-old, Cluny. The truck is back in Virginia but I'm in Nashville in the RV. The RV is as big as the truck so it's quite comfortable. Lots of windows. A separate bathroom with a shower across the hall. A double basin stainless steel sink in the kitchen. New Whirlpool frost free refrigerator albeit not the RV refrigerator this beast originally came with. Rooftop air-conditioners front and back. I've disabled the leaky LP gas system and converted the hot water heater over to electric. Now I've just got to get this blasted Onan generator repaired. Great at the campground when you've got shore power. So I leave Nashville which will be at the end of this week or early next, I'm heading for the Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive, to go A couple more days up in the mountains. They'll be able to finish this documentary film editing with nothing but peace, tranquility and beautiful scenery all around me. Thankfully I've got redundant computers with me just in case. And the backup of the master hard drive that the documentary film is on. Without the generator, I can run my air-conditioners but up above 3000 feet in altitude, I probably won't be needing any. This vehicle has three truck batteries. One for the engine and two for the coach. I've got multiple inverters and solar panels. Though I think my microwave is too powerful for my inverters? I'll just have to break out the charcoal grill. It will be tough but I can do it. At least I've got a half gallon of Scotch if all else fails. Sometimes we just have to sacrifice and suffer.

MIX Nashville was quite cool. My first time for that. I had never been to Nashville in my +41 year audio career. I think I should've moved there 21 years ago when I started my truck? Stupid me. I'm just a dumb audio engineer. Though I haven't been able to find any work here for myself. Not yet. Probably not before I leave? But I merely keep pursuing this place. I love this place! It's an arts colony. There are over 265 studios in the Nashville Yellow Pages! OMG! I don't even think NYC has that many? Of course many of the numbers I called were disconnected. Ben Folds refurbished the control room without changing the studio at the old RCA Studio A. I called the old RCA Studio B and they told me I had to go sign up to take the tour. I told them I was an actual engineer and I don't pay or sign-up to take tours. I visited numerous other studios. Though I haven't been able to build a professional alliance with my truck, with any of them. But I'm going to continue to pursue this place as I love it! I love the music. I love the people. It's an awesome place. I've never been in a place quite like this. Not even NYC was this cool. Not Detroit, not Philadelphia, not Ft. Lauderdale/Miami, certainly not from the Baltimore/Washington middle Atlantic void. I'll go to work for Wal-Mart down here if that's what it takes to relocate here. I'm actually about 15 miles above Nashville in Joelton, Tennessee. And I love it up here at the campground where if I want to live here with the RV, it's only $450 per month which includes electric, water & sewer hookup. The quiet little shopping center has a nice sized store utilized as a meeting center that I believe can be rented by the day/night? If that's the case, I've got a studio and the truck will park right in front or right next to it. So when I get back home, Northern Virginia, I'm cleaning out the storage units, selling everything and get my butt right back here.

I've got to learn how to sound like I'm from Tennessee and not from Detroit y'all.
Mx. Remy Ann David

RemyRAD, post: 390340 wrote:

I've got to learn how to sound like I'm from Tennessee and not from Detroit y'all.
Mx. Remy Ann David

You'll never pull the accent off if you're not from around here. No matter, half the town is probably from somewhere else nowadays.

Some foreign-born artists like Nicole Kidman said one of the most enjoyable things about living in Nashville is how the people respected their privacy in public, treated them like ordinary folk that belonged.

I have found all of the folks in the greater metro Nashville and surrounding communities simply incredible people. Most with fabulous manners, incredible courtesy, laid-back. I'm going to stay here an extra week because I came down with a raging UTI, LOL and here I thought it was heat stroke or food poisoning, mild heart attack? I was 180° out of phase and that's what good trouble shooting is all about isn't it?

Ouch!
Mx. Remy Ann David