excellent song.
I like your mix, but I'm thinking I would like to hear the same spacial effect that is on the main vox to share it just a bit on the snare. The "snare" sounds just a touch to dry and "slightly", detached from the mix. I always think the drums and vocals should have a spacial similarity.
I like the effect on the vocals, can you emulate and aux some of that reverb tail so it sounds , again... just a touch more towards whats on the vocal?
That's all I would do until I hear it again.

Hope that helps.

Nice work.

Thanks for the advice Chris, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

I'll take your advice and apply it to the snare

Or, possibly just a touch less on the main vox too. You've done an excellent job here. How did you get the mix, stems or all the tracks? What parts are yours?

To me the Bass drum and snare arent' present enough and the cymbals seems a bit squashed (compressed ?)
Nice song ! If I get a chance to listen to it at the studio I will comment further ;)

pcrecord, post: 431576, member: 46460 wrote: To me the Bass drum and snare arent' present enough and the cymbals seems a bit squashed (compressed ?)
Nice song ! If I get a chance to listen to it at the studio I will comment further ;)

Thanks for the feedback I appreciate it.

I only mixed it through a set of AKG 701s' as it was late / early hours in the morning when I was finishing it so it may translate a little different to how I was hearing it, and 701's are renowned as being a little on the brighter side in the mids -> highs yet I love their clarity and can't seem to bring myself to use any other cans yet.
I'll run it through the nearfield monitors to check it again taking in your observations.

I can't recall using a compressor on the OH cymbals or HH as I hate overly compressed tracks, but I'll go back and check that,
- it may be already applied to the stems prior as I don't think they are virgin stems.

I'll post it again with recommendations and advice from members along the way.

Sean G, post: 431577, member: 49362 wrote: it may be already applied to the stems prior as I don't think they are virgin stems.

I used to post remixes here and stopped because every few posts you had to keep explaining that you didn't record it and that some parts, were already compressed. It became a complete downer so I stopped. But, now that you know there is another guy on this forum who knows what its like to mix stems, we can enjoy that without the explaining lol!

This is why I was asking about the stems.
I've also just been thinking, it would be an interesting addition to this to discuss what the "other" engineer did to the mix prior to releasing the stems. And critique him as well.

I did a Christina Aguilera remix a few years back called " Your Body" and the stems where close to the worst I have ever heard. The radio mix is absolute crap. I took her voice, sped it up 10bpm and dumped the rest. It was a bitch to produce and mix a song around razor vocals, compressed and maximized files. I learned a lot from it. Its not an easy task. Kudo's for the good work so far.

Anyway, it would be good to know what you did and what was part of the stems, left in.

Good to have you here.

The song was tracked by Greg Johnson, there are alot of artifacts especially in the vocal tracks and one OH was out of phase amongst other things.
I believe they were posted that way to see who could pick it up.
Also there was a bit of buzz in the bass track which needed some work, still not 100% on the overall sound there yet either.
Going back to my mix after reading the feedback from pcrecord I realised I had used some compression on the drum tracks so I will pull that back somewhat and adjust the mix to suit.
I took your advice Chris and added some verb to the snare it sounded much better, but I only applied it to the top snare mic track as when I applied it on both the top and bottom snare mic tracks in gave the snare a real stadium rock sound....

= great if your Gn'R playing Paradise City to a crowd of screaming headbangers at Staples Center L.A,...

= not so great in a softer power rock ballad like this...IMHO...

I'll give my eardrums a rest for a few hours, go back with freash ears and a fresh approach in a day or so and see what I can come up with.

It always amazes me how you can mix for hours, thinking that with each change in the mix, added plug-in, etc, etc, you are improving things, only to go back the next day and it sounds like a vortex of shit ( - I love that expression...I read it somewhere, maybe even on this site, I don't know, but it aptly describes how things can easily descend with not having a break and walking away and coming back to your mix later with fresh ears and a fresh approach)...

Anyway, thank you to all so far with your feedback and making me feel welcome to such a wonderful resource that is RO.

Here is a list of what I used -

Studio One Professional version 3

1 x lead vox track
1 x lead vox bridge track
1 x lead vox "Woah" track (comes in in the last 2 chorus')
2 x group backing vox tracks
2 x vocal pad tracks
1 x acoustic guitar track (L)
1 x acoustic guitar track (R)
1 x lead acoustic guitar track
1 x acoustic guitr track Manley (centre)
1 x bass guitar track
1 x guitar track bridge (L)
1 x guitar track bridge (R)
1 x guitar track - lead
1 x guitar track verse (delay)
1 x flute track
1 x Glockenspiel track
1 x harp track
1 x Piano track
1 x strings cello track
1 x strings contrabass track
1 x strings staccato track
1 x strings viola track
1 x strings violin track
1 x drum room track (L)
1 x drum room track (R)
1 x hihat track
1 x kick drum track
1 x OH track (L)
1 x OH track (R)
1 x ride cymbal track
1 x snare top track
1 x snare bottom track
1 x tom (1) track
1 x tom (2) track

- With the vocals I ran the lead and vox bridge and "woah" backing vox tracks through Izotope nectar 2., with the 2 x group backing vox tracks with a harmonised backing vox.
- Guitar tracks and bass guitar tracks I ran clean through Ampire. Lead was a clean setting with no stomps.
- Acoustic guitar tracks I ran some EQ with the native ProEQ that comes with So3, using the presets as a guide but adjusting to my own liking.
- Vox pads tracks I left running clean as is.
- Flute track I left as is.
- Harp and Glockenspiel I used a small amount of compression just for a subtle boost to bring them upfront a little.
- Strings tracks I also used subtle compression, I love the sound of strings in a rock track, ir gives it a little class.
- kick drum track I used a 808 simulator setting to give it a little bit of punch, the kick had a clicky sound to it in its natural form and was getting lost behind the bass track. The 808 made it sound fuller and beefier - bit more meat on the bone IMO.
- Snare was a little compression adjusted up from a SD comp.preset. I have added some 'verb to the top mic track now and sounds better. Left bottom mic track open with a touch of comp.
- toms I played around with a few presets but didn't want them jumping out in your face so I tried to blend them in with the kick and snare
- OH tracks I did use a little comp. On feedback from pcrecord I will pull that back, listening through the nearfields and also in the car CD shows theres' still some work to do there
- Drum room tracks I left open.

Finally
I did a mixdown (actually many more and reviewed after each one making tweeks)... then ran that through Ozone 6, played around with some of the Greg Calbi settings as a starting point and added some width.
I also added a TDL feedback Compressor
Initially, I did look at adding DrMS last to add more width, but it got a little 'Lost In Space' and I decided against it.

Any other advice I would be open to...I'm all ears.