cool song and I like your voice but, the drums are too dead. Not the right sound for the song. I would totally switch them out. A more live sounding kit with a lot more overheads in this mix would be killer. There is a bit too much control with compression that I personally don't like with music like this either. It needs to be more loose and live sounding to me which you can get with a good reverb. Watch your levels too. It sounds like you are recording too hot on the vocals for sure. If you gave them more headroom at tracking, it would be much better at the final mix..

Sorry, I didn't want to be all negative. Your talent is good, you just need a few easy things fixed in the recording and mixing end and it would be a 100% better.

Hope that helps.

Is there any certain spots/tracks where you recommend me loosening the compression or adding more reverb? And what should I do to the drums? Turn up the OHs?

Its all across the mix. Its just a bit constrained at the wrong times. When you kick it in, it holds back when it should come alive! This is where you need to get crafty and plan ahead early in the mix. You never left room for it blossom.
Back the compression just a bit ( small steps are good) and pull the snare out a bit while adding more room or overheads. I don't know what you have there but just get the kit sounding more open . The snare is wrong to me. Its too dead and gated. I would have a way longer tail on it. And more "snare", less wood sounding.

See what others say here. I'm sure a few other engineers will chime in. Whatever you do, leave the original up so we can listen to your progress. Don't delete this track. Always leave your old ones up to refer back. Even days later you get a fresh set of ears and hear things that help you learn.

PS,

The best part of the mix is the first few bars. That tells me something.

So I should lessen the compression on everything? You think the OHs should be louder? They're panned very wide. What do you think of the guitar tones in the chorus?

My focus is the drums and compression. Get those right and the mix will get better.
The drums are too dry and the snare is the wrong tone for the track. Do you know what I mean by that? The snare sounds like it is better suited for a dance or funk track. Its too upfront and woody sounding. Listening to other mixes from you, I think you like this but I don't think it suits your sound. You have a Rock sound but you are using a funk sounding snare. Change that, and I persoanlly think you will have a more complete polished sound.

What do you have added to the snare? Its sounds like a transient designer turned anticlockwise. It needs more decay. Make sense?

If you also back off on the compression everywhere : Let me ask you this, where do you have compressors?

The overheads need more room reverb then. Maybe your room doesn't have this? So, you need to create this using a few reverbs plug-ins. You need early reflections to create a slapback and then you need a hall to create size.

Make sense?

There's compression on everything. The snare is parallel with a trigger sample.

You are triggering a snare sample?

Slate Trigger. Each hit is replaced by a sample. But I have the original track mixed with the trigger track. 2 snare tracks: one the original recording, one samples.

Ah, not the best sound IMHO. For you, I would be looking at BFD2. It has the sounds you need. More open and real. More control.

You need the snare to sound more like these IMHO:
[="http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page=53"]FXpansion - BFD2[/]="http://www.fxpansio…"]FXpansion - BFD2[/]

Audio Demos

#4
#8

Or like this:

[[url=http://="http://www.fxpansio…"]FXpansion - BFD2[/]="http://www.fxpansio…"]FXpansion - BFD2[/]
Bleifuss Custom or the Gretch

Lol I don't NEED BFD2 to get a good snare sound. Trigger is great. I'll just alter my current processing. Thanks for all your help.

No offense and this has nothing to do with "trigger" , BFD has the perfect formula for creating stellar overheads which is what you need for your style in that song. The triggering is a whole other skill above and beyond either of these products. I'm talking about sound. If you can get that sound with Slate, that would be ideal. Looking forward to hearing what you do next :)

Glad to help,

Any non drum related tips? You still haven't told me where to loosen up compression :p

Both: drums and vox are poorly compressed. Those are the two area's I would focus on first. Until you address those two area's, listening deeper into your mix is pointless. When drums open up, you make more room for the center which also allows you to "hear" more. Until you fix the priorities, suggesting anything more at this moment would be foolish. You don't just start changing everything at this point. You do things carefully and methodically.

Your drums and Vocals are poorly compressed. The snare sounds completely wrong for this song ( pitch, shape, space, and tone is distracting). The tone of the snare sounds like a different chef came into the mix. Fix that, and I may possibly have additional pointers. Dunno...

Keep up the good work!

I wasn't aware that mixing was a linear process. I think you can very well fix other things if the drums aren't "opened up" (still not sure what you mean by that)

K, I reuploaded it at [MEDIA=soundcloud]kerfoot32/covered-in-snow-mix2