There isn't many reasons to comment on a mix that you already made public.
The uses members make of the RO community is to have advices before finishing a project.
Either because they need help or need confirmation that everything is fine.
If it wasn't that you are a member since 2002, I would be doubting if you are not just baiting for clicks.. But I won't.

I've listen to the song.
It has energy and seems to be a good production but I'm pushed away by the low quality of the youtube version.
Sorry to say, it sounds lowfi like a too compressed mp3.
It kinda turned me down before I could enjoy it.
Could you post a 320kb mp3 made from wav here ?

I've uploaded a new mix here ... I've posted finished stuff before and it was never a problem, the forum description says it's not just for work in progress ;) I always look for comments and different opinions because even if it's on YouTube if I missed something and someone points it out I can do a revision and re upload, anyways, here's an mp3 without the YouTube compression ...

[MEDIA=audio]https://recording.o…

Thanks Mario,

I like the energy like I said earlier.
I'd like the vocal to be a bit more up front with a bit less reverb
I feel it still sounds a bit lowfi but I guess it's just because there's too much going on. A lot of tracks; synths and sound effects everywhere.
At solo time it gets worst; The guitar is doing this very simple melody and it's lost behind trompets strings and other keys and a tambourine ??
I'm not against busy mixes if it engage me. Here I just feel ... Why ??
You know in rock and heavy music, more than often less = more.
Give me 2 nice electric guitar parts spread left right and the already doing well drum and bass... It would be a lot more powerfull without all thoses synths.

Of course that's just me, an old fart who did start to play rock in the 80's.
You see I feel the same way when youngsters put too much distortion on their amp. At one point it just compresses the sound too much and there is no more dynamics and punch.
My humble opinion... ;)

Thanks for the feedback !!
I was feeling I was getting used to the way it was sounding so a fresh point of view is most welcome, I'm doing a few changes, I think the lo fi feel of the mix has to do with the fact that there's a lot of midrange in a few tracks that's sounding kind of "hard" I'm trying to fix that now, I'll be back with a few changes ...

Hopefully this sounds cleaner ...

[MEDIA=audio]https://recording.o…

The low end is lacking. I put an eq on it and pushed 72Hz +4.5dB (2 octave filter), and it sounded more full. This is likely a matter of the acoustics of your mix space. Small rooms cause problems in low frequency response.

The mix seems too strong around 7.1kHz. I think some cuts there would help, starting with the drums. I tried a half octave filter set to -3.5dB and it seemed to be an improvement. That made it sound a little dark so I added a shelf at 4kHz set to +2dB.

The vocals are low. When it's your own vocal performance, or you're just really familiar with it, it's easy to mix the vocal too low. I think this vocal could come up a bit without it sounding too on top of the mix.

bouldersound, post: 453975, member: 38959 wrote: The vocals are low. When it's your own vocal performance, or you're just really familiar with it, it's easy to mix the vocal too low. I think this vocal could come up a bit without it sounding too on top of the mix.

Ya, Boulder brought up a very good point, and a mix facet that is very common to those who mix their own songs. Because you are so familiar with the song yourself, you already know the lyrics, your brain anticipates the words that come one after the other, so the tendency is to mix the vocals so that their "inside" the mix, being equal in level to all the other tracks... I've been guilty of doing this myself from time to time over the years ;)
But the vocal is important in a song. I always say to myself, " the vocal is the focal". That approach has helped me many times. We have to remember that not everyone is familiar with the song.
A good exercise for this is to listen to a lot of pro commercial mixes, and study the vocal levels of pro release songs. I think you'll be surprised at how up-front the lead vocals are on so many songs.
I think you'll also be surprised at how very little gain it takes to get the vocal to the front, without over powering the other instruments...sometimes all it takes is a DB or so. If you are using gain reduction, bump your makeup gain just a touch. If you aren't using GR, then either pull down the busses for the other instruments a little bit, or bump the lead vocal fader by a DB or so.
FWIW
:)

Thanks, great points, the room I mix in is actually large with high ceilings so it must have been me, I cut more highs on the drums and used different eqs to cut some nasty "whistling" resonances that were very annoying but for some reason I got used to hearing those, I guess I have comb filtering in my drum room which I need to fix, tried to bring back some lows and worked on the vocals more :)

[MEDIA=audio]https://recording.o…

I still think the LV could come forward more; it also sounds like your snare and LV are competing with each other for the same space.
What compressor,, and what GR settings are you using on the snare?
In particular, the attack time? It sounds like the transients are getting compressed pretty fast and it's taking the initial strike out of the snare hits.
Are you using a compressor on the vocal track itself, or are you relying on a compressor/limiter inserted into your master bus? Or maybe even both?
Keep in mind that you're going to get different opinions here; it's inevitable when different engineers with different preferences and perceptions are listening...so take what I've said with a grain of salt.
I'm just telling you what I'm hearing...that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm right. ;)

Mario-C., post: 453988, member: 8945 wrote: , I guess I have comb filtering in my drum room which I need to fix

It may not be your case but comb filtering may also come from mic placement...

Many rock and heavy styles will mix the vocal at lower volume than pop music so it all goes to preferences.
But what may cloud the vocal even more is the effects we put on them.
In this case I hear a kind of flanger/chorus thing on it. If you applied it directly on the vocal track, you may want to try a parallele setup : clone the track and put the flanger/chorus on the second track only with full mix ratio and blend with the clean vocal to taste. It could help retain the presence but still have mojo..
Just my two cents ;)

DonnyThompson, post: 453990, member: 46114 wrote: I still think the LV could come forward more; it also sounds like your snare and LV are competing with each other for the same space.
What compressor,, and what GR settings are you using on the snare?
In particular, the attack time? It sounds like the transients are getting compressed pretty fast and it's taking the initial strike out of the snare hits.

I agree, vocal is still low. I think what you're hearing on the snare might be the mastering limiter. The song comes out to 11.6 LUFS so it has to be getting squashed.

The kick low end could now be dialed back just a touch, and the bass guitar brought up.

Thanks everyone for the help :)

Here's a new one, I changed eq's and tried a different setting on the limiter that sounds a bit smoother and less agressive, there were a lot of narrow resonant peaks on the drums that were a bit hard to get rid of but I think it sounds cleaner now, all the fx are in parallel btw.

Let's see if this one gets the seal of approval :D

[MEDIA=audio]https://recording.o…