Advice on mix - acoustic rock - bluegrass

[adathead 53]

On first listen, I thought of a couple things you might do to improve. Listened again before posting my suggestions and realized you pretty much nailed it. Nice work. And I do love her voice. Sounds like a hit to me.

[john caldwell]

Very nice on the whole. I very much like the track as you've presented it. The voices sound brighter and more airy than I associate with this musical genre - more pop in their quality. What were your thoughts in that regard? That is my only negative reaction.

John-

[Epan]

Thnx for your comments. You may be right about the pop approach on the vocals. I think it has to do with my references on doing more popmusic than this music and partly that the artist wanted it to sound "commercial" and radio friendly... I personally found it hard to level the instruments and making a good balance of everything going on.

[john caldwell]

Your balance is not problematic as I hear it. It's really a more matter is HF boost, and possibly more compression in the voices than I'd have expected. One more thing now that we're on the subject: The backup voices sound as they are processed in the same forward manner as the lead voice. I'd consider setting them further back, and in their own sonic space.

John-

[Epan]

Thank you again for nice views, and I understand what you say about the vocals. I just happen to like the backing in the verses upfront, as I wanted them to be almost as lead vocals in this part. It`s also good for me to hear that you think the general balance is ok. Anyone else care to share their view?

[AfterViewer]

Immediately thought of Melissa Ethridge when I heard the vocals and lyric content. Song moves right along without any rawness to it, has a studio production overall feel. Would be interesting to hear the performance as a live set, gives the artist room for that later on down the road. I can listen to Bluegrass easier than commercial country so I find the song as it is to be "ready for export".

[greatgreatriver]

Sounds really good! The vocals are pretty bright - almost too much for me. I would like a rounder warmer sound.

Thanks for sharing.

[glissando]

I like the aggressive vocal approach...it's not easy to have vocals hangout in a mix...good job...the overall mix is great...kinda Jan Arden ish

[Teddy Ray]

Not fan of the vocal sound....too "hard".

Listen to Gary Paczosa's work with Alison Krauss or the 40 Days Album by the Wailin Jennys.. the Vocal does not fit the feel

[Johnny Paez]

[jbr101]

Nice track and the mix is pretty solid.

Things are pretty heavily jammed up the center. It works, but I think you could really open it up and make it unbelievably stellar.

There's alot going on in this track and it's pretty much down the middle.

Take a look at your panning scheme. Try keeping just the vocal, bass, kik and snare in the middle and start moving things around left and right. My suggestion is for moving the mando and acoustic guitars to either side (kind of like what you did with the banjo). and see what kind of space that gives you and work from there.. You may find that the vocal will sit a lot better in the center space.

Also, the snare seems to be a bit farther up front then it could be.

Also, this is country, country tends to be very straight forward and a very technical mix rather than effect heavy, so there might a bit much reverb in there (try killing the reverb/effects and see what happens). The reverb might also be what's making the track feel not as spacious as it could be.

If that doesn't work then it doesn't work and keep the mix as it is.

All that being said, I happen to really like this track alot. I also checked with my "country expert" - aka my dad (He pictures God holding a mandolin lol) and he LOVES it.

[The_Controllers]

Originally Posted by jbr101

Things are pretty heavily jammed up the center. It works, but I think you could really open it up and make it unbelievably stellar.

All that being said, I happen to really like this track alot.

Also, the HF boost in the vocals are killing my ears as they bring out too much sibilance. Maybe use short reverbs/delays to bring out the vocals?

Amour

[awagner08]

I agree that it's sounding really good.
I would also like to hear the background vocals spread a bit wider, with less top end, and put through a creamy verb... but this has also been addressed.

Slightly too hard edged for my tastes, but sounding very good indeed.