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dennisjames · Post by **dennisjames** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 11:35 am

Thanks for the offer Scott! I think I should take another pass at these mixes before I take advantage of your offer though. I'd like to be respectful on your time and I'm thinking I can do a little better on these with some new thoughts that've come from this post. But seriously, thank you.

dennisjames · Post by **dennisjames** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 1:37 pm

JWL,

I forgot to thank you for the compliment on the instrument captures. The acoustic guitar on the one song was a hail mary mic choice that somehow worked but the fiddle is more a matter of my wife's playing -- she's got pretty amazing tone and I just try to stay out of the way. However, it was again an odd mic choice that worked. Helps to experiment

I've just spent some time reviewing the mix and realized I should've asked for suggestions on getting the vox to sit better in order to tuck them back. I'm assuming I should look at increasing presence? It's always a tough area for me. We used to be such a pared down acoustic, sparsely produced act that I always left a lot of body in the vox leaving me reluctant to cut too much out in these heavier mixes. It's so different now compared to the 2 voices and 2 instrument approach that we had for years. I listen to stuff I like but I can't quite put a finger on what I'm hearing from them compared to my own mix. Any pointers?

I'm Painting Again · Post by **I'm Painting Again** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 2:21 pm

seems like more dynamics on the strings and guitar, etc. would be good..have them controlled but not one volume..just enough to dance around the vocals (with volume - they will be perceived as more set back as well) and thus creating a more natural sound space..

that and perhaps try to mic certain things farther away..many of the elements in your mixes sound very "up-front"

the mixes are great!!

but it seems like a style of recording/mixing that really just sounds like what it is..

try doing everything with just

performance - room - mic - volume automation - no EQ - no compression - no reverb or anything like that..

use the pres and crank up the room and put the mics at different distances and create your mix like that just to see what that's like..

I mean if you haven't messed around like that before and totally hate it..

dennisjames · Post by **dennisjames** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:04 pm

Thanks for the input! I've not tried anything like that during tracking before and if I were to do so, it'd have to be really well thought out as most everything on our recordings is just the two of us. I often try to think ahead of what the rest of the song will require and try to track individual elements thick or thin depending but even then, I'm still kind of guessing.

The one song I'm revisiting first had very little compression on the electric guitar and fiddle (like maybe 1 db at some hot points) but I'll keep that in mind when I look at the other tunes to see if I can get 'em to dance with the vox. I suppose if we'd live tracked those parts it would've mixed itself that way to some degree.

Trick Fall · Post by **Trick Fall** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 5:51 pm

Nothing really to add, but I thought the songs sounded good.

dennisjames · Post by **dennisjames** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 6:08 pm

Thanks! That's good feedback too.

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