Please critique my rough mix.

[rockstarfactory]

Hi, everybody.

I posted the instrumental version of this a couple of months ago, when I first did it, but we recorded the vocals yesterday, and I'd love to get some responses, and know what i need to focus on when I do the actual mix. i think the bass is a little low. That's already been changed.

Enjoy!
http://toddbayles.com/mp3/IntoTheDreamTCB.mp3

Thanks!

Todd

[odsus]

Wow!!! This is straight up my ally, the only real beef I have is that the vocals are a little upfront for my taste, maybe a little reverb and burry them a bit, other than that, wow, I love it.

[Everybody's X]

fantastic

[Antero]

Sounds great. One little beef might be that it feels kind of unbalanced in the stereo spread - the piano is hard panned, it seems ("seems," because computer speakers may lie to me), and that makes the other side feel a little empty, like I'm leaning towards the other speaker... Did that make sense?

[AASteveo]

I agree. I'd go with like a 60-70% panned instead of 100%. Just so there's a little of it in the other speaker. I listened to it with headphones, so it was weird to hear it all in only my left ear.

But the songwriting aspect is great. I really love the flow of the song. The vocals are beautiful also. Good job.

[Everybody's X]

LOve the avatar steveo!


and I loved the panning, very G Martin

[filterfreak]

Great tune! Dig the instrumentation. Nice sound design at the end. Could possibly burry the vocals a bit but keep the presence. I like the mix and the harmonies with the back up vox. Keep the hard panning. It adds character to the track.

-Good times

[riantide]

Damn! Been lurking for a while, this is my first post. I just HAD to come out of hiding to say that this mix rules!

I'm a huge nerd for hard-panning (G Martin.....drool) and I think it sounds great. I love the up-front, dry vocal as well. The top end is clear and precise without being "hypey" and the lows sound great on my sub. I agree the instrumentation is wonderful and there are some really cool sounds happening. Did you produce this? Amazing song as well. What did you mix with? It sounds a lot wider than most DAW's. Digital with a console? Analog? Geek out for us.

Anyway, good work, that's some world-class stuff.

*edit* shit, you're in Portland? Where did you do this track?

[Slider]

cool!

I'd like to hear a fatter bass guitar anchoring everything together.
And maybe mess some elements up a bit more.
It has some cool instrumentation, I'd like to hear it a little more edgy in parts.
I'm sure you have more plans for when it's mixed.

It's already cool.
A little more ugly thrown in and you're there.
I would love to hear a big orchestral open bass drum sound with the Tabla or whatever is playing the snare type part.

Is that Wurly a sample? it sounds not quite real to me.
Maybe you have an extra spongy sounding one.
I rented a perfect condition Wurly for a session once, and it was so mello sounding compared to mine.
The upright sounding piano is very cool.
The timing isn't perfect on the piano part, but who cares.

Post this when you finish, so we can hear the final mix.
Good luck!

[rockstarfactory]

Hi, everybody. Sorry to keep you hanging on. Craziest. . .week. . .ever.

Thanks for the encouraging words! (and hey again, Odsus! How've you been?)

Yes, I did produce this track; played and recorded all the instruments myself. I was going for a White Album/McCartney sound. It was recorded and mixed in ProTools at my home studio (a.k.a. my apartment). There is a slight amount of compression on various things, and a bit of reverb here and there, but overall I try to stay "hands-off" as much as possible.

I've also been unsatisfied with the bass sound, Slider. Good call. I'm going to borrow an amp and redo it. This was done direct, and it never quite sits right.

Re: panning. I love the hard panning, but I hear what you guys are saying about having a tiny bit in the other side too. I did 100% L/R on this mix, but I've since found that 80-85% gives a hint of it in the other side, but still creates the extra-wide field. I tried that in another song (haven't messed with this one yet) and it did seem to pull the whole thing together nicely. So. . .maybe I'll have to do another and post it again.

Re: G. Martin. I've heard his name somewhere. I assume he's big in the music industry. . .?

(that's a joke)

Re: Wurly. Yes, it is a sample. It's played through my old amp, though, so that helped some, but I dream of having a real one. Good idea about renting one. Hmmm. . .now to find a place in PDX. . .

Re: Rian/Portland. Yupyup. . .at home. Where do you like to do your projects?

Re: Lara Michell. She rules. I really like her songs, so I took one of them and did my own version of it, then e-mailed her about it. She loved it, so I invited ther to come sing on it. Based on that song, we're collaborating on a couple of her new songs. We just started last week. . .very exciting! Our latest one is really beautiful and sparse.

Hope that answered everything. . .hope i didn't miss anybody.

T