Mix critiques & advices - reach your mixing goals!

Ruud Reiher

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Rocco Petitto
Feb 26, 2023
Hi! This is a piece I did a little while ago. Was hoping for some advice on mixing the drums and the vocals specifically but any feedback is welcome! The song is anti-pop and i was going for a jean Dawson x Still Woozy style production, let me know what you think!

https://soundcloud.com/pretty-talented-142118562/neon/s-KMrZVHjgzEG?si=c26df19f791b46219726f66db88e37ea&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
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Arthur Reich
Feb 28, 2023
Ive seen u have no feedback so far, so I shall give one, even this is not a genre im not confident with.
just after the intro i feel like you could pan the guitar, so it doesnt clash with the voice. Im not the best with voice either, but i recently found out for myself, that limiting the voice (kinda hard) makes it way more consistant and clean, especially if the dynamic range of the singing is high. So i feel like it needs compression to be stronger and clearer. Also i see in the Souncloud Wave that you have some loudness spikes preventing the rest to be loud (many streaming platforms lower the loudness so the max peak has a certain level (-14 dbLUFS it was i think) (I hope i remember this right). Also you could put a compressor on the master to lower the peaks and then limit it afterwards (if you are lazy like me and dont want to automate the peaks lmao). Weak low end most of the time comes from too much highs (KUSH spoke about this in riddles i think (how if you change one thing it changes everything else, especially low end mids top end) . So take away mids and highs in your case (and youve probably lowcut everyhing besides the bass and kick) to make the bass stronger (and saturation of low end helps , prob. tube or diode) I hope i didnt talk trash and it helps. I come from edm. Also i like what you are going for in the track. Have a good day, Sir.
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Ruud Reiher
Mar 01, 2023
Hi Rocco here is my opinion (just my opinion).

*Vocals... I would not add more compression that they already have. The first lead vocal sits a bit much behind and the guitars (even the snare) mask them a lot. As already said, panning the guitars would help here and also would give a wider feeling in the mix. They also lack some bottom end for me.. .but this might be done on purpose and stylish. further than that I cannot hear much more due to them being so back behind. The second vocals (min. 1.05 and on): watch out the region 250 to 500 Hz. there are some resonances there. Cleaning this region could help them to clear them up. Watch out the sybilances.

*Atmos/keys: I would send them slightly a bit more behind, I find them a bit too present and some resonances in the mids and low mids. And also at the beginning at 50 at 70 Hz.

*Drums: I guess you used a sample mix ready with this old school vibe. It is an option, but as they dont have energy at the low end I miss an element that would carry out this duty (more than this atmos/keys), and here I go to the bass, perhaps it could have and carry more energy between 50 and 150 Hz and make it sound all a bit more rounder.

Well.. .thats only my opinion. I hope it can be helpful.
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Rocco Petitto
Mar 01, 2023
Hey thank you guys both for the feed back! There is a lot of saturation on the low end already but I will play around with it! I do think the master bus I used I didn't set the compressor and limiter properly so I will do some learning on that.

And as for the resonances in the vocals and the keys I did not notice them until you pointed them out thank you! and the sibilance i got wicked lazy and didnt de ess or anything so I will make that a priority when I go to mix the next track. And I agree on the low end energy i might try layering it with anoter kick sample or bring the bass up a little around the band that you mentioned.

Thank you guys so much for listening and giving me detailed feedback I wish you guys the best!
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The Donovan Vernon
Mar 03, 2023
I FEEL NEON!!!!! OHHhh I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS! I THINK There's a bit too much compression on the vocal, and its tucked too deep in the back! I think the instrumental is BEAUTIFUL! You are so talented! Could you make the leads more present? and in your drums theres a bit too much mudd. clean up those middle drum frequencies. Its fights with the vocals which are a bit thicker than normal, which can work but a little tweaking... Under neath, my fingertips is fine nice and full but in other areas of the song maybe change the effect because I feel neon is to muddy. :) sorry i feel like im rambling... But this is so awesome!
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Rocco Petitto
Mar 03, 2023
@The Donovan Vernon Thank you for your kind words! And totally agree the vocals and drums get muddy, I have since released it but I will put your advice towards future projects and Ill try to be more cognizant of those mids while I am mixing, and bringing out the presence in the high register synths because I always forget lol! Thank you so much again! Hope you have a great day!