Hello every body

Regardless of every tiny pieces of corrections that could be applied to this mix, please tell me if you feel a general thing wrong with that because I do! It sounds low-quality to me. I can't hear reverb tails, general level is not loud enough and it feels kind of dry or spaceless to me; but I have no idea what the reason can be. I've mastered it myself with T-Racks3 so please tell me if a professional mastering would make a huge difference. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hXQQITq9eM

Thank you!

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home: HP Probook 4530s,win7,FastTrackPro,Ableton ,Novation SL MKII
studio: phenomeIIX6,12gb-2000,win8,aurora8,SSL X-rack,Neuman U87&184,SonarX2,Genelec&sub.

oh, please!

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home: HP Probook 4530s,win7,FastTrackPro,Ableton ,Novation SL MKII
studio: phenomeIIX6,12gb-2000,win8,aurora8,SSL X-rack,Neuman U87&184,SonarX2,Genelec&sub.

'Mastering' should not be about fixing limitations that could be sorted out in the mix. Get the mix right first.

The vocals are very middly - almost piercing. The drums have too much 'room' on them, making them sound a bit cheap. These are the elements that stick out most to me.

I also sense that when the arrangement gets busy I can hear the compression/limiting beginning to work a bit too obviously. I suspect the level of the vocal is driving the compression.

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Lets consider there's gonna be a competition. Are these elements what should I work out? Don't you feel a huge lack of something?

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home: HP Probook 4530s,win7,FastTrackPro,Ableton ,Novation SL MKII
studio: phenomeIIX6,12gb-2000,win8,aurora8,SSL X-rack,Neuman U87&184,SonarX2,Genelec&sub.

Firstly, I am NOT an experienced mixer/producer, but....

I think the drums are slightly too busy, and don't seem to feel right with the other sounds, I would lose that 'finger pop' sound in the intro especially.

The band seems to retreat into the distance somewhat when the vocals come in, rather than the vocals gelling/sitting with the band.

BUT, I thought it was a beautiful song sung by a beautiful voice, the cello worked well the guitar ? was nice, and overall it had an arresting haunting quality that diverted my attention from the mix throughout..

Okay: no nastiness here, but listening at "punch" volumes at home at 12:30 at night before the neighbours get pissed off...

1) It's all feckin' mid and slurred bass, the verdict is ... eeeeech! C'mon who is mixing this for you! This works at low volumes and falls apart at levels well below club!!! A mix should be a good compromise!
2) Compositionally, things fall apart pretty quickly, lots of beat early on then practically nothing at the first transition... I was a tad bored by 1:34!
3) Sorry, I did not get much further... this is work in progress.

Reg

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Google less; read more!

Dear Hexagon.

For starters, I know BLEEP-all about mixing, I'm still having lessons myself. So just accept I'm talking outta where the sun don't shine for most of this - apart from one thing.

That girl has a voice to absolutely die for. It grabbed me and held me entranced for the whole track. I'm not talking about her looks or anything, just that voice! Wow.

What my teacher's been batting me over the head with for the last few lessons is SEND effects. If you put individual effects on a track, because the settings are all a little bit different the tracks tend not to come together. If you have a SEND track with the effect on full-blast (max. wetness) and you just send little bits of individual instruments and things to the SEND tracks, they tend to sound like they're in the same room more because they're all sharing the same effects. That MIGHT be something, I dunno, I am only a learner.

Am I right in thinking there's a lot of compression on her lovely voice at one point? Again, this is something my teacher has taught me - how about ducking? Have a side-chain (ducking) compressor on one SEND track and send bits of all the instruments to it - trial and error time! - so when her voice kicks in they all go down in volume a bit and you won't need so much compression to make her voice audible?

I don't usually listen to vocals, I usually prefer instrumentals but I'll always make an exception for this lady's voice. Don't care what anyone else says - I think she's got a special talent. And I loved the video too - especially the ladybird!

If anything I've said above sounds dumbass to you then feel free to forget it, I'm only a beginner. You're far better than me already.

Yours respectfully

ulrichburke

After reading the comments above, this sounded a lot better than I expected. Nice one Hexagon. I'd agree with Elf about revisiting the drums and vox.