Christian pop/rock song - new mix May 26th!

This is a nice side of your music :-) 

One thing that James (Yoyo) has helped me with is the use of channel tools. That, panning, and EQ all very important.

So to start with, what do you want in the middle? Obviously the vocals (which do get lost when those guitars come in after 1:50. So, what do you want in the middle?

1. Vocals

2. Typically the kick and bass (or close) so they need to be looked at sonically to see where they can be cut EQ wise to accommodate the other.

3. Some people like pianos or acoustic guitars in the middle? If you do this, you need to use EQ as well as some channel tools, i.e., widen it to push it more to the sides? Less in the middle. A couple of ideas for things in the middle with the vox;

3.a, cut the low end. 

3.b, instead of having the instrument in the middle once? take two mono copies, 1 hard left, one hard right, send them to a bus, and use the channel tools to widen it.

3.c, even if something is panned left, say 25%? it's still in the middle and right more so than you may want, so channel tools again, and send it left/left center as opposed to just panning it left. 

4. Compress your vox. And if you have multiple vox? as you do here, bring your lead down the pipe, and pan the others. Using a spectrum viewer, you can see if you're sending a voc track a bit left, what it's competing with, i.e., one of those electrics? So analyze the spectrum on the vox, see what it really needs, then cut those on the guitar that's on the same side? 

It's a real PITA... You can also do all of that, and then send all the instruments (maybe less bass and drums?) to an instrument track? and use a MB compressor that compresses the instruments (slightly) and find out the freqs that your vox need? Put a send from the voc track to that compressor for ducking? 

I mean you could go on and on and on... It's a deep rabbit hole :-( And you can spend hours and hours. And the incremental benefit may not be noticed by most? 

The easiest way to get bang for the buck is put your vox in the middle, w/Bass and kick, pan everything else, if you want other things in the middle or close, cut lows, and widen. And compress your vox. Good luck! The more we do this, the more we learn, and the better we get :-)

And again, you don't have to "hear" where to tweak? You can see it... Use a spectrum analyzer. 

**Disclaimer, anything I say could be flawed or completely wrong! I say lather? Rinse? REPEAT! Try different things, mix it down, and listen to it. See what works best for you.

"so my thoughts are, the electric guitars, piano and organ need eqing to get the vocals upfront" if not the whole middle (maybe too extreme) at least tinker with it.


Yes


"going - also i could use channel tools on the piano/organ to pan those away from the middle... "


Yes


"also have a couple of reverbs, CSR hall on the vox and drums and a short plate on the guitars...could those be adding to the general murkiness?"


Yes


Also, you could try a High Pass on your reverbs. I actually use multiple verbs... and for things panned to the left? I use a verb send where that verb is panned hard left, likewise for things panned right, and for things down the middle? I use a 3rd verb w/no panning. That's just something I do, no one told me, I don't know, it may be stupid, but it does seem to help for me? I've just recently discovered this technique... Trial and error, mostly error...

I really like the song--I thought you always said you did metal cause you can't sing?  If you did, well, I beg to differ. :)  Wish I had some words of wisdom on the mix, but that's beyond me.  Nothing stands out as obviously bad though.  :)

Hey Mark! To me the parts where it seems noticeable "mid dense" is when the electric rhythm guitar is prominent. I think it's the guitar tone. If it were me, instead of trying to fix things iwith EQ, panning, etc, I'd work on finding a tone that is more friendly to this type of mix.

Absolutely love the lead guitar tone!!

 This was not what I was expecting to hear at all. This sounds great!! Heck, everything you do sounds awesome!!!!

Excellent!!!

GuitarBob

hey, mark!  good to hear another of your non-metal tunes!  the hard electric guitars need a little taming, IMO, for this song, they're stomping all over the vox and that might be OK for death metal, but not for this type of music.  I'd pull them back and even notch them some for the vox.

great job!

Lovely brother

Nice piece, you have here. To me the lows and low mids sound overcompressed, but it could just be my speakers or deaf ears.

I really like this song.  Quite a change from the "normal"

To me there is a lot in the middle.  Try widen the electric and use EQ to add more on the high end to give it a more metallic sound.  Let the guitar solo alone.

How about putting piano in a higher octave.

thanks a lot everyone, well i had a go today to make it a little better; so changed opening lead to electric, switched the electric rhythm from amplitude 3 to guitar rig, added more lead guitar in the bridge and outro, added choir synth to bridge, cloned and parallel EQ'd the chorus lead line, switched around some automation, added a couple of new FX...then in mastering i tried to be a little less hot and more eq reductive...to me sounds much better. same URL...

lyrics are:

A child born in Bethlehem in a stable
A man in an upper room, around a table
The baby smiles at the shepherds, he laughs at the sheep
The man talks with his friends and washes their feet.

The baby, fed by his mother, worshipped by kings,
The man, feeding his brothers, saving their sins
An innocent child, an innocent man
Destined to die for us, to seal for us God's plan.

Broken, poured out, mocked and in pain
saving all nations, the Lamb who was slain

Teaching at the temple, hungry souls he fed
Healing the sick in spirit, raising the dead
Taken by his own people, "Blasphemy", they cried,
Humbler yet, he gave no struggle, for them and all he died.

Broken, poured out, mocked and in pain
saving all nations, the Lamb who was slain
Risen, glorious! Angels, men sing!
Resurrection, death where is your sting?

Come Lord and feed us, Come Lord and heal us,
Come Lord and pray with us.
Come Lord and feed us, Come Lord and heal us,
Come Lord and open my eyes.

Risen, glorious! Angels, men sing!
Resurrection, death where is your sting?

Yeah this is much better, good job.