Need help getting the most out of mastering on Sonar for my next album

The mixes sound pretty good for the most part. I do not have any immediate suggestions. Drunken Lullaby is a tad "uninspired" but the others are quite nice. Keep working the way you are.

Cheers
Shad

What plugs are you using for the mastering part? 

To my ears and on a computer's small speakers, It sounds pretty good.  A bit dark and perhaps subdued. 

"Wonder"  seems to have a bit of a mid bump that I would personally flatten a bit.  I heard this in other tunes as well when I browsed them briefly. 

Aside from some small EQ things, I think it sounds pretty good. 

The autotune vocals while mild, give it a certain sound quality in the vocals that I don't like. AT imparts an ambience that I find distracting.  Your voice sounds to be good enough that AT should not be necessary.  For the singer songwriter style a natural voice would lend better to the music..... use AT to fix any off tune parts, but keep it transparent. And.... some slightly pitchy notes does work well in SS style music. 

You mentioned in the OP .....  but I still can't quite get that much desired umph in my mixes. I have tried more panning, more stereo widening, EQ filtering...    


 I think the biggest problem is in the choice of songs.  None of them are particularly uptempo or have much umph in them to start with. They mostly tend to be slow and dark. You can't get it if it's not there to begin with. Start by writing more uptempo songs.  Then the punch is easy to highlight. 




All of this is of course, only my opinion. 

Hi RavenMFD - I've just played through all the songs and overall you have some great music there. I think the problem is the first track. People are going to judge the whole CD by that first track and frankly, it does not say to me "I want to hear more". Which is a huge shame as the other tracks are excellent.

I read a piece of wise advice by a top music producer on how to write a successful piece of music. You have to grab the listener in the first five seconds. Then again after twenty seconds and then every thirty seconds thereafter. The first five seconds are when the listener decides if they want to hear more and they keep on deciding at each point in the music. The first track starts OK but then there is no variety to the sound until 2:38. What you do at 2:38 is fantastic. All I would do is to use this end section at least two more times in the piece. Quiet, then build up, then quiet again and so forth. It would add real power to the piece.

An instrumental passage in the songs would also help add interest.

The alternative is to change the order. There is not reason why the title track of the CD has to be first and all of the other tracks would definitely grab the listeners attention.

Hope this helps
Best Wishes
Malcolm

Drunken Lullaby....

After the last Burn In Hell...think - My Chemical Romance - helena....burning on, just like the match strike to incinerate....you could do that. That would make this song epic.

There's some artifacts in Wonder with vocal. Sounds like you're doing some digital clipping. had to bolt, I'll come back.

Get a haircut...
just kidding... really... everything here sounds really well done to me... maybe a little overcompressed... It's all very loud...

I think you are on the right track, and your songs/productions will just get better and better... good work...  

As others have said, your songs are pretty dark, but you're smart to have minimal arrangements for them.  I had no trouble understanding your lyrics because you put your vocal in front which I think is smart.  The lyrics are kind of depressing on some songs, but the rawness of the mixes works in your favor.  I agree that AT is overused, so concentrate on tracking strong vocal performances.  And, I hope you have relationships that can make you feel good, and if you do, try writing about them.  It's not as easy as you might think.  Sometimes it's easier to complain than praise.