Open-Eyed Girl - High energy rocker- Critiques welcome

It certainly moves! This has very '60's sound to it, which I think comes from the vocal melody (it's good and strong, nice use of backing vocals to reinforce it) and the mix, where the drums are pretty much buried  beneath the guitars. If that's what you're going for, it's fine as is.

I notice that a very common critique of my tunes is the drums being low in the mix. I need to pay more attention to that. Thanks for the input.

Rimshot-
 
Thanks for the critique and link: I will certainly listen to "I Want You to Want Me" for mix ideas.
You caught the problem with the vocal sync...I will fix that in the next mix version.

Leizer wrote: "...is it synth guitar, btw?"
 
Yes, I use Realguitar and Realstrat. I am constantly striving for the most authentic sound I can get.
Hmmmm....Now I'm tempted to post just some test guitar riffs and see what the forum has to say...But maybe that belongs in the "Techniques" forum.

Hi Bob, sorry you've been listening to my stuff, and I've been terribly rude.
 
More Tull, sounds like mid 70's Tull and Songs From The Wood.  I don't mind the sound, instrumentation and playing.  The mix though, is not great-or the master...the mix isn't bad...you can hear everything clearly, but the final master doesn't have any punch.  Sorry, I'm thinking and writing at the same time.
 
I think you need to get your gain staging right first.  This would be my advice.  Work out what you think should be the stand out track and aim for 0 DB on a VU meter...one of Sonar's virtual ones is fine.  The rest of the tracks should be variations on this in regards to gain staging.  Between 0 to -6 DB.  And don't worry about overs, unless you're planning to use outboard equipment.
 
Drums, should all be 0 DB on a VU meter too, but buss these.  For the drums to get punch, if you're using Sonar-Console Emulator, EQ then Tape Emulator and listen for the transients...then buss.  Don't worry about overs, once you've set the balance of the drums turn the gain stage down on the buss so you have about 4DB of headroom.  Then more Tape, which can also be used to create the 4DB of headroom, compress and finally console emulator, and again listen for the transients.
 
Any sort of verb busses, set all your sends to -3db, again don't worry about overs, then use the tape emulator to get a reading of -18db to -12 db, depending on verb set the high and low shelf to -80Hz and -4khz roughly...actually the EQ if you're not using the one on the plug should be before the tape sim, then console emulator...again trying to hear for the transient.  Then you can mix the verb to suit the mix.
 
This should keep you busy for a while...any questions, just ask.
 
:)
 
Ben 

Now that is certainly a unique tone from the guitar really digging it .... my first impression was it sounded like "crispy cardboard" ... How cool is that! Love the organ - give's it an Eric Burdon & Animals vibe. Really cool tune. Nice retro production. 

Yep, great tune! I like the mix a lot, except in the guitar solo, it seems a bit loud for me, especially when the organ, which sounds fine to me, jumps in. Really nice sound overall!