DeeringAmps
To date there's been very little "substantive" discussion of the various mixes.
When I get home I'll get them all together in the studio where I can get a little better listen.
To Greg, better late than never!
On my laptop and Bose headphones I'd day your snare is a little "hot" and probably using up
a lot of "headroom".
But mixing is so subjective; everyone has a style and a focus.
I like the tune and I enjoyed your mix. (all the mixes really)
I think all the SONAR mixes so far are "better" than the mp3 supplied with the project.
At least to my ears; especially if I was the AIM singer!
Maybe we can get into discussing our mix techniques and share some ideas, approaches, etc.
 
T

 
Tom, I agree with you.
 
Little background here.  I "just" finished a brand new room for studio purposes.  New layout, moderate treatment, new monitors and Im new to sonar platinum as well.  So this is only the 2nd project I have worked since I got all the new stuff going.  Still building a template and workflow and all that fun stuff.
 
Right now im finding that either the monitors or the room sound a little rich, and a little rolled off on the top end.
 
It keeps forcing me to take out a little more low mid than necessary and add a little more mid spike than necessary, and I have noticed this tendency on a few mixes I've prepared since starting to work here.  
 
Listening back to my mix on a handful of sources I thought both the snare and the hats come across as a bit abrasive.
 
I appreciate the feedback though because it does confirm something that I feel myself when I listen in other sources.  
 
My guess is I probably need to A: just get better acclimated to the monitors. and B) probably need dedicated bass trapping so that everything doesnt sound so rich down low.  not boomy.  But it does sound very full and rich in the room
 
I will take another crack at this one today hopefully using some references in the room to help gauge the harshness and loudness
 
To your next point...  Im perfectly happy to share my approach and could make some notes later tonight or tomorrow.  Definitely would help this exercise to explain how we do it, rather than just listening to end results

telecharge
What's up, guys? I'm late to the party, but thanks to Pat for the heads up on this practice session.

If you're not yet sick of the song, please give my mix a listen and give some feedback. I'm in the process of listening to your mixes. Cheers!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwpzUEOfkD1wSXJ2MGtiZjNlWkk
 

I like it.  Good overall mix, but the one thing I dont really dig is it sounds like you either used a super fast delay, or cloned guitars and delayed them so you could pan them. Its noticeable in the acoustic solo in the beginning and that effect creates what sounds like a phase issue where theres sort of a hole in all the midrange frequencies.
 
I tend to try to use an imager or stereo verb to make them sound bigger if I only have one track and want it to be more stereo

patm300e
Greg, your mix sounds really good!  I do agree with DeeringAmps...The snare may be a little hot.
 (Talking the Original mix here, not the second one!)
 
The kick sounds fantastic!  How did you dial that in like that? 

Thanks man, im glad you liked it!
 
Even in the second mix, the snare I kept pretty hot....but I took a tad of harshness out.  So it doesnt have that upper midrange spike that punches you in the ear quite as hard.  It still has a lot of volume, but on upbeat songs, I like the kick and snare to be very present to add energy to the song.  Obviously if a client totally disliked it, things would change.  But normally for any kind of upbeat track with some energy I try to showcase the drums to make the song 'slam' a little.
 
About the kick, it was a process lol.
 
It sounded really good as is, but I wanted a little more beef and a little more punch/attack also.  So in general, here is how I did the drums overall(part of what was done overall impacted the kick).
 
my normal process is to always use the track output to send every drum/room mics/cymbals to a drum bus.
 
In that bus I apply very light compression just for some glue.  Attack usually around 30ms so it doesnt squash any of the transients of the hit, and release time I adjust depending on the speed of the track.  I want it to let go fast enough so its not still compressing on the next kick or snare hit.  A really speedy drum track would require a faster release that something that is slower for example.  in total there might be 3db worth of gain reduction in the compressor with usually a 2 or 4:1 ratio.  So its hardly obvious.  Just adds some glue
 
the next step is using sends on the individual drums(drums only, no cymbals) and send the drums themselves to the same stereo buss where I parallel compress everything.  in here I use a fast attack, like 0 to 5 MS because my goal is to crush the transients.  I use at least a 10:1 ratio and at least 8 DB of gain reduction.  I smash them pretty good to make them sound really round with very little attack.  I output this to the drum buss also and just bring up the fader until the drums thicken the right amount.
 
for this particular track I wanted just a tiny bit more kick attack, so I duplicated the kick track, gated the heck out of it to where it was more like a quick pulse and nothing else, and EQ'd that pulse for a little more snap, outputted it to the drum bus, and slowly blended it in til the kick got a little more presence.
 
 
 
 

greg_moreira
I like it.  Good overall mix, but the one thing I dont really dig is it sounds like you either used a super fast delay, or cloned guitars and delayed them so you could pan them. Its noticeable in the acoustic solo in the beginning and that effect creates what sounds like a phase issue where theres sort of a hole in all the midrange frequencies.
 
I tend to try to use an imager or stereo verb to make them sound bigger if I only have one track and want it to be more stereo

Hey, thanks for the feedback, Greg. Sorry it took me this long to reply, as I had given up on this thread. The effect on the guitar is a preset Sonar FX chain for guitar. Sorry you didn't dig it.
 
I've gotten feedback on my mix from a few different places, and so far there hasn't been a consistent criticism, but everyone has given me ideas for improvement.
 
I listened to your (2nd) mix and enjoyed it, too. It did sound just a bit muddy in the low end to my ears, but that could very well be my monitoring system or simply the fact that I'm so used to hearing my mix that the contrast is deceiving me.