First song posted on the forum - Back to Reality by NOC

Sam4246I am an old fart

Hi Al,
 
There are quite a few here that can lay claim to the "Old Fart" title (myself in particular).
 
I've listened to Back To Reality and if, as you say, you are a novice, then this sounded pretty good to me. You obviously have the necessary skills as a performer. And the recording and mix sounded okay, although others here will have to weigh in on the finer points as it's not my area of expertise anyway. But, as a punter, dropping by your page, I thought it was a good all round piece.
 
cheers
 
andy

Thanks for listening guys. Is there anything that you would change in the mix?

if you are an old fart, don't eat any onions. you'll get tear gas.
 
OK, first off, cool tune! I hope you don't mind a little REM comparison, but you're more Pearl Jam in the vocal department. so that's a pretty nice hybrid!
 
Mix-wise, I'm not an expert, but I was listening on headphones. I'd take the jangly rhythm guitars on the left side, and lower their volume just a bit. Your main vocal is a little panned right? I might move toward center and increase volume - or perhaps the move itself might increase its perceived volume?
 
Bass guitar might be brought towards center as well? Was it panned a little left?
 
cool tune - did you "hpf" everything except the bass and kick? that might help eliminate any "mud"
 
I think this is a pretty good tune and a nice effort!
cheers,
-Tom

emeraldsoul
if you are an old fart, don't eat any onions. you'll get tear gas.
 
OK, first off, cool tune! I hope you don't mind a little REM comparison, but you're more Pearl Jam in the vocal department. so that's a pretty nice hybrid!
 
Mix-wise, I'm not an expert, but I was listening on headphones. I'd take the jangly rhythm guitars on the left side, and lower their volume just a bit. Your main vocal is a little panned right? I might move toward center and increase volume - or perhaps the move itself might increase its perceived volume?
 
Bass guitar might be brought towards center as well? Was it panned a little left?
 
cool tune - did you "hpf" everything except the bass and kick? that might help eliminate any "mud"
 
I think this is a pretty good tune and a nice effort!
cheers,
-Tom

Those onions get you every time, ha!

Yeah, the clean guitars are not balanced on the pan - definitely will fix that.
The main vocal is panned in center except for the outro - there are two main vocal tracks panned hard left and hard right on that part.
The bass is in the center too.
Ok, on the HPF - I did that on all tracks at 30 Hz since humans cannot hear that low. Do you think maybe it is the EQ on the kick drum and bass causing the mud? The bass guitar is a 5 string (again tuned to E flat standard) so when it hits the low B string it is a B flat note.
Really appreciate all the feedback!

I am a big fan of EQ holes to reduce Kick/Bass mud.  Unfortunately, I am at work and cannot listen to anything because they block almost everything (Except the forum :)
 
Here is more information about EQ Holes. 
http://therecordingrevolution.com/mixing-with-eq-carving-eq-holes/http://therecordingrevolution.com/mixing-with-eq-carving-eq-holes/
 
I have used this technique on doubled guitars emphasizing different frequencies with great results too.  Allows you to bring them up in the mix without interfering with the clarity.

Good song, good performance, good mix. This old fart thinks it's definitely worthy of continued refinements.
 
If I was working on it, as it stands now I'd be concentrating on two aspects: bass and width.
 
If that's a sampled bass, I'd look around for a punchier library. If it's a real bass, I'd be looking into compression and EQ, maybe gentle distortion to help bring it out more. And once I got a nice cutting tone, turn it up. 
 
Width is trickier. Given the instrumentation, there's only so much you can do to widen it. Bass & vox have to be mono, you don't want drums to sound artificially wide, and the guitars already have pretty good width. But there are little things you can do. Pan the backing vocals off-center. A subtle ping-pong delay can make the vocals sound wider, just keep it low on the lead vocal and put most of it on the BGVs. Consider triple-tracking the lead vocal and panning the doubles out to opposite sides, at barely-audible volume.
 
I'd also encourage you to consider additional instrumentation that can be panned out to the sides. That could be a subtle synth pad, or it could be hand percussion. Don't assume that because it's your basic guitar-bass-drums format there's no room for keyboards and percussion. Listen to the old Cream recordings, for example. Yer basic G-B-D lineup, right? Listen closer: there are keyboards in almost every song, and hand percussion in half of them. 
 
As a final polish across the master bus, use a M/S EQ to accentuate L-R differences in the upper frequencies. Here's a reference that might help. It's about Fabfilter Pro-Q, but the principles apply to all equalizers that offer M/S filters.
 

 
 

I really like this. Great song and performances. Mix sounds spot on to me - clear as a bell.

Great advice given above.  Terrific song and performance.  The lyrics certainly relate some angst.
Nice one!

stevec
Better late than never...    As others already said, good song!
 
For the mix, cleaning up the lows via HPF should help, but at the same time maybe get the bass to pop more.  I'd also bring the lead vocal forward a bit, either through level and/or compression, and pan the harmonies away from center to give them more width.    Minor nits all around - you've got the important parts.
 

Thanks for the tips! It was my first time using Melodyne Editor and I think I pitch corrected way too much (100%) on the main vocals. Marc was not that off - I was just stoked to use Melodyne. I learned not to EVER make it 100% again - it made getting the harmonies right so much more difficult. Although, once I did get them right, I cloned them and panned one hard left and one hard right.
My lesson learned - NEVER EVER EVER pitch correct to 100% again.