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Hi Mike,

This is pretty good brother. I like the production quality you're getting here. Bass is nice, drums are great...guitars all sound cool and your voice sounds pretty good man. A few crits if I may though? I know you want to hear them from me. :)

I think the harmonica you used was a nice touch however, I think it's in the wrong key for this song. It just didn't sound right to me. Eq was a little funky on it too.

A few timing issues either in the acoustics or the drums...something wasn't quite right at times in the beginning but it seemed to tighten up a bit as the song went on.

Your vocals could come up a bit more in volume, but what strikes me the most with them is, they sound very mono and down the middle. Like you processed with mono effects or something. That's not a bad thing, but when you use stereo effects the right way on a mono vocal you can give it the simulation of being the size of say 30% L/R while having it still panned down the middle. You had some room to space them out a bit and in turn, they would have sounded a little bigger and a little thicker. The Sonar Vocal plug can do wonders here if you use a little of the doubler it gives you while adjusting the presence/stereo knobs. From there, put a little verb on and use the Sonitus phase plug to expand the effect a bit and it can really thicken it up. Just don't go too extreme or it will sound like you're trying to effect the vocals and it may be too wide and separated.

The drums sounded really good as I mentioned before...but in my opinion (and this is just subjective brother) they were a bit too aggressive for this song. Kinda like...picture playing a ballad with your band and your drummer is bashing away in the kit like he's playing in an arena doing a metal song. That's a bit extreme compared to your song, but that's along the lines of what I'm hearing there. I'd go for a bit less agressiveness on the kit..maybe a more mellow kick and snare sound for this particular song. For for a hard rock tune...that drum sound would be killer man.

So over-all this was a good listen bro. You're starting to come up with some really good mixes. Bass was nice and tight as well. I know you've been concerned with that...but it sounded nice and full to me. Acoustics were really nice too. You could have probably panned them just a little more to make room for the vocals to pan out like I had mentioned and this would have really kicked some butt. But it was really cool just the way it was...I'm just telling you this stuff because I know you want to know my thoughts. :) Way to go man...getting better with each mix! :) Thanks for sharing!

-Danny

Thanks for the imput Danny, yes, this is just the type of info I am looking for to improve my mixing.  Good stuff.  I am really in my infancy on programing midi drums, so to hear that I did a lot of things well is good.  I guess then to turn my agressive drummer into a little more passive, I would use velocities and lower them?  It was my first stab at playing the harmonica, so I certainly could be doing something wrong there bro, I was a little out of my element.

Herb, thanks for listening as well and echoing the comments.  If you guys get a chance, I have another song up called Answer In the Silence, which is really my latest work, all tracked and mixed in the last couple of weeks.

I have worked on some changes to this song quit a bit in my spare time the last couple of weeks.  I did an over haul on the drums and I think the timing with the acoustic guitar is much better.  I went through the vocal tracks and work with Melodyne to tweak some of the vocals as needed.  I have not had a chance to work with a new harmonica part for this song, or learn a new part in a different key. 

I kept hearing the comment that the overall level of the vocals need to come up just slightly, so I have done that as well.  Do they sound right now, because to me, on my system they sound too loud?  I guess that might be a product of one not liking the way they sound so they tend to lower the vocals. 

Follow the original link for the song.  I appreciate your comments.