Okay, I went back into the song and did a major overhaul.
I listened to all of your helpful suggestions here and tried to implement them.
I worked on the main music loops and cut some of the bass out and that makes it more transparent and less muddy.
I smoothed out the volumes on the lead vocals, dubs and harmonies so they fit better into the music.
I used the LP EQ on the vocals and took out some of the screechy textures in my voice.
I took out the drums I added in the beginning and now they are only in the chorus part this also made the song less cluttered so it has more breathing room.
I have a section after the first few lines I sing where an oboe in one ear and a tuba in the other come in, I took out the oohs and ahhs during that part and they come after and I took the oboe and tuba out where the oohs and ahhs come in. I did the same thing in last verse too. This also made it less busy and cluttered and gave it more transparency and detracts less from the vocals.
I aligned the dub vocal a bit tighter with the lead vocal and did a slighty less amount of overall compression in the final mastering.
It seems I am never happy with my songs, there is always something more I feel they need.
I am starting to work more with reference tracks to see if I can better match what the pros are doing in mixing and mastering.
I have never used reference tracks before and I figured it is time to look more closely at the mixes that are already hits and see if I can approach that level of skill.
I hope you like the changes, please let me know if anything stands out and could use some fixing.
Click the link at the top of the page, I replaced the song that was there with the new version.
or click
here Thanks for listening Cakewalk peeps!
RR