Thank you for the kind words! I always appreciate it when song posters supply technical details, so here goes.
Curiously, my best mixes have always come easily, if not predictably so. This one took about 4 hours in total: two hours for tracking, one for vocals and one for editing/mixing. Then I went back and spent some time tweaking after getting comments here, softening the exciter on vocals and bringing up the bass by a decibel.
I'd
like to think I'm getting faster because I continue to get better at it, but the truth is I've had far more mixes that took days or weeks to finish and I still wasn't happy with them in the end. Near as I can tell, the difference seems to be in how much patience I exercise in the early phases, rather than in mixing or mastering skills.
I jammed on this tune every day for two weeks before starting to record it. Then I sang along with the instrument tracks many more times. It was that repetition that allowed me to record the verses in one take, start to finish, then the choruses, no comping. Luckily the song fell into my natural range so I only had to tweak pitch on a few high harmony notes that I'd struggled to hit. You can't beat a "live" performance, IMO, flaws and all. Embrace the flaws!
Beyond that, there is no secret sauce. I am most obsessive about vocal effects, often trying and rejecting multiple approaches. This time I used the Cakewalk CA2A on every vocal track, something I'd not done before. It does a great job and is light on the CPU, and has now become part of my go-to toolkit. When I got done mixing, it all sounded kind of bland and safe, so I wanted to throw in something a little daring. I tried a number of effects before settling on the edgy MVintageRotary on the third verse.
Other effects used:
ValhallaPlate for vox reverb
ValhallaRoom for instrument reverb
tkDelay on vox
Pro-L on the drum bus
iZotope exciter on acoustic guitar
Pro-C2 for de-essing
Noveltech Vocal Enhancer on BGVs
That last one is new to me. I had just bought it that day and was looking for an excuse to try it out. I got carried away with it on the first pass and ended up backing it off quite a bit. It's a nice effect, even if it's just a specialized equalizer. But it's a fine line between "bright" and "harsh" and I'm learning through trial and error just where that line is for this effect. It's about 30%.
The mastering chain is so light-handed it almost doesn't need to be there. It's Ozone 7's EQ and limiter, but it could have been anything. When you're only shaving a dB off stray peaks, it really doesn't matter what limiter you use. Similarly, when you're only doing broad 1dB boosts and cuts, any equalizer will do. Insight and SPAN terminate the chain.
OK, maybe there is one trade secret: I like to perform vocals on a Sunday afternoon after having played a gig on Saturday night. The four hours of singing the night before will have loosened my voice and stretched my range, while the subsequent 12 hours of rest takes off the harsh edge. And lets the ringing in my ears subside.
I've got a gig tonight, but rather than spend the following day recording vocals I'll be having fun with my new Crumar Mojo that's scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I've already recorded rhythm tracks for a cover of Time is Tight, in anticipation of the Mojo's arrival.