Karl:
The good:
bass sounds great
that is one clear kick drum
the gang vocal works totally

The not-so-good:
the hihat is way too in your face, and is metronomic
the snare is too bright for this type of somber tune...something a lot deeper would work better
the drums sound way fake, and need a lot more attention to them, especially the lack of fills
the singing has pitch issues
there is not a lot of sub 450hz on the guitar...sounds really thin and insubstantial
the lead needs more vibrato on the sustained notes
everything needs more compression, especially the vocal
the reverb doesn't work and should be a lot shorter

This is the first chance I've had to listen on anything other than my iPhone. I love the song, the drums and bass. The guitars and vocals are real good too. Something about the snare and cymbals is not right. The snare is too tight sounding as if you took the snare springs off the drum and the high hat is the only cymbal I can hear.

Following all the good advice received I've finally got round to re-mixing this song, taking into accounts the comments received.

Remix Here

I've also updated the original post link to point to the new mix but the old one is still there.

All comments, advice, etc very welcome. Thanks.

Well done Karl!! It's an improvement for sure. The drums aren't jumping out of the speakers anymore. Honestly, not a fan of your kick. It sounds a litle too much like a drum module to me. But they're mixed well and love where you've placed them in the mix so it all works nicely.

However, your vocals sound a little loud now. the back up's are perfect! But the lead is perhaps in general a couple of db's louder than neccesary and overtake it a little. However, after the Solo they kind of fall into palce. Perhaps an EQ thing? Dunno.

Having said that: This is a huge improvement and yet again you challenge your own untallented badge I really enjoy your stuff man!!

The lower toms still seem overbearing. Maybe a transient shaper to tame them because the tone seems good.

This is a great song mate!

Well done!

@jamesg1213 - Thanks the low end separation is something I've been working hard at and my mixing is still at a very much 'learn as I go' stage. This great forum and Roey Izhaki's "Mixing Audio" is helping a lot.

@ProjectM - Thanks. I may look at this again but I'm reaching the conclusion that I could keep fiddling with it forever. It's helped a lot in my learning process and I've plenty of other stuff in a far worse state than this to go at so I'm probably going to leave this for a while now. May revisit it again when/if I ever get time

@SteveStrummerUK - Thanks Steve. I loved your version of the Pistol's Anarchy by the way. Only thing I think would be better is if you redo the whole album in the same way.

@Guitarpima - Yeah - the low tom especially seems a little out of control. I may have yet another go at the toms but it seems as soon as I get them under control they've disappeared completely. Thanks for the props on the song.

@marcos69 - Thanks. The snare is one thing I'd changed out completely from the original, which was a bit too high sounding. This is very old song and recording so my drum work was in its infancy then, not that it's perfect now but it is getting better hopefully, thanks to some of the great advice on here.

this sounds really good, glad i missed mix 1 i think! seems like everyone has given you a lot of advice already so i won't repeat stuff. i think Jame's point regarding compression is worth repeating, only since i have started using more, individual and tweaked compression have my mixes started to sound much better. oh, and i love the ending with the 'gang' BV...perfect stuff!

FBB: If this is what untalented sounds like, I'll take a few cups please? :) I think this is pretty good man. Did you compress the drums a bit by chance? I ask because some of the crashes seem to go plissshhhhhhhh and last longer than they should. I actually like the snare in this and would just add a little 250 Hz to it a bit to thicken it up. It sounds like the Pearl piccolo in BFD 2...am I close? :)

Agree with the bass being a bit too loud...but I like the tone of the bass and everything else. I'd probably remove a little of the room effect on the kick drum as it gives you a bit of an "oom" sound after it hits which is taking away from the force it COULD have. Always be careful with room ambience on kick drums. They sound great to us all alone...but in a mix, you can lose your impact.

The vocals are a bit low...but it seems the tone is pretty good from what I can hear. You may have to remove a little mid in them, but it's tough to tell because they aren't standing out as much as I'd like to hear them. Remember.....here's a little tip....most of us are overly conscious about our vocals. We tend to keep them lower in a mix because we can't stomach the sound of our own voices. LOL!! Plus, we know the words and what's coming up next. A first time listener can struggle to hear the words and the vocal delivery. So, what I did that helped me was to always run the lead vocal +0.5 to +1dB louder than where I thought it sounded good. You'll find the right sweet spot the more you do this stuff as well as the feedback you'll receive. But most times, we all make this vocal mistake a few hundred times. :)

Other than the above, I really liked this and think you did a good job on it. I can go super intense and really pick things apart for you, but they would all be subjective things to where it then would mess with your "art" aspect of things. At the end of the day, this stuff is always going to be a subjective endeavor. Some guys like effects, other guys don't and will tell you something is too wet. Some like kick drums to dominate, others like a happy medium....what you did is fine as long as YOU feel good about it. And hey, remove that untalented thing from your signature...it's the furthest from the truth. :) Nice job bro!

-Danny

Hi FBB,

Great job on the remix.  The vocal needs sibelence (how do you spell that?).  Try this, play back your mix at a medium to low volume and listen to your words.  Can you hear the "s's" as you sing?  You know that sometimes we have to reduce sibelence instead of increase it but I recommend on your lead vocal to increase the very high end EQ to get your lyrics to stand out as you would hear in most major releases.  Hope this makes sense.  The lead vocal feels a bit ahead of the track at times.  All and all, I really like your production and song and want to hear more. 

Rimshot

Good song FBB!! I like how it builds, especially towards the ending. Really nice guitar tone.

FBB, I like it.  Definately a Floyd vibe going on.  Not sure if you have made changes since reading many of the comments, but seems like maybe you brought the vocals up some in the mix.  Nice solid bass; good guitar work.