Sea of Leaves by Jokers, Jacks & Kings

Nice mix ... sounds good

Thanks a bunch for the listen and comment Makke.  I appreciate it.
 
Mesh, how have you been?  Thanks for taking the time to listen. This is exactly the feedback I was hoping for BTW.  I moved since I last was doing recording and I had to replace my computer and upgraded to X3 essentials. Unfortunately, I can no longer use my firewire 410 and had to drop back to my crappy Behringer 16bit interface. I also don't have the space for my Event 20/20's so I'm not using decent monitors. What I have does really nicely mid to highs. The lows are there but I have to learn them. I need a good pair of Headphones as well.  I also no longer have anything to master in so I'm just using Audacity to clean it up and convert to mp3 along with Span and comparing to references cd's.  I'm working out the kinks, though and I think I can do this well enough to have fun.  The mix was a challenge with 33 tracks mostly mud in the middle with a fierce bass line. Let me see what I can come up with.
 
Thanks! I added another version not sure if this one will be too much or ok.

Hi, buddy!  Glad to see you back hanging out.  I have been in and out for the last year.  i'm selling my business and babysitting my 5 and 2 year old grand kids.  That takes a lot of time.  I love seeing the old posse coming back little by little.  I agree with Mesh about being thin.  The mix is right there.  I'm using HD280 Pro Sennheisers and they represent pretty good and I'm not hearing any bass.  Now, it could be me.  I think that the mix is really tight but missing something.  For me that is bass.  The song melody is in my head ass I am typing.  That's good because you struck a chord with me.  So, Merry Christmas and welcome back.  We'll have to meet up here a bit more often!

daryl1968
Hey Tap - Merry Christmas mate!
I'm a little confused - is this a bunch of stems that you download and mix or is it your song?

Hiya Daryl, I was under the impression Tap's mixing a song from Mike Seniors Sound for practicing purposes....
 
I listened to the newer mix and it's an improvement over the original mix....... a bit more lower end frequencies/a bit more compression.....
I also listened to Stella by Starlight, Hold your Fire, My Backyard etc... and the recording/mixes/performances are night & day compared to Sea of Leaves. I don't know how bad the original stems are for this song, but those other three songs are a great standard to go by......if possible. 
 
Very cool stuff BTW....I enjoyed listening to many of your jazz tunes. :)  

Tom,
thanks for the listen. I was a big Elvis Costello fan back in the day... still love his stuff.  This isn't my song, though.  I do compose, but lately I'm just coming to grips with my setup. X3 is new to me and I'm trying to establish my work flow. The drums were a challenge. I went through most of the drum tracks and cut out the splash over which really helped make the tracks much more manageable. There is a single room and a single overhead and I'm guessing the phase difference is probably causing the flanging effect ( I didn't notice it). Good catch ...I'll have to look into that, thanks !
 
Warren
Thanks for the input on the Bass again. Since much of the song is carried by the Bass, I felt it necessary to bring it up front. I added TH2 to give it a much fuller sound ( very thin without it ) Perhaps I need to push it back a bit and boost the lower end some. Hope you have a Merry Christmas as well! Nice to be amongst old friends 
 
Darryl
Sorry for the confusion. Yes this is a bunch of stems I didn't record but am using for mixing practice.  A while back Don Gonzalez posted a 30 min mix competition using only X3 and the sonitus suite to compare results. The stems for the song Big Dummy Shake were used from Mike Seniors Sound-on-Sound Mix rescues which can be found here: http://www.cambridge-mt.com/ms-mtk.htm under the Alt Rock / Blues / Country Rock / Indie / Funk / Reggae section. 
 
Mesh
Thanks for clarifying ... Your exactly right.  The article is http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr12/articles/mix-rescue-0412.htm  I haven't read it but I did compare my version to his which is a lot hotter and fuller than mine.
 
Gus
Thanks for the listen and comments. Interesting that you picked up on the narrowness.  I started mixing in mono and mixed quite a bit of it that way to get a lot of the instruments to balance before going stereo. I wonder if that actually made a difference? Thanks
 

Listened the latest "mesh mix". On my system, there is no mid-lows and low end at all!
It's like you have a high pass filter on and everything below 500hz is gone!
Something is not right. What does your master output frequency analyzer tell you?
 
You might want to compare to other songs you like and A/B them against this. 
I really like the song and playing. It's just that you are missing a huge part of the sonic frequency spectrum!

Hey Tap....long time no see!..hope you are well!
 
I recall always liking your work and this is no exception. I will say this the mix seems a bit thin overall. Sorry but I'm not one to offer a fix unless I have the project in front of me. I really love the tune!...just seems distant..maybe the verb on the vox.
 
nice to see ya again!

Thanks all for the input.  I'm not sure if I had enough bass to work with or if I just didn't work what I had correctly. I'm thinking a combination of both. The input will really help me shape my mixing, though.  Not sure if this one is going back to the woodshed or not.

great song!  I listened to third mix.  Very good mix, I think maybe bass is too loud in mix?  also drums seem a touch midtone-ish.  very good vocal

As the kids on the interwebs like to say -- "wtf"?  I usually don't read previous comments before I comment on a song so that I can be "fresh".  But for some reason on this song I was looking through the comments before posting and found that this is not an original song by Tap.  
 
I was set to praise aspects of this song etc etc but since it's a *mix-up* I'll refrain.
 
(I don't comment on covers, hip-hop, stems etc.)
 
Anyway, I'll look for your next original, Tap.  
 
Allan
===
 

Thanks for the listen and comments Mike, Kakku, Allen and Lynn. This was a challenging mix. I think my set up is ok and that the real problem is that the bass is acting more as a guitar. I think this is as far as I'm gonna take it. no sense in trying to compensate any more.