The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony (cover)

My initial thought is to much reverb and it sounds scooped in the middle, almost hollow.  The snare is a little to forward as well.
 
Sounds like you are generally on the right track the mix just needs some tweaking.
 
Thanks for sharing.

I've always liked this song, and considering that I've heard it covered here several times, others do, too.  I agree that the mix is slightly off.  The snare drowns out the vocal and is too wet.  A little widening of the strings might help give this some spatial balance, as well.  Turn the vocal up, the snare and reverb down, and widen the strings, and see how that plays.  All in all, this is just a few minor tweaks from being a gem.

Wookiee, Rimshot, Lynn, panup...  Thanks for the suggestions, all excellent observations... I'm all over it...  

Remix 3 comments:
 
Ride cymbal is (still) too dominating. Cut treble or turn it down a couple of dB.
Vocals need to be 3-4 dB louder.
Going to right direction!

panup & wookiee....  got it, thank you!

OK the backing track is getting there this sounding much better.
 
What are you doing to the VOX? its slipping from channel to channel here do you have some sort of widening on it.  If you do back off on the depth of the widening.
 
Not wishing to teach you to suck eggs, but on the subject of reverb here is how I apply an overall mix reverb.
 
1. Solo each track that has reverb
2. start at zero send to reverb bus, apply that send level until you can hear it then back it off until it just disappears from your hearing.
3. Then with all tracks live adjust individual track reverb sends until it sounds right.
 
For individual track inserts remember to balance the mix or wet dry levels and listen with the overall reverb, if applied, as reverb can get messy very quickly.
 
An overall mix reverb will help create an overall sense of space for all the parts to sit in.

Any and all comments on this Verve tune still welcome and most appreciated.  They'll all go in a separate folder that I can refer to when I get back to remixing this again.  Thanks in advance.

Pluto The back track is now sounding very good but the Vox is still dancing around it sounds like my monitors are out of Phase as it appears in the left then the right with no central focus.  Widening should be use very subtly.
 
I would seriously try a mix with the widening off.
 
Thanks for sharing and one way to get more comments is to stick yours ears in on other peeps tracks, even if you do not feel confident enough to give constructive criticism you can say weather you did or did not like it. 

Wookiee... thx for the good word regarding the back track.  Agree on the vox, will fix eventually.  And agree on finding time to listen to other people's tracks.  I'm not a pro mixer but you're right, I know what sounds good and what doesn't.  I'm thinking about taking some recording engineering courses to get better at this.  I'll def try to find more time to listen to other people's stuff.

I can't give mix specific suggestions, raise this, lower that but I will tell you that somehow it lacks depth.  I wish I could tell you how to deal with that.  I don't know this song so I don't have anything to compare it to.  I'm sure these other guys are giving great advice.  I am not fond of the tune but you sure have a lot of work in it and I appreciate that.  Keep woikin' buddy!

For the whole mix, by today's standards, is a wash with reverb which is similar to the original, however listening to the original track by the Verve, whilst the backing track has quite heavy reverb the vocal sits in a pleasant little island with much less reverb which lets it stand out just in front of the music.  
 
This is your tack and your interpretation of the tune but perhaps as suggested above back off the reverb on the vox and you may find it becomes a little more alive.

Bump... I think I made the necessary adjustment on the vocs, took a lot of verb off them, per advice from comments.  Also left the wet voc version up for comparison.
 
9/26/14 - Dry Voc - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_music.cfm?bandID=1350905

Made some adjustments... if u have some time take a listen, thx.
 
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_music.cfm?bandID=1350905