A good observation Danny.  I surf the internet a lot listening to many different genres and when I came across this piece, it just sounded so much better than most.  I do understand the effects of compression and all but what got me was how it sounded on my system.  Not to say it would translate great elsewhere.  However, with all the views, it seems there may be a large following for this artist.  So I wanted to share with you all.  

Yikes... You guys weren't kidding. That is seriously too in your face for the material. It's crazy how something can sound so good and clean to the point of "WTF?!"
 
I do kind of have a bit of an issue with modern latin music bass production though. They are just so blasting and oppressive I feel it really takes away from everything else and perhaps there is some overcompensation in regards to the other instruments. I did however live right next door to a latin grocery that used to blast this kind of stuff all day and it was "BAAAASSSSSSS!!!!!!" all the damned time so I may be biased.
 
;-p

Rimshot
A good observation Danny.  I surf the internet a lot listening to many different genres and when I came across this piece, it just sounded so much better than most.  I do understand the effects of compression and all but what got me was how it sounded on my system.  Not to say it would translate great elsewhere.  However, with all the views, it seems there may be a large following for this artist.  So I wanted to share with you all.  

Yeah I do the same Jimmy......just to see what people are doing. I agree on the sound....there's not a bad "sound" on the entire thing. The prints are all pretty pristine to my ears and it DOES sound great. I honestly didn't mean to sound like I was knocking it or looking for faults. But there are a few things to keep in mind if you are interested in getting sound like this.
 
I talked about the stereo field and panning last time. Before you get to that stage, proper tracking is of course 100% necessity. The easy thing about a song like this is...there is nothing "sonic" to ruin it like a distorted guitar. The cleaner your instruments and the better your tracking, the "bigger" the sounds become. We also don't have a big drum kit in this song and we're dealing with percussion.
 
When you have instrumentation like this that lacks busy-ness, it's very easy to achieve good results. Though we can hear the percussion in the mix, it's not like having your drum kit there to where you need to accentuate EVERY part of your kit. We're not dealing with driven guitars....we don't have a bass with drive on it etc.
 
Stuff like this makes a HUGE difference in how your mix will end up due to us NOT having that sonic stuff that sizzles and can walk on other instruments in the stereo field a bit more. This also enabled the engineer to push things louder because they are so clean and clear. So it's easier to achieve louder volumes. You have to be careful though because clean stuff can be pushed so loud...it ends up sounding...well, a bit like this dynamically. This song at 1/4 on my system is as loud as one of my rock mixes at nearly half way. It just doesn't (IMHO) need to be that loud. But all that stuff aside, it still remains a great mix that is big, full, lush and pretty freakin' great.
 
But keep some of the stuff I mentioned in mind if you try to go for something like this. The cleaner your instruments, the better, if you're going for a mix like this. Also, mic'ing will just about always sound bigger than any sort of line in or speaker sim type of recording. This adds to sound size which is what gives this song that extra appeal in my opinion. Ever mic one of your acoustic guitars and then layer some electric with some drive using speaker sim in the same song and scratch your head because the acoustic sounds bigger and fuller? That's another plus you gain when mic'ing clean instruments...they grow in actual sound size because nothing stops them like drive will. Drive literally can make a sound smaller in size due to what the drive does to the sound.
 
Some people attribute sound size to the room getting involved. Though that may be the case to a small degree, even if you close mic with a good mic, the size you gain is pretty insane for ANY clean instrument really.
 
In a nutshell though....and I know you know this....when you have good, clean captures and then you compress them pretty good, you get that consistency. Add in the knowledge of knowing when to raise the bass fader on a bass or raise a bass frequency and you can turn your mix into this easily. I say that because nothing will ruin a mix faster than excessive low end that shouldn't be there due to people not knowing bass has less low end in it than they really know.
 
I actually just sort of did something like this production wise for a client. He did a cover of a pretty famous rock/metal song, but did it acoustically with percussion, acoustic guitars, flutes, strings...all the same stuff in this minus the Uke. At the end of his acoustic version, he decided to go full blown electric like the real song with nasty guitars and all the other stuff for a few bars to fade out. It's kinda cool because you think it's over and it comes back in and scares you. LOL!
 
The one thing we realized was.....the clean stuff was just so clear and clean (we mic'd everything we could except for the string sections)....the dirty section needed extra stuff to have the same sound size. 2 acoustics in the clean section vs. 4 dirty electrics in the end just to make the two sections close and we actually opened it up a bit more on the dirty part...so it sounds right now. But my point is....it's amazing how dirty sounds or loads of sounds that make a mix busy, can totally degrade a mix if you're not careful. If you go with less is more with texture type things, compress just right, know how the instruments gel together eq-wise...you can definitely nail a mix like this or at least come darned close. :)
 
-Danny

One other thing I wanted to share about this. Just a question.....but do you guys find that when you watch a video and actually like the video, that you like the song a bit better even if the song is not all that great? Then if you listen to the song without the video, you may like the audio portion a bit less...or maybe sometimes you may like it more?
 
I find this to be the case with me quite a bit. If I see a video for the first time and like the video and the song, the song sort of remains a favorite until I sit and listen to the song by itself. It will still be a favorite, but then I will pick out all the little inconsistencies I missed due to enjoying the video. I'm a sucker for dark-haired ladies...so I had no problems enjoying this mermaid. LOL! But I've noticed that even songs I hate....once I either see the video or look deeper at the lyrics even, the song takes on a new meaning.
 
Quick example....you'll laugh at me for this...but it's always been something that has stuck with me. Ever hear the pina colada song by Rupert Holmes? I can't tell you how many times I threw up and changed the dial when that song came on. I'm serious....I'm talking serious dislike.
 
One day, I don't know how or why, but a video of it came on Youtube or something and it had the lyrics too. I never knew what the lyrics were about nor did I ever pay attention to the song until...well, probably 5-7 years ago. Anyway, it came on and I knew my mom had liked the song and I could remember her singing it...so I left it on. To my surprise, the lyrics in that were so crafty, it gave me a new opinion of the song. When I hear it now, it reminds me of my mom and I hear her singing the chorus, but I also admire how cool ALL of it is now that I've grown a bit as a song writer.
 
I still don't love the song...but it was amazing how much the lyrics and the video made a difference. The same with quite a bit of the rock stuff I like. The vids sell the song really well...but once you listen to the song alone, you get a different opinion. It may be better, it may be worse, but it will just about always be "different". :) Just wanted to see if this happens to any of you.
 
-Danny

 One thing that drew more attention to the mix for me was the percussion different in the L/R channels . The mixer EQ'd everything pretty good here.
 
 I didn't watch the video when I listened so I wouldn't be distracted from the mix. I am easily distracted and no it wasn't the Justin Beiber hair.
 
 

The song is perfectly forgettable, but the production value is pretty good.  The Dynamic range is somewhere around 10dB, which is better than some US popular music which hovers around 4dB.  Still, there is no depth to the sound, everything is in-your-face present.  Mixing job is good, though.  

I love the input and sharing guys.  Music is so subjective.  Beauty is in the ear of the beholder and all.  
This song's production is not one I hope strive to emulate and the song itself is too pop for me.  However, as a producer, I am listening to the whole package (video, song, vocal, instrumentation, arrangement, mix, etc.) and this one just stood out from the norm.  Maybe I can take the heavy compression on clean instruments on one song out of 20 without it bothering me.  For this artist, it worked big time.  He won a latin song grammy for it and it has sold lots around the world.  I heard the artist sing this song in Portuguese and that was interesting as well. 
 
Danny, I love your insight and they way you have commented on this.  Please don't think I took offense to anything you said earlier.  I know exactly where you were coming from.  Your story about your mom and how you came to like a song in time was touching.  I totally believe that the whole experience plays a huge part on how much we like something.  I don't think I would have tuned into this song from my laptop or in my car at all.  However, on my studio system this production was solid and exceptionally clean.  I also enjoy Led Zeplin, Stones, and Beatles.  There is so much sonic history to learn!  Your points on the clean instrumentation was spot on too.  I grew up with a super engineer in Santa Barbara named Daniel Protheroe who became a monster at acoustic recording.  He is up in Washington now.  What he could do with an Irish fold band!  Those clean instruments sounded huge on NS10's in the day.  You are so right in how distortion instruments completely change the dynamics of a mix.  I am with you all the way on your post.  
 
Jimmy

Beepster
Yikes... You guys weren't kidding. That is seriously too in your face for the material. It's crazy how something can sound so good and clean to the point of "WTF?!"
 
I do kind of have a bit of an issue with modern latin music bass production though. They are just so blasting and oppressive I feel it really takes away from everything else and perhaps there is some overcompensation in regards to the other instruments. I did however live right next door to a latin grocery that used to blast this kind of stuff all day and it was "BAAAASSSSSSS!!!!!!" all the damned time so I may be biased.
 
;-p

Hey Beep.  I have always noted latin music's bass treatment.  Whether in a smoky bar in Mexico listening to a loud jukebox push out the heavy quarter notes or listening to songs on the internet, the bass is sacred and must be in your face but yet controlled.  I don't hear alot of mud in Latin music.  Those artists and engineers know what they are doing and it is different for sure from what we might do.  I agree that if I lived next door to it that I would probably go mad.  Your comment made me laugh.  
 

rumleymusic
The song is perfectly forgettable, but the production value is pretty good.  The Dynamic range is somewhere around 10dB, which is better than some US popular music which hovers around 4dB.  Still, there is no depth to the sound, everything is in-your-face present.  Mixing job is good, though.  

Hi Daniel, 
Good observation.  I agree that everything is your face present and on this one little number, I like it.  That's not to say I would feel this way on all songs like this one but for the moment it worked for me.  Interesting dynamic range number you got.  I am going to try to find another song that got as many plays.  I still can't believe that number.

Rain

Danny Danzi
 
2. Lots of compression. One thing I DON'T like about the mix is...it doesn't breathe as much as it *could* in my opinion. Every instrument literally sounds like it's the same volume and there are no dynamics other than the one break section at 1:31 and then at 2:26.

This!
 
And it's not that it's uncommon, quite the contrary. Nowadays, everything is shoved against your face and there's no room for you as a listener. Modern productions often feel like having half a dozen dogs humping you all over - 12 seconds in and all I want to do is yell "let go - get off of me".
 
That's what happened with this song, in spite of its qualities.
 

Rain, that was a funny illustration you made.  I find that the modern drum sounds that have the heavy compression like in many metal sounds bug me the same way.  The squashed snare thing is really overused.  
 
I will take Bonham, Moon, Watts, Starr, Porcarro, Gadd, and many other older drummers sound over the modern sound any day.  I do like to hear air too.  This one song was just a blip in the life of a fellow artist channel surfing on a lazy Saturday afternoon.