Clint,
 
Excellent guitar work, as usual, and I love the vocals during the chorus. This is really great work.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

Humm, might want to put the patio umbrella down. I like it, I may lay down a 2nd guitar under that one that's playing a riff on the break, at least on some of the choruses, one doing chords, and then when it's verse, pan them L/R, both doing rhythm. Vox feel like they need to be more in my face, and the drums could use a tad less room. 
 
Of course, all of this is very subjective and may be completely wrong. Just what I felt when listening. Overall, nice Southern Rock vibe.
 
H-

That's is a really top tune. The vocals and melody are the star. A few things that popped out to my ears are the guitar, it seems missing some EQ, I don't know what frequency, but to me it's a bit flat sounding, needs a bit more sparkle on it. Top playing and riffs btw. Also what is really missing is some highs and lows in dynamics, the choruses should soar higher than the verses, so add more guitars or some, give us some lifts. Cool work though.

Thanks for the listen and the ideas. There are a lot of things that can't be changed, but I can add to it. There is a lacking in the dynamics...That's one of my many short comings in programming drums I'm afraid. Adding some subtle guitar parts in the chorus may be a good idea. I thought about double tracking the vocal in a place or two to beef up the weaker parts as well.

love the bite of the guitar....cool tune! I think I've pull the lead vox up a bit she sits too far back for me...same goes with bvox...
 
great job!

clintmartin
 There is a lacking in the dynamics...That's one of my many short comings in programming drums I'm afraid. 

Clint, have you tried working with the smart tool in PRV for your drums? I really like this in X3.
It is very easy to adjust velocity on individual notes, and can be quite effective if the drum vst has good velocity layering.
"I don't care" is the first project where I have really dug into this, and I like what the tool can do now.

Yeah, I need to get into it and get better at that. Like I said I can't fix this one (I don't have the tracks anymore), but I have called a couple of drummer friends and they have agreed to come over and help me with a few of my newer songs. Need a drummer? Call a drummer. Strange concept huh?

Mindblowing

Drums are the hardest thing for me. They take the longest? Now I don't condemn anyone for using loops, I don't use them personally, but many do to great success. I play them with two fingers at a time and my drum toys, then edit them, time and velocity, bus, compress, excite, distort, limit, etc... Average for me is 2 weeks to do a drum track :-( And the bad news is? Sometimes, they're still not good. But I'm getting better at it ;-) 
 
I can't say enough about the technique of taking in a similar cover, whatever you like? Put it on track 1. Then use channel tools and "narrow width" listen to the middle (we know what lives there) 
 
Then, kill center and listen to the sides? Pan Left, Pan Right. You'll be surprised to learn how some of your favorite music is mixed. Finally, take these same techniques and apply EQ, using sharp bell curves. You can hear how specific components are EQ'ed, and where they appear in the mix, and where their FX appear in the mix. Using this knowledge (from your own ears, on songs you are trying to either cover, or that are in the genera? you can really learn a lot) And you can A/B your mix, vs. the techniques described above and make some pretty dramatic improvements on what you're doing vs. what you really like/are trying to emulate. It's all been done? And we're trying to do something similar, or at least mix wise as good. I say, stand on the shoulders of those who have come before. This comes in particularly handy in the following areas;
 
1. Instrument placement (pan), compression, and importantly "EQ"
 
2. Overall Busing, MB Compression, EQ, and limiting. 
 
i.e., I use multiple tracks for different drums and may have a Snare bus, a Tom bus, an OH/Room/Ambient bus, a kick bus (w/multiple kicks, parallel compression, etc, snare as well, i.e., same technique) and send all to a drum master bus, then to the mains. Where "things" are done at each step?" And the use of an Instrument master and a Vocal master, where both are sent to the mains? And then things are done on the mains with for example Ozone, to glue it all together. 
 
Then there's all of the automation, etc... If you can get it right and recreate it? :-) Then you're in like flint! What is key IMO are the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs. Take it in, break it out, and stare and compare. Between what you're doing, and what you like. Then adjust yours until it sounds more like there's. 
 
Of course, all of this will add days, and maybe weeks to your process? But give it a try at least once. 
 
H-

Great work all the way!