I am working with a young producer for the first time on an album of 12 R.A.T.M. acoustic covers using 12 different singer/guitarists.
I sent him this rough mix of the first song and he replied"love the mix-shouldn`t need much mastering".
am pretty sure it needs some professional help to be ready for release and need some confirmation/suggestions.
https://soundcloud.com/webbs-hill-studio/testify
(track was recorded live-2nd take)
guitar was a Takamine through a Joe Meek pre with neutral settings and 2 Rode NT3`s ,around the 4th fret and soundhole
vocals are thru a Rode Nt1-A into the Liquid Pre.
only effects/plugins are VC64 (Master Mix)preset on the main bus.
thanks
tony

Sounds clean and clear on my system. Guitar tone is just right and the vocals are perfect for the song! What more could you ask for?

thanks bill-is it ready for release/radio though-I cant find anything similar to A/B it so I can compare.
any song/artist suggestions??
thanks

webbs hill studio
thanks bill-is it ready for release/radio though-I cant find anything similar to A/B it so I can compare.
any song/artist suggestions??
thanks

 
That, is debatable. I would initially say no.  The vox is kinda not setting properly as far as EQ to my ears. However, the basic stripped down rough bare bones mixes seem to be quite popular. Listen to the TV commercials and the underscore in shows.... it fits the bill in many respects.... however, the overall EQ seems to be less than radio ready but not by too much. I hear the room sound in it. These kinds of songs should be slightly more intimate sounding because it's all about the emotion of the song interacting with the on screen activity. For me, this just doesn't make an emotional connection and mostly because of the recording.   Even though it matches up well with the bare bones aspect, the recording still needs to be top notch to even be considered, and there's some room for improvement that would place it into the radio ready category.
 
The singers voice seems slightly muffled in the mids but has some high end on it. I'd concentrate on smoothing  that out to brighten the mids a bit.
 
 

The vocal needs eq work.  As mentioned above, it sounds muffed.  I sounds like she sang too far from the mix in an untreated room.  You will need to work with compression, eq, and limiting to see if you can bring her much more clarity.  I hope you don't have to re-record the vocal.  

Great performance!
 
I just did some rough experiments: A -6dB lo-shelf at 90Hz pulled the "room" right out of the vocals and made them sound nice and clear. I think the guitar sounds great with a boost down around 100Hz. It seems like there was some nice character in the voice up around 1.2k that may make the vocal tonality seem richer and more harmonious.
 
Give that stuff a try. It should be easy to hear and improvement in the vocal tone with the cuts. See if you agree that the guitar sound better with some "beef" down in the low range.
 
 

Thanks everyone-for confirming it needs eq`ing and that it can be remixed and mastered.
i dont mix or master commercial releases-just my own stuff and always send anything decent to the Lab who have polished many a turd for me.
The main reason i posted is i suspect that the 2-3k cost of remixing and mastering for 12 songs isn`t in the budget and as Herb mentioned,rough mixes are probably interesting to someone bought up on a diet of compression and loudness.
   thanks mccue for taking the extra time-the lo shelf worked a treat and the extra grunt @100hz helped.
but-the guitar D.I. track was bottom heavy and booming a bit so i lowered it and bought the overheads up to get some air and highs-bringing them down had a similiar effect but not as obvious as your advice...........
 
so,i think i will pass on the next 11 songs,plenty else to do, unless we can reach agreement on the final polish.
thanks again
tony

it would be nice to hear what you do as the final on this.
 
 

thanks Herb-if we reach agreement there`s 11 to go-doing "Bullet in the Head" tonight with an Irish girl and a Serbian guitarist-which could be interesting.
the more i think about it with 12 different guitars/guitarists and 12 different voices the only constant will be d.i. and mic placement and expecting to have some uniformity over the album is a big ask.
 
PS:listened to Neil Youngs new album last night-what a shock after all that Pono jive-but then again pretty much everything from Third Man Records is dirty and (apparently)intentionally lo-fi.
will be glad to get back to recording live bands-all this clarity and fidelty is hard work!!!
cheers

I think this is a well done mix. I do think it could use a small tweak or two, but having said that. there isn't much left to adjust. Specifically, I'm not hearing the kind of dynamics you hear on a master from the guitar. IOW it doesn't jump out at me. It is quite clear but not present, know what I mean? Could probably benefit from some light fast compression.Great vocalist and you captured her well.