[Jeremy Roye]

Hi Jon!

Thanks for sharing and being vulnerable. I feel you! I’m not the residential mix expert here but I can share my top-3 takeaways…

1. The recording sounds great and the overall mix is clean and cozy on my headphones.

2. The lead vocal jumps out here and there which is noticeable in the waveform’s peaks (ex: 1:49). A little volume automation could easily reduce those peaks.

3. This guy can sing though the vocals might benefit from some subtle auto-tune here and there, primarily in the choruses. It’s especially noticeable on the doubling. Doubling can often help cover up pitchiness, but in this case, it’s drawing attention to the pitch and distracting me as a listener from the song.

Some gentle vocal alining of the double (making sure the double pulses start and end around the same point as the lead – by nudging or warping the wave) might add some impact to the chorus as well.

Look forward to hearing more!

🙌

[Dana Nielsen]

Looking fwd to listening to this when I’m back in my studio, @Jon_Plett ! And Thanks, @shimmerisland for the helpful feedback! 🙌

[Dana Nielsen]

Yeah Jon! Really great job! Your friend sounds awesome – real Chris Cornell vibes 🤘. Mix-wise here are a few quick thoughts:

• The guitar gets very compressed and a bit distorted during the choruses – sounds like there may be a limiter on the guitar or the mix that’s working too hard during the choruses?
• [This note is directly related to the above note] The verses sound amazing and loud and clear but when the choruses hit and the mix wants to get louder, there’s nowhere left to go, headroom-wise, limiter-wise. The result is that your “big” moments like the choruses actually start to feel “smaller”, relative to the nice loud verses. Try the “Find the Drama” tip from my 5 Mix Power Tips freebie in the Shop menu. i.e. work on the last (loudest) chorus, get that sounding huge and clear and powerful and just the way you want it, and then work the mix backwards (using automation as needed, and/or arrangement changes .. like how you’re making great use of vocal doubles and guitar doubles for the chorus) making sure verses feel quieter or less intense than the choruses. I spend a lot of time working on transitions between sections, making sure the mix really “blooms” into a chorus from a verse, getting louder with no noticeable distortion or limiter artifacts ( … unless of course you want distortion or artifacts, which, for some styles of music, is just what the Dr. ordered!)
• Might be nice to add one more subtle element (backbeat tamb hits?) to the final chorus or choruses, just to introduce some new piece of ear candy to keep the listener engaged.

All easy stuff tho man! You’ve done a great job and are in the home stretch!

[JON PLETT]

Hey @shimmerisland
Thanks for taking time to listen and for your feedback. Thanks for bringing my attention to the peaks, I’ll jump in and look at addressing those.

In my OP I didn’t want to bring attention to my voc doubles because that I felt was my weakest point of this whole thing. First off, I’ve never done it before but I grabbed a trial of VocAlign and messed around with what it could do. I never have been completely happy with it though. I’m glad you brough it to light. I’ll spend some more time on that.

@dana
Thanks for taking your time to review as well. I appreciate your feedback.
– guitars distorting in Ch – Thanks for this. I wonder if it’s the limiter on my master aux. Goal is to bring it to a competative volume, but I need to make sure I’m sacrificing the audio in the process. I’ll address that, thanks.
– Starting at a big section and working backwards – Great tip! You caught me with my pants down that I haven’t gone through “5 Mix Powertips”. 🤦‍♂️(shame shame). Makes a lot of sense though. I don’t konw if this analogy is the most appropriate, but in dialogue editing for films I’ve worked on, we often start editing in the middle of the film to get a feel for it, and mistakes are easier to hide when the viewer is already invested in the plot and character development has already happened, keeping the best edits for the beginning and end of the film. We’re not intersted in hiding mistakes persay, but focusing on keeping the most important parts the best they can be.
– Candy – great tip. Not sure it’ll pass QC because he wants to avoid it getting too production(y) but I’ll certainly throw it in there for next review and see where it lands.

Thanks to both of you for the kind words and more importantly for your time to listen and provide feedback.
I’ll try to get an updated version up here this week.

🙏
xoxo

[Dana Nielsen]

Damn, man, that’s you singing?? Awesome! Thought that was your friend/client. 👏
And very cool analogy within the film editing world – I’ve never heard of that one – fascinating, thanks for sharing! Keep up the great work, and hope u enjoy the “5MPT”! ⚡️⚡️

[JON PLETT]

Hahaha, no no no! This is the client, not me singing.
Thanks for creating all this great material my guy! Been enjoying it like CRAZY!

[JON PLETT]

Thanks again @shimmerisland and @dana for your feedback on V1.

As promised, here’s V2, addressing those concerns, and in this version I added some light tambo at the end. It’s tucked enough that I feel I might be able to get away with sending this version to him.

@shimmerisland turns out that that peaking sound (kinda sounded like scratching) was an artifact from RX. I was looking at reducing the pick noise and hand sliding across the strings noise and I guess I got too grabby in that section and it created that artifact. Thanks for pointing that out. It took me 5.5 hrs to figure it out! haha. I was muting channels, making new guitar and voc comps, I couldn’t figure it out until I dove into old stems pre-RX.

As always, any and all feedback is appreciated.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jk26yujhlans6s3m2kxqg/JSC-Still-Rolling-Stones-Mix-2.0-with-tambo.wav?rlkey=7qcgbogb1zmxzslvl9xlmgqqc&dl=0

dropbox.com

JSC - Still Rolling Stones (Mix 2.0)(with tambo).wav

Shared with Dropbox

[Dana Nielsen]

Right on man! Nice detective work on the RX, too. Love the tamb addition. lead vocal feels — dare I say — a bit bright and a bit loud and/or dry. Generally I’m all about a clarity and volume in a lead vocal! But I kept wondering, “what would this sound like w less top end on the vocal and the vocal tucked in a bit more, esp during the choruses and bridge where the gtrs want to rock out?” Maybe lead voc down and bgvs and guitars up in the big sections? Or actually, come to think of it, u could poss leave the lead voc where it’s at and just boost the guitars and bgvs during the choruses so they “rise up” 😉 to the level of the vocal. Coming together man!

[JON PLETT]

“Rise up” 😂🤦‍♂️ Hahaha.

Very much appreciate the feedback, thank you!

On this version I made the following changes:

Voc – Bypassed slate fresh air to reduce some highs and high mids. reduced 3 dB(ish) from high shelf eq.

Eq’d more highs out of the voc verb and added a bit more low mids. Boosted verb send about 4 dB

Bgv’s – boosted 1 dB in all pertaining sections

Gtr – added 3 dB of volume to the overall track and an extra 1.5 dB on the Ch’s. Little volume swells going into the choruses and down bridge. Brought the outro gtrs up an additional .5 dB.

Thanks again for your guidance. I’m not afraid of revisions, so let me have it!

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xxrpiohxohl8xggm2vg29/JSC-Still-Rolling-Stones-Mix-3.0.wav?rlkey=qw9a3eamip9b1kfgbdtqjjuay&dl=0

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JSC - Still Rolling Stones (Mix 3.0).wav

Shared with Dropbox

[Nikolaj Flor Rotne]

Hi Jon and Dana, Great to be part of this community! I like this mix and I can’t help think waou; this is just a guitar and guy singing (and yes a tambourine). Simplicity works:-) And he is a really good singer, that also reminds me of Chris Cornell and temple of the dog. Now I am coming from a poet singer songwriter learning to produce and mix my own songs perspective, so let’s see if this is of any value. I like this as it is, but I would ask myself about dynamics and maybe if that is really about emotional intensity. Yes one could turn the volume down in the verse and up in chorus, but would it create more impact if the guy with the knops (you:-) could say to the highly talentet singer something like “I get this great emotional response, when you sing. Could you sing more quiet in the verse and a little louder in the chorus to intensify the emotions?” I don’t know if this is relevant:-) Maybe I would consider at larger room or delay, when he sings out to emphasize the grandness of his voice. I really like this song, the mix and the singer! (sorry if there is something unclear in this message. English is my second language. Danish being the first:-)

[Dana Nielsen]

Excellent ideas (and English), @Nikolaj ! Your suggestion to guide the singer to “perform the dynamics” is a classic producer move and falls right in line with the tried and true ethos to “fix it at the source.” It’s that same ethos that inspires me as an engineer to adjust the mic or mic placement before reaching for an EQ; or as an editor to fine-tune the comp before mucking with Melodyne; or as a mixer to adjust the fader or pan position before picking additional processing, and to wring the most out of the room mics before reaching for reverb….

Our caring, playful, attention to each moment during the process of making music (or mountain climbing or anything else for that matter) distills and reinforces our creative vision along the way, making for easier decisions and more natural solutions to the challenges that lie ahead. That’s how I feel anyway, haha.

That said, I do also love a good compartmentalized mixing obstacle/dilemma, i.e. “the singer has flown back home, re-singing is not an option — how can I achieve the glorious ‘final mix’ I hear in my imagination using only the tracks and performances available to me right now?” Working with what you’ve got and solving those riddles is, in large part, The Joy (and Frustration 😂) of Mixing.

☝️ … good title for my autobiography some day right there, hahahaha 🤦🏻‍♂️

[JON PLETT]

Hey @Nikolaj
I appreciate you taking the time to listen and to offer your feedback. As a songwriter yourself, you have valuable insight into this stripped medium.
To your point in revebs and delays. I have noticed that I tend to mix dryer….more dry 🤷‍♂️ than many of my peers. I’m not sure if I should stick to my guns or adjust. However, they are all much more accomplished than I am, so I feel like adjusting is the better route 😂. Thanks for pointing that out. As far as the performance tips you mentioned, I’m hoping I gain the trust of future session with this individual and these would be great avenues to explore.

Thanks again for offering your feedback. Also, great job on your english. This is a frustrating and difficult language to learn. I had no issues interpreting you. You’re doing great!