[Dana Nielsen]

@Bigchrizzle! Welcome to the Member Spotlight, and thanks for sharing! Here are my initial thoughts on first listen:

• Overall this sounds bumpin! Love the way you’ve mixed the track (is this your production as well? Super cool!). Kick and bass are so beefy! Love it.
• Intro vocal sounds awesome, great level, eq, swirly fx. As the track starts and this intro vocal starts I’m all in, loving everything 100%! All the rest of my thoughts about the mix, after the intro, are vocal related. All easy stuff too and I’ll list them below:
• In general, after the intro vocal, the rest of the vocals feel too loud to me, starting at 0:26. I would use the intro vocal/track balance as your blueprint for the rest of the song. If you get the rest of the vocals in the song to sit in the track at the same level as your intro vocal sits in the track you’ll be good! Certain sections currently feel extra loud, like the V2 “I don’t need a boat” section just as an example
• Overall the lead vocals could really use a hi-pass filter or similar EQ to reduce body and proximity effects. 0:19 “deep flowin’ river” is a good example where u can hear proximity effects or wind on the mic capsule that pull me out of the magic of the mix. I think if you try a hi-pass on all the lead vocals around, say, 70Hz or even higher, you’ll clear up the listener’s spacial perspective, sitting the vocal “further back” into the track (once vocal low end is shelved or cut in this way it makes the vocal sound farther away – more ‘on a stage with the band’ as opposed to ‘talking closely into your ear’)
• Try some reverb on the chorus vocals. Could be cool! In general there are great opportunities here for either a) more verb on the vocals across the board, and/or b) reverb/delay “throws” where u automate the vocal send to the verb/delay to punctuate certain words in the lyrics.
• Rap verse vocal feels dark — hype that sh*t up!
• Love hearing your shoutouts from the artist at the end!!! 🙌

It’s so close man!! And great work!! I bet if you load up your favorite sounding, similar vibe/tempo pop r&b mix on spotify and reference it while you work, you’ll find all the vocal level / tone inspiration you need! And keep us posted man!! ⚡️

[Christopher Dunston]

@dana This is awesome man! Thank you so much for your feedback! I’m taking this and running with it and will provide an updated mix!

[Paul Tucci]

Christopher, I implemented one of Dana’s ideas and dropped the vocal level en mass about 1.6 dB, high passed the vocals to 110Hz or so, high shelved the vocals .3 dB from 1200Hz, and the high shelved the entire mix .2 dB from 1200 Hz or so and gave it all a little squish to boost the overall level 1dB. I’m hoping it’s helpful to the readers/listeners to compare two versions. -PT

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