Okay. I listened several times.
There are a couple guys, who still linger here, and who I won’t mention by name, when they first began posting tunes WAY back when, their stuff was relatively unschooled in terms of recording, mix, performance, etc. but they had definite and consistent songwriting chops…and the amateurism actually lent their music a good deal of charm. Now, today, these guys – and I am thinking of two in particular – are giants, man – their chops have been honed through sheer dedication and perseverance, and they really are (IMO) the best recordists on this forum. When I hear your stuff, it reminds me of them back then – definite songwriting chops, but just a lack of experience/knowledge. But one can tell you are dedicated, and things are improving all the time.
Which brings me to this: you’re all about the EQ and compression and stuff on this tune (and others), and of course those are important, but to me that’s not really the issue. Let me insert here, however, that around the 2:50 mark, where the track starts to really gel, I was smiling – really good. But the opening is comparatively weak, and I want to say it is because
the acoustic is not tight at certain points
the acoustic and the bass are not playing well together – they are tripping over each other
is that even an acoustic? It sounds like a DI’d acoustic, a sound which makes me PUKE. But I don’t see any acoustic in your track list, so I guess it’s the Strat
I also understand what you were going for here – everything small and close in at the beginning, expanding to a wider sound as it goes along. That worked, but again, the slight timing issues on the guitar early on undermined it. Lastly, the organ just got VERY annoying after a bit, with too much rotary effect – as if you’d just discovered the VSTi would do that and you’re like “look at me!” with it. I’d dial that back, and even bring the organ down a bit.
Now for some personal “taste” comments. I get the “drums and space” thing, but here, I am hearing a BIG, upfront, and mostly dry kick, and a bass part that supports THAT, not the guitar or melody. I thought the solo guitar was a nice touch. Vocal could maybe go back in space a bit.
About adding depth and space – sometime go listen to some of Hugh Padgham’s mixes of Sting solo work – superb creation of space. I don’t know why Hugh doesn’t get more love from the audio engineering denizens –
I read something in your comments about not wanting to automating the snare (I think) “during mastering.” Huh? The snare needs to be automated during the mix – to Hades with all this mastering BS!
I listened yet once more (that’s 4 total now) and it’s a good song – my above comments may be nitpicky
