Bleed for Me ( CD, Mick, Nitch, Cyclone, Billy, Doc, Dave)

[Johnny]

whatta beautiful groove!

sounds like post-apocalyptic BeeGees, perhaps 

Sooo many seemless textures, blending in your ears, thru-out the production, that

it never loses pressure

this sounds marvelous...

Congratulations Mark...ev'rybody...Great Job!

Encore' 

[CosmicDolphin]

Guys

Thought you may find this interesting...A professional critique of the Mix / Production from Mike Senior..I plan to release a slight remix based on the advice...

I think there's probably a some tips we could all apply to our other songs too...

Up to 0:45 it sounds great. Nothing I'd want to change there, and overall the mix tonality instinctively feels pretty well-judged too. The vocal is a bit crispy, but that actuall works fine and suits the track -- especially when more HF stuff comes in later. Some de-essing wouldn't go amiss, though, as the 8kHz region feels overbearing on the sibilants. Almost always a problem with crispy vocal sounds. If you don't have a decent de-esser, try the ToneBoosters one, which is cheap and pretty effective.

At 0:45 I miss the 70Hz region from the kick, and the drums in general feel a bit underpowered. EQ might not be enough for the kick here, though, and I might add in another sample for that -- just be careful of phase. Then fade the drums up a bit, and if they peak too high in terms of pure level then duck them back in with buss compression -- they might end up peaking at the same level they do now, but they'll sound louder nonetheless because of their influence on the rest of the texture, via the action of the buss compressor. If you do that, though, make sure you don't set the buss compressor's release time too fast otherwise it'll just flatten things. In fact, I wonder whether you're already suffering from over-fast buss release times somewhere as it is -- there's something slightly smashed and slab-like about the overall mix dynamics. That said, I know that some releases I've heard in the Depeche/Erasure vein so have this kind of densely squashed feel, so perhaps it's just that I don't like that aspect of the genre... Whatever, just bear this issue in mind when you're referencing.

At 1:25 it feels like you need to bring things down a bit more, because the start of the new vocal verse lyrics feels a bit overshadowed, where I'd rather it drew attention to itself more. You could perhaps drop out some of the layers there, and maybe also feature the hard-panned sequencer tracks more to give a little rhythmic energy-rise illusion there. In general your long-term dynamics are compromised slightly because you seem to focus more on adding things than taking things away, so you rapidly run out of headroom to build any further. At 1:05 you're already almost at full tilt, but because you don't pull down further at 1:25 the similarly full-tilt section starting at 2:01 doesn't really make that much of an impact. You could also tighten up the start of the solo too, giving you more room to build the intensity of that section through until 3:15 too. The drop is nice, though, although perhaps you don't pull back the ambience enough to really make a contrast with the space of the reentry at 3:30.

The strings (?) in the background at 1:56 are tantalising. I think you could make a lot more of that -- it could be more of an interesting production moment, I think. The backing vocals at 1:00 are another such moment. As a general point, I think you're not working hard enough to direct the listener to the most interesting aspects of the arrangement. Try overdoing it -- it's amazing how much you can get away with disrupting the basic balance if it's only momentarily and normal service resumes immediately afterwards. There are a lot of interesting-sounding layers in your track, and I feel a bit cheated that I don't get quality time with most of the them because they're all going at once. Slightly more assertive anti-masking EQ cuts on some of the layers might also be sensible, as the fuller textures sound slightly murky at times too.

I sense that there are a lot of slow-moving pad layers in there too, and you always have to be careful with those -- use only as little of each as you can get away with, and automate them like mad so they're never over-cooked as the arrangement changes. You might find this article provides some useful pointers here: []

In general, I think your effects use seems very sensible here -- very much in keeping with the style too. Love the delay treatments on the guitar solo. Very nice. That whole section is great in general, in fact, previous comments about the drums notwithstanding. The cymbals maybe feel a bit dislocated, though -- maybe compress them a little, take out a bit of the hi-hat-like mid-range frequencies, and add a lot more reverb/delay to recede them a little. You can afford to go for a really nice quality hall for something like that, because it'll them give a sense of space and classiness without washing out the whole mix.

[Casia - lyricist]

WOw!  That's a detailed critique ... whoever Mike Sr. is?  Now what?

[CosmicDolphin]

WOw!  That's a detailed critique ... whoever Mike Sr. is?  Now what?

He is this guy...

http://www.cambridge-mt.com/MikeSenior.htm

Now I'm working on the remix ...Lol ! 

[Paulo]

I don't remember listening to this song before. Sounds great, guys.

[CosmicDolphin]

I don't remember listening to this song before. Sounds great, guys.

Thanks Paulo !

Stand by for the remix, hopefully will be an improvement 

[docmidnite]

[CosmicDolphin]

Here's the new mix based on the above feedback 

CD

[docmidnite]

[stoman]

I don't like any of Mike Senior's mixes (much too loud, over-compressed, aggressive), but his reviews often contain valid advice.

I'll give your new mix a listen later, Mark. I think the original one sounded quite ok, but I have to listen to it again.

Regards,
  Steffen

[stoman]

I'm listening to the new mix now (after listening to the old one). I have to admit that the new one does sound (even) better. Great work, Mark. A tad too loud for my personal taste, but still very convincing.

Maybe you could add some more (short) delay to the rhythmic patterns during the verses to give it more spacial feel. But that's just nit-picking actually. I cannot hear any technical issues with this mix.

Regards,
  Steffen

[CosmicDolphin]

I'm listening to the new mix now (after listening to the old one). I have to admit that the new one does sound (even) better. Great work, Mark. A tad too loud for my personal taste, but still very convincing.

Maybe you could add some more (short) delay to the rhythmic patterns during the verses to give it more spacial feel. But that's just nit-picking actually. I cannot hear any technical issues with this mix.

Regards,
  Steffen

Thanks for the listen Steffen.

Yes, there's already some short 8th  note delays in there and most of the parts are feeding the effect, but it's kept tucked behind the main sound with some EQ.

I think it's definitely a step up from the original mix, it's funny how fairly small changes make a big difference. I guess the ability to spot these things quickly and know how to address them is what separates us hobbyists from the people who make a living from it.

When you say it was a bit 'too loud' in what way did you mean ?

CD

[stoman]

Hi, Mark! Don't worry, I think the dynamic range is pretty good (it does not sound over-compressed at all), but there is a lot going on - which is actually cool, but maybe a bit too much for my personal taste. Nothing technically, just taste. The ingredients are just right for this style, it's just not the style I usually listen to.

Regards,
  Steffen

[CosmicDolphin]

Don't worry, I think the dynamic range is pretty good (it does not sound over-compressed at all),

Oh good, because it may surprise you ( and it certainly surprised me ) to know that the TT DR meter measures the song at 13 

CD