1636 - good groove... good eq, (freq for me) a bit spatty on the transients. heavy compression effects are obvious on choruses and refrains, but some parts feel more open by contrast. that is cool, but somewhat distracting, makes the arrangement sound "party" to me, perhaps the transitions between parts could be smoother.
6666 - instant sense of distortion, but let's give it a chance... solid, separated bass is nice.. good pop from the kick drum... fairly groovy but does not let the groove overpower sena... though she sounds a more bit distant here.. it helps give a sense of largeness... snare has nice tone but is a touch sticky feeling. it begins to feel stressed after the bird dance when the dynamics seem to have already hit their ceiling and then the sound tends to mush together... didn't bring it home for me.
2980 - nice tension, but again i feel some distortion coming on... filtered feeling, sounds like logic pro, a sort of pasty fog... some crazy eq going on here? chrisj noise shaping.. the top lacks sparkle, i just find this is harsh to my ears and sort of "contra" sounding... not harmonious for some reason.. bad eq i think. i had a hard time enjoying it. i do not feel the groove here at all even though the dynamics seem technically ok.
5060 - nice and loud... deep... excellent stereo! groove, bump, push, release.. snare perhaps seems a bit wimpy.. also there is an overall feeling that more dynamics are expected than delivered. transients are noticibly smeared, though not as bad as some. could use de-essing.
6969 - distortion again? kinda smiley curvey.. the way the groove hits the limiter gives it more of a sense of urgency than some... more noise shaping or some weird freqs happening up top.. this one is just too distorted i think, the dynamics don't dance in the denser sections. good try at getting hot levels, but it misses.. loses my attention when i hear it fall apart. i love the bass guitar distortion, but it comes at a high price.. muddled articulation as it gets denser, with an increasingly crude top end.
0192 - such lovely tone., though again a side effect is smeared transients, which prevent this one from being my favorite. the dynamics do seem obviously controlled, the stereo image is not particularly deep or wide or allowing me to leave my chair and enter the music...but this one really brings on the funk, i like the how the rhythm section is melded here to work as a unit. i will leave my chair after all, and dance then.
8765 - a bit distorty.. dynamics are well controlled, but that makes me want more, and it never punches through, the loudest sounds get pulled back instead of being louder, it's like being taunted and teased. so you want some more groove? well too bad! is there lower mid dip? imo, the bass could fill up that space more.
3554 - i like this one. kick drum seems to sucking in on the choruses... but otherwise, good job, everyone had to compromise, but you found balance.
8967 - thick and funky... not distorted. very excellent stereo. another really good one that lets the music do all the talking, this one felt really natural.. the m.e. is like...invisible ! and for the most part the mix engineer's work here is made less obtrusive. beautiful...wish this was mine !
1234 - this one is pretty thick sounding... i want to like it but i feel that i'm really listening to filters and envelopes as much as music, nice though, just not allowing me to leave the "studio" and feel the music in its pure form at all.
2102 - feels special... refined like. civilized.. not particularly loud, but that makes me want to turn it up.. a good thing. feels restricted however... the dynamics are "good" the eq is "good"... the groove is "good", but i want to feel inspired more. is there high pass filter? missing some bottom i think.
1776 - intro sounds nice and hi-fi -lo fi... i mean my ears stopped hurting.. yay! compressor seems to be pulling down the edges of vocal inflections a touch... dynamics are very controlled sounding.. almost apologetic for refusing to "go all the way" with the groove, which in parts seems overwhelmed by "properness".. i want to like this one, but it doesn't seem to have enough "juice" to bring it on home...somewhat lacking in funk factor.
7777 - what with the long intro pause.. it certainly is distorted, but not necessarily badly to me. some details i hear that i don't in others.. it really is groovy... great sense of urgency and pressure, interesting how different it sounds than any of the others.. this does sound hot and it sounds like a record.. i really like what has been done here, although it's totally not my style, i like it the best, especially the soundstage.. it is a bit weird sounding... the tone and dynamics have been altered from the mix, but i find it's very comfortable to listen to.
8080 - too long a pause at the beginning..what u waiting for? this one is real nice, but it's way to quiet to be competitive in the marketplace... for all this it's got nice dynamics, but still sounds limited, especially the kick drum which is totally stifled somehow. on the plus side, the transients are not smeary and it seems very true to the original mix.... but some of the sections of the mix have dynamics change-ups that do not sound especially natural, and these stick out here for me as defects which distract me from the music.
0000 - superb freq balance.. sense of space and depth.. beautiful tone.. but many vocal transients get smeared obtrusively. this is compromise to me. the bird dance percussion came off particularly well here, and there is a good feeling of climax and release despite the mix levels obviously being altered by compressors among the different parts of the song, which it seems this master emphasizes.
<edit: i posted these comments before reading the discussion from the past 4 days, some of you revealed yourselves, but i did not read about it until after i wrote the critiques>
jeff dinces
