I listened to all tracks several times, listening for a couple things... first, we should do no harm. It's a good tune, and they're excellent tracks. So it shouldn't be hard to make a mix that's listenable, start to finish, with nothing obviously wrong jumping out. Put simply, it just has to work... Then, I looked for some magic... I liked how J put it a few months back.. does this mix make me want to come back and listen again? So I'm separating tracks in two piles.. those that work for me, and those that don't. Happy Thanksgiving to you, and chin up, no matter what pile I put ya in.
Mixes that work for me:
VIKING: Very solid, professional mix. great piano sound... maybe the vocal is a touch high in the mix for my tastes.
RANKUS: Oooo, I like this one. Maybe because it's similar to mine.
Warm, natural vocal and piano sounds... the low end of the piano is great.
SCOTCH: Vox a touch high to my taste, and the piano sounds rather narrow and midrangy... I'm missing the low end some mixes have. But overall it's a good mix... nicely balanced and cohesive in its own way.
ATOR: A+ for creativity. I love what you did with the sampled ooooo. gorgeous pad sounds (I'm stealing that for some of my own tunes). Good call flying in another version of the vocal, heavily eq'd, for some extra vibe... I really like the repeated phrase that's band limited more than the straight doubling... the double sounds odd to me, but the delay repeats are great. I think this could be my favorite mix if you dial back a few of your most aggressive moves, and fix the primary vocal treatment (the high end sounds way too hyped to me)... very cool mix thoughThis could be stunningly great with a few more adjustments. I think I need to call you about mixing some of my tunes when I win the lottery... taking something that's more than a little on the schlocky side and making it seethe and burn, well I need that too sometimes..
CERBERUS: Dynamics and tonal balance are tightly controlled in this one, but the sense of space is confused. Vocal seems very dry, but all I hear is the room mic for the piano... I miss the studio piano sound... Plosives are also a bit distracting. But the mix works in its own way.
ICOMBS: Good balanced mix, though the vox could use a bit of fader riding (jumps out of the mix at times). Nifty little delay effects I can just barely hear... I like em that way.. they don't throw off the overall balance, and there's something to discover during further listening.
MATT RUSSELL: Very nice... deep and rich, and perfectly balanced. The vox might be a touch high in the mix... but otherwise this is quite good. Good job with the plosives...
JHALL: Good balance between vocal and piano... vox is bright, but I like it... it's not distracting like some of the hyped vocals on other mixes.. Okay maybe I'd like it a little wee bit duller.
NICK EVANS: Not too shabby.. under control, dynamic, intimate, and powerful... not much to complain about here... okay maybe a couple plosives got through...
Mixes that don't quite work for me:
LIAM: Lacks dynamics.... vox is a bit quiet and muddy. i can hear the compressor over clamping at times, which is distracting. Piano seems overly distant.
UNDERTOW: Vox a bit loud, or maybe just too bright for my tastes... makes for a hard listen start to finish... other than the vox (which might be a matter of taste), I think this is an excellent mix.
CHRISJ: Not sure about this one... something weirdly distant and ringy about the vocals. Yet for how far away they are set with reverb, the >10khz is still very pronounced (which is kind of unnatural).
TPOLCE: Vox has a lot of top end, overhyped at ~10khz to my ears... something phasey in there too... at 2:52 for instance. A bit of autotuning there? Otherwise, a lot of good things going on here.. the piano sounds great, and the overall tonal balance is solid.
TIGEBA: The dynamics in this one are clamped down pretty hard... vox is bright bright bright, but somehow still sounds fairly natural. But the track is very narrow... maybe you just used a lot of the room mic? I miss hearing the hifi/studio piano sound in there. I think I hear some nifty vocal fx going on, but they're so quiet I can't pick em out.
GATINO: Interesting..
Don't you hate critiques that start with that word? Honestly, I'm not sure if I love this, or hate this... Compared to many others, the vocal is odd... very midrangy and distant... but it works somehow. Okay listening to it a second time, I like it more. The vox verb predelay is very similar to what I did. Where I think this track misses the mark is in the piano treatment... I think this song has to work both as a vocal tune and as a piano tune... you should be able to get lost in that quarter note rhythm of the piano, but in this mix, I can't. Maybe the piano is just too quiet and mono?
MAXIM: Gotta tame those plosives... and the vocal doubling here is interesting, but in a strange way. it adds some vibe, but also creates harmony that is too out of tune for my ears (like at 1:24 or so). I hear something reversed at the start, really quiet... cool. Overall the meat and potatoes here is very well balanced... I just question that out-of-tune effect, and the plosives are very distracting.
FANTOMAS: Something in the vocal chain (a de-essor?) has given the singer a lisp. Be very careful about that... it's easy to make singers lisp with too much processing in the sibilance area. Plosives seem untamed... Good creativity, with the occasional delays and such... Overall, not too shabby... balanced and dynamic.