Academy Dashboard › Forum › Collaboration - Competition › Member Collaborations › Magnificent 7 Challenge › Reply To: Magnificent 7 Challenge
Chris SweetKip, nice improvement on mix 3! Vocals sound better for sure. Couple technical comments...I'd really dig into the esses and pull them back. I had to pull mine down between 8-11db as a point of reference. The other technical critique would be just the vocal evenness. I would automate them more. I love dynamics, but they need to make sense in the context of the song. So the vocals start soft, fine, but then really jump up on the back half of V1, and then get super loud on the chorus. If you're not monitoring at a quiet-ish volume I'd take a listen that way...you'll really hear where stuff leaps out of the mix.
On a creative note (and this is just opinion stuff now), I'd back off the reverb a tad OR use more predelay to bring out a sense of intimacy in the vocal. It sounds a bit "far away" when I want to hear her whispering in my ear. Pre-delay changes the depth of the soundscape. Also, everything sounds a bit straight up the middle on the chorus. I'd get those harmonies opened up left and right, and the guitars as well. You have LCR, use it for maximum effect! This is just taste stuff, but if you want to make big impactful mixes, you gotta use the stereo field to maximum effect. When the song gets big, the mix has to get big too.
One way that I found useful to think about it is this... if you want the mix to sound "taller", add top and/or bottom; if you want it go wider, pan stuff all the way out. If you want stuff to sound closer/further away, use more/less predelay on your reverbs. Understanding these principles can help you create dynamics in different ways then just "volume". A great example of this is "Rolling in the deep" by Adele. Listen how on the chorus the mix gets "wider" and "taller". Also, notice the pre-delay on the vocal verb. The vocals sound intimate, with the reverb blooming behind them. Once you wrap your head around those concepts and learn how to use your tools to achieve them you'll be unstoppable.
Ok that's my speech. Hopefully some of that was useful info lol.