Reply To: Campaign Like A Clockwork - Patiently

[Chris KnowlesParticipant]

Hey Todd,

(pasting in here so I don't lose context trying to go back and forth - things got crowded in here all the sudden LOL)

First, thank you so much for the detailed feedback - this is exactly the reason I joined PLAPA and the interactions on this Forum topics are exactly the type of ones I was hoping to have and exchange learnings with folks so you and all the others have reinforced my faith in that decision!

You said: I'd be very interested to see how the two versions compare in Loudness penalty.  Generally, I like Lurssen better, but I feel like the mixes ended up coming out different.  I feel like the Lurssen version is better balanced, but has a bit too much presence.  There's a lot of sizzle that seems to me would throttle how loud someone is going to turn up the overall level.  The TR5 seems to be lacking in both balance and low end for me.

My Reply: Yeah, it's that Lurssen magic that does that balance trick really well. The presence and sizzle were all me I think. Hopefully addressed in the latest mix which I'll post shortly.

You Said: Because the mastering seems to have altered the mixes to me, I'd suggest thinking about how much color you would want/expect from a mastering engineer.  But also valuable to know how much they CAN do!

My reply: Good point, I was just reading Mike Senior and he said the same thing.

So the rest of my mix notes are specific to the Lurssen version.

- I feel like there's generally a really great balance of the musical elements. >> Thank you, that was what I was going for.

- I personally believe the low vocal is a bit too audible. The performance is not synced well enough to the main vocal to be left audible (in my opinion) >> I would agree, I was shooting for a more aggressive approach there and even after vocal syncing, I decided to push it down a bit more to a subtextual level. We'll see how it comes out in my final mix.

- I might consider thinking about your use of EQ and how those decisions move different instruments closer and further back. I do think there's a bit too much of the fizzy frequency (4k to 5k), particularly in the guitars.  For example, although the guitar solo isn't really much different in volume from the main vocal, it is so present in those frequencies, it made me reach for the master volume to turn the track down.  It also makes the guitars feel spatially closer to the listener than the singer. >> This was some outstanding feedback - I did play with this some but I am not sure I have completely achieved as much separation as would probably make sense so I will add this to my "learn to do better" list!

Generally though, really good job!  Best of luck!  >> Thanks again and same to you!!